Hey everyone, it's Reheel.
Our views on immigration are changing in the city.
Plus, there's a big shift occurring in education that could impact HISD's future.
It's Friday and I'm recapping the biggest stories of the week with political contributor
and Pulitzer Prize finalists Evan Mintz and Culture contributor Antrichelle Dorsey.
It's Friday, May 19th, I'm Reheel Romsnolly and here's with you since talking about it.
Alright Evan Mintz and Culture show, Dorsey welcome in it's Friday.
It is a beautiful day.
How's everybody doing?
I am good happy Friday.
Yesterday I got caught in the absolute worst traffic jam on 59.
So I feel like I am still recovering from that.
Oh no.
That brings me to my first question.
We posted an episode yesterday about the worst roads in the city of Houston.
So Evan, I'll start with you.
What is your least favorite road in Houston?
You know, I'm tempted to say that interchange from 59 south to 610 north, but really my
least favorite stretch of road is lower Westheimer.
And not just because it's filled with potholes, which it is, but because it could be so much
better because there have been plans to make it so much better and those plans keep getting
rejected.
And it just makes me so mad.
I feel like on a freeway it's going to get bad.
It's always going to get bad.
But right there it could be good.
We have the potential to improve it and we haven't.
How about you, Angela?
Listen, I cannot stand 45.
Do you understand me?
I get a complete attitude.
The GPS tells me that I have to touch 45, pass by 45 or go in the vicinity and I don't
care which direction is coming in.
I will not go to 45, baby.
So any stretch of 45, not a particular stretch.
Okay.
Wow.
I love it.
I cannot say that or go into the airport.
How do you think I'm going to have the airport anymore from that very recent because it is
always something going on?
Well, let's talk about our city.
The biggest story in the city, the 42nd annual Kinder Houston survey came out this week.
So we'll be spending some time talking about some interesting data points that we all saw.
So let's get into it.
And what is your biggest data point from the annual Kinder Houston survey?
For me, the biggest data point that really stands out is that 70% of Houstonians still
support the view that immigrants strengthen culture rather than threaten it.
And basically the same amount of Houstonians or same percent of Houstonians believe that
immigrants contribute more to the economy than they take from it.
Now, Houstonians didn't used to believe this.
When you track that backwards, you can see that in 1994, only 42% of Houstonians had that
positive view.
Like Houstonians have really changed their attitude around this.
And it's fascinating to see, particularly at a time when the entire nation is turning
on immigration.
You had the spike in pro-immigration views under Trump.
It is starting to reverse.
We have ended Title 42, which was a Trump-era plan to use the COVID health emergency to
reject migrants at the border.
We're undoing that.
And at the same time, all around the world, other countries are recognizing the benefits
of letting in immigrants, whether high skill, whether low skill, people who can work, who
can grow your economy are a good thing.
And America used to know that.
And in fact, Stephen Kleinberg, who started the whole Kinder Institute survey some 42 years
ago, wrote in his book, Prophetic City, about how Houston was saved by immigrants during
the oil bust.
They kept our city growing when we could have gone the way of Detroit or St. Louis or Cleveland.
We need to tell our representatives in Austin and in Washington, DC that it's time to lift
that lamp beside the golden door again.
It's time to let people in so our city can grow.
The other thing about that, one of the interesting points from the immigration point of the survey,
over 80% of the Estonians voice support in policies that would provide pathways to legal
citizenship as well.
So not only do we appreciate all of our immigrants, but we want them to become part of this American
society if there is a path that makes it easy for them.
Absolutely.
You know, I remember Ted Cruz used to say, legal immigration good, illegal immigration
bad, but he doesn't even say that anymore.
Like, let's find a way to improve the process.
We really haven't had an update to immigration law in more than 30 years.
It's time to get together and say, fine.
If you want to make it tougher to cross without proper documentation, do that.
But make sure that the bridge is wider.
The door is bigger.
We make it easy to follow the rules.
And look, I'm somebody that benefited from this, right?
My family immigrated here.
I'm a first generation immigrant.
We were lucky enough to get our citizenship even though it took a long time after 9-11.
Look, there were different policies in place and just extended that path to citizenship
a little bit longer.
But I want every immigrant here to have that path to citizenship so they can reap all
the benefits of our great country.
So I love seeing those results.
And Trishael, how about you?
What was something that stood out in the survey for you?
So something in a survey that stood out for me is that the public school of Roman is facing
a demographic bubble.
They're saying that urban dishes are already seeing its effects.
But this point that I'm looking at is showing that the client in HIV particular and it lines
up with an erosion of the population of under 18 in Houston.
Now in Texas and everywhere else, large urban core school districts have already been experiencing
enrollment declines.
And that's been since the past five years between 2017-2018 and 2021-2022, the HIV enrollment
has dropped by about 9% and that's almost 20,000 students.
What they're also looking at that all over and other districts such as El Paso, Fort Worth,
and San Antonio, they're also facing steeper enrollment drops with 12 to 13% fewer students
enrolling at the same time period.
Now according to the census, this estimates 20% fewer school-age children that live in
Houston boundaries in 2021 compared to 2017.
So that shows about 62,000 fewer potential school-age children.
And I just thought that was just crazy.
HIV are also continuing with the competition from growing charter schools and networks.
That's also becoming an issue for HIV.
According to the TA-Roman data, the debt transfers are going out of HIV and students who are
zoned to HIV schools but transfer out of the district on to or in or out of the charter
schools and then increase about 10,000 since 2017.
Wow, some interesting data points right there.
Evan, any thoughts?
I mean, I just see this scary population shift happening.
There are two ways you can grow an economy by improving your productivity or by growing
your population and we're seeing that we're on the verge of a big population decline.
I think this gets back to the immigration issue but also big urban districts like H.I.C.
have dealt with this problem.
They have a bunch of really, really good schools and a bunch of schools that aren't so great.
Maybe a declining population is an opportunity to look at some of those underperforming schools
and close them down and just solve the problem like that.
What about building them up?
Instead of closing those underperforming schools down, let's see what we can do to build them
up, right?
Because another thing that this data was talking about, two of the charter school systems that
are actually accounted for half of that loss is just prepping kits.
Now most people would see that yes, prepping kits were some of the problematic schools
in the problematic areas but if the students are going towards those, let's see what they're
doing right.
Let's cultivate the systems that we already have instead of just shutting them down.
Let's see what we can do to build them up.
All right.
My biggest data points from the Kinder Houston survey stays in education as well and this
was something that stood out for me, only 22% of black respondents and 14% of Hispanic
respondents held a bachelor's degree.
Overall, 30% had a bachelor's degree of the 2000 survey respondents.
Asians and whites were at 50 and 49% and here's why this matters.
Of residents making 50,000 a year, 77% held a bachelor's degree.
46% had some college and only 25% had high school or less.
So there's a direct correlation with having a higher education and earning more as a Houstonian.
So we have to do a lot better in making sure that our black and Hispanic communities are
getting access to college education and getting them prepared.
And that's such an important thing because it will not only improve the lives of our citizens
but also improve our city.
Absolutely, absolutely.
I am a huge fan and a product of the historically black colleges and universities and that's
where we should be sending our beautiful black talent and I am also a huge fan and an employee
of the University of Houston downtown and Hispanic serving institution.
And I really do see that representation matters, especially in education and when you are showing
our people of color, your educated prospects and not just your educational stories of like
this is me, I am you on the other side of your degree.
That would definitely help out and give value to the education.
I love that.
No, I think you really hit on something and there is this movement to say not all jobs
require higher education.
Sometimes we have pushed people into four year schools who don't need it.
There's value in two year programs, there's value in certificate programs.
But I think that there is something important about that good liberal arts education, about
reading books you wouldn't have read otherwise, about talking with people and arguing about
things you wouldn't have done otherwise.
To broaden your view makes you a better person and makes life more fulfilling.
You know, even if we don't have to charge people $50,000 a year, do it.
Let's find a way to get learning into everything we do in Houston.
I love that.
I love that.
I love it.
All right.
By the way, you can read the entire survey with the link in our show notes.
All right.
Let's move on to the most overlooked stories of the week.
Evan, what you got?
Well, I think the most overlooked story is also about education.
Apparently, a new study is found that Houston is one of the best city for recent college
graduates, a payroll software company, Gusto, with the data it collected on businesses to
calculate how much young professionals who have graduated from college make and found
that in Houston, given our cost of living, you have the highest quality of life.
Now I saw that this headline was spread in a few places, but the missing part of it, the
part that needs to get overlooked is one, what we are just talking about.
There really aren't that many college grads in Houston.
So we are focusing on a narrow sliver of society.
I think Houston needs to do a better job of adding more universities.
We really don't have a lot of people with higher education per capita.
A breakdown shows that we are about 88 in terms of educational attainment out of the
150 largest cities and just looking at places like University of Houston, TSU, Rice University,
we have room for another big university in our region and it just doesn't exist yet.
I don't see Texas adding one.
Maybe it's time for another William Marsh Rice to stand up, write some big dollar checks
and get us a new university.
Oh, I like it.
I like it.
Andrew Schell, how about you?
What was your most overlooked story of the week?
So let me tell you why this story was the most overlooked story of the week for me because
here recently, within the past three weeks, I have been doing my own type of manifesting
and I've been looking at $2.5 million homes.
Don't ask me why $2.5 million.
I don't know why.
I just feel like I deserve a $2.5 million home.
But in my research, I have found this week alone that a Rivercrest mansion is listed
for $9.95 million and it includes a garage that could fit up to 50 cars.
Now let me tell you something.
First of all, I had no idea of this private West Houston neighborhood, right?
This almost $10 million mansion has hit the market with this big old garage and get this
everybody.
This is a five bedroom, five wool baths and three and a half baths and it was built in
2008.
First of all, why do we need a 50 car garage?
Why are we going to do it?
Do we even have 50 cars, even a family of five?
If everybody had two cars, that's what, 10 cars?
I could not believe it, but I was very excited to learn more about this very exclusive neighborhood
and it showed me that this is one of the most expensive neighborhoods to live in Houston
with the listings averaging $3.5 million and the last few lots in this particular neighborhood
sold for $2.5 million.
I got excited because it showed me that my manifestation is right at my fingertips.
So I just thought this was really cool that this type of home and it's not, it's out of
my price range at $9.95 million.
But this was really cool to see and to look at guys.
Hey, but if the seller drops it to maybe 2.5, then it's all yours, Andrew Show.
Listen, I think they'll drop it down, but I could be so lucky to have the 2.5 million.
Listen, only in my dreams, let me say that because you guys, what would you guys do with
this 50 car garage?
What would you do with that?
And it's beautiful.
Oh, my dream home is immediately, if I have the space, I'm creating a basketball court.
I just want that.
I would love that.
So that garage is getting converted into a full court basketball.
Listen, I'm changing it to an in-home theater.
I'm going to put on production in that garage.
I'm going to have a premiere movie night, so nobody has to go to the movies.
You guys come into my theater.
That's what I'm changing it into.
What would you do with it?
Oh, with something like that, I think movie theater sounds great, but honestly, I don't
know if that's enough room to store all of my gardening supplies.
That's what it would end up.
It's like old buckets, shovels, I don't use anymore.
That's where it all goes.
You get to do an indoor grow room, right?
Oh, man.
That would be special right there.
That would be cool.
That would be fun.
No, if I had a house like that, I'd be going for the full English garden and an astronomy
lab.
Like, get me a giant telescope.
We won't check what you're growing in that garden.
Right.
But all I got is tomatoes, you know.
So my most overlooked story of the week, Mayor Sylvester Turner rolled out his $6.2
billion budget for his final year.
The fiscal year 2024 budget includes a 3% pay raise for all Muni workers, including
police and a 6% raise for firefighters.
The Houston Police Department will get the biggest piece of the budget pie compared to
any other city department receiving $1.6 billion of the general fund.
And by the way, there are workshops and hearings for the budget starting up pretty soon.
I have the link in the show notes.
So check that out.
But man, it's always interesting to see that city budget $6.2 billion.
No, it's really big.
And it's always startling how much of the money goes to police.
I think people don't recognize that.
But what's even scarier about a budget of the size is a controller.
Chris Brown says we are still not on a sustainable track that every year we spend more than
we take in.
And right now we're in good shape because of federal stimulus dollars and we got a lot
of money saved away that will help out the next mayor, the next couple budget cycles.
But we rely on these one time spendings to keep things flat, whether it's selling land,
whether it's federal grants.
We need to find a way to stabilize.
All right, let's get to our moment of joy.
Evan, what sparked that joy for you?
My moment of joy comes from work.
I work at Arnold Ventures.
It's a Houston philanthropy and this week we announced the launch of our infrastructure
portfolio, finding ways to make it easier to build homes and clean energy and transmission
lines and all those great things.
And it's something that I've been fascinated with for a long time, particularly after seeing
my home freeze in Gary in 2021.
So I would really just like to see some great work being put in to improve the Texas grid
to make it easier to build homes and just overall improve the quality of life.
America is a place that takes pride in having built big things, the Houston ship channel,
Hoover Dam.
Let's build big things again.
And also I would be remiss if I didn't say let's build the Ike dike.
Yes, absolutely.
By the way, I don't know if y'all saw these are so many stories about how this summer we
could be facing a lot of energy shortages, not only here in Houston but throughout the
nation because it's predicted to be one of the hottest summers.
So that's something to watch out for.
I just want to throw that in there since you brought up all of that energy talk.
All right, Andrew, show what sparks some joy for you.
Listen, I am a fan of all things fun and a hallelujah.
Bakery and Montrose coffee shop is making some big ass croissants and I mean big and
it's called shakar.
It has a reputation for being very playful with bread and they have done croissant cereal
and even in a collaboration feature croissants Smashburg of a right now, what has everybody
going crazy is these big ass croissants and they give you a big ass cup of coffee to dip
it in and I am in love with it.
I'm in love that it is right here in Montrose.
I am glad that is a husband and wife team and they have created this beautiful croissant
array in 2021 and her name is Koreshy and she said it came out of boredom and she just
enjoyed making different kind of croissants and she thought what if I'm making giant
one and look at what happened.
It is huge.
They make a really big one, a regular one and a really big chocolate one.
She said it takes 35 sticks of chocolate versus the normal three to make a big ass chocolate
croissant.
That's bringing me so much joy.
I like that.
I think I'm going to name every fantasy team I ever have from here on out big ass croissant.
I'm going to head to downtown and specifically Market Square Park for my moment of joy.
One of the OG murals, the Houston is inspired mural which captures the colors, the vibe
of our city is turning 10 and it actually got a touch up.
Congratulations.
We've got a nice touch up for one of the OG murals and it's important because after that
mural went up about 750 other murals started popping up since then throughout the Houston
area and I just want to sense a love to the Houston is inspired mural.
So you like that one over the be someone here?
Yes, yes, absolutely.
I like that one.
Right, I can't get over there but I'm glad you like some mural around here in the city.
All right Evan, and Trishell, thank you so much.
That was a lot of fun.
Remember all the stories we talked about are linked in our show notes.
Have a great weekend Evan.
Have a great weekend, and Trishell.
All right, please talk to y'all later.
That was Evan Mintz and Antrichelle Dorsey.
You can follow them with the links in our show notes.
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That's all for this week on Citycast Houston.
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We'll be back on Monday with a look at the final seven days of the 2023 Texas legislature
session.
Thank you for listening and I hope you learned something new.
I want to tell y'all how I yelped when I saw the Houston Chronicle.
I was like, oh, here are the top podcasts.
I said, ah, this is me.
This is, I'm going to show all the time.
But I'm so happy so I was right go team high five team