Houston might let you gawk at all its contradiction and complexity, but it doesn’t exactly provide an easy education for why it looks the way it does. Even if one’s adolescence consisted of breakfast with the Hobbys and dinners with the Menils, odds are---with only that human mind at your disposal---you would still be unable to answer why all the bayous and highways and neighborhoods turned out the way they did. But Progrowth Politics: Change and Governance in the City of Houston tries anwering those questions. Though the book ends with the reign of Bob Lanier, it’s still a wonderfully definitive explanation of the city’s development.
The duo is Robert Thomas and Richard Murray. They are well-credentialed: the former was then director of the program in Public Administration at UH, and the later is now director of the Institute of Public Policy at UH. The book is part of a series by the Institute of Governmental Studies at Berkeley, designed to promote “better understanding of the nature and working of the American system of democratic government, particularly in its political, economic, and social aspects.” We’re in the company of New York, London, Toronto, Stockholm, Montreal, Winnipeg, Indianapolis, and Leningrad, and have a place among them because we were a “unique case study” in a city where “it no longer seems appropriate to focus government intervention primarily on economic development alone, while ignoring societal ills and social objectives.”
Progrowth Politics’ clear explanations of local land use and redevelopment issues, MUD districts, and the push and pull between the city council and mayor are the book’s greatest strengths. They clearly show how things get done in the city, and by doing so provide both a fantastic reference for understanding political processes in the city and also develop their primary point about how these processes have consistently enabled economic growth to be at the center of the civic agenda. They show the nuts and bolts that allowed what Jan Morris called the “mighty resolve” of Houston to take the primary role in influencing the city’s form.
That’s not the book’s only civic service, though. Hidden amid wonkish chapter titles like “Growth Patterns” and “People and Politics,” this book provides a top-of-the-line, clearheaded historical narrative. While Stephen Fox’s Houston Architectural Guide recovers the history of the city neighborhood-by-neighborhood and building-by-building, Thomas and Murray connect all the dots, presenting a cohesive story from Allen to Whitmire. And though you wouldn’t know from its cover (never has book design so perfectly channeled the architectural spirit of the City Hall Annex), they actually make it quite entertaining.
Take, for example, the chapter on Houston’s annexation policies. The book gives exhaustive and energetic treatment to the drama underlying the annexation of southeast Harris County by the City of Houston under Mayor Lewis Cutrer. It’s one of many episodes in which the old-guard city council comes across like a kind of Houstonian id.
Cutrer made his proposal [for annexing SE Harris County] one week after the secret annexations. Since Houston’s legal position appeared to be solid, the suburban mayors were in a better position to gain territory through a compromise than through a lengthy court fight. Hence, they readily agreed to take Cutrer’s offer to their respective councils and resume negotiations later.
Cutrer’s strategy received a cold reception from council members and prominent civic leaders. Some segments of Houston’s leadership advocated a ‘Holcombe’ response. Their solution was to annex the entire county! The council rejected Cutrer’s argument that Houston could afford to negotiate because it enjoyed a superior legal position. ‘If we have such a strong legal position, they reasoned, ‘why should we give up anything?’
Of course, the City Council won that battle with the mayor, and ended up taking huge tracts of the county for the city. That incident isn’t an atypical example of our political past, and reading through so many of them will certainly make sure you never forget how much growth and expansion meant to city leaders. That road-map border outline will never seem quite the same.
Unsurprisingly, purchasing this book is either difficult or expensive. I found my copy in the Texana section at Half Price Books in Montrose, so perhaps some digging in similar sections may prove fruitful. A few are available for upwards of $30 used on Amazon. If buying isn’t an option, various libraries around town have it in their stacks. But it is certainly worth the time to track down Progrowth Politics somehow: It’ll help any Houstonian make some sense of it all.
Check out Aaron Carpenter's other reviews of books on Houston:
The Last American City
Cinema Houston
