COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW LONG UNTIL HOUSTON’S FLOODWATERS WASH AWAY THE OIL MONEY? 
“But hey, why bother [with impermeable ground cover]? I’m sure this city will continue to grow and prosper and the taxes will still come pouring in, years after it exacerbates its reputation as a flooded-out mess far behind the tipping point. It will make our elected leaders look so smart when the pension system fails anyway because energy companies choose to move to Austin, OKC, DFW and Denver, because they can’t in good conscience relocate people to the flooded mess of our city. Oh wait — you say energy companies would never leave Houston? Remember, the oil companies fled New York decades ago. Recently BP has moved its onshore group to Denver. Exxon is gone to the Woodlands (and lets not pretend that didn’t have anything to do with escaping the hot mess of city hall mismanagement.)” [Tired of flooding, commenting on Where 2 New Buildings and 542 New Surface Parking Spots Could Fit North of Washington Ave.] Illustration: Lulu
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Wow, more like Dramatic comment of the Day. Lived here 38 years, never been flooded.
Exxon is still in Harris County, and coul dbe annexed at any time. They are also in an industrial improvement district that has a tax rate more than twice as high as the City, and Spring ISD has a much higher rate than HISD. So, I do not believe that the possibility of issues with the City played a big role in the move North.
The ongoing CoH issues Exxon experienced with taxes had nothing to do with the move north …. it was just more efficient to have all the various offices in one location. Duh!
Hey Tired of Flooding- move somewhere else.
Ok guys, keep your head in the sand. However, when corporate leaders see million dollar houses in neighborhoods with good schools get flooded repeatedly until they only go for lot value, you’re being naive if you believe this hasn’t affected the way people are thinking at the corporate level. They will never come out and say it, but our city gov is driving out the prosperity to cater to developers who benefit from it but don’t fully understand what causes economic prosperity. Corruption and mismanagement will drive out the jobs each and every time. I said it before but it bears repeating: NYC used to be the oil and gas capital of the world and now it is widely accepted that these companies left for a better government climate. That was our advantage. The current crew of government parasites in charge at city hall are working hard to erase those gains.
I forgot to mention BP’s onshore group flooded in 2009 in a secondary building and they built a retention pond by where the soccer field is on the Westlake campus. Work was cancelled for a week due to damage and safety issues. Seriously guys, the oil companies are aware of how messed up our city government is.
In 2013, flooding caused $4 billion in damage in 24 counties in Colorado, destroying 1,852 homes and 203 businesses.
Was all that flooding within 5 miles of a major employment center in Denver? Don’t think so. That would have been a major black eye.
We have had a lot more damage than $4B in just the Houston area. We WISH we had $4B in damage spread out over TWENTY FOUR counties.