Houston- analysis

Houston- I struggle to understand the city. Much like phoenix, with its sprawl and towers plunged into manicured green spaces around the city, its total refusal to be pedestrian, the total reliance on cars. 

I admit I am a bit biased against this city, which is both the nexus of the petrochemical industry, and also the unapologetically ugly poster child of what dependence on oil and the automobile looks like. It's a city built by corporate America, with sprawling corporate campuses and glass towers signifying their role in the city. It does not feel like a city for people to me. 

And still, I am encouraged by this city because of the prevalence of horrible 70s and 80s postmodern architecture. Houston had the misfortune of booming at the nadir of architecture, so there's a lot of shit buildings by Philip Johnson and Michael Graves wannabes. These droppings are unfortunate, but they tell me that Houston was a city unafraid to plunge headlong into the avant garde of the architecture of the time. I hope that Houston booms again, and that the industry would find itself worthier of supplying Houston with better architecture and urbanism.

It is an intellectual challenge for me to imagine how I would design for a city like Houston. It is difficult to overcome my own biases about what cities should be and what makes them great, and truly empathize with Houstonians on what makes Houston great. Dad says people here like the food and the diversity of culture, the golf courses, and the warm weather. To be fair, the food here has been pretty good, at least where I've been eating. 

It sounds like there is a light rail system, but that in general, public transit is for the desperate classes. It also seems to be a city sharply divided along racial lines.