The view from the 15th floor of the Houston Hilton, looking west, is deceiving. If I didn’t know otherwise, I would assume the string of tall buildings springing up from the distant horizon and growing more dense in the view to the right is “downtown.” And I would assume the vast stretch of trees and occasional rooftops between me and those high-rise buildings are in the suburbs. But I know better. The tall buildings follow alongside or near freeways that encircle or pierce into downtown. The “suburbs” are a mix of high-priced residential and commercial areas. Just below me and to the right are mansion-sized homes with pools. Out of my view, to the left and right and behind me, is downtown, the Texas Medical Center, big sports facilities, Rice University, and an astonishing blend of obscene wealth and abject poverty. Just another big American city.
I lived in and around Houston for roughly eight years…from about 1977 to 1985. The traffic was almost unbearable then. Driving into the city on Thursday, we saw a traffic back-up several miles long, caused by a single wreck. The prospect of dealing with such matters on a daily basis would drive me into an inescapable depression. Had city planners and funders acted in full support of good, comprehensive mass transportation…100 years ago and continuing to the present…the stresses of Houston traffic could have been reduced to a fraction of what it is today.
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Sleep is my refuge from a sharp-clawed world.
