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Houston geeks out as No. 7 city in America for gamers, comic book fans, collectors, and more

It's not lame to be labeled a "geek" in 2023.

Heads up gamers, a new surprising report has deemed Houston one of the geekiest cities in the country, with two other Texas neighbors in the top 10.

Houston ranked No. 6 in the categories for accessibility to collectibles stores (board game, video, comic book, and trading card shops) and variety of "geeky" events, according to the report by Lawn Love. The city also ranked as the fifth-best city for its variety of costume/cosplay stores.

Houston is home to some fantastic board game and comic book stores, like Bedrock City Comic Company, Dragon's Lair, Nan's Games and Comics, and Asgard Games, which all host fun events and meetups for different groups.

Other factors that helped determine Houston's overall rank as the No. 7 geekiest American city include the number of Dungeons and Dragons groups, LARPing groups, comic cons, Renaissance fairs, and much more.

J. Richard Stevens, the department chair of the College of Media, Communication, and Information at the University of Colorado, Boulder, says the rise in "geeky" community spaces and activities can be attributed to social media obscuring the boundaries "between consumption and commentary about entertainment texts."

"Fan conversation is much more visible in a larger-scaled way than it used to be," Stevens said. "While most fans and audiences still don’t comment on the objects of their passion, those who do are increasingly bundled into tight networks, which amplify their taste politics. Finding virtual fan communities is much easier than it used to be, though there are many more flavors of fan networks for any given fandom, making finding the right one tricky."

Other Texas cities that made it in the top 10 are San Antonio (No. 3) and Austin (No. 6), both with high scores in the categories for collectibles and costumes. San Antonio has third highest number of board game and trading card shops, such as Heroes and Fantasies, Texas' largest comic book and collectibles store.

The top 10 geekiest cities in the United States are:

No. 1 – New York City
No. 2 – Los Angeles
No. 3 – San Antonio
No. 4 – Chicago
No. 5 – Las Vegas
No. 6 – Austin
No. 7 – Houston
No. 8 – Atlanta
No. 9 – Orlando
No. 10 – Indianapolis

The full report can be found on lawnlove.com.

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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.

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Houston geeks out as No. 7 city in America for gamers, comic book fans, collectors, and more

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