This column at Newsweek.com points out that Houston’s current boom isn’t solely centered upon oil and gas, something locals already know of course. It also notes that Houston is weathering the current housing market crisis better than many metro areas “thanks to endless supplies of land and a lack of zoning laws,” something mayoral-wannabe Peter Brown would love to change.
And there’s a paragraph to make Mayor White smile:
In midtown New York eateries, suddenly strapped investment bankers are limiting themselves to prix fixe lunches. But at noon last week, the 130 seats at The Grove, an expense-account jewel box that overlooks Discovery Green–a downtown parking lot made into a 13-acre park–were filled with jovial diners. As we tucked into our skirt steaks (so big they should have been dress steaks) and a side of French fries smothered in shredded short ribs and cheese, UBS executive Stephen Trauber ticked off a series of recent deals his team worked on that would make his New York counterparts weep: a $3.5 billion oilfield-services acquisition, a giant initial public offering of a Brazilian oil company, several stock offerings.
It’s often amusing to read these types of columns, where a Coaster (in this case an East Coaster) tries to shed some light on Houston for other Coasters (East and West), almost as if Houston is a foreign land.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: The Washington Post gets in on the act with this article on Houston.
