Mayor Whitmire ran third. The act included a provision requiring the city of Houston to furnish water and sewer service by 1996 to areas already annexed to the city. A few areas had been within the city limits and without basic services for years. But the city annexed relatively little new territory after Kathryn Whitmire took over the mayor's office in 1982. The Voting Rights Act of 1964 prohibits dilution of minority voting strength.
Whites predominate in most of the areas eligible for annexation.
Annexing them would bring on trouble of the kind most elected officials go Out of their way to avoid. Councilman Jim Greenwood resurrected the idea of zoning in 1990. The swashbucklers are all gone. The big banks are owned by people somewhere else and the influx of people from somewhere else has altered the atmosphere and attitude of Houston.