Houston, Texas is the fourth largest city in the United States, with an open feel and surrounded by wonderful green landscape full of waterways and parks. Houston offers great restaurants to dine, entertaining shows and movies, and beautiful places to enjoy. There are numerous restaurants to choose from as well as multiplex cinemas and clubs with live music.
There are two major commercial airports in Houston and two smaller regional airports. If you want to visit Houston, you can travel by train located in Washington Avenue, which is the only train with a stop in Houston. People who love nature can enjoy biking, bird watching, jogging and picnic in Hermann Park. There are over two hundred species of marine life in Downtown Aquarium and you can experience the amazing view of the city with the 100-foot Diving Bell Ferris wheel. In addition, shopping is another fantastic thing that you should not miss. One of the greatest retail centers in the world is The Galleria where you can enjoy its more than three hundred shops, ice-skating rink and great restaurants.
One of the most beautiful restaurants in Houston is the Ruth's Chris Steak House, which is a great venue for dinner events and business luncheons. It has three wonderful banquet rooms for private parties and it is considered as home to an award-winning wine list. Brennan's is an icon in Houston, opened in 1967. The restaurant is famous for melding the Creole cuisine of the Brennan family. Among the most loved in the Brennan's menu are the chili-fried oysters, turtle soup, antelope and the alligator salad. Houston also has its selection of bars filled with different kinds of excitement and thrill. Your nightlife will never be the same again once you experience the unique hangouts all over Houston. If you want to experience the eclectic and bizarre fashion of Houston, go to several clubs and bars where you can know the place and the people a lot better.
For more educational and historic perspective, there are several museums and local libraries in the area including the Holocaust Museum, Cg Jung Educational Center, Children's Museum of Houston, Station Museum-Contemporary Art and a lot more.
When it comes to sports, Houston is home to many famous sports teams such as The Houston Comets and the Houston Rockets as well as the women's basketball team. Auto racing, golfing and dog and horse racing are some of the admired pastimes in the area.
One of the best neighborhoods to raise a family in America is Sugar Land, located near Houston, Texas. Sierra Plantation is one of the developed neighborhoods that offer new homes where Brushy Lake is situated. The area is beautiful and tranquil where you can experience luxury and splendor. Another popular area in Sugar Land neighborhood is the Coral Drive, which has a wide variety of floor plans to choose from. It is located a few minutes away from shopping and fine dining in downtown Houston. In addition, Aliana is situated in front of two major golf courses, which makes it one of the most favored areas to buy a new home. Telfair, on the other hand has a southern appeal than will have two thousand homes when completed and will have its own community parks, shopping and pools. Greatwood is also popular with homebuyers with its swimming pools, parks, golf courses, tennis courts, playgrounds and walking trails. If you are planning to settle in Houston, it is best to seek advice to Houston home mortgage for any information you need about financing and purchasing property in the city.
The median age in Houston, Texas is 32.2 and 52.05% of the population are married and 10.01% are divorced. The size of the average household is 2.66 people wherein the percentage of married people with children is 21.64% and the percentage of single people with children is 10.85%. Houston's population is 2,144,491 as of the year 2007 and since 2000, the growth of its population reached 9.77%. In general, the cost of living in Houston Texas is 85.75 based on the US average of 100. The city has an unemployment rate of 3.80% with a job growth of 2.26%. The predicted job growth in the future for the next ten years is 26.62%.
The sales tax rate in Houston is 8.25% and the income tax is 0.00%. $22,794 is the income per capita including all the adults and the children and $41,513 is the median household income. Houston's median home value is $209,300 and over the last year, the home appreciation is 0.15% and the real estate median age of Houston is thirty years.
Houston is a great place for travelers because of its warm climate all year round. Summer in Houston humid and hot while winter and fall are the best time to visit the city. It is recommended to bring comfortable clothing and sunglasses when visiting Houston in the summer.
Violent crimes in Houston include forcible rape, nonnegligent manslaughter, aggravated assault and robbery. Property crime rate is 7 on the scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest. Property crimes include larceny-theft, burglary, arson and motor vehicle theft.
Houston is home to the well-renowned Texas Medical Center that has the world's biggest concentration of healthcare and research facilities. These facilities provide research, education, preventive care, and national, local and international community service. Many institutions are part of the Texas Medical Center including thirteen known hospitals, two medical schools, two special institutions, four nursing schools, public health, pharmacy and schools of dentistry.
While "urban sprawl" and "smart growth" seem to be key phrases in the news these days?especially among politicians and environmentalists, the truth is "smart growth" can only happen when there is a plan in place to grow. "Smart growth" is not a reaction to a housing boom. Neither is it a way to boost a city's economy as it begins to slide into a slump. Truly smart growth is a new city's plan to, over years, accommodate more people and businesses, without comprising its natural resources or the quality of life for those who are already there. Despite what many people are labeling as "smart growth" in an effort to pad their own bank accounts or please their more powerful constituents, smart growth can happen. And it has in the California city of Cerritos.
Cerritos is an unassuming city, less attention-hungry than its bigger brothers Los Angeles and Hollywood. Nestled just northeast of Long Beach and northwest of Anaheim, the city of Cerritos isn't well known. Most Americans wouldn't know that it's home to Cerritos College (the third largest Hispanic-serving community colleges in the country), Isuzu Motors America, Inc.?well-known for its top-of-the-line SUV "Ascender" and pickup trucks, and United Postal Services (which employs approximately 5,000 people in Cerritos alone). California Business Magazine named Cerritos one of the best 100 Cities to do business in the state.
Incorporated in 1956 as The City of Dairy Valley, Cerritos' original name reflected the community's agricultural focus. At that time, dairy cattle outnumbered the residents of the city nine to one as there were less than 5,000 people living in the incorporated city. Cerritos received its charter to become a California city two years after its incorporation, which marked the beginning of its "smart growth."
Approximately eight years later, rising property taxes and land prices began to take their toll on dairy operations, and by the early 1960s the agricultural crux of Cerritos was beginning to falter. In March of 1965, the citizens decided, in a special election, to permit homes to be built under strict residential development guidelines. This change led to a spurt in the population growth, with the population edging to just under 16,000 people by 1970, only three years after the city officially changed its name to Cerritos (chosen because it was located in close proximity to the original land grant Rancho Los Cerritos).
Seeing the potential problems with continued population growth, Cerritos wanted to continue to grow in a well-developed manner under a policy of continual environmental improvement. The standards and goals of the policy laid out ways to achieve a park-like community and still allow for commercial, industrial, and residential development.
The first Cerritos General Plan was adopted in October of 1971, to provide for a controlled urban development. The plan itself guaranteed convenient access to shopping near homes, locations for a multitude of services, attractive neighborhoods, and parks for recreation. A revised version of the General Plan was adopted in January of 2004.
So how did they do it? Approximately half of the city's land is designated for residential development. This didn't slow Cerritos down. From 1970 to 1972, Cerritos became California's fastest growing city with a population increase from 15,800 to 37,700. But it wasn't just the residential development that was being focused on.
Cerritos opened the first solar-heated City Hall complex in U.S. history in 1978. The City developed the Cerritos Auto Square in the early '80s, which now generates $10 million+ in sales tax revenue annually. In 1997, Cerritos opened a state-of-the-art Cerritos Sheriff's Station/Community Safety Center to the tune of $10 million to provide residents with public safety services 24-hours-a-day, 365 days a year. In March of 2002, the Cerritos Library was dedicated'an 88,000-square-foot building featuring art collections, educational displays and beautiful conference center s. As anniversary gifts commemorating 50 years as a city, The Cerritos Sculpture Garden and a fitness/wellness center at the Cerritos Senior Center were dedicated in 2006 to the community.
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