you can't park there, Freddie

Art Cars honoring two legendary musicians roll into Houston airports

Houston is famous for its art cars, and now travelers will have the opportunity to see some of them on display at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and William P. Hobby Airport (HOU).

“Art has the power to transform spaces and create memorable experiences,” said Alton DuLaney, curator of public arts for Houston Airports, in a statement. “We are thrilled to collaborate with the Orange Show to showcase an Art Car at our airports, providing passengers with a delightful visual journey that captures the spirit of Houston's eclectic artistic community.”

Art cars have been a Houston institution since 1986 when the first art car parade was held with just 11 vehicles. Now, it has grown to be the largest art car parade in the world, featuring hundreds of entries.

Thanks to a partnership with the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, a few art cars are always on display at the Art Car Museum. However, the small space can only accommodate a few pieces at a time on a rotating basis. A chance to catch more examples of this unique art form at another venue is more than welcome.

At Bush, visitors can find the art car in the Terminal A Ticketing Lobby. The car is a tribute to Freddie Mercury, the legendary lead singer of the rock band Queen. Mercury died of bronchial pneumonia in 1991.

The car features a statue of Mercury on the roof wearing his famous yellow jacket and branding a British flag. It was created by Rebecca Bass and the students of the Art Car Club at Reagan High School (now known as Heights High School). Mercury is a Houston icon thanks to a stop at The Summit in 1980 when he sang “We Will Rock You” sitting on the shoulders of a man dressed as Darth Vader from Star Wars.

Hobby will sport another car dedicated to a music legend. This one features a statue of Texas guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. Another Bass creation, it debuted at the 2019 parade to great acclaim. Vaughan is a slightly odd choice to showcase in an airport considering he died in a helicopter crash in 1990, but he is undoubtedly a piece of Texas history ready to welcome travelers from all over the world. His car can be found in the Ticking Lobby near TSA Security.

The Houston Airport System is renowned for its art, winning the inaugural World's Best Art in the Airport from Airport by Skytrax in 2023. Both Bush and Hobby were highlighted in the award for having exceptional art displays that celebrated Texas culture.

Courtesy of Houston Airports

SRV is near Hobby's TSA checkpoint.

The 37th annual Art Car Parade will take to the streets of downtown Houston on April 13.

safe suburbs

Houston neighbor shines on new 2025 list of safest American cities

Photo courtesy of Visit Pearland

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New Year's resolutions can come in many forms, and if relocating to a safe Houston-area suburb is high on the list for 2025, Pearland is the place to be.

Pearland was declared the No. 13 safest city in America for 2025 in a new study by personal finance advisors MoneyGeek. The website's experts examined the most recent FBI crime statistics (from 2023) to determine the cost of crime in 292 U.S. cities with populations over 100,000 residents.

The estimated cost of crime in this Houston suburb – which the study calculated as the "societal cost of crime per resident" – was $471 in 2023.

Pearland's crime cost per capita is far lower the national crime cost, which was $2,178 per resident.

The report also analyzed the city's violent crime and property crime rates, and Pearland had the 11th lowest rate of violent crime in 2023 with only 106 crimes committed for every 100,000 residents.

The city didn't fare as well with its property crime rate; there were 1,669 property crimes committed in 2023 per 100,000 residents, which was the 68th lowest rate out of all 292 U.S. cities.

However, that's still a better rate than most places in the country. Pearland residents can be smug that they don't live in Oakland, California, which had the highest property crime rate in the nation with 10,117 crimes committed per 100,000 residents.

Finally, MoneyGeek determined each city's total cost of crime, which the study defines as the "economic losses attributed to crime and its cost to society (individuals, community and nationally) in millions."

In this metric, Pearland had the seventh-lowest total crime cost, which was less than $60 million in 2023.

While some of these statistics may seem scary, Tulane University associate professor of political science Geoffrey T. Dancy warns it is unwise to make assumptions about a city based solely on its crime rates.

"We live in an unequal society," said Dancy in the report. "One often overlooked indicator of that inequality is who gets to engage in the politics of safety. Those who are objectively safe often fear crime and act on it in the counterproductive policies they support. Those who are actually victimized by crime and terrorized by gun violence pay the price and are rarely heard."

Elsewhere in Texas, the Dallas suburb of Frisco nearly topped the list as the No. 2 safest city in America with a $287 crime cost per capita. Other safe Texas cities in the report include Plano (No. 18), Sugar Land (No. 20), McKinney (No. 22), Round Rock (No. 26), Grand Prairie (No. 42), and League City (No. 48).

The top 10 safest American cities for 2025 are:

No. 1 – Ramapo Town, New York
No. 2 – Frisco, Texas
No. 3 – Irvine, California
No. 4 – Fishers, Indiana
No. 5 – Lakewood Township, New Jersey
No. 6 – Cary, North Carolina
No. 7 – Pembroke Pines, Florida
No. 8 – Elk Grove, California
No. 9 – Surprise, Arizona
No. 10 – Sterling Heights, Michigan

For the purpose of the study, violent crime rates were determined based on the number of murders and non-negligent manslaughters, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults per 100,000 residents; and property crimes were defined as the rates of burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft offenses per 100,000 residents.