The emerald city

What a difference! The grass really is greener at Discovery Green, thanks toreplanting program

Thanks to donations from the citizenry, the grass at Discovery Green is alreadylooking lush across the park fairways.
Last summer's drought did a number on the once-verdant terrain of DiscoveryGreen. Photos taken from One Park Place.

How sad it was to see Discovery Green anything but green due to last summer's brutal drought. Starved for water, the grassy terrain cratered. Patches of brown proliferated. But all that has changed today and the park is a happy green space once again, thanks to the "Grow the Green" campaign.

You might recall that Discovery Green opted last summer to save the 100-year-old oaks, carefully rationing its limited water resources. Then, as the rains returned this spring, the team launched a campaign to raise $25,000 from private contributions to replace 20,000-plus yards of grass that had bitten the dust.

Plantings have taken place in recent weeks and all is happily green once again.

The fund drive was such a success that $126,000 was raised. Plantings have taken place in recent weeks and all is happily green once again.

Discovery Green patrons will be romping through fields of a hybrid Bermuda grass called TifSport. The grass is frequently planted on athletic fields and golf courses and can take the kind wear and tear a public park endures. Bring on the soccer cleats!

In addition to individual contributors, the Kinder Foundation, Exxon Mobil, Brown Foundation, Simmons Foundation and Phoenicia Specialty Foods contributed serious chunks of change for the project.

unspecified

income analysis

Texas families need to make this much money for one parent to stay home

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

As the cost of raising a child balloons in major cities like Houston, many families are weighing the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas — not just Houston — that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support a stay-at-home partner and a child, the report found. If two parents worked in the household, necessitating some additional costs like childcare and transportation, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in Houston, however, is somewhat more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $21,868 to raise a child in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts, where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report acknowledges ways families are working to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family