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4 Social Environment
Pages 31-38

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From page 31... ... A panel of speakers described the dramatic changes over the past 50 years, and particularly in the last 20 years, in the size, age, and ethnic mix of Houston's population; the variability of the region's economic health during recent decades and the transformation of its industrial base; the growing environmental consciousness of individuals and local organizations (both public and private) ; the buildup of social capital in Houston; and the social problems that still have to be seriously addressed. Read the entire page →
From page 32... ... It has more African Americans than Los Angeles, more Asians than Miami, and more Hispanics than San Francisco. This is where the four communities meet in a more equal division than anywhere else, said Klineberg. Read the entire page →
From page 33... ... The Houston Area Survey1, which asks respondents many of the same basic questions year after year to gauge changes in public perceptions, started out in prosperous times, but the first survey, which revealed great economic optimism, was followed just two months later, in May 1982, by the collapse of the twentieth-century oil boom, which until then had driven a period of unrelieved economic expansion. Not surprisingly, responses in surveys to the question "How would you rate job opportunities in the Houston area: excellent, good, fair, or poor" tracked the subsequent recession, as well as the later recovery into a restructured economy (Figure 4.2) Read the entire page →
From page 34... ... College education has become almost essential for the ability to move up in the knowledge economy. One major consequence of this change has been a new and growing inequal ity in an economy that is producing numerous jobs for highly skilled technical workers and many low-paid, no-benefit service jobs for unskilled or semi-skilled workers, with fewer jobs in between. Read the entire page →
From page 35... ... For example, members of Houston's business community, represented by the Greater Houston Partnership, has joined with organizations such as Trees for Houston and Scenic Houston into the Quality of Life Coalition, with goals such as turning bayous into linear parks, tearing down billboards, doubling the city's park space, and ultimately ensuring that up to a million trees get planted in the area during the next decade. In a similar spirit, the partnership has formed the Center for Houston's Future, committed to the identification of emerging largely non-Caucasian leaders and bringing them together in forums to explore the nature and importance of civic leadership for Houston in the twenty-first century. Read the entire page →
From page 36... ... . Putnam defines social capital as the collective value of all social networks, particularly regarding norms of reciprocity -- the inclinations that allow people to do things for each other. Read the entire page →
From page 37... ... Meanwhile, educators are trying to teach young people to become more color-blind and judge others by their character rather than the color of their skin. She acknowledged, however, that although Houston's interethnic relations are good -- or at least not fraught Although many of the city's neighborwith bitter confrontation -- racial ten hoods are richly ethnic, they tend to be sions do simmer under the surface, predominantly of single ethnicity and to driven, for example, by alleged po interact minimally with each other. Read the entire page →
From page 38... ... Part of the reason is that Houston is the most spread out major city in the United States, with one-third the population density even of infamously sprawling Los Angeles (approximately 2,000 people per square mile in Houston versus 6,000 in Los Angeles) Read the entire page →

From page 31...

... A panel of speakers described the dramatic changes over the past 50 years, and particularly in the last 20 years, in the size, age, and ethnic mix of Houston's population; the variability of the region's economic health during recent decades and the transformation of its industrial base; the growing environmental consciousness of individuals and local organizations (both public and private) ; the buildup of social capital in Houston; and the social problems that still have to be seriously addressed.

Read the entire page →

From page 32...

... It has more African Americans than Los Angeles, more Asians than Miami, and more Hispanics than San Francisco. This is where the four communities meet in a more equal division than anywhere else, said Klineberg.

Read the entire page →

From page 33...

... The Houston Area Survey1, which asks respondents many of the same basic questions year after year to gauge changes in public perceptions, started out in prosperous times, but the first survey, which revealed great economic optimism, was followed just two months later, in May 1982, by the collapse of the twentieth-century oil boom, which until then had driven a period of unrelieved economic expansion. Not surprisingly, responses in surveys to the question "How would you rate job opportunities in the Houston area: excellent, good, fair, or poor" tracked the subsequent recession, as well as the later recovery into a restructured economy (Figure 4.2)

Read the entire page →

From page 34...

... College education has become almost essential for the ability to move up in the knowledge economy. One major consequence of this change has been a new and growing inequal ity in an economy that is producing numerous jobs for highly skilled technical workers and many low-paid, no-benefit service jobs for unskilled or semi-skilled workers, with fewer jobs in between.

Read the entire page →

From page 35...

... For example, members of Houston's business community, represented by the Greater Houston Partnership, has joined with organizations such as Trees for Houston and Scenic Houston into the Quality of Life Coalition, with goals such as turning bayous into linear parks, tearing down billboards, doubling the city's park space, and ultimately ensuring that up to a million trees get planted in the area during the next decade. In a similar spirit, the partnership has formed the Center for Houston's Future, committed to the identification of emerging largely non-Caucasian leaders and bringing them together in forums to explore the nature and importance of civic leadership for Houston in the twenty-first century.

Read the entire page →

From page 36...

... . Putnam defines social capital as the collective value of all social networks, particularly regarding norms of reciprocity -- the inclinations that allow people to do things for each other.

Read the entire page →

From page 37...

... Meanwhile, educators are trying to teach young people to become more color-blind and judge others by their character rather than the color of their skin. She acknowledged, however, that although Houston's interethnic relations are good -- or at least not fraught Although many of the city's neighborwith bitter confrontation -- racial ten hoods are richly ethnic, they tend to be sions do simmer under the surface, predominantly of single ethnicity and to driven, for example, by alleged po interact minimally with each other.

Read the entire page →

From page 38...

... Part of the reason is that Houston is the most spread out major city in the United States, with one-third the population density even of infamously sprawling Los Angeles (approximately 2,000 people per square mile in Houston versus 6,000 in Los Angeles)

Read the entire page →

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4 Social Environment Pages 31-38

4 Social Environment
Pages 31-38