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    Trendysomething in SoMo

    SoMo Mascot Evicted!

    Steven Devadanam
    Jan 7, 2010 | 12:00 am
    • A letter of eviction came our way. I was completely unaware that people evenstill sent physical mail.
    • Sas, making himself at home (sigh)
    • We performed the brutal labor of cleaning up shards of Lone Star beer bottlesleft from the night-before's fête.

    Twentysomethings with pets: Discuss. There are those who choose to completely devote themselves to their animals, beleaguering coworkers with tales of their tails. Maybe you have a fellow employee in IT who has a very special relationship with his ferret or python. Or perhaps you, too, have been on a date with somebody who names his malteses after obscure Roman emperors. Then, there are the girls who have already accumulated countless feline friends; we’ll call them Cat Ladies in Training, or CLITs. Let’s just say that I do my best to avoid CLITs.

    Personally, I was raised with rescued thoroughbred spaniels, so I, too, have a soft spot for cuddly, furry animals. Therefore, I wasn’t too fazed when my roommate surprised us with a lop-eared rabbit in October 2008. Rabbits are sort of a novelty pet once you’re more than a decade old, so owning one in your 20s can be ironic, nostalgic and super-cute all at once. Really, housing a rabbit is a very efficient way of being trendy. Sure, our lease required a pet deposit, but we assumed it could be waived due to bunny Sasquatch’s cute nose and plush coat.

    Sas was promptly set up with a three-story bunny condo, complete with organic hay and lining of back-issues of Vice. He was a hit at parties, as Facebook pictures document him sporting glow bracelets and eating the fresh mint out of mojitos. Sasquatch is so beloved that one summer day when he went missing from our back patio, we spent an afternoon roaming around SoMo searching for the little guy. This eventually amounted to us sneaking into our neighbor’s back yard and going for a swim in his pool – where we found Sas chilling out by the hot tub. Yes, Sas was a party bun – but his diva days were numbered.

    In comes a belligerent landlady; let’s call her Wheezy. Our cute strip of mansard-roof townhomes represents the first of her late husband’s property developments and the last in the family’s possession. It’s logical that she designates a certain degree of preciousness upon the property. When I first moved in, she simply stated in her Texan drawl, “I just wanna provide a good home fer good people like you two!”

    Wheezy had no idea. Somehow we received no complaints over our first slew of parties: Halloween 2008, Cape Cod Cougars/Jersey Shore Boozers, Yourself from the Future, The '80s Before AIDS, Trendy Indie Kids – just a few of our themed bashes that didn’t even receive a peep from the neighbors. It wasn’t until this past August’s “Look at this Fucking Hipster”-themed event that we caught wind of a negative response. Perhaps this is because the mix of ironically dressed hipsters and regular friends dressed ironically as hipsters decided that outside was the new inside and took to loitering in the street—and on the roofs of strangers’ vehicles.

    Apparently our next-door neighbors were hosting a quiet dinner party, and when their guests reappeared, they found various kids squatting on their minivan, surrounded by half-empty cans of PBR. Needless to say, Wheezy was not pleased by the sound of the next day’s phone call. She showed up at our door, decked out in the majority of items ever offered at Chico’s, and watched as we removed the Parliament butts and shards of Lone Star bottles from the sidewalk. As we performed the brutal labor, people from the neighborhood passed by and snickered. Said one pedestrian, “Aw, look at the sad hipsters!”

    Never again were we to host a full-fledged fête. We thought we were golden, as we've kept to ourselves during the past several months.

    That is, until yesterday, when we received an angry email from Wheezy revealing that she had learned of our bunny-harboring activities. Not only had we neglected to ever pay that pet deposit (these parties don’t pay for themselves!), but unbeknownst to us, our most recent lease completely forbade pets of any kind. That same day, we received a detailed letter from Wheezy’s real estate attorney. I was completely unaware that people even still sent physical mail. After a futile phone call with the lawyer asking if he could just break his letter down into a few texts or tweets, we decided it was time for Sas to go. The attorney was too busy anyway with the whole Robinhood vs. Beerhaus drama.

    Perhaps one day I’ll cash in on the American dream and own a home of my own, where rabbits and ragers may coexist. In the meantime, we’ve put him up for adoption. I can take solace in keeping track of Sas Patterson on Facebook and closely following sas_the_bunny’s Twitter.

    Or maybe we’ll meet again. I always order the braised rabbit at Catalan.

    unspecified
    news/city-life

    income analysis

    This is the salary needed for a single-income family in Texas in 2026

    Amber Heckler
    Sep 14, 2026 | 9:00 am
    Stay at home dad with their child
    Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
    The income needed for a single-income household to raise a child in Texas is lower than it was last year.

    With childrearing costs in the Lone Star State adding up to tens of thousands of dollars per year, many Texas families are navigating a difficult decision: should both parents work or should one parent stay home to raise the child?

    For Texas families that choose the latter, the working parent needs to make nearly $73,000 per year to support their child and the stay-at-home parent, a new income analysis has revealed.

    The newly released SmartAsset report used MIT's Living Wage Calculator to estimate the annual living wages needed across all 50 states for a three-person household with two working adults and one child, and a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. Costs included food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes, and "other necessities."

    A Texas household with one working parent needs to make $72,925 to support their stay-at-home counterpart and their child, the study found. That's $1,809 less than what was needed in 2025.

    Meanwhile, the combined income needed for a household with one child and both parents working full-time is $85,030.

    Texas ranked No. 42 in SmartAsset's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working parent, one stay-at-home parent, and one child. That also situates Texas as the 9th most affordable state for single-income families. But there are risks associated with only having one breadwinner in the family.

    "A single income family with small children potentially saves in child care costs over a household with two working parents," the report's author wrote. "The main disadvantages are the lost salary and retirement contributions, Social Security earnings history and employer health benefits."

    There aren't any specific tax benefits to having a parent stay at home to raise their child full time, but SmartAsset says single-income families can claim a tax credit under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

    "[S]ingle-income families may claim the Child Tax Credit — up to $2,200 per qualifying child for 2026 ($1,700 refundable) — on the same terms as any other family," the report said.

    SmartAsset's latest report only looks at costs on a statewide basis, but the cost to raise a child will also vary greatly depending on the city you live in. Raising a child in Houston might pose a challenge for some families, where the cost for childcare alone adds up to $10,265 and overall costs can surpass $22,000.

    For households with two children, there might be additional strains on what a family might consider a "comfortable living." A March 2026 SmartAsset study determined a Houston-based family with two working parents need to make a combined income of $204,672 to have a financially stable life while raising two children.

    The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income needed for single-income families are:

    • Arkansas ($68,869)
    • Mississippi ($70,054)
    • Kentucky ($70,179)
    • West Virginia ($70,283)
    • North Dakota ($71,219)
    • Oklahoma ($71,365)
    • Louisiana ($71,406)
    • Missouri ($72,862)
    • Texas ($72,925)
    • Tennessee ($72,946)
    smartassetreportstexasfamilyincome
    news/city-life

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