I just don’t like Houston

Throughout my American adventure I have been blogging belatedly. The delays have previously been caused by the electronics, the wifi, and the long hours of meetings. But with Houston, I just needed some time to come to terms with the place before I could begin to set out my thoughts.

In short, I hated the place.

I knew I was going to an oil state. The oil state. I thought my prejudices would serve me well, but they were utterly inadequate to the task. This was a city built of road. It really isn’t possible to walk anywhere, and even if it was there’s nowhere to walk to. There seem to be no real streets or places, the sort of bustling lively urban areas which real cities are made of. Instead there’s just an endless sprawl, every building looking like a motorway service station or out-of-town mall.

I had just two days of meetings there, but reaching the venues took a total of about eight hours of driving (I could never have done that myself… thanks go to my escort officer Paul, a nice chap who only does these assignments occasionally after retiring 15 years ago from the State Dept… he actually went to China with Nixon!). The landscapes we passed through were just mile after unending mile of bleak industrial desolation, the view from the road punctuated only by fast food chains and huge adverts from law firms urging people to sue somebody.

To be sure, Houston has some things which must be said in its favour. It is more liberal than the surrounding state (as the political advisor to the new Mayor… the first openly lesbian Mayor of a major US city… was at pains to emphasise) and is finally beginning to install some public transport infrastructure albeit in a small way. There are also some examples of more radical thinking about energy resources, economic growth, and the need for smaller, closer, walkable communities. But in general the complete lack of any planning controls have resulted in a whole region devoid of any shape or form, as developers have simply run amuck.

Most people’s response to my questions on climate change was, perhaps predictably, to bury the head further into the sand. With a few exceptions, people either looked at me blankly or changed the subject so quickly that it appeared they hadn’t understood what I was talking about.

I can understand, of course, that a generally right wing state with its economy so utterly tied to the oil industry would oppose cap and trade legislation or a carbon tax. But the denial is so deep here that a state which will also see direct effects of climate change – from more severe hurricane seasons to changing migration patterns – seems also to be ignoring the adaptation agenda.

I was utterly relieved at the end to climb on board the Greyhound and make my way to New Orleans. Better still, when I arrived I found that I was just in time for the Satchmo festival. More on that tomorrow, but for now I’ll leave you with the words of a trumpeter who worked on the TV series Treme who was speaking at a Q&A during the festival:

“I just don’t like Houston.”

5 Comments

Hey Patrick

You’ll be loving New Orleans by now I hope. I think it’s such a great city, and deserves much better than it gets. Check out Lola’s on Esplanade, or Pal’s on North Rendon (where Sean Penn and Steve Zahn have been known to hang out). Ooh, or Clever on Orleans Avenue. And the WW2 museum is sooo worth it, as is a trip on a steam boat. And in the Quarter I like the Napoleon House. Oh, I hope you enjoy it! Have a margarita for me!

Juliet

Comment by Juliet — August 9, 2010 @ 7:13 pm

It’s the most marvellous place, but sadly I don’t have long enough to follow all your recommendations. The festival was an utter delight though.

Comment by Patrick — August 9, 2010 @ 11:21 pm

Hi, Patrick. You don’t know me at all, but my colleague Lauren Opstad and I were stalking you for a good month before you got to Seattle. She’s aware that I’ll never forgive her for not connecting us while you were here (partially because I figured you’d either be utterly fabulous or a totally pretentious jerk – sounds like you’re fabulous – and partially because I want a place to stay in Glasgow the next time I’m there, dammit). I digress. (And am potentially creepy. Sorry.)

I have to speak in defense of Houston – mostly because I’ve spent years taunting my colleague there who worked on your program about how much I, too, just don’t like Houston.

While I will never live in Houston (or Texas) and really have no desire to ever go there again (sorry, Paul), my question is: Was it valuable for you to go there? If we had brought you to the U.S. for three weeks and just given you the Happy (Pretentious) “Green” City Tour, I’m guessing your feedback would have been something akin to, “This isn’t a fair representation of the U.S.” Was it not valuable for you to observe, firsthand, the kinds of obstacles that we face in trying to make national progress on (damn near anything, but particularly) environmental issues?

I’m in no way trying to defend Houston…just the fact that we sent you there. Am I wrong? Would you have been better served if we’d just sent you to the most lefty, progressive, “green” places we could?

Also, I’ve worked on the IVLP for six years, and this might just be my favorite quote from a visitor of all time, “I thought my prejudices would serve me well, but they were utterly inadequate to the task.”

Nice.

Comment by Jennifer Thorvig — August 10, 2010 @ 1:25 am

You’re quite right Jennifer. It was well worth seeing Houston – both the place and its people – and now that I’m over the initial shock I’m very glad that I experienced it. Paul who put the local programme together was also lovely, and introduced me to the delights of the breakfast taco. (Paul, if you’re reading, I really hope you didn’t take this post as ingratitude for your work)

I hope you get in touch if you do manage to arrange a trip to Glasgow.

Comment by Patrick — August 10, 2010 @ 3:36 am

Thanks, Patrick; I appreciate the clarification. I felt a little gutted by your post, because I know the thoughtfulness and quality of Paul’s work…despite the fact that I thoroughly agree with you on Houston. :-)

It’s also good to know that my tax dollars are, indeed, being put to effective use, including in Texas.

Regarding a trip to Glasgow – I owe your city some time. I was there for what felt like about five minutes before I scurried north…but at that point I really did need to get lost and hike some gorgeous trails. That said, Glasgow produces too much good music and comedy to not warrant more of my attention.

Now, I’m going to do my best NOT to fisk through all the rest of your posts while you’re on a slow boat to Scotland…I’ll try to wait until you can actually respond.

Comment by Jennifer Thorvig — August 13, 2010 @ 1:35 am