History UsefulNotes / Houston

Dickinson - A city known for primarily being a reasonable place to live compared to its compatriots in Galveston County
La Marque - Aka, that area that isn't part of Texas City (for some reason), but is no better off for it.

* Baytown - The other largest city in the Greater Houston area not named Houston, is located across the bay from everywhere else. When leaving or exiting Houston via East Freeway, this is first (or last thing) you pass through. Nothing to see here but oil refineries and a bridge.

The '''Galveston Bay Area''' or just the Bay Area, is the region immediately surrounding the Galveston and its offshoot, Trinity Bay. Ironically, the region includes little of Houston and doesn't include any part of the city of Galveston itself. The area on the Eastern side of the bay is rural and almost entirely undeveloped, while the Western side of the bay is where everyone can be found living on top of each other. Unlike Tokyo Bay, there are very few port facilities found on the Bay itself. This area can basically be divided up into Four parts: "East Houston" (only one community in this entire region - Clear Lake - is actually in Houston; the others in Eastern Houston are in denial), Clear Lake Region, the Galveston County Region and the Eastern Shore.

* Texas City - the second largest city in this part of the region, with a rather presumptive name. Is pretty much FlyoverCountry for people on their way to Galveston. Mostly remembered for its massive refinery complex, one of the largest abutting the bay (yuck!) Oh, and it nearly blew up once.

The '''Galveston Bay Area''' or just the Bay Area, is the region immediately surrounding the Galveston and its offshoot, Trinity Bay. Ironically, the region includes little of Houston and doesn't include any part of the city of Galveston itself. The area on the Eastern side of the bay is rural and almost entirely undeveloped, while the Western side of the bay is where everyone can be found living on top of each other. Unlike Tokyo Bay, there are very few port facilities found on the Bay itself. This area can basically be divided up into two parts: East Houston (only one community here - Clear Lake - is actually in Houston; the others are in denial) and the Galveston County Region.

* Clear Lake City - A master-planed community that is pretty much a text book definition of suburbia. When any one remembers this area, its usually to bring up the fact that there was a nasty annexation fight when Houston decided to take it back in the 70s. The fight failed, and most of the community was annexed by Houston. The remainder was annexed by the city of Pasadena, though its a relatively small portion. One of the largest master planned communities in Houston. Oh, and the Johnson Space Center is located here as well. I suppose that's important.
* Pasadena - Largest city in the Greater Houston Area (that isn't named Houston). Is sometimes conflated with Houston because the two are ''literally'' joined at the hip. Took part of Clear Lake from Houston and closed the city off from the bay via the south. Known for being poorer than most of Houston's suburbs, except for the Clear Lake area, for having massive industrial parks near the shipping Canal and for having a notorious history of corruption. Only a small part of the city touches the bay.

* Shoreacres - A small community located just south of La Porte, along the coast of the Bay. One of the wealthier towns in this area, and almost entirely white

* Deer Park - Located between La Porte and Pasadena, notable for its huge oil refineries, poorness, and...not much else.
* La Porte - Despite the name, there is no port here. The only thing of note about this working class community is that the San Jacinto Monument, the World's tallest monumental column, even surpassing the Washington Monument, is located nearby.

The '''Galveston Bay Area''' or just the Bay Area, is the region immediately surrounding the Galveston and its offshoot, Trinity Bay. Ironically, the region includes little of Houston and doesn't include any part of the city of Galveston itself. The area on the Eastern side of the bay is rural and almost entirely undeveloped, while the Western side of the bay is where everyone can be found living on top of each other. Unlike Tokyo Bay, there are very few port facilities found on the Bay itself.
Cities and communities in this area include:

Houston's regions (including its enclaves, areas in its ETJ, and connected suburbs) includes:

Houston's neighborhoods (including its enclaves, areas in its ETJ, and connected suburbs, includes)

'''Downtown''' is Houston's Central Business district. Located smack dab in the middle of the Greater Houston Area, it is bounded on all sides by large expressways that are always clogged with traffic. The Historic Center of the city, the oil boom led to a smorgasbord of skyscraper construction. Unfortunately, the 1980s oil bust and subsequent recession hit Houston like a sack of bricks, ending most large scale construction and ending the city's dreams of surpassing Chicago or New York. Now the area is trying to reinvent itself as a city center.

* ''UncommonValor'' (Though this is yet another case of CaliforniaDoubling)

* NonindicativeName: "West Mount Houston" is the name of a road. There's nothing even resembling a hill in Houston, much less a mountain. The city doesn't have wards, but don't tell that to residents of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Wards (which do have their basis in the old boundaries of the city's wards). Cut 'n' Shoot is the name of a small town(yeah, really). Missouri City is nowhere near Missouri, and its residents didn't come from there, either. The same can be said for Iowa Colony (nowhere near Iowa) and Cleveland (granted, further north, but still nowhere near Ohio). There are no pears in Pearland (except for those at the Kroger's). There's no sugar in Sugar Land anymore, either (though as mentioned before, the city was a company town, and that company did refine sugar there until 2003). South Park is nothing like ''SouthPark'' and is nowhere near Colorado (though it is to the south of [=MacGregor=] Park and does predate the television series). Clear Lake is neither clear nor a lake. And none of this is anywhere near Houston County, Texas. Neighborhood names are frequently idiosyncratic at best.

* ''LogansRun (filmed inside the Houston Hyatt Regency)

Traditionally, its sports teams have been [[ButtMonkey hapless]], though its professional soccer team, the Houston Dynamo club, has apparently not gotten that memo, winning two [=MLS=] championships in its first two years of the franchise and only missing the MLS playoffs once. The Astros did host the first two World Series games played in Texas (unsurprisingly, they lost[[note]] thereby allowing the Chicago White Sox, another erstwhile sporting ButtMonkey, to complete a sweep and win their first World Series in 88 years[[/note]]), the Rockets actually managed a couple of championships back in the 1990s,[[note]]but they were in the first two years of Michael Jordan's retirement, so … was that a skewed result?[[/note]] and Comets ([=WNBA=], now sadly defunct) were their league's first dynasty. The Texans are the ''other'' [=NFL=] team from the state, though [[TookALevelInBadass they have made improvements]]. It may be unwise to mention that Houston ever had another [=NFL=] team or what happened to them (for those wondering, here's a hint: Houston native Vincent Young used to play for them). The Astrodome is also obviously here, though that may not remain so for long: the place has seen better days and is dwarfed by the neighboring Reliant Stadium.

Traditionally, its sports teams have been [[ButtMonkey hapless]], though its professional soccer team, the Houston Dynamo club, has apparently not gotten that memo, winning two [=MLS=] championships in its first two years of the franchise and only missing the MLS playoffs once. The Astros did host the first two World Series games played in Texas (unsurprisingly, they lost[[note]] thereby allowing the Chicago White Sox, another erstwhile sporting ButtMonkey, to complete a sweep and win their first World Series in 88 years[[/note]]), the Rockets actually managed a couple of championships back in the 1990s,[[note]]but they were in the first two years of Michael Jordan's retirement, so … was that a skewed result?[[/note]] and Comets ([=WNBA=], now sadly defunct) were their league's first dynasty. The Texans are the ''other'' [=NFL=] team from the state, though [[TookALevelInBadass they have made improvements]]. It may be unwise to mention that Houston ever had another [=NFL=] team or what happened to them (for those wondering, here's a hint: Houston native Vincent Young used to play for them). The Astrodome is also obviously here, though that may not remain so for long: the place has seen better days and is dwarfed by the neighboring Reliant Stadium.

When [[NewOrleans New Orleans]] sank beneath the waves, [[AFriendInNeed Houston provided shelter for the bulk of the refugees]]. A number of them stayed. (And, because quite a few of them were … shall we say … [[BigEater rather hefty]], Houston has now surpassed "N'awlins" as the fattest per capita city in the U.S.)

Media-wise, there's little set in Houston, and in fact, of the top five largest cities in the United States, [[DemotedToExtra it is probably the least publicized]], with cities less than half its size (NewOrleans, {{Miami}}, UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco, etc.) getting more screen time, but it does have the nation's oldest public television station, [=KUHT=].

Houston is the fourth largest city proper in the United States and the largest in Texas (though the [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex]] is the larger metropolitan area overall). It is also the largest city in "the South", the "south" here, being the Southeast as defined by the US government. Culturally, it is also more "Southern" than most of Texas as well. Once upon a time, it was even the capital of the Republic of Texas, but that didn't last long. It has many nicknames, amongst them "the Bayou City", as the bayous are a major feature of the city, and it was founded at what was [[BlatantLies allegedly the head of navigation of Buffalo Bayou]], "Space City" (this one actually appeared on police cars once, due to the fact that NASA's Johnson Space Center is located in the city near Clear Lake), and "Magnolia City" (almost exclusively in pre-World War I documents). It's also famous for its oil tycoons and unforgiving climate.

For much of its history, Houston was quite small and unimportant. In fact, nearby Galveston was more important and larger for a long time. After Galveston was torn apart by a hurricane, the focus shifted to the more inland city of Houston, especially after the coming of oil. Despite the discovery of oil, Houston remained a smaller lesser known city up until after World War II when one of the greatest revolutions in demographic shifts brought about by technology happened: the "Air Conditioning Revolution". This is not a joke. The coming of air conditioning made the once inhospitable Western and Southern climates of the United States more welcoming, and a massive population shift took place, as people moved from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt. Houston subsequently exploded like a weed, and it, along with other Sun Belt cities like LosAngeles and San Jose rose to prominence as some of the largest cities in the country. Houston spread in all directions, eventually surrounding some cities that incorporated to avoid annexation. These cities became enclaves, cities surrounded by the entirety of the city of Houston (this is common for other major cities in Texas as well). Despite being independent, these enclaves are really nothing more than self important neighborhoods, and could largely be considered apart of Houston, except they aren't on paper. This has lead to controversy, as many of these enclaves, in both Houston and elsewhere, are some of the whitest, richest cities in not just Texas but the entire '''country'''. Discussing the merits of their existence leads to [[FlameWar unpleasantness]]. The City of Houston has been so kind as to document its unbelievably rapid growth for us [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=445Z1Dc5-Rw&feature=player_embedded here]].

Interestingly, it also has the largest collection of skyscrapers in Texas, including the tallest building outside a central business district, the Williams Tower. It also has probably the most spread out skyline in the entire United States, owing to the fact that it is the largest city in the country without formal zoning laws. This has led to a skyline that is more expansive than LosAngeles's[[note]]the Uptown Area by itself, home to the Williams Tower, is home to more than 23 million square feet of office space and is bigger than the downtowns of Los Angeles, Denver, or Pittsbugh[[/note]], but less dense than {{Chicago}} and NewYork. This has also, unfortunately, led to one of the most infamous cases of urban sprawl in the country, with suburbs spread out for miles in every direction. Much of the area (and by much, we mean all) north and west of the city remains unincorporated, mainly because of Texas's extraterritorial jurisdiction(ETJ) laws, thus placing it all effectively within the city of Houston, and making it so Houston doesn't have to annex it. Recently, a large area to Houston's north, The Woodlands, has been trying to incorporate. Houston has been amazingly conciliatory (probably due to messy annexation fights when Houston consumed the master planned communities of Clear Lake City and Kingwood), but Woodlands residents have been hit with sticker shock and this may not happen.

Traditionally, its sports teams have been hapless, though its professional soccer team, the Houston Dynamo club, has apparently not gotten that memo, winning two MLS championships in its first two years of the franchise and only missing the MLS playoffs once. The Astros did host the first two World Series games played in Texas (unsurprisingly, they lost), the Rockets actually managed a couple of championships back in the 1990's, and Comets (WNBA, now sadly defunct) were their league's first dynasty. The Texans are the ''other'' NFL team from the state, though [[TookALevelInBadass they have made improvements]]. It may be unwise to mention that Houston ever had another NFL team or what happened to them (for those wondering, here's a hint: Houston native Vincent Young used to play for them). The Astrodome is also obviously here, though that may not remain so for long: the place has seen better days and is dwarfed by the neighboring Reliant Stadium.

When [[NewOrleans New Orleans]] sank beneath the waves, [[AFriendInNeed Houston provided shelter for the bulk of the refugees]]. A number of them stayed. (And, because quite a few of them were...shall we say...[[BigEater rather hefty]], Houston has now surpassed "N'awlins" as the fattest per capita city in the U.S.)

Media-wise, there's little set in Houston, and in fact, of the top five largest cities in the United States, [[DemotedToExtra it is probably the least publicized]], with cities less than half its size (NewOrleans, {{Miami}}, SanFrancisco, etc.) getting more screen time, but it does have the nation's oldest public television station, KUHT.

* [[ApolloThirteen Apollo 13]] (at least the parts on Earth, other than those involving launch and splashdown)
* {{Armageddon}} filmed at the Johnson Space Center facilities
* Webcomic/AtArmsLength The setting for most of the webcomic. Apparently monsters like to target Hermann Park.
* TheBadNewsBearsInBreakingTraining
* TheBestLittleWhorehouseInTexas: Character played by Dom DeLuise was based on KTRK-TV personality Marvin Zindler, and in fact how locals first really became aware of the man.
* BloodSimple
* BrewsterMcCloud

* TheChase (filmed)
* CutterToHouston
* DanceWithMe
* TheEveningStar
* {{FM}} (filmed at Greenway Plaza in Houston)
* ForeverEvil
* FridayNightLights has the state football championship played at the Astrodome, though the events upon which the film is based never went anywhere near Houston: the title game that year was not played in the Astrodome.
* {{Futureworld}} (filmed at the Johnson Space Center facilities)
* Film/TheGetaway (filmed in nearby Huntsville)
* {{Hellfighters}}
* A partial example in ''{{Homestuck}}'' - the comic doesn't focus on the city, but Dave is generally agreed to be from Houston, because a map pinpoints his apartment as being right around there. At the least, he's canonically Texan.
* HoustonKnights
* IComeInPeace
* Film/IndependenceDay (Houston is destroyed by a nuclear missile as opposed to the aliens)
* JasonsLyric
* LogansRun (filmed inside the Houston Hyatt Regency)
* MyBestFriendIsAVampire
* NeighborsFromHell
* RealityBites
* {{Reba}}
* RightOnTrack
* [[RoboCop RoboCop 2]] (Filmed in Houston)
* Film/{{Rollerball}} (Set in Houston but filmed in Bavaria, Germany)
* {{Rushmore}} (filmed)

* {{Sidekicks}} (complete with ChuckNorris)
* SpaceCowboys
* SubUrbia (filmed)
* SugarHill
* TheSugarlandExpress (set and filmed in nearby Sugar Land)
** Sugar Land is a separate city that was encompassed as Houston grew - (as with many such small towns) while it is a city and functions autonomously, it could be called a suburb for descriptive purposes
* TheSwarm
* {{Telefon}} (set in Houston but [[CaliforniaDoubling filmed on a Hollywood backlot, parts of Los Angeles and inside the Hyatt Regency located at 5 Embarcadero in San Francisco, California]])
* TermsOfEndearment
* {{Texas}} (Daytime soap opera, a spin-off of AnotherWorld)
* {{Thea}}
* TheThiefWhoCameToDinner
* TinCup (filmed)
* {{Towelhead}}
* TheTripToBountiful (set in Houston, filmed in Dallas)
* UncommonValor (Though this is yet another case of CaliforniaDoubling)
* UrbanCowboy
* VietnamTexas

* AnnaNicoleSmith [[note]] For most of her life she claimed to have been born in Mexia, a town near Waco to the north where she lived as a child, in order to reinforce her "small-town girl" image (rather than admit to having been born in Houston, which was already a fairly big city in 1967). [[/note]]

*** Interestingly, the reason I was going for is that there are more restaurants per capita in Houston than any other city in the country (yeah, I did a double take when I saw that for the first time) and eating out is insanely cheap. [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Portion sizes are also incredibly large]].

* CapitalCity: To the Greater Houston Metropolitian Area, an actual geographic region that officially encompasses 10 counties, 121 cities, 10,062 square miles of land and 5.7 million souls. Also for majority of South East Texas that it's the closest 'big' city to.
* TheChurch: And boy howdy, ''what'' a church. Lakewood Baptist is one of the most well-known and easily-recognizeable churches in the entire city. As though it's previous stadium-seating campus (complete with in-house televising of its Sunday sermons on local channel 14!) weren't large enough, the church procured an '''actual stadium''' - the former home of the NBA team Houston Rockets and transformed it into their new house of worship. YMMV as to whether Lakewood Baptist, along with the other so-called "megachurches" throughout the area, qualify as [[SaintlyChurch morally upstanding]] or [[ReligionOfEvil ungodly decadent]] institutions.

*** This troper would like to point out that the trees were all here first. They clear the land and leave pockets of the original trees and build around them. This troper has seen it for 2 decades. A lot at dead due to the 2011 Drought and pine beetles that attached the stressed trees. No comment as to drug use as this troper is fairly ignorant when it comes to the darker side of town.

*** There's the central hub,which is just four different freeways put together and has no official name
*** Interstate 610 Loop, the only interstate loop
*** Beltway 8, which is both the Sam Houston Parkway (frontage roads) and Sam Houston Tollway (tolled expressway)

*** Most of the Freeways emanating from Houston are named after directions: North Freeway, Northwest Freeway, Southwest Freeway, South Freeway, and East Freeway (now Baytown East Freeway).
*** However, there is no West Freeway, Northeast Freeway, or Southeast Freeway. Instead we have the Katy Freeway, Eastex Freeway, and Gulf Freeway, respectively. The reason for the Eastex and Gulf having their names is that they were the first to be built, and were both named via contest. Katy is simply named after Katy, Texas

** CrapsaccharineWorld: The Woodlands claims to be the best place in the Houston Area to raise your kid. A cursory glance furthers the illusion. Then you actually move there, and you notice the [[WretchedHive crime.]] [[DrugsAreBad Drugs are inescapable,]] [[AxCrazy absolute]] [[CompleteMonster psychopaths]] are allowed to rampage around unmolested [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney because they (or their parents) have money]], a search on one of those pedophile index websides reveals an absurd number of sex offenders, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking plus the idiots who planned the suburb decided it would be a good idea to plant a forest of pine trees, all of which are dying. Result: ugly.]]

*** To be entirely fair, the malls do function quite well. The Woodlands is good at looking good, but not very good at backing it up.

*** However, there is no West Freeway, Northeast Freeway, or Southeast Freeway. Instead we have the Katy Freeway, Eastex Freeway, and Gulf Freeway, respectively. The reason for the the Eastex and Gulf having their names is that they were the first to be built, and were both named via contest. Katy is simply named after Katy, Texas
*** And there are the plenty of other Freeways in Houston: named after cities they pass through (Crosby Freeway, La Porte Expressway Tomball Parkway), the Toll Roads (Hardy Tollroad, Westpark Tollway, Fort Bend Parkway), and the Spurs

Oh, and it's ''the'' place to call when you want to inform MissionControl that [[{{Apollo 13}} you have a problem]].

Interestingly, it also has the largest collection of skyscrapers in Texas, including the tallest building outside a central business district, the Williams Tower. It also has probably the most spread out skyline in the entire United States, owing to the fact that it is the largest city in the country without formal zoning laws. This has led to a skyline that is more expansive than LosAngeles's, but less dense than {{Chicago}} and NewYork. This has also, unfortunately, led to one of the most infamous cases of urban sprawl in the country, with suburbs spread out for miles in every direction. Much of the area (and by much, we mean all) north and west of the city remains unincorporated, mainly because of Texas's extraterritorial jurisdiction(ETJ) laws, thus placing it all effectively within the city of Houston, and making it so Houston doesn't have to annex it. Recently, a large area to Houston's north, The Woodlands, has been trying to incorporate. Houston has been amazingly conciliatory (probably due to messy annexation fights when Houston consumed the master planned communities of Clear Lake City and Kingwood), but Woodlands residents have been hit with sticker shock and this may not happen.

For much of its history, Houston was quite small and unimportant. In fact, nearby Galveston was more important and larger for a long time. After Galveston was torn apart by a hurricane, the focus shifted to the more inland city of Houston, especially after the coming of oil. Despite the discovery of oil, Houston remained a smaller lesser known city up until after World War II when one of the greatest revolutions in demographic shifts brought about by technology happened: the "Air Conditioning Revolution". This is not a joke. The coming of air conditioning made the once inhospitable Western and Southern climates of the United States more welcoming, and a massive population shift took place, as people moved from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt. Houston subsequently exploded like a weed, and it, along with other Sun Belt cities like LosAngeles and San Jose rose to prominence as some of the largest cities in the country. Houston spread in all directions, eventually surrounding some cities that incorporated to avoid annexation. These cities became enclaves, cities surrounded by the entirety of the city of Houston (this is common for other major cities in Texas as well). Despite being independent, these enclaves are really nothing more than self important neighborhoods, and could largely be considered apart of Houston, except they aren't on paper. The City of Houston has been so kind as to document its unbelievably rapid growth for us [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=445Z1Dc5-Rw&feature=player_embedded here]].

Interestingly, it also has the largest collection of skyscrapers in Texas, including the tallest building outside a central business district, the Williams Tower. It also has probably the most spread out skyline in the entire United States, owing to the fact that it is the largest city in the country without formal zoning laws. This has led to a skyline that is more expansive than LosAngeles's, but less dense than {{Chicago}} and NewYork. The Astrodome is also obviously here, though that may not remain so for long: the place has seen better days and is dwarfed by the neighboring Reliant Stadium.

Traditionally, its sports teams have been hapless, though its professional soccer team, the Houston Dynamo club, has apparently not gotten that memo, winning two MLS championships in its first two years of the franchise and only missing the MLS playoffs once. The Astros did host the first two World Series games played in Texas (unsurprisingly, they lost), the Rockets actually managed a couple of championships back in the 1990's, and Comets (WNBA, now sadly defunct) were their league's first dynasty. The Texans are the ''other'' NFL team from the state, though [[TookALevelInBadass they have made improvements]]. It may be unwise to mention that Houston ever had another NFL team or what happened to them (for those wondering, here's a hint: Houston native Vincent Young used to play for them). From the way people drive, one might assume that street racing is a popular participator sport amongst the populace. The reality is that in Houston proper, an officer issuing a speeding ticket is likely to get run over by another speeder, and as such, the local police don't even bother anymore. This is ''not'' true in the suburbs, though, and some of them are speed traps out of nightmares.

That said, the city does have resident companies in each of the performing arts, and has some interesting takes on art: it's pretty much the art car capital of at least America. Also, the city is fairly well known for its rodeo, the largest such event in the world. Those who know the city's history, though, find this amusing: Houston was never a cow town--it traded in cotton before Spindletop. After Spindletop, oil was its stock in trade and has pretty much remained so ever since, despite efforts to branch out into other sectors such as banking (the banks got bought out), aerospace (there's not as much money here as you'd think), and medicine (actually, those efforts have seen some moderate success).

The city also has a notable music scene, at least amongst rap and hip hop fans. ''Tejano'' music also [[StealthPun rocketed]] to international fame here.

Media-wise, there's little set in Houston, but it does have the nation's oldest public television station, KUHT.

Houston is the fourth largest city proper in the United States and the largest in Texas (though the [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex]] is larger overall). Once upon a time, it was even the capital of the Republic of Texas, but that didn't last long. It has many nicknames, amongst them "the Bayou City", as the bayous are a major feature of the city, and it was founded at what was [[BlatantLies allegedly the head of navigation of Buffalo Bayou]], "Space City" (this one actually appeared on police cars once, due to the fact that NASA's Johnson Space Center is located in the city near Clear Lake), and "Magnolia City" (almost exclusively in pre-World War I documents). It's also famous for its oil tycoons and unforgiving climate.

Interestingly, it also has the largest collection of skyscrapers in Texas, including the tallest building outside a central business district, the Williams Tower. The Astrodome is also obviously here, though that may not remain so for long: the place has seen better days and is dwarfed by the neighboring Reliant Stadium.