1990
The Houston Ship Channel, a 50-mile inland waterway, connects Houston with the sea lanes of the world. Its turning basin is six miles east of Houston's central business district. Most of the Channel has a minimum width of 400 feet and a depth at mean low tide of 40 feet
Located on more than 680 acres, the value of Texas Medical Center buildings completed or under construction is about $7 billion
$479 million in Health Care research was conducted in the Texas Medical Center
Texas Medical Center's operating budget was over $4 billion
Texas Medical Center's employment was approximately 51,000, and some 12,000 students attended institutions there
Houston host the 16th annual Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations
Fiscal Houston Customs District collections of $465.5 million ranked 12th nationally
Harris County ranked fifth among U. S. counties in value of shipments of manufactured products ($21.4 billion)
1991
Foreign shipments totaled 67.6 million tons valued at $24.9 billion
Six of the 1991 Fortunes 100 Fast Growing Companies are headquartered in Houston
The Houston CMSA was the nation's ninth-ranked metropolitan area in retail sales with $32.8 billion
The Port of Houston ranks first in foreign tonnage and third in total tonnage, among U.S. ports
Houston is home for eleven firm's corporate headquarters on the 1991 Fortune Service 500 list. Many other Fortune 500 companies maintain U.S. administrative headquarters in Houston
The port handled an estimated 126 million short tons of cargo
5,169 ships from 70 countries called at Houston's port
November 2
Bob Lanier is elected mayor
December 25
Soviet Union dissolves, and the door opens for cooperative ventures in space between Russia and the U. S.
The Houston PMSA unemployment rate averaged 5.6 percent
The 23 school districts partly or entirely within Harris County reported enrollment of 586,034 (fall)
METRO's fleet of 1,139 vehicles ranked seventh in size nationally
The Houston Airport System handled 25,853,152 passengers, the 46th year the system has experienced passenger growth in its 48-year history
IAH, handled 2.2 million international passengers, a 7.4 percent increase over 1990
Houston hosted 467 conventions of authentic convention-holding associations with 568,145 registered delegates using hotels or motels
1992
Employment in upstream energy sectors (oil and gas exploration and production) accounts for about 42 percent of the local economic base, down from 68 percent in 1981
Republican National Convention held in Houston
October 6
The U.S. and Russia agree to exchange an astronaut and cosmonaut and dock a future U.S. shuttle with Mir
Dun & Bradstreet reports 16,205 business concerns in Houston which recorded total sales of $1 million or more
The Houston Ship Channel is a $15 billion industrial complex with over 100 wharves in operation, including private terminals
Houston is home to 18 companies on the 1992 Fortune 500 list and 21 on the 1992 Forbes 500 list
Since 1982, Houston has spent more than $8 billion on street, freeway and transit improvements
METRO's average on-time record was 93.9 percent in the first quarter of 1992
1993
January 3
Clinton Administration orders reductions as estimates for the U. S. share of the planned international space station balloon $1 billion over budget
September 12
Clinton wins new political support for the space station
by inviting Russia to join Europe, Japan, Canada and U.S. in the project
1994
February 3
Cosmonaut Sergi Krikalev becomes the first Russian to launch aboard a U. S. spacecraft, and participates in an eight-day shuttle flight
1995
Houston oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall dies at the age of 90 leaving an estimated at 200 million to $1.2 billion fortune
March 14
Astronaut Norm Thagard becomes the first American to launch aboard a Russian spacecraft riding a Soyuz capsule to Mir for a 15-day voyage
June 29
U.S. Shuttle Atlantis docks with Mir, drops off two cosmonauts and returns to Earth with Thagard and his two Russian crewmates
December
Russia proposes that Mir, rather than a Russian-built service module, serve as the cornerstone of the international space station. NASA rejects the proposal but offers a subsidy to preserve Russian involvement
1996
1997
February 23
A flash fire erupts on Mir when a backup oxygen generator misfires, marking the start of a succession of worrisome failures
May 15
Russian service module delays force NASA to postpone the start of the station assembly to June 1998
June 25
Mir rocked by a collision with an out -of-control Progress Supply Capsule. American Mike Foale and Russians Vasily Tsibliev and Alexander Lazutkin escape death by quickly sealing off the damaged Spektr Module from the remainder of the orbital station
November 2
Lee P. Brown is elected mayor. The first African American to become mayor of Houston
1998
April 15
With Russia's economy faltering, a NASA task force warns that the station is facing new delays and the American share will rise from $17.3 billion to nearly $25 billion
June 2
NASA postpones the start of station assembly from June to November 1998, as Russia's service modules fall further behind schedule
June 12
Astronaut Andy Thomas, the seventh and final American assigned to live and work aboard Mir, returns to Earth aboard the Shuttle Discovery
August 5
NASA acknowledges to Congress that Russia's economic situation is so perilous that it jeopardizes station plans
August 5
NASA reveals plans for an immediate $60 million subsidy to Russia to finish the service module, and $600 million more during the following four years to preserve a Russian role in the project
October 28
The U.S., Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada elect to proceed with the start of orbital assembly on November 20, 1998 despite Russia's financial difficulties. Russia accepts the $60 million to plan to finish and launch its habitable service module in July 1999
Revitalization
By Ray Miller
HE 1990 Census put the population of
Houston proper at 1,630,553. Local officials complained that the census takers missed more
than 85,000 residents but Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher refused to adjust the
numbers. The increase over the 1980 Census, within the city limits, was only about 36,000.
The increase for the county as a whole was more than 400,000 to a 1990 total of 2,818,199.
Real estate values were rising again but the prolonged recession of the 1980s and
competition from big name national chains ruined one of the city’s major retailers.
The last Sakowitz store closed in 1990. Simon and Tobias Sakowitz had brought their
Sakowitz store to Houston from Galveston in 1911. Tobias’s son Bernard and his son Robert expanded the business to 18 stores before the company
went into bankruptcy in 1985.
The Port of Houston handled a record 125 million tons of cargo in 1990. The Harris County Hospital District opened two new hospitals: another Ben Taub in the Medical Center, and the Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital on the north side. The original Ben Taub and the 1938 Jeff Davis were closed.
The famous Gilley’s honky-tonk in Pasadena was demolished in1990 after being damaged by fire. The place had been closed because of a dispute and lawsuit between Mickey Gilley and his partner Sherwood Cryer County Commissioner E. A. "Squatty" Lyons retired in 1990 after a record 48 years in office. Republican Jerry Eversole won the election to succeed Lyons and brought about a Republican majority on the Harris County Commissioners Court for the first time since Reconstruction. The other members were County Judge Jon Lindsay and Commissioner Steve Radack, Republicans, and Commissioner Jim Fonteno and Commissioner El Franco Lee, Democrats.
President Bush and the leaders of the world’s other major economic powers held their 1990 Economic Summit meeting at Rice University. Rice and the University of Houston, too, were lobbying energetically for the Bush Presidential Library. Both schools were surprised when the president announced in 1991 that his library would be located at Texas A&M. But Houston boosters got something to cheer about when the Republican National Committee announced January 8,1991 that the party’s 1992 national convention would be held in the Astrodome, fulfilling one of the prophecies Roy Hofheinz made before the dome was built.
Officials of the Port of Houston and Galveston officials started talking in 1991 about the possibility that the Port of Houston might buy the Port of Galveston.
Most members of the board of the Houston Independent School District had seemed to be pleased with Superintendent Joan Raymond before but by 1991 some of them were saying she was too authoritarian. They forced her to resign, paid off her contract, and hired the more convivial Frank Petruzielo of Florida to take her place. Dr. Raymond moved on to another superintendent’s job in Illinois.
The new Texas Racing Commission in 1991 awarded Sam Houston Race Park Ltd. a license to build a racetrack in northwest Harris County. This was the first Class 1 license issued by the commission established after Texas voters in 1987 approved a constitutional amendment to legalize pari-mutual betting. Betting on horse races had been banned in 1909, legalized in 1933, and banned again in 1937.
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The Economic Summit of 1990. |
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The
legislature in 1991 consolidated all the air and water pollution agencies into a new
entity called the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission. 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.
he emphasis shifted from expansion to
management of the area the city already occupies. Councilman Jim Greenwood resurrected the
idea of zoning in 1990. The City Council in January, 1991, changed the name of the
Planning Commission to Planning and Zoning Commission and told the renamed agency to
devise a zoning plan for what has long been the biggest unzoned city in North America.
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.
The place the late columnist Hubert Mewhinney referred to as a "whiskey and trombone town" has more joggers than whiskey drinkers and more mariachis than trombones.
