HOUSTON: POLITICS OF A BOOMTOWN

...This fact largely explains why Houston's politics does not have the ethnic overtones associated with large cities...

...In Houston little of this has come to pass...

...Coastal States Gas had revenues of $311 million in 1973 and over $3.8 billion in 1978...

...Later, Houston emerged as the major center for a huge petrochemical manufacturing industry...

...Harris County (containing the greater part of the local urban area) had 1.2 million people in 1960...

...Aside from creating a more heterogeneous population, rapid growth has directly led to a number of logistic problems that are creating public pressures for the pursuit of new and different local policies...

...These related economic interests constitute a loose but very real establishment that has been singularly successful in securing its principal objectives...

...Of the urban populace, 65 percent lives in the city, and another 20 percent resides in Houston's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) where they are subject to annexation at any time by the central city...

...A hundred years ago private economic elites in America often dominated local, state, and even national politics and used their power to secure public policies favorable to their personal economic interests...

...McConn was elected in 1977 and reelected in November 1979, and has presided over a city council that responded faithfully to the establishment's needs...

...law firms now are located in Houston...

...Basic social indicators show a local population under considerable stress...

...The effect has been quite the opposite in Houston...

...While ideologically diverse, several of these new members have won their seats despite the opposition of establishment interests, and all are much more outspoken than their predecessors...

...The majority of its citizens feel that they have been successful in this respect, and credit the rapid growth of the area as being in their own best interest...

...The reasons for this uneven pattern of urban development are not difficult to identify...

...the largest deposits of hydrocarbons in the country were nearby...

...q 504...

...This segment does not, interestingly, include much of the oil and gas industry (their political interests now focus largely on national and international politics) but is made up of the land developers and home builders, apartment builders, bankers, lawyers, and realtors—people whose very good livelihoods depend upon a local government that will continue to make the "right" policy decisions...

...To begin with, demand for oil and gas, so far, is extremely inelastic compared to that for cars or airplanes...

...In sum, the staggering price increases that OPEC has wrung out of the Western industrialized nations have left Houston, compared to all other American cities, in the catbird's seat...

...In recent years, as the technologies required to find, exploit, and manufacture petroleum and natural gas have become more costly and complex, Houston has firmly established itself as the technological service center of the most international industry in the world...

...The U.S...

...Since the Spindletop gusher blew in 90 miles east of Houston in 1901, the city on the flat coastal plains of the upper Texas Gulf Coast has emerged as a national and international center of the oil and gas industry...

...In addition, the city government has effective control over a number of functional units in the area (for example, five of seven members of the Metropolitan Transit Board are appointed by the mayor of Houston...

...Despite the consistency of recent public policies, there are indications that the growth and development elite's hold on city government is weakening...

...Most of Houston's population moved to the city within the last 30 years in the expectation of improving their economic circumstances...

...alone among large American cities, it continued to grow as fast in the late 1970s as in the 1950s and 1960s...

...The health and vitality of Houston's economic base has produced a number of ancillary developments...

...To begin with, the new council will be the most diverse in the history of the city...

...That vote turned out to be a bit embarrassing...

...In 1950 503 only 5 percent of the local population had Spanish surnames...

...These edifices, with most of their space already leased to corporate clients, are testimony to the city's continuing economic boom...

...Per capita income also has shot up in recent years...

...But at a minimum, the city that prides itself on being the "golden buckle of the Sunbelt" seems to be slowly moving from the politics of the 19th to the politics of the 20th century...

...The city council was no less responsive to the mayor's proposals on bigger items, such as a push for legislative and voter approval of a new transit authority—to be financed by a huge local tax base—to tackle Houston's worsening transportation problems...

...A recent poll by the Public Affairs Research Center at the University of Houston (PARC) found that 43 percent of the local populace felt that rapid growth and development in the area was personally beneficial to them, compared to 31 percent that thought it was personally harmful...

...Yet, this has not been the case, reflecting, in part, a general public antipathy, common to the urban Southwest, toward patronage-based politics...

...The freeway system was largely completed by 1973, but since then as many as 75,000 new vehicles have been added on the roads, on an annual basis...

...Recent newcomers are as likely to come from Boston or Dayton as from Lufkin, Texas, and with this diversification has come a loosening of social and political values nurtured in the rural and small-town South of the early 20th century...

...Power, within the city, is concentrated in a strong mayoral government...

...Houston's boom cannot be explained simply as an example of Sunbelt prosperity contrasted with Snowbelt decline...

...Just 28 percent of the registered voters (or 16 percent of the adult population) 502 voted in the November 1979 city election, which is a rather typical turnout...

...today 16 percent of the city's inhabitants are Hispanics...

...Local bankholding companies are growing at faster rates than are banks elsewhere, and local law firms are reaching behemoth size (three of the six largest U.S...

...Not only is public support for longtime policy goals eroding, but the structure of governance that gave economic elites great influence has also been modified...

...It is worth noting, of course, that this economic vitality, rapid population growth, and increasing affluence occur in an era of national economic stagnation and general metropolitan decline...

...Local companies have seen their revenues grow at rates far above the national inflation level (Superior Oil grossed $42 million in 1973, 500 compared to $731 million in 1978...

...Houstonians, as a whole, exhibit little interest in local political matters...

...Beyond this diversification among whites, the local boom has attracted a tremendous influx of Hispanics from economically depressed areas in other parts of Texas and Mexico...

...Even some of the boom cities of the 1960s, such as Dallas and Atlanta, have experienced slowdowns of their economies and growth rates in the 1970s...

...even as it was being tallied, a firestorm fed by dry wood shingles was roaring through Woodway Square, a 1,000-unit luxury apartment complex on the west side of town...

...Elite control has been facilitated by a number of circumstances that do not exist in most American metropolitan areas...

...Houston's robust economy has been creating between 50,000 and 70,000 new jobs each year, which in turn have attracted, throughout the 1970s, some 60,000 to 80,000 newcomers to the area each year...

...By comparison, over 70 percent of the registered voters of New Orleans went to the polls in the 1978 city election in which Ernest Morial became the first black mayor elected in the history of the Crescent City...

...Aside from financial backing, several other factors have worked to sustain the use of local public power to protect and promote private economic gain...

...Profits are up sharply, not only for companies involved in the production and refining of hydrocarbons, but also for those providing technical and managerial services for the oil and gas industry...

...There is less than the usual gap between local elites and the city's general population because their social origins are similar...

...the crime rate has soared...

...Then, too, many Houstonians, who are newcomers, have little understanding of or interest in local issues or candidates...

...The city charter envisions the council as a part-time body as reflected in the fact that its support staff consists of a half-time secretary each, and the members' pay was $300 per month (this was increased by the 501 1977 Texas legislature...

...The November 1979 election was the first held under this new system...

...In this regard they mirrored the origins of the largest segment of Houston's citizenry: native, white Southerners...

...the powerful office of the mayor is in the hands of an unabashed prodeveloper...

...While it is too early to say just how this realigned council will work, the election results indicate that things will never be quite the same again in Houston...

...and as many as 700 Houstonians were murdered in 1979 (up from about 500 in 1978...

...The mayor is empowered to hire and fire all department heads...

...Justice Department ruled, in the summer of 1979, that Houston could continue to annex white suburban areas only if it substantially modified its system of electing all eight council members at large...

...Houston thus represents a unique case...

...In the 1950s and 1960s, the state and federal governments would invest over $1 billion in a freeway system for Houston...

...The city has the largest home building industry in the nation, the greatest amount of general construction activity, and one of the most active and profitable real estate markets...

...Today, hundreds of millions of federal dollars are being used to improve local waste water treatment facilities so the city can continue to issue building permits...

...A majority of the members are new to City Hall (8 out of 14), and most come to the council with professional political credentials...

...From the founding of the city in 1836 to the present, effective political power has rested in the hands of local economic entrepreneurs intent on maintaining and promoting policies that protect their personal economic status...

...The 14 members will include 3 blacks (up from one), a Hispanic (the first in the city's history), and two white females (also historic firsts...

...The local population has soared...

...he is responsible for monitoring the performance of the city bureaucracy, retains complete control of budget preparation, and presides over (and votes on) the city council...

...Only 6 percent said a lot, 27 percent said some, and 65 percent said little or no influence...

...Historically, Houston has been very much a Southern city, which meant that its populace could be divided into a majority white segment that was quite homogeneous (mostly Protestant, largely from surrounding rural areas, Democratic in partisan leanings) and a minority black underclass that was effectively excluded from political participation until after World War II...

...First, key local policies are largely determined by a single government—the City of Houston...

...But, on the other hand, local elites have pressed hard for big government projects (particularly where costs could be shared with the state or federal government) that were deemed essential to creating or maintaining the conditions for growth and development...

...In a city as large and spread out as Houston, with its 1.7 million people dispersed over 600 square miles, candidates must run increasingly expensive media campaigns...

...Recent data show that many Sunbelt cities, such as New Orleans, Memphis, and Los Angeles, have had slow- or no-growth patterns in the 1970s that are consistent with national urban trends...

...The current occupant of the mayor's office, Jim McConn, is solidly part of this tradition: he is a former president of the local home builders' association and has impeccable progrowth credentials...

...The local political system must now contend with two large and increasingly active minority communities—blacks and Hispanics—that press their demands in the political arena...

...Such major American oil companies as Exxon and Shell have concentrated their corporate offices in Houston...

...In most American cities such blatant private elite politics has long since been supplanted by a pluralistic political process that features bargaining among various organized interests (ethnic minorities, municipal and craft unions, partisan organizations, and local economic elites) and elected political leaders...

...Local business elites still control enormous financial resources that weigh heavily in competitive politics...

...it had 1.7 million in 1970, and now has an estimated 2.4 million inhabitants...

...Even after blacks had become politically active, their influence was held in check by the city's ability to annex new white suburban areas, which offset increased minority voting in the central city...

...And in this there is a certain irony, because it has been the very sustained growth itself that has undermined the conditions that facilitated establishment control...

...and the local public bureaucracies remain most responsive to establishment pressures...

...Specifically, recent population growth has reduced the sociocultural homogeneity that so long characterized the local white residents...

...As mentioned earlier, because of the continuous population growth in the 1970s, Houston's transportation system, essentially a private car/freewaystreet system, has become inadequate...

...In the 1940s and 1950s the Corps of Engineers was pressed to improve local drainage and flood control facilities...

...If any dominant political culture can be identified in new exurbs like the Woodlands, which are growing on the periphery of the metropolitan area, it surely is an American hybrid...

...The increasingly diverse local population, the changing public attitudes, and a new structure of governance do not by any means assure that a new day has dawned in Houston politics...

...It also reflects the fact that with nonpartisan elections, short campaign periods (30 days from the close of filing to election), and no existing effective political organizations in the city, candidates have to mount ad hoc campaigns that appeal to voter support on an individual basis...

...In Houston, local voter passivity reflects the widespread feeling in this sprawling, amorphous city that ordinary citizens have little or no influence over public affairs...

...The result has been a long string of mayors and city councils that have been most amenable to what the Houston Chamber of Commerce would characterize as "responsible" public positions...

...I f Houston represents, economically, the last great urban frontier in America, its local politics has an anachronistic quality...

...The PARC poll mentioned earlier found, for example, that 52 percent of the local population thought "a few important people" made all the public or governmental decisions in Houston, while 14 percent felt that the "public at large" had a significant say in these decisions...

...This action, which was sought by a diverse coalition of disgruntled Houstonians—ranging from suburbanites angry about being annexed without their consent to blacks and browns who wanted inner-city minority districts—resulted in the adoption of a new council plan whereby nine members would be elected from specific districts and five at large...

...Politically, the council has been further weakened by the fact that its members have had to run at large with the mayor and so do not possess an independent electoral power base...

...Houston's horse, however, has been a far better steed to ride in the turbulent 1970s than the mounts available to other American cities...

...The economic and political leaders of the community—the Jesse Joneses, George and Herman Browns, Leon Jaworskis, and John Connallys—were themselves newcomers to the city and had come from modest rural and small-town backgrounds...

...This requires, of course, tremendous financial support: indeed, the winners in mayoral contests during this decade have had to spend between $750,000 and $1 million to win or hold their office...

...Mean family income in Houston is now equal to that of New York City, despite the fact that the living cost is about 25 percent lower...

...First, mass attitudes have generally not differed much from those of local business leaders—a condition not found in most American cities...

...With so much riding on who controls the mayor's office, one might think the occupant would be in a perfect position to build a political machine capable of sustaining his and his supporters' power over time...

...The number of divorces in Houston equals the number of marriages...

...In 1970 the average family income was 102 percent of the national mean, and by 1977 it was estimated to be 119 percent, according to the U.S...

...Other local governments, such as the county, have little general political power...

...The city has been and remains, for many, a veritable money machine with an almost limitless capacity for enriching (some of) the local inhabitants...

...In the late 19th and early 20th centuries this was reflected in the effort to get a ship channel dredged for a deep-water port 60 miles from the Gulf of Mexico...

...Demand remains quite strong for these energy sources despite price increases of 800 to 1,000 percent over the last six years for newly discovered crude oil or natural gas...

...Macey, whose campaign stressed the need to improve the quality of life in Houston, won majorities in most white middle-class areas...

...At first, this reflected simple proximity...

...This was reflected in small matters, such as the council's routine rejection, in August 1979, of an ordinance that would have prohibited builders' use of wood shingles (which would constitute undue interference with the developers' sector...

...Given these conditions, it is not surprising that the council has usually supported the mayor on major issues and that there has been remarkably little public debate at City Hall about fundamental local policies...

...This dissatisfaction emerged in the 1979 mayoral election when Louis Macey, a maverick councilman with very limited funds and organizational backing, took 44 percent of the vote in the November 20, 1979, runoff with incumbent Jim McConn...

...Houston's growing pains are evident in a new, more critical public mood toward local officials and traditional policies...

...New development has largely occurred in raw land areas, and this has disturbed watersheds and contributed to major flooding problems in developed areas downstream...

...Developers, builders, realtors, bankers, big-firm lawyers, architects, engineers—the economic interests of all these groups dovetail into the propositions that the business of Houston is growth, that growth is good for all, and that government has a responsibility to facilitate growth in every possible way...

...And as the city took in more land and people, the thin base of services was stretched to the breaking point...

...Such huge sums of money can be raised only from the segment of the local business community that is extremely interested in preserving Houston's boom...

...City government's support of this issue was based less on new concern for the great problem of the area's poor—who now are dependent on an incredibly bad public bus system for moving around the huge city—but more on the recognition that if transit problems aren't attended to, the entire growth and development of the area might soon be strangled...

...People were asked, "How much influence do you feel you and your neighbors and friends have in determining what public decisions are made in this area...

...Relatively few people work in the local public sector (the City of Houston employs 16,000 people compared to a quarter of a million city employees in New York...

...The combined effect of these developments is Houston's growth into an essentially one-horse industrial/ corporate city, much like Detroit (automobiles) and Seattle (airplanes) have been for many years...

...These enormous price increases have, of course, worked great hardships on most of the nation and especially on many of its older cities in the north and east...

...Department of Commerce...

...What all this adds up to is, first, that the livelihood of an unusually large element of the elite in the local economy is dependent on sustaining rapid growth...

...The result of this elite control has been, on the one hand, a distinctly conservative government most interested in assuring a lowtax climate at the expense of such human services as parks, hospitals, police protection, and mass transit...

...Even in the older, white middle-class neighborhoods that customarily lined up behind candidates supported by the business establishment, there now is a growing concern about the long-term direction of the community, about whether growth and development is really in the best interest of the present population...