Hometown Glory
Yuppies and 'Houstonites' a perfect Bayou City economy match, by Forbes
Houston comes in at Number 1 in Forbes' latest ranking, "America's Best Cities for Young Professionals." The list is the benchmark for where recent college graduates are most apt to start a strong high-powered career, based in part on where Moody's Economy.com predicts job growth next year.
A city's current unemployment rate, average wage, cost of living and public company presence are also important factors in the list.
Forbes believes Houston "shines" thanks to high average incomes and grads from elite colleges — not just from local Rice University, but from across the country. (The study takes into consideration how many Rice, Duke, Harvard, Northwestern, Princeton and Stanford university graduates are located in a city, arguing that their presence points to both a concentration of talent, and a strong network of career-minded young people.)
Fellow Lone Star State cities, Dallas and Austin, also snag a spot on the Top 10. Forbes recognizes Houston for having a "business-friendly environment and abundance of oil money," as it is home to 14 of the country's largest companies. Only New York City has more big employers.
Because of its corporate mentality, Houston has risen as a business class favorite for Forbes. One of its associate editors, Christopher Helman calls the Bayou City home, where he also works as Forbes' Southwest Bureau Chief. Forbes has also labeled our burg a "Model U.S. City," adding:
Houston, more than any other city in the advanced industrial world, epitomizes the René Descartes ideal — applied to the 17th-century entrepreneurial hotbed of Amsterdam — of a great city offering 'an inventory of the possible' to longitime residents and newcomers alike. This, more than anything, promises to give Houstonites the future.
Thanks for the upward-mobility recognition, Forbes. We'll let the term "Houstonites" slide.
The pickup truck on the front of the building makes it easy to spot. Photo by Motion Theory Media