The Comeback Kid

It's official: Houston is the best place to live in America. At least according to Kiplinger's Personal Finance, which placed Houston at the top of their list of Best Cities to Live, Work and Play for 2008.

The respected personal finance magazine named a number of reasons that Houston topped their list this year: our strong economy (in spite of any national trends), continued job growth, low cost of living, diverse cultures and vibrant art scene. And although it may seem silly to have such obvious benefits pointed out to those of us who have known and appreciated them for years -- despite the rest of the nation's attitude towards our fair city (traffic! smog! urban sprawl and strip malls!) -- on some level you must admit that it still feels wonderful to be recognized and validated. Greater still is knowing that Houston made it to the top of the list in 2008 after being wholly absent from any of Kiplinger's best city lists in 2007 or 2006.

The Kiplinger's article isn't without its oddities, of course. While Houston is a difficult city to package and present neatly in a 200-words-or-less blurb, it still feels as if what makes our city so wonderful wasn't quite captured in the frustratingly superficial article. We are reduced to the following description:

It's the city of big plans and no rules, beat-the-heat tunnels and loop-the-loop highways, world-class museums and wiry cowboys, humidity that demands an ice-cold martini and the biggest damn liquor store on the planet. How could you not love Houston?

And the article makes an abrupt turn about halfway through to wax poetic about Sugar Land:

As for housing, Sugar Land defines itself by its master-planned communities, each of which mixes homes, retail and recreation. Houses are affordable: $350,000 will buy you a four-bedroom, two-bath home in the attractive Commonwealth development. Socializing revolves around each community's tennis courts, golf course, pool and clubhouse. "Sugar Land is exactly as it sounds," says Theresa Worsham, who lives in the Sugar Creek community with her husband and two sons. "It's a sweet lifestyle."

Well, that's very cheery and all. But it's not representative of Houston as a whole. We all know: Sugar Land (along with two of the Villages) took the recent Forbes prize as the Best Suburb in America. But the focus of the Kiplinger's article is supposed to be Houston, after all, so let's get back on topic.

The video accompanying the article in Kiplinger's is stranger still, a short slideshow of images and drowsy voiceover dutifully reciting tourism bureau snippets about the city's attractions:

The Galleria Mall is so ritzy, it even has a skating rink. But with all that twirling, I'm too busy to even get a decent picture.

Except that most of the pictures from the slideshow seem to have been taken within a very small radius in downtown Houston and in (once again!) Sugar Land, with two throwaway pictures of the Galleria and a bed and breakfast far outside the city limits. Nothing else is featured -- not the Museum District, the Medical Center, the Theatre District, Montrose, the Heights, uptown or midtown, Chinatown, River Oaks, the Wards, the sports stadiums, the universities or any other place which resonates with meaning and interest. Some of the pictures are even misidentified during the course of the slideshow. Once again, the city simply isn't showcased to its real potential.

And there is potential! The folks at HIWI have proven this time and again through their subversive yet brilliant anti-tourism campaign, as have the numerous and highly-vocal Houston advocates throughout the city. Although the litany of benefits our city has to offer are almost too numerous to list, Houstonist asks this question of you:

Aside from offering the world's largest liquor store and the ability to avoid cooking meals for your own parties, what would you have listed as Houston's greatest assets?

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Photo: Flickr user jeremey