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GOLDSEA |
ASIAN AMERICAN DEMOGRAPHICS
ASIAN AMERICAN DEMOGRAPHICS
Parsing Asian America
An insider looks at the baffling differences and uncanny similarities among five key Asian American groups.
Honolulu: AA Paradise?
Boston: AA Intellectual Mecca?
D.C. Area: Home of AA Conservatism?
San Jose: The AA Heartland?
Orange County: Realization of the AA Dream?
Chicago: Most-Underrated AA City?
Seattle: Most AA-Friendly City?
Poll: Asian Life in the Los Angeles Area
Poll: Asian Life in the San Francisco Bay Area
Poll: Asian Life in the New York City Area
Poll: Asian Life in the Houston Area
50% of Young Asian Americans Earn Bachelors Degree
Nguyen, Kim Top AA Surnames
Asian Households Most Married
Asian Immigration Declines
Asians Top Household Incomes
Where the Asians Aren't
Top 10 Asian-Populated States
Top 15 Asian Population Centers
Asian California 2000
Asians are becoming the Golden State's new establishment.
Asian Dixie
Wide open opportunities draw Asians to help build the New South.
Staying Single
Career ambitions keep Asian professionals waiting into their late 30s.
Asian Paris
Asians enjoy a different reception in Paris.
Asian Canada
Asian immigrant energy is turning a green and promising land into the next California.
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WHAT YOU SAY
(Updated
Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 04:38:53 AM)
westside,
Your "no Asian wants to live in Houston" diatribes make no sense.
I still see no rational explanation why there are growing numbers of Koreans along Long Point/Gessner and the mushrooming Asian shopping centers along the parallel streets of Bissonnet, Bellaire and Beechnut. Those newer Hangul signs on those plots along Long Point.............it surely doesn't look like Spanish.
Your diatribe does not take into account the fact that the theme of some of the newer Asian businesses along Bellaire are taking a heavier Taiwanese slant. And yes, the Chinese still keep coming too. So do the Japanese visitors.
The Texas Medical Center, which is three miles out of downtown Houston..............is a small downtown in itself with those busy sidewalks, more frantic than even downtown San Diego..........is a great place for watching people, mostly because it's non-touristy yet interesting to mill around. The Texas Med Center, with its high volumes of Asians walking around, is also an ethnic district of sorts.
The Med Center is an Asian magnet that will not be going anywhere anytime soon.
So relax. Many Asians who enjoy those spacious beautiful homes in Sugar Land or Katy for a fraction of what you pay for in overpriced California........probably will tell you to grow up and look at fiscal reality.
Plus, there's sophisticated, centralized nocturnal culture that's available in downtown Houston (something a bit difficult to find in SoCal).
The majestic skyscrapers. The Hobby Center. Wortham. Alley Theater. Jones Plaza. The Bayou Place. As nice of scale downtown San Diego is, with its lovely waterside areas.........why can't downtown San Diego match Houston's overall downtown architectural sense of space and sophistication?
Once the construction and new projects are finished in the next year, downtown Houston will have the coolest, most insane central district of ANY Sunbelt city (and I've seen them all, from LA to Atlanta to Miami). As it is, there is a cool urban chic to downtown Houston at night, for fun and games, unlike dead at night downtown Atlanta or Los Angeles. Sorry, but the vibe of Hollywood-area and Koreatown is like a sort of cleaner-cut Tijuana, if that. If some people like that style........that's fine too. (Also unlike the touristy energy of downtowns San Antonio and San Diego).
Asians of many stripes are flocking to Houston. So are Nigerians, Russians, Persians, Indians, Frenchmen, Brits, Mexicans, Californians, New Yorkers, Floridians, yada, yada...........................
When my wife and I are done in San Diego, we are going back to Houston. And my wife hates it in Southern California though I actually like Southern Cali in a way.........but Houston's home, evolution, hot summers and all.
Houston's racial makeover the past 20 years is unprecendented. Houston's growth rate the last part of the 20th century was one of the tops. It caused former New York Times architectural critic, Ada Huxtable to declare, "Houston is the city of the latter 20th century. It is the city that scholars flock to for the purpose of seeing what modern civilization has wrought."
The New York Times in June 1994, during the Rockets vs Knicks NBA Finals, said "Houston should be considered a world class city." In February 2000, the New York Times Magazine, travel edition, said "Houston has changed.........for the better."
You say Houston is some kind of undesirable place for Asians (or any other folks). The facts don't back that nonsense up.
worldlyman
Wednesday, June 12, 2002 at 01:21:07 (PDT)
To 007
Houston area is not just Harris County. Counties like Ft. Bend, Brazoria County, Katy, etc. also comprise the Metro Houston area. Lots of Asians are there too.
Los Angeles is not just LA County, to use a comparison.
Many Asians are also scattered throughout little cities neighboring Houston's Gulf side such as Seabrook, Baytown, Kemah, etc (towns not in Harris County).
Judging the way I encounter many, many Chinese and Vietnamese in Houston who do not speak English ............do we count the ILLEGALS in Houston also?
The Houston Asian population has been notorious for being "undercounted" (according to various Asian community leaders in H-town).
Common sense to those of us who lived in Houston: Can only 174,000 Asians in Harris County support two Chinatowns, three Little Saigons, a Little Korea, growing Little Manila, growing Little Pakistan, Little India as well as that HUGE new blossoming mixed Asian commercial zone along Veteran's Memorial Pkwy (NW Houston)............? This doesn't even include the plethora of Asian businesses that exist in places like the neighboring counties.
Not even traditional Pac Rim cities like San Diego and Seattle can boast such a variety of Asian commercial zones, from what I've personally seen.
We have to take into account Houston's newness and location on the traditionally southern culture Gulf Coast. In just 20 years, Houston has radically changed into a new Los Angeles. Even Economist magazine in June 25, 2001 noticed that.
So trying to bean count Houston versus LA, vis a vis, regarding Asian population is not always relevant in that sense. LA had the 100 year head start..........but Houston's change of rate, "becoming brown" in a 20 year span.. is unmatched historically by any other city.
Example: Look at Alief Hasting High (SW Houston) yearbooks of 1974 to 1979. In 1974, it looked like a high school demographic from Iowa. Just white kids. By 1979, there was a sprinkling of more Latinos, blacks and some Asians. By the time I attended Alief Elsik High in 1982, there already were lots of Asians around.
Now, in 2002.........1/3 to 1/4 of every kid walking around Alief schools seems to be Asian.
(And reading a book about Houston's ethnicities, did you know that early Houston's Japanese and Chinese did not suffer the same institutional racism that Asians in Los Angeles faced? Early Asians in 1920s or 1940s Houston faced whatever personal prejudice was there but they did not encounter "No Chinese or Dogs Allowed" signs the way they did in California. Japanese were allowed in Houston theaters in the early 1900s but were systemically kept out of theaters in California at that time.)
I am kinda proud of that turnaround. I've seen Houston evolve from an overgrown southern swamp town into the international mecca that it's become today.
H-town is still a young big city with some growing pains obviously, but I've travelled back between San Diego and Houston..........and there seems to be a lot more going on in Houston (possibly because LA steals most of the action from San Diego).
For me, it's not about where LA is now (a city that's been around longer than Houston in the modern sense); that city is on the verge of being humiliated by breaking up with Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley..........it's where Houston is headed, the City of the Future.
Gotta admire a big city that learned how to transform its economy in a big way after the Energy Crash of 1986.
With Houston, it's been adventurous fun to see it change and evolve the way it has. It's just neat how New Chinatown along Bellaire, Little Manila/Little Pakistan/Little Nigeria along parallel Bissonnet and Little Saigon along parallel Beechnut.........proportionately give the San Gabriel Valley a run for its money in terms of suburban ethnic variety.
worldlyman
Wednesday, June 12, 2002 at 00:38:49 (PDT)
Ed Hansen,
Thanks for clearing things up. I know that Texas is rabid about football, so it was odd that they lost their team. Getting rid of the Astrodome was the first step in getting a new franchise. That place sucks!
Bad owners are the rule in sports these days. Al Davis screwed us many years ago, and left for our most hated rival town. That left a sour taste in many peoples' mouths. When he finally admitted it was a mistake, and came back, his fan base was severely diminished because everyone had already long jumped ship. To this day, he is still struggling financially, so he dangles that stupid "moving back to LA" carrot to threaten the fans every day.
LA certainly doesn't deserve a new or relocated team. They don't even care that their teams are gone!
Hehe... the new owner's name is McNair, eh? That's pretty ironic since your old team is QB'ed by Steve "Air" McNair.
TSJ Eric@KristinKreuk.net
Monday, June 10, 2002 at 16:53:44 (PDT)
TSJ:
The reason why the City of Houston "lost" or rather "got rid of" the Oilers is because the OWNER, Bud Adams, was a TOTAL BUTTHOLE who put too many unreasonable demands on the city and the fans for a team that was most well-known for blowing a huge lead against the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs.
Bud Adams did everything he could to piss off the city of Houston. The Oilers would have been kept and catered to IF Adams would have sold the team to someone who was nicer and more willing to work with the city and the fans. It was EXACTLY like what happened with the Browns, TSJ.
Houston and the State of Texas are BIG TIME football places in the US. The NFL knew what the situation was with Adams (he's gone on to piss off people in Tennessee by the way) and were pretty much planning on setting up the franchise in Houston. The Oilers had tremendous support DESPITE THEIR HORRIBLE RECORD until the last 3 years they were here and Adams basically began acting like the biggest ASSHOLE in the known universe. Jim McInvale of Gallery furniture tried to buy the Oilers from Adams, but no such luck.
Bob McNair has been the Anti-Bud Adams on all counts. He's been genial to the city, he has catered to the fans and used tons of fan input in the creation of the team logo and name (via focus groups and voting), as well as in the amenities and setup of Reliant Energy stadium. That facility is made ONLY for football--best sight lines in the NFL bar none and the ONLY one with a retractable roof thus far! Season tickets are sold out and there are some California boys (i.e. David Carr) who are already LOVING to work with McNair, Capers and Palmer, and the city of Houston.
Lastly, a Texan refers to those with tough hearts, a pioneering spirit, a never give up attitude and a loyalty to all that is Texas. A Texan can be a rancher, a cowpoke, a homeboy, a computer programmer or even a descendant of Seguin, Fannin, Austin, Houston, Crockett or Bowie. A Texan represents the best of all the ideals held by our state and our city. The Cowboys only represent Dallas, but the Texans represent Houston and the ENTIRE STATE AND MENTALITY OF TEXAS.
Ed Hansen
Monday, June 10, 2002 at 06:12:07 (PDT)
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