traffic watch

Prepare for these 10 streets to be blocked off for Chevron Houston Marathon

Many Inner Loop streets will be closed for the annual marathon.

Photo courtesy of Chevron Houston Marathon

The Chevron Houston Marathon and the Aramco Half Marathon take place Sunday, January 20. Locals planning to get behind the wheel should make sure their routes are not blocked off. Several major streets around the Houston area will be closed for the full or half marathons.

Streets close at 6 am and re-open gradually as runners finish the race. Most streets are expected to be open by 2 pm. The following streets are some of the most heavily traveled corridors in Houston affected by the race:

- Washington from Congress to Waugh(all lanes except one westbound curb lane from Franklin to Houston, and one eastbound curb lane from Studemont to Sawyer)

- West Gray/Inwood from Waugh to Kirby

- Kirby (northbound from Inwood to San Felipe, and southbound from San Felipe to Bissonnet

- Post Oak northbound from Richmond to San Felipe

- Memorial (westbound from Chimney Rock to 610, and eastbound from 610 to Shepherd)

- Allen Parkway from Shepherd to Bagby

- Montrose from Bissonnet to Main/Mecom Fountain

- Montrose (southbound from Bissonnet to Dallas, and northbound from Dallas to Allen Parkway)

- Avenida de las Americas from Polk to Rusk

- Congress from Crawford to Smith

- Smith from Congress to Franklin

For a faster way to get around town, use the freeway system rather than surface streets. Visit the official marathon site for a complete list of street closures.

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transportation

H-Town rising

Houston leaps back into top 50 'World's Best Cities' list for 2025

Photo by Adrian Newell on Unsplash

Houston made a big leap back into the top 50, ranking No. 40, after previously plummeting into No. 72 last year.

Lively Houston has regained its rightful place among the top 50 best cities in the world, according to a prestigious new report by Resonance Consultancy.

The Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing advisors ranked Houston the 40th best city worldwide for 2025 in its annual "World's Best Cities" list.

The report quantifies the relative qualities of livability, "lovability," and prosperity for the world's top 100 cities with metropolitan populations of 1 million or more. New to the 10th anniversary edition, Resonance partnered with global market researchers Ipsos to include perception-based data into the rankings, surveying over 22,000 people in 30 countries worldwide to determine "the most desirable places to visit, live or work."

Houston made a major rebound after plummeting to No. 73 in last year's report. In 2022, Houston ranked No. 42.

Resonance refers to its previous "World's Best Cities" reports and its 2024 "America's Best Cities" list – which ranked Houston in the top 10 – when explaining the Bayou City's successes. The report praised Houston's vast cultural diversity and placed a great focus on its economic prosperity, even going so far as to suggest Houston residents make more money "and can sock more away."

"...[W]here America’s fourth-largest city truly takes off is in its economic heft and wealth, ranking No. 9 globally for GDP per Capita and No. 14 for Fortune 500 companies in town," the report said. "All that rolls up into an overall Prosperity index ranking of No. 36, which is even more impressive given the No. 14-ranked Price-to Income Ratio [of the city]."

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin and Dallas also earned spots on the World's Best Cities list for 2025, but only one made a similar rebound from the previous year's rankings. Dallas moved up from No. 66 in last year's report to its current rank as No. 55. Meanwhile, Austin took its first tumble out of the 43rd spot (which it had occupied for two years straight) and now ranks No. 53.

London held onto its crown as the No. 1 best city in the world for 2025, followed by New York (No. 2), Paris (No. 3), Tokyo (No. 4), and Singapore (No. 5).