Look At Houston In A Different Light, Argues Kotkin

"When speaking on urban issues, one reliable way to draw derisive comments is to mention Houston. Perhaps no major city in America has a worse reputation among planners, urban aesthetes and smart growth advocates.

Yet, to a remarkable extent, Houston may well defy its critics - not only by continuing to expand, but by constructing a new and dynamic model of American urbanism that transcends all the worn cliches about 'sprawl' and the burgeoning city's inability to attract educated workers."

"Critics often denounce such sprawling places as the ''anti-city,'' inimical to the historic spirit of urbanism. But viewed from the future perspective, such attitudes surely seem as shortsighted as it would have been for a Florentine to see the growth of industrial cities like Manchester, England, as outside the realm of the urban experience."