champs on parade

All the unforgettable scenes from the Houston Astros downtown championship parade

Dusty Baker wife Houston Astros World Series downtown parade 2022

Photo by Marco Torres/@MarcoFromHouston

Beloved Astros manager Dusty Baker carries the trophy with pride.

Houston Astros players rallied them. City officials rallied them. Even our own Ken Hoffman rallied locals all over Greater Houston and beyond to shatter the 1 million-in-attendance marker from the 2017 World Series downtown parade.

And wow, did Houston rally on Monday, November 7 for their beloved Houston Astros, who clinched their second World Series title on Saturday, November 5 at Minute Maid Park. The City of Houston and Mayor Sylvester Turner released parade details at 2 pm Sunday, November 6 and by 11:30 pm that night, fans were already lining the streets with chairs, coolers, and flags preparing for the Monday event.

CultureMap caught up with fan favorite Alex Bregman as the team boarded buses at Minute Maid Park before the parade. "It's unbelievable," he told us. "Just to be able to celebrate this championship today — my son's here, my family's here, they're gonna be riding on that float. I think everyone in that clubhouse believed we could do it. And that's a big reason why we did do it."

Rookie Jeremy Peña, named the World Series MVP for his outstanding and clutch play against the Philadelphia Phillies, told us that he was "on Cloud 9. "I still haven't processed everything that's going on. This is special."

Then, it was on to the parade, which ran a 1.7-mile stretch from Preston Street and Smith Street and ran to Tuam Street and Smith Streets. The tens of thousands of fans lining the streets were greeted with fair weather, confetti cannons, and a slew of VIPs. Local high schools join the Texas Southern University and University of Houston marching bands.

Houston's rap icon Bun Bcaused an eruption when he appeared on a float with Jim "Mattress Mack" Ingvale — who's looking quite happy after cementing a $75 million win on his World Series wager, despite news on his actual payout. Astros Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio also received roaring love from the crowds.

Not long after came the Astros players, with cherished manager Dusty Baker carrying the Commissioner's Trophy as he stood next to his wife Melissa, Astros owner Jim Crane and his wife Whitney, and Mayor Sylvester Turner, who tossed beads to crowd.

Beads and orange rally towels were hot commodities; folks on floats tossed them to eager onlookers. When it was over, the hordes dispersed — but not quietly, as chants of "Let's go Astros!" rang through downtown, accompanied by car honks on beat.

Late Monday night, the City of Houston issued a statement saying it would take a few days to calculate the attendance. Record-breaking or not, the parade was one for the ages.

safe suburbs

Houston neighbor shines on new 2025 list of safest American cities

Photo courtesy of Visit Pearland

undefined

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.