Houston energy capital of the western world it's an inland Port tucked away behind the Gulf of Mexico it ranks first in the United States in international Commerce everything in Houston is brought here by sea of course the city's economy is driven by petroleum and it's no surprise that the city planners designed it around the extensive use of the automobile it wasn't necessarily built on oil but it grew on oil with nothing to stop its urban sprawl Houston is simply immense in fact its territory is about the size of New York San Francisco Seattle Minneapolis and Miami combined and it just seems like everything in Houston is Big highways buildings cars food and rodeos we do feel feel like we're a economic impact of about a Super Bowl every year but although Houston has five City centers it's known for its small town attitude and the charm that comes with it you need $100,000 in New York to buy what $40,000 in Houston B you he Houston is considered to be one of the energy capitals of the world and it certainly keeps the gas pumps full in most American cities up until 1900 the Region's main Port was in Galveston but it was destroyed by one of the most devastating hurricanes to ever hit the US the port was rebuilt in the upand cominging city of Houston in 1901 oil was struck in the region and there was an explosion of wealth and population today the Port of Houston is the world's largest petrochemical complex in the 1800s where the Port of Galveston was the main route in and out for trade the galvestonian were not exactly very friendly to the houstonians who were trying to bring in trade from the inland parts of the country so the people in Houston decided that hey we are going to bypass them and we're going to build a channel that will come up here and they use the river it's an amazing feat that they achieved where we are bringing ships all the where we started with the Sam Houston next stop is downtown Houston you can't go up any further than that the Houston Ship Channel is an 80 km link between the Inland port and the Sea like everything in Houston the channel is huge everything in Houston is brought here by sea in general we have a lot of industri so does Houston depend on the port here absolutely everything that we have here and that we manufacture here and that we refine here that we export from here is all dependent on the port either bringing it in or taking it out again is Galviston still used as a Port Port of Galviston is operating but at a much lower uh scale than the Port of Houston does what Commodities go through the Port of Houston probably the biggest commodity that comes through here is steel products as in pipes plates beams things like that mainly in the construction and in the oil and gas industry the Port of Houston has several different terminals they also have the jport facility and the care terminal facility which are I believe Leed out to other parties to operate but these are the ones that Port of Houston Authority controls besides that there are several several private terminals of course the oil industry has their own terminals they're all private after the oil crash in the 80s Houston had to diversify its economy how did that translate to here in the activity in the port they didn't concentrate only in uh terms of energy they they brought in a lot of other uh needs for example the technology industry even though it's not so apparent Houston is also very much in the Forefront of the technology industry and that service as well and that's where it came to you had to leave the energy industry if you don't have a car in Houston chances are you won't be doing a whole lot the city is just too big 23,000 Square kilomet so they call Houston the p metro how important is the oil industry to the city that's huge I mean it's you look around and you can definitely see how important it is a lot of the major companies that have facilities here uh their headquarters are out west in what's called The Energy Corridor and it follows a freeway out there kind of in between two freeways um the city it wasn't necessarily built on oil but it it grew on oil and uh and it's still very very heavily dependent unlike most cities when the price of oil spikes there's an economic boom in Houston a Century's worth of booms has resulted in a huge influx of workers incredible building spurts and the massive scale of growth in 1901 they discovered oil uh at spindl toop which is outside of bont that was the first oil in Texas the first major Discovery um and our proximity to Bowmont and uh Houston had been building uh dredging this channel anyway in 1900 once Galveston was wiped out by the the hurricane and and they realized there was a really a need for a port or a major city that was in a less precarious position and the discovery of o will kind of all that happened at once uh I mean I think it's really like anything else it was just a matter of timing if you're not directly involved a lot of it is you can be indirectly involved uh there's a lot of manufacturing that goes for the oil and gas industry there's a lot of crossover with other Industries the Aerospace um and Aeronautics you can be in the shipping industry and not necessarily be in the oil and gas industry but still have a lot of oil and gas business so you know the the core might be this big but but the spread is is much much bigger apparently when oil prices go up the rest of the country is devastated but houstonians and Texans are happy you know people spend more the economy it's just it's kind of a good cycle so you you understand that you're paying more at the pump but you also I mean we're not like lawyers that we we like good bad things to happen to but it's we're fortunate in the sense that when when oil prices do go up and when gas prices do go up we get benefits that that some other cities and places in the country don't get I I've heard the energy Capital natural gas is huge right now now in the States and it's probably going to define the next 20 or 30 years of our energy policy it's hard to say things like that in the superlative because I mean there are other huge huge cities and and industries you know elsewhere I would say Houston is is one of the hubs of of the global energy Network for sure and it's definitely the energy capital of of this country um and perhaps this continent there are a lot of Majors here who have their biggest operations here or their North American headquarters here Houston like our cars runs on gasoline it processes more than 35% of all petroleum used in the US but this begs the question what happens to Houston when the oil runs out and the cars are fueled by something else well I mean I think what's next for us is probably what's next for the rest of the country and and to the rest of the world we have a lot of uh of land in West Texas and North Texas that's good for harnessing wind power and uh the the wind industry is really going strong here we have the uh fastest growing in terms of like new installations uh in the country and it was big for us to pass California cuz California is always kind of on the Leading Edge of of the green thing Houston's in a good place because we have so much brain power here from the energy industry NASA the medical industry I mean we've got some of the smartest mines in the world who not necessarily from here but they've come to work here and and live here and and I think whatever comes next we're going to be we'll be pretty quick to jump on it and capitalize on it it's still an oil town town and it will be an oil town for a long time um and even probably after it's no longer strictly an oil Town it will be referred to as an oil town for even longer if there's one thing that Houston knows it's energy in every form believe it or not it's also a leader in the development and promotion of green energy maybe it already understood that its fuel is far from being Eternal or renewable today the 5 million cars that jam its freeways run on gas but Houston is determined to change and become a model City for the use of electric cars we're making efforts to uh to get involved with that um Reliant and its parent company NRG uh have and and the city have recently been um getting involved I know they're converting some Toyota Priuses from uh from hybrids to plugin electrics and Nissan is is in here for uh they're doing a Nissan is helping the city and Reliant do a deal where they build rechargeable stations throughout the city because I mean the infrastructure's got to come first before the the product really takes off something like that's coming um it's just the and not just in Houston but you just have to make it easy for people and affordable for people otherwise it it won't happen and you know I mean one of the one of the things about Houston is oil and gas for so long has been so easy and so affordable uh we're big energy consumers but we're also big energy producers so that kind of really went hand in hand so if if we I don't I mean Texas has really made strides with renewable energy in terms of wind and and we're trying to get into solar um there some roadblocks with affordab with with kind of scale and and government gets in the way a little bit or it helps out a little bit depending on how you look at it but you know I I wouldn't be surprised at all if if we're at the Forefront of of whatever's next that's probably the most unique aspect of Houston is it is a major major major metropolitan area that really has no boundaries in terms of what can be built where a lot of people hate it a lot of people love it a lot of people think there are good and bad aspects of it but personally I think there's more good than bad on the upside although the city is gigantic it's a warm and friendly place for families oil keeps it well financed so the cost of living is low and these are great conditions for a young middle-income family looking for their dollar to go far on the downside if walking gets you nowhere biking doesn't get you much further and public transport surprisingly is nowhere near as developed as it should be there's no subway system in Houston and some say public transport is almost non-existent the city center alone is more than 600 k km compare that to the island of Manhattan only 23 km to cross Houston there's one very important thing you need besides a car and a full tank and that's patience houon Houston has always been very proud of its freedom in everyday life and in construction development but there was no one imposing rules and regulations preventing people from building anything anywhere there are some nice neighborhoods because they have some regulations so you can't build just anything we're inside Houston's main perimeter this is the West Loop Highway 610 that goes around Houston it's a big area but if you're taking a taxi anywhere within its limits you only have to pay a flat rate of $6 no matter matter the distance or traffic conditions we're next to the Galleria the largest shopping mall in the city and this is Williams Tower architect Philip Johnson has done many projects in Houston and the Tower with the fountain are two of his last projects surprisingly there are a number of poetic elements in this city of concrete and houstonians are well in need of this breath of fresh air as the average summer temperature here is 33° C Houston has been described as the most air conditioned place on Earth and I think that's a fair assessment there are air conditioners in every car building and room I visit the invention of this helpful device in the 1950s helped change Construction radically in this very hot City it really changed things here the city grew tremendously because it allowed people to be comfortable in the summer and it allowed people to continue working through the summer in Houston summers are incredibly hot and humid humidity hits in May and stays all the way to Christmas so now people can leave their office at lunchtime go eat and Shop in the tunnels and then go back to the office without ever having to go outside without air conditioning there would be no highrises here it's just too hot during the summer people who work in this 10 km section of the city barely ever step outside they use the network of temperature control tunnels to escape the heat making Houston streets practically empty most of the architectural development like the highrises were built in the 70s Houston's economy was always based on oil which has always kept the city going there's a little obstacle that makes Houston's expansion difficult the city is built on four major Bayou this can make urban planning a tricky business aayou is a little river that flows very slowly normally bayos drain the city however Houston is very flat so they accumulate a lot of water when it rains the water is drained very slowly as the bayus take the water down to the Gulf of Mexico there are dams on the Bayou a little further down to prevent the complete flooding of the city but even with that if it rains too hard or too fast we can have serious problems the underground flooding has had an impact on the cityscape as it's imp possible to build parking spaces underground the countless cars get towers of their own buildings like this have become part of the city's identity of course the city's also known for a completely different kind of Transportation into outer space Houston is the home of Nassau's lyen be Johnson Space Center where every detail of American space missions are planned I had the opportunity un of speaking with astronaut Julie Payette between her training sessions she explains the role of the Space Center in the city everyone knows that Houston is linked to the space missions many of the people living here are involved in the Aerospace industry because NASA's Johnson Space Center employs more than 13,000 people every morning all these people come in through the front gate but there are also lots of people working in the plants in the oil industry the refineries in Texas City or Pasadena the Space Center gave the area a boost a pride that it didn't have this area used to be very rural there was nothing in Clear Lake and then NASA came in the 60s and the first astronauts that came here when NASA set up its installation were the ones that went to the moon on the Apollo Mission so Neil Armstrong and the others they all lived around here somewhere while in Houston I called a good friend of mine this space Savvy Chris Hadfield who is none other than the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station he agreed to take me on an exclusive tour of the complex he brings me to Mission Control the famous nerve center of every American space mission the place where Neil Armstrong's words were first heard this is the Johson Space Center in Houston Texas it's the place from which all the historical missions were controlled since the 1960s from here we control and communicate with the shuttles and now with the orbiting space station over there we can see the cameras that are outside the space station today as we can see there are about 20 people working here supervising all the experiments in orbit but there are other rooms where the experts and Specialists are also working altogether it's probably more than 150 people that work here to ensure that the station its systems and the astronauts are in good condition 24 hours a day the work done by spacebound astronauts is in fact mostly done on Earth they spend a great deal of their time planning and rehearsing their missions right here in Houston go ahead try it okay I can see virtual reality is used here to simulate space walks wish me luck okay y yeah give me your left your left hello and here's the shuttle it's exactly the same size as the real one Houston is really Space City chosen 40 years ago by President Lyndon Johnson as The place where astronauts would be prepared for their missions Houston was chosen as NASA's headquarters in part because its Port could deal with the transport of the huge components required to build the machinery and simulated environments required for space Expeditions of course the fact that the president at the time was a Texan probably didn't hurt that's imagine being in Houston and hearing the first words from the Moon Houston Tranquility base here the eagle has landed the first human being on the moon was Neil Armstrong who trained here in this building he said the word Houston and each time they asked a question from the station they would start with Houston Station so it isn't only a pride it's also part of our history when we say that the first steps started here in Houston NASA NASA is everywhere Nasa Hair Salon NASA souvenirs NASA Road One Nasa Parkway it's part of the normal dialogue here so you need to get in on your knees sort of and then swing and there's all sorts of things on the floor to trip on so be very careful getting in do it like this okay Don was now you're in the shuttle Commander seat you control the shuttle with the right hand and the propulsion with the left Cape Canaveral cape Cape Canaveral and Cape Kennedy are used to launch the astronauts and satellites into space with rockets by launching from the east side of the United States we can use the Earth's speed because the Earth spins there is a Sur speed and we always launch towards the east to use that speed but that's the launch before you get there you need years of preparation that's the difference between Nassau Kennedy in Florida and Nassau Johnson in Texas Houston is where we prepare things and where we prepare ourselves as astronauts Shannon Walker there's an astronaut here Shannon Walker who will be part of our next mission she was born here and went to University here she became an astronaut here at the Space Center and in a few months she'll be flying into space she had that dream as a girl as a student and she's an example of the possibilities of living in Houston and having a life in this unique Place uni a little bonus Chris takes me on a plane ride over the city stunning a volunteer for the Houston Rodeo since 1982 Joe Bruce has moved up the ranks to become its general manager he tells me about the rodeo which began in 1932 and grew into one of the world's largest Houston at that time was a huge livestock producing area and they just wanted the community to be more aware of what they did in international guests and anyone else that they could do and and they went downtown in the Coliseum and started a rodeo is the Houston Rodeo the biggest rodeo in the world Houston Rodeo is the biggest rodeo in the North America uh they probably some rodeos somewhere that are bigger uh it's the biggest purse for a regular event and when we say that we're a PRCA event Pro Rodeo Cowboy Association they have a finals in Las Vegas called the NFR to where they give away about $5 million 5 a half so top 15 athletes for a 10-day run where here we're giving out a million and half dollars and that's the biggest rodeo in North America the biggest purse we have the biggest event when you add our horse shows uh commercial exhibits youth exhibits and our rodeo uh we are the biggest event much more than a gathering of cowboys and cowgirls the rodeo is an important part of Houston's economy and culture it even plays a role in the education system the Houston Rodeo is a charity you give out scholarships it's up to 11.2 million if I'm not mistaken we give out direct payments which are to our exhibitors they bring an animal in here and they run to a competition and the top animals are sold at auction and those auctions will result in about $6 million directly going to the exhibitor then we give out another 10.5 million in scholarships at $115,000 a piece to the Youth of Texas that has applied for we give out about 16.5 million annually do you find that the rodeo is a good reflection of the city of Houston the rodeo is an amazing event that the city of Houston Houston Embraces and and we kind of are the city of Houston we've got 22,000 volunteers that take off work give up vacation come out here and spend their time and their money creating a venue that supports the Youth of Texas and about 60 to 70% of our Revenue comes from our volunteers so uh it's it's something the city Gets behind and the people truly support we'll have 2 million people through here in a 25 day run we'll put a million two in our Stadium as a rodeo ticket buyer what are the total sales of the Houston Rodeo roughly $82 to $85 million we do feel like we're a economic impact of about a Super Bowl every year we're we're bringing in 300 to 350 million do uh to the city of Houston every year the majority of our people come from what we call our metro area which is the county of Harris Harris County and the Seven Counties that surround it so there's probably 90% of our people that come from those Seven Counties how come the rodeo is in Houston and not in some other city in Texas well the other cities have rodeos and they have events that are that are supported by volunteers but we have a city of 4 million people and and it's amazing the support that we get from them not only through the local businesses that give their employees the time off to come support us and and our city has just gotten behind this event and supported it at a totally different level than some of the other Texas cities even though they do great work and also support the Youth of Texas we just do it in a grand way here in Texas Cowboys are celebrities the the sport is so popular that children can start training at the age of six you may have guessed it at that age they Don't Ride bulls or bucking Broncos this is called mutton busting the Rodeo's Livestock Show is the driving element behind cattle breeding for a good part of the country whole herds are raised just for resale right here at the rodeo hey you want a prize congratulations fifth place fifth place yes and what was it for uh class 26 lightweight crosses pigs is your Pig right here no he's it's already in their hands now he's drinking champagne he's drinking congratulations that's the champion short horn in the spe last I live in a gr Texas little bitty Place North amoral how far is that from here 10 hours driving long ways in this industry uh there's a Houston's like the I guess you'd say the mecca of livestock chip Everyone likes to claim that they have a big one but Houston actually has the numbers and the economy to support it people from the community come in and uh they have an auction for the top end animals and they give to the kids and most of the time you know we we like to hope it's used for Education you know and and that's why they do it and it's kind of reward them for their hard work it takes our family you know a lot of money to live for 10 days away from home so it's a big economic boost for Houston in Houston repay it's a very generous City and and a good place so there's 5,000 show show pigs that show up exhibitors so 5,000 kids just with h with show products and it brings in the largest amount of revenue for any uh Livestock Show uh out there you know Everyone likes to say everything's bigger and better in Texas and sometimes that's right and sometimes it's not but that's that's how uh we feel about about about the town of Houston my cousin Tara has lived in Houston for over 10 years unlike everyone else here she works in the space industry she wanted to give me a gastronomical tour of the rodeo like I said everything is bigger here food here is often deep fried and it comes in large portions everything is enormous everything's bigger and it's also deep fried everyone here eats deep fried food everyone has a deep fryer at home deep fried hot dogs deep fried turkey deep fried chocolate bars deep fried ice cream there's fried everything right there the Banana Split free fried snicker bars fried cheesecake and fried Twinkies and fried Oreos how do you deep fry ice cream freeze it hard put it in the special batter fried this is or fried Oreos and a fried Snicker candy bar all you can get this kind of stuff in all the events and trade shows in Houston and in Texas until recently these eating habits made houstonians the most obese people in the world now it seems things are changing this is Rodeo food and it's only a small part of Houston's Rich culinary mix with a reputation for diversity and Excellence Houston has over 8,000 restaurants more per capita than almost any other American city sure well what can I say it's in my job description to be curious a little taste test perhaps deep fried ice cream deep fried Snickers bar and get this deep fried cheese cake lucky for anyone eating deep from ice cream on a daily basis Houston also boasts the world's largest Medical Center there are 48 institutions on an immense space in the south of Houston 13 different hospitals two medical faculties four nursing faculties there are more than 80,000 people that work in this Medical Center as well as 16,000 researchers and 60,000 students that come here to study each year it's astronomical if you add to that the 140,000 visitors that come on the campus every day you get a picture of the place everything is focused on the treatment of the patients and on research and education the medical center has very important mandates I've been surprised by many things so far in Houston but I certainly didn't expect to find such a liberal attitude impressive social Innovations and open-mindedness you have to realize that here in the US Health Services aren't a basic right they're a consumer product and this makes things complex when you need to obtain Health Services I have seen so many people put all their Savings in health care for the father or the grandfather or grandmother people sell their cars and even their houses to pay for healthcare the cost of Health Services is one of the leading causes of personal bankruptcy in the country but here generated profits are reinvested in the domain as I visit the Houston Medical Center I quickly realize that this is a one-of-a-kind place when it comes to Health Services the medical center is the size of a small City and it operates as a nonprofit organization very very surprising considering the state of Healthcare in America a lot of money is invested in the medical center the investment plan for the period between 2008 and 2012 represents about $1 billion and year after year this Medical Center brings in more than $10 billion for the Houston region the people who come to the medical center to work or to receive services or care reflect the city's cultural diversity the company I work in employs more than 16,000 people more than 1,000 of these people are from China and came here to work about 800 are from India several hundreds are from the Philippines and the list goes on recruitment is based on qualifications and capacity to carry out the work and that promotes an environment of open-mindedness and tolerance open and tolerant a great description of the medical center but also of the city and its citizens this is certainly making me rethink the classic image of the horse wrangling hauing Texan Cowboy since 1982 Steve kleinberg has headed a survey of Houston's demographic and economic changes and how they affect its residents his study has become a gauge of local attit udes and idiosyncrasies according to your survey Houston is a much better place to live than other cities in the US why people in Houston think it is well two reasons one is people who live here love it here it's partly it's the least expensive major city in America you need $100,000 in New York to buy what $40,000 in Houston Buy in terms of shelter food we have wonderful restaurants tremendous diversity but but manageable because we live in our little special worlds and then right now we're in the midst of a serious recession Houston is also in recession but it's much better here than it is in almost any other part of the country Houston it turns out is far from being the conservative place we make it to be I'd even say it's a leader in Social originality the proof it was the first American city to elect an openly homosexual and female mayor last year you elected a lesbian mayor yes in a way that was fascinating because it was absolutely irrelevant to the whole process we we elected a a mayor who had been who had been city council person who had been uh City controller who was well known to the city was one of the most knowledgeable people in the whole city on economic issues and fiscal challenges and we knew that Houston was facing tremendous economic challenges as all cities are know in North America these days and uh and that's why she was elected she was clearly the most competent person were shocked and I got calls from New York Times and Christian Science monitor how could you do this this is Houston the whole point was that this that you said this is hon what's the deal yeah you guys just don't understand how much this city has evolved and how much it has sort of embraced the 21st century but Prejudice is still very present in the Southern United States in Texas and in Houston people who live in Houston love it here I mean in our surveys they complain about traffic they complain about pollution they complain about the weather they complain about crime and they said how would you rate the Houston area as a place to live it's a wonderful place to live 80% say Wonder so people here like it but they recognize that the perception of Houston outside the city is really not very positive right and it's all based on the Houston of the oil boom the Houston of the bravado and the and and when it was a whole other country when Houston was booming in the 1970s with a 10-fold increase in the value of oil and everywhere else in the country was had this major economic recession and so people still have a negative view of Houston outside of the city it's not really a tourist City and it isn't it's trying to be it's got a few things we got NASA we have we have a big Convention Center we have a wonderful theater and extraordinary uh museums and so on but no it is not a tour associate Houston with with culture and Cinemas and operas and I don't know it's just not the perception we would have that's right but but that's a false perception in fact Houston has more theater seats than any other city in the United States outside of New York more theater seats in Los Angeles and world class Opera and ballet and Symphony and and uh Repertory Theater but it isn't perceived as much as know so but people are coming to recognize the this fourth largest city in America and uh increasingly recognizing it as one of the major cities in the uh in North America there were bumper stickers in the 70s here I remember one that said Dry fast freeze a Yankee I should not have said that but that was part of that that history that that affects I think still today the perceptions of people outside the city about this very different city that is Houston how do you compare Houston to other cities in Texas Dallas is much more a Texas city and Houston throughout all of its history was an international City it was the place the the the world capital for energy production when energy was oil and gas and it still is of course one of the great challenges for Houston is can we Remain the energy Capital when we move out of oil and gas into wind and solar and all of those other non carbon based energy systems that will be the central systems of the 21st century but Houston because it was the oil Center and the energy center and the large second largest port in the country the sixth largest port in the world this has been an international City open to new ideas and open to new people in a way that is different and has a different feel than than uh Dallas or San Antonio or Austin that were more are more sort of traditional cities Austin of course has a university so that changes some of some of its Dynamics as well and Houston became a symbolic City when the first word spoken on the moon was Houston that's right one of the key moments in Houston's history was in o on October 7th 1999 when Houston surpassed Los Angeles in the number of dangerously polluted days and the headline in the USA Today newspaper was Houston cough cough we've got a problem cough and and Houston has now sort of business community that used to believe that environmental regulations for were anti-growth and anti- business Now understand that environmental regulations are essential to economic Prosperity prior to the oil boom of the 80s Houston was a destination of choice for english- speaking immigrants but that has changed drastically over the last few decades while 70% of locals over the age of 60 speak English this is true of only 20% of the people under the age of 30 people are always shocked by the extraordinary ethnic ethnic transformation that has occurred people still think of this as a Anglo dominated Texas town and and Houston is the most ethnically diversity in the country all the growth of Houston in the last 25 years has been immigration and the children of immigrants from Asia Latin America Africa and the Caribbean and uh this biracial southern city has become one of the most ethnic Universe cities in the country there's 39% Hispanic it is 35% Anglo it is about 19% African-American and about 7% Asian Houston attracts many Outsiders because it has so many jobs to offer whether in the medical center the petrochemical industry or in the construction of buildings and roadways hard workers are always welcome even illegal immigrants play a vital role in the labor market here you know there's 1.8 million illegal workers in Texas partnership here did a study to measure what would happen to the Texas economy if you rounded up those 1.8 million workers and sent them back to to Mexico and El Salvador and the answer is it would decimate the Texas economy Houston has has a more even distribution among the four Great communities of America than any of the other multi-ethnic Melting Pot cities something we hadn't talked about before one of the things I love about Houston is that we have there are very few Asians in Miami there very few African-Americans in Los Angeles this is where those those great communities meet in Greater balance greater equality all of us minorities all of us called on to build something new Under the Sun a truly successful inclusive multiethnic society that will be Houston and Texas and America in the 2st century Houston is like nothing you'd imagine the vital and constantly evolving energy sector has brought it wealth and its forward-looking industry will certainly continue to drive the continent's energy needs it looks to the stars and it looks after its citizens I'd call it a bubble of liberal attitude in a traditionally conservative South charm and Hospitality are as big as its buildings and Portion sizes everything here is big and I think there are more big things to come for this city of cowboys
