John Arnold: evaluation

Transcript context

…What do you like best about living in Houston? There’s something dynamic about being in a growing area. I have a house in a Colorado mountain town, and it’s fantastic, and it’s beautiful, and the weather is great, and it’s a bit stagnant as well. You have the growth and dynamism in Houston. Houston doesn’t have the natural beauty. It doesn’t have great weather, but it’s a place that is only going to succeed if it works. Government’s responsive, and people go there because of the opportunity. It’s been easy to build. Texas has had this libertarian culture and low-tax culture that’s encouraged businesses to come, which then encourages people in their productive years to come. Many of the first generation — professionally both blue collar and white collar — have chosen to come to Houston for the opportunity. I was at a dinner with friends the other day. I think there were 10 of us around the table. Every one of us was first generation to Houston that had come for the opportunity. None of us had our high school friend networks that we were hanging out with. It’s a very welcoming city, I think. The ethnic diversity and the fact that the diversity is intertwined throughout the city. If you look at the ethnic maps of many northern cities — take Chicago for one — everything south of downtown is Black and north of downtown is White, and you just have this dividing line. These cities are very separate. The ethnic makeup of Houston is very interspersed. You have these little pockets of Hispanic neighborhoods and Black neighborhoods and White neighborhoods, but it’s more of a checkerboard throughout the city, and I think the city is better for it. At least superficially, I have the impression that there aren’t so many externally influential institutions or movements coming out of Houston, Arnold Ventures aside, but do you think that’s true? Or why is that? It’s a large city. It has a lot of wealth, a lot of civic spirit, two great art museums, plus the Rothko Chapel, but it seems fairly self-contained in a way.…

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