- Memorial Hermann Planning $93M Expansion of Sugar Land Hospital [Prime Property]
- Houston Hosting 23 Major Conventions This Year; Momentum Expected To Continue in 2014 [Houston Business Journal]
- The Dining Scene Blossoming Downtown [Houstonia Magazine]
- One of the Last Holdouts at the Allen House Apartments in Houston’s Era of Displacement [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Construction Starts on Extending 249 Toll Lanes Through Tomball [The Highwayman]
- Houston Named One of Texas’s Most Scenic Cities Based on Public Landscaping, Parks, Billboards [KUHF]
- In Richmond’s Brazos Lakes, Residents Are Allowed To Hunt Alligators [Houston Chronicle]
- Ignored Market Square Clock Tower Subject of Artist’s Piece on Time [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Photo of the Galleria: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Wow, Houston named one of the most Scenic Cities, we certainly should be proud I suppose, had I been the major id have had an aide step on my foot to stifle my laugh as I accepted the award.
Mayor*
And Shannon returns to his roots…
93 million to *expand* to 141 beds? 14 icu beds to 16? I guess Memorial Hermann Sugar Land does mainly outpatient care. That’s probably better for patients anyway–less likely to catch some antibiotic resistant “superbug”, not to mention the cost!
I love Houston, but I don’t think it’s credible that it was voted the most scenic in Texas. Yes, there are pretty areas, but Austin and San Antonio are certainly more scenic, but why look a gift horse in the mouth…I can see the Chamber of Commerce ads now: California has San Francisco and the Monterey Peninsula, Florida has Miami and Palm Beach, and Texas has (drum roll please)….HOUSTON!
Credibility Score:
ScenicTexas.org – 1
Shannon – 0
I can see how Houston wins the scenic award for Texas. The article states that the city has a prohibition on new billboards. Trees lining the freeways are much prettier than billboards. I have had friends visit me and are amazed and the amount of parkland in the city. Houston may not have mountains or varied topography but the bayous and parks are nice in themselves. I wish we all embraced the coastal prairie environment that made Houston beautiful before there was a Houston. If we restored as much of Houston to its natural state as possible then the entire city would truly be ‘scenic’.
Aww that’s sweet @Duston
What a joke of an award. I get the idea of counting billboards as a contributing factor to a city’s scenic rating, but using the lack of a regulation banning further billboards as a way to disqualify all of the other cities in Texas that are usually considered scenic is ridiculous. Under this rule, a city with 100 billboards per mile could still win a scenic award as long as it has since put an anti-billboard regulation in place and a city with 1 billboard per mile without the regulation would be disqualified from consideration outright. This is just as ridiculous as an article I once saw that rated top vacation destinations and gave 25% weight to the abundance of farmer’s markets in each city.