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    Not exactly kicking it old school

    Houston at 175: It's come a long way from "most miserable place," but we couldsure use party lessons

    David Theis
    Aug 27, 2011 | 3:08 pm
    • The Gulf Freeway in 1956 ...
    • Market Square Park is a little more civilized than what our Houston predecessorsexperienced.
      Photo by Sarah Rufca
    • Market Square Park is nice. But Sam Houston and his crew really knew how toparty.

    I’m looking forward to going to Market Square Sunday evening to celebrate Houston’s 175th anniversary. I’ll probably spring for a beer at Niko Niko’s, and maybe nosh on a falafel. I might even go crazy and have a cupcake.

    This all sounds lovely. But, as a celebration, I’m guessing it would look pretty pathetic to the city’s founders. I’m thinking about the way that they celebrated the first anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto on that same spot, back when Market Square was called Congress Square.

    Here’s how Marie Phelps McAshan described the festivities in her book A Houston Legacy: At the Corner of Travis and Main: “At midnight [the upper class of early Houston society] went to Ben Fort Smith’s City Hotel, to dine on turkey, ducks, rabbit, flounder, candied yams and champagne.”

    In pre-global warming days, it also got cold enough here to kill people. One commentator said that Houston in winter “was as cold as Boston Commons.”

    And as Sam Houston and company danced and dined, the less genteel elements of the San Jacinto veterans (known as the Rowdy Loafers) claimed the Square for their own. “[They] couldn’t care less about satin and ruffled shirts," McAshan wrote. "They were celebrating to the explosion of guns and dancing around a big bonfire while oxen pawed the mud, bellowing and jangling their bells.”

    I leaned on McAshan’s book heavily when I wrote a history of Market Square for Downtown Magazine. I also relied on Stephen L. Hardin’s amazing book, Texian Macabre, The Melancholy Tale of a Hanging in Early Houston. Hardin writes with tremendous flair, and goes into great detail, as he describes early life in Houston. To say that the city was primitive would be an insult to primitives.

    One chapter is titled, “The Most Miserable Place in the World,” which is how Representative (for the Republic of Texas) Kelsey H. Douglass described Houston during his sojourn here. The muddy streets were strewn with animal carcasses and human waste, which together emitted “a stench disgusting and poisonous in the extreme,” Douglass wrote to his wife. Then he admitted, “We live like hogs.”

    Hardin quotes German immigrant Gustav Dresel on the subject of swarming rats. “Thousands of these troublesome guests made sport by night . . . Human corpses had to be watched during the whole night because otherwise these fiends ate their way into them. The finger of a little child who lay alone in the cradle for a few hours was eaten away. This I saw myself.”

    We can well imagine the heat our Houston predecessors endured. Forget not having air conditioning. They didn’t even have proper windows. They’d have to knock a board out of their hastily constructed houses to let in any air at all — which, given the ferocity of the mosquitoes, was a mixed blessing at best.

    To say that the city was primitive would be an insult to primitives.

    But, in pre-global warming days, it also got cold enough here to kill people. One commentator said that Houston in winter “was as cold as Boston Commons.”

    I could go on, but if you want more thrillingly gruesome details you should really check out Hardin’s book, and McAshan’s as well, if you can put your hands on a copy.

    So, on the occasion of Houston’s Dodransbicentennial, let’s look back at what we’ve gained, and what we’ve lost. Houston isn’t really “the most miserable place in the world” anymore, though in these days of drought and blazing heat, we might be tempted to say so. We get to air condition our misery, if nothing else.

    On the other hand, compared to Sam Houston and the Rowdy Loafers, I’m not sure we really know how to party.

    Don't miss the CultureMap guide to Houston's 175th birthday celebrations.

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    news/city-life

    income news

    How Texans' income compares to the rest of the U.S. in 2025

    Amber Heckler
    Jun 10, 2025 | 10:30 am
    Paycheck, check
    SimplifyYourMoney.com
    Texans aren't quite making the national median income, but they're doing better than people in many other states.

    Hardworking Texans are making less money per year than the national median, a new WalletHub study has revealed.

    The just-released report, "States Where People Have the Highest Income," found Texas workers are making an adjusted median annual income of $73,718, compared to the national median of $81,000 per year.

    The study examined the average annual income of the top five percent, the average income of the bottom 20 percent, and the median income for all residents in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Income was adjusted for the cost of living.

    Although individual Texans are not quite making the national median, the state as a whole ranked 11th for "highest" incomes, moving up one spot from its 2024 ranking. Virginia claimed the No. 1 spot, followed by New Jersey (No. 2) and New York (No. 3). (As a note, the earnings of each state's top five percent were double weighted, meaning they counted twice as much as the median and bottom categories.)

    Based on WalletHub's findings, the top five percent of Texans are making more than $504,000 per year, adjusted for cost of living. Meanwhile, the bottom 20 percent of Texas residents are making only an adjusted $17,461 annually.

    In a major city like Houston, income disparities may appear to be even wider than other Texas cities. Earning a "comfortable" wage in Houston now costs $15,000 more than it did in 2024, and being a middle-class earner means making a minimum of $41,754 a year and as much as $125,274.

    Yet Houston still ranks as one of the wealthiest cities in America with 18 billionaires and about 82,000 millionaires calling the city home. Even Houston's suburbs are attracting more high-earning households than many other U.S. cities.

    "The highest-earning 10 percent of individuals in the United States earn over 12 times more than those in the lowest-earning 10 percent, based on the latest Census data," said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. "By measuring the income of various percentiles against a state's median income, we can better identify where income disparities are more prevalent, which could help us better understand why residents of certain states struggle more to make ends meet."

    The top 10 states with residents earning the highest income are:

    • No. 1 – Virginia
    • No. 2 – New Jersey
    • No. 3 – New York
    • No. 4 – Connecticut
    • No. 5 – Washington
    • No. 6 – Utah
    • No. 7 – Minnesota
    • No. 8 – Colorado
    • No. 9 – Illinois
    • No. 10 – Massachusetts
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