I like Houston. It has personality. In New Orleans I am of course a fan of WWOZ – W-Wizard of Oz. But Houston is a city and New Orleans is a town, and New Orleans is an old and sophisticated town, but Houston is a city, and it is truly urban despite the suburbs with which you may be familiar.
People wondering whom to help in Houston may like to consider radio station KPFT, 90.1 in Houston, 89.5 in Galveston, and/or its workers. This is the closest Pacifica radio station to Louisiana. In Berkeley we have KPFA, and in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, KPFK; in Champaign-Urbana I am a fan of the WEFT. But KPFT has the most urban attitude of these stations, and it is my favorite. At home I can hear Pacifica radio on the Internet, and KPFT is my most local of these stations. It is in our time zone and it discusses our region.
Although my closest big airport is the Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, I sometimes fly from the George H. W. Bush International Airport in Houston just so I can drive through full-on city streets and on L.A. style freeways while listening to KPFT. Right now KPFT is closed due to Hurricane Ike and I would like to see it, and its city, come back to life.
What makes a city, urban? The funny little corners, the immigrants, the many languages, the apartment blocks, the museums, the machine shops, the food stalls, the clotheslines, the multitudes. (The cables, the efforts, the motors, the wings. The simultaneous explosion of new theories, a little more advanced than Whitman and Turner, and a little less advanced than Maples Arce.) All the people corresponding to all these spaces need your help so that they can be themselves, and Houston can be Houston again.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Houston is a nice place. I was there once. I got a chance to taste some of that roadside BBQ. Delicious!
Hi Stephen – nice to see you! Re cities (you’re one of my Designated City Loving Friends) look at this arty graffiti in New Orleans I just found out about:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/29/katrina-3-years-late.html
Thank you for this description. I grew up in the suburban hell there, but became an adult in the city. When I think of Houston, I think of being an adult in the city. When I miss there, that is what I miss. The city is, of course, exactly what you describe. The mossy, sweaty mixture of humanity that is ultimately so fragile in the face of nature and the powers in charge.
O good. So I have not misread it. This is exactly how I read Houston. Axé.