# Presentation: 231011

## PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS IN REMARKABLE TIMES:

**Tracking Change through 24 Years of Houston Surveys **
**[The “DOE National Workshop on State Energy Codes.”]**

***STEPHEN L. KLINEBERG***
**29 June 2005**** **

## THE HOUSTON AREA SURVEY (1982–2005): 

- No other city in the nation has been the focus of a long-term study of this scope, and none more clearly exemplifies the remarkable ongoing transformations of urban America.
- In 13 of the past 15 years, the surveys were expanded to reach at least 450 Anglos, 450 Blacks, and 450 Hispanics.
- In 1995 and 2002, the research included large representative samples from Houston’s entire Asian population, the only such surveys in the country.

**THE HOUSTON AREA SURVEY (1982–2005):**** **

## MEASURING PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS IN A PERIOD OF REMARKABLE CHANGE: 

- The region recovered from the recession of the 1980s to find itself at the center of the most significant transformations of our time.
- By the 1990s, Houston was fully in the midst of . . .
-   A restructured economy, and
-   A demographic revolution.

**MEASURING PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS IN A PERIOD OF REMARKABLE CHANGE:**** **

## POSITIVE RATINGS OF LOCAL JOB OPPORTUNITIES (HAS, 1982-2005)

## RATINGS OF JOB OPPORTUNITIES IN RELATION TO HARRIS COUNTY’S OFFI-CIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATES (1982-2005)

## THE RESTRUCTURED ECONOMY:

- The “resource economy” of the Industrial Age has now receded into history.
- The “blue collar” path to financial security has largely disappeared.
- Almost all the good jobs today require high levels of technical skills and educational credentials.
- In 2004, 75% *disagreed* that, “A high school education is enough to get a good job.” And in 2005, 64% *agreed* that, “There are very few good jobs in today’s economy for people without a college education.”
- From now on, “What you earn depends on what you have learned.”

## RESULT #1: AN “HOURGLASS” ECONOMY:

**RESULT #1: AN “HOURGLASS” ECONOMY:**

- In the new knowledge-based, two-tiered economy . . .

- Poverty persists even as the city grows richer

- Opportunities narrow for some while they expand for others

- Income inequalities continue to widen

## RESULT #2: THE NEW IMPORTANCE OF “QUALITY-OF-PLACE” ISSUES.

- A city’s economic success will increasingly depend upon its ability to nurture, attract, and retain skilled and creative “knowledge workers” and high-tech companies.
- Talented individuals and leading corporations are freer than ever before to choose where they would like to live.
- As a result, quality-of-life issues are now among the most significant determinants of a city's prosperity in the new economy.

**RESULT #2: THE NEW IMPORTANCE ****OF “QUALITY-OF-PLACE” ISSUES.**

## THE ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGE:

- This means significant and sustained improvements in . . .
- Mobility and traffic congestion
- The revitalization and preservation of downtown areas
- The quality of air and water
- The venues for sports, art, and culture
- The abundance of parks, trees, and bayous
- The richness of hiking, boating, and birding areas

**THE ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGE:**

- The public’s support for new initiatives along these lines has grown significantly in recent years . . .

## MEASURES OF ENVIRONMENTALCONCERN (HAS, 1995-2005)

##  “WHAT’S THE BIGGEST PROBLEM FACING   PEOPLE IN HOUSTON TODAY?” (1982-2005)

## ASSESSMENTS OF TRAFFIC IN THE HOUSTON AREA, AND OF SOME PO- TENTIAL SOLUTIONS (2003-2005)

**ASSESSMENTS OF TRAFFIC IN THE HOUSTON AREA, AND OF SOME PO- TENTIAL SOLUTIONS (2003-2005)**

## IMPORTANCE OF MUCH IMPROVED MASSTRANSIT SYSTEM, AND OF THAT SYSTEMHAVING A RAIL COMPONENT (1991-2004)

**IMPORTANCE OF MUCH IMPROVED MASS****TRANSIT SYSTEM, AND OF THAT SYSTEM****HAVING A RAIL COMPONENT (1991-2004)**

## IMPORTANCE OF DOWNTOWN DEVELOP-MENT BY PLACE OF RESIDENCE (1995-05)

## INTEREST AMONG ANGLOS IN MOVINGFROM THE SUBURBS TO THE CITY ANDFROM THE CITY TO SUBURBS (1999-2005)

## THE DEMOGRAPHIC REVOLUTION: 

- Throughout all of its history . . .
-  Houston was essentially a bi-racial Southern city,
-  Dominated and controlled, in a taken-for-granted
-     way, by white men.
-  Today . . .
-  This is one of the most ethnically and culturally
-   	  diverse metropolitan areas in the country.
-  All of Houston’s ethnic communities are now “minorities.”

**THE DEMOGRAPHIC REVOLUTION: **

## THE U.S. CENSUS FIGURES FOR HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS (1960-2003)

-               **1960                      1970                          1980                        1990                       2000                       [2003]**
**Total**
**Populations:    1,243,258               1,741,912                  2,409,547               2,818,199                3,400,578               [3,553,882]**

## INTERACTIONS OF ETHNICITY AND AGE:

-   Two ongoing revolutions: The “aging” and the “colorizing,”
-     a.k.a. the “graying” and the “browning,” of America.
-   76 million American babies (primarily Anglos) were born
-     between 1946 and 1964, now aged 41 to 59.
-   The population of Americans over the age of 65 will almost
-     double in size during the next quarter century.
-   They will be replaced by the younger Americans, who are
-     disproportionately non-Anglo and less privileged.
-   The “aging of America” is thus as much a division along
-     ethnic lines as it is along generational lines.

## PROPORTION OF RESPONDENTS IN FOUR AGE GROUPS WHO ARE ANGLO, BLACK, HISPANIC, AND ASIAN OR OTHER (2000-2005)

## LEVELS OF EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT IN FIVE COMMUNITIES (HAS, 1994-2005)

**Number of**
**Respondents:     1,018                                4,866                                  4,725                                  2,112                                 2,829**

## CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

**CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:**

-    Through most of the last century, this Anglo-dominated,
-      biracial city was riding the oil boom to continual prosperity.
-      The “resource economy” has now receded into history,
-      along with the “blue collar” path to financial security.
-     Houston’s success in the new “knowledge economy” will
-       require a far more educated work force, as well as the
-       “quality of place” needed to attract and retain the nation’s
-       most innovative companies and talented individuals.
-     The new economic realities, reinforced by public attitudes,
-       have created a compelling “business case” for the impor-
-       tance of environmental protection and other quality-of-
-       life issues, both in Houston and across the state of Texas.

## CONTACT INFORMATION:

**Department of Sociology, MS-28**
**Rice University, P. O. Box 1892**
**Houston TX 77251-1892**
**Telephone: 713-348-3484 or 713-665-2010**
**email address: **_[slk@rice.edu](mailto:slk@rice.edu)_
**Web: **_[www.houstonareasurvey.org](http://www.houstonareasurvey.org/)_** **

**CONTACT INFORMATION:**