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Please read the OP. This thread is not about comparisons or debates about whos economy is better or more diverse. This thread is about "diversifying Houston's economic base, not only suggestions of how too diversify ,but also posting examples of companies and organizations that are adding to the economic diversity of the Greater Houston economy."
He just didn't get my analogy. You would have to know the history of Los Angeles as a small town pre-Hollywood and the water supply contributions of the self-taught Irish civil engineer named William Mulholland.
Please read the OP. This thread is not about comparisons or debates about whos economy is better or more diverse. This thread is about "diversifying Houston's economic base, not only suggestions of how too diversify ,but also posting examples of companies and organizations that are adding to the economic diversity of the Greater Houston economy."
Just got your message. This is not just your thread to post continuous links to articles. I'm also trying to post suggestions on how to diversify.
Houston has been trying to reach "World Class City" status. I think city leaders meant that they are trying to organically grow a Megacity in the coastal Southern United States--an admirable achievement. There are a lot of factors that make a Megacity and the mechanics to make it work.
There have been lots of naysayers bashing Houston with ugliness. But those naysayers are being fed by a negative press about Houston. Megacities, despite being man-made wonders of the world with economic strength and variety, are unpleasant places to live in. What redeeming qualities does Houston have despite its natural and man-made disadvantages to make people want to stay and contribute, not just economically, but culturally, etc.?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy1953
I guess time will tell won't it? Maybe you are right and Chevron and Exxon will both move their headquarters from San Ramon and Irving.
S.F. has a population decline right now. It's getting expensive! Mostly because of the tech industry--remember the Google Bus attacks a few years ago? Whenever tech gets into the region, the COL goes wayyy up. Austin was a nondescript small town that happened to host the state capital and flagship university, but has become reliably the most expensive part (and trendy part) of Texas. Tech is really a Pandora's Box; there are other service industries to diversify the Houston economy.
Medical research is one. Boston has been getting press about medical breakthroughs that have been discovered in their labs.
What ever happened to the research in the Texas Medical Center? I remember that the floodwaters in the Memorial Hermann basement drowned some lab rats during Allison. The researcher lamented the setback of many years of research with the drownings. Did medical research die with those rats during Allison?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfre81
Los Angeles MSA's GDP - real or nominal, take your pick - is nearly twice the size of that of the Houston MSA by any measure. The economy of LA/Long Beach/Anaheim has every facet of Houston's (even petrochemical) and then some.
It's the primary port for US-Pacific Rim trade and the manufacturing center of the West Coast, before we even get into the motion picture and other entertainment industries.
Hollywood was the catalyst of Los Angeles. The Energy Industry was the catalyst of Houston. That was my point with the Los Angeles analogy, since both happened around the same time. The construction of the Houston Ship Channel is the only contemporary analog of Mulholland's waterworks. Always look to history for lessons, examples and inspiration for new ideas!
But since you pointed out the port, Houston is the primary port for US-Latin America trade and the westernmost port for European exports to the Western U.S. without transversing the congested (and lengthy detour to the) Panamá Canal. Dallas and Atlanta depend on the port to get imports inland.
Did anybody notice that the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (narrowest point in Mexico) points directly to Houston?
With the GOP leadership of the Government right now, I'm surprised that the Texas Delegation isn't trying to push a canal and/or railroad project like this through. This would make U.S.-Pacific Rim trade much easier, Houston would benefit from increased Asian trade and reduce bottlenecks on the West Coast ports, and reduce the vulnerability by keeping North American ship traffic to a NAFTA country, instead of faraway Panamá.
Just got your message. This is not just your thread to post continuous links to articles. I'm also trying to post suggestions on how to diversify..
Fantastic this is spot on topical. Bickering over which economy is better is not accretive to the thread, but of course I am only the OP, in the long run the Mods will determine what is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KerrTown
Medical research is one. Boston has been getting press about medical breakthroughs that have been discovered in their labs.
What ever happened to the research in the Texas Medical Center? I remember that the floodwaters in the Memorial Hermann basement drowned some lab rats during Allison. The researcher lamented the setback of many years of research with the drownings. Did medical research die with those rats during Allison?
Don't think the good folks at the TMC or any of its institutions are above exaggeration as to the importance of lost work or the amount of funds they need to resume this important research. They fixed the flooding issues as evidenced by how they faired during Harvey and hopefully learned that the basement is not the ideal location to perform important research in the first place.
In what I call the Library of links, (you call continuous) there have been 17 post about the biomedical and pharmaceutical industry in Houston. Eight of those have dealt with the TMC specifically. You can check them out yourself in post numbers #77, #79, #89, #99, #101, #134, #156, #163 and more will be posted as they come available...
Quote:
Originally Posted by KerrTown
But since you pointed out the port, Houston is the primary port for US-Latin America trade and the westernmost port for European exports to the Western U.S. without transversing the congested (and lengthy detour to the) Panamá Canal. Dallas and Atlanta depend on the port to get imports inland.
Did anybody notice that the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (narrowest point in Mexico) points directly to Houston?
With the GOP leadership of the Government right now, I'm surprised that the Texas Delegation isn't trying to push a canal and/or railroad project like this through. This would make U.S.-Pacific Rim trade much easier, Houston would benefit from increased Asian trade and reduce bottlenecks on the West Coast ports, and reduce the vulnerability by keeping North American ship traffic to a NAFTA country, instead of faraway Panamá.
WOW that sounds like a massive project and with the recent upgrade to the Panama Canal I doubt your going to get anybody trying to spend American tax dollars to build a Mexican canal that would benefit mostly Gulf Coast ports at the expense of East coast ports.
Last edited by Jack Lance; 07-10-2018 at 12:51 PM..
Rice university opens a "Boot Camp" for data analytics to help supply local businesses with qualified workers and helping to diversify the Greater Houston economy.
Rice University Launches First Data Analytics Boot Camp in Partnership with Trilogy Education
PRESS RELEASE PR Newswire
Jul. 12, 2018, 08:33 AM
HOUSTON, July 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rice University today announced the launch of its first data analytics boot camp in partnership with leading workforce accelerator Trilogy Education. Geared toward working adults in Houston, the Rice University Data Analytics Boot Camp will teach both the technical and teamwork skills necessary to become a proficient data scientist or analyst. The 24-week part-time program begins Nov. 6, with two three-hour evening classes during the week (6:30 to 9:30 p.m.) and a four-hour class on Saturdays (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.). Enrollment is now open at techbootcamps.rice.edu.
"Over 90 percent of all data has been generated in the past two years," said Robert Bruce, dean of Rice's Glasscock School of Continuing Studies. "From oil and gas exploration to financial services, nearly every industry in Houston needs professionals who have the ability to translate this explosion of data into actionable insights. By leveraging Trilogy Education's platform and expertise, we can quickly expand access to the skills local professionals in Houston need to pursue rewarding careers in this rapidly growing sector."
Rice University is providing an express lane for data analysis jobs and their potential $60,000-plus salary.
The Houston campus is taking the coding boot camp model, popularized in recent years for its quick cultivation of web developers, and adapting it to big data analysis. The program meets a need for local employers that struggled to fill more than 50,000 positions requiring data proficiency in the past year.
Local data analysts make an average of $62,118 a year. Data scientists average $105,726, according to Glassdoor.
For $11,500, students can attend the Glasscock School’s 24-week, part-time data analytics boot camp developed in partnership with Trilogy Education. They will learn fundamental statistics and programming languages like Python to understand big data. JavaScript and Front-End Web Visualization will help them present that data to future bosses or customers.
“The job demands are massive, and it’s across the spectrum,” said Robert Bruce, dean of the Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies at Rice.
Engineering services and expertise in biofuels, exported from Houston helping to diversify the Greater Houston economy.
Houston engineers are designing an overseas facility to turn garbage into jet fuel, helping airlines prepare for an era of carbon-neutral growth “You’re not going to see electrified planes anytime in the near future,” said Philipp Stratmann, vice president of biofuels for Velocys. “So one thing the airlines are very keen on is sourcing of lower-carbon jet fuel.”
So instead of using a diesel-powered engine to drill oil from the ground, the facility will repurpose waste that would otherwise decompose and release harmful methane into the atmosphere.
U.K.-based Velocys, which has the bulk of its employees in Houston, is beginning to place its technology in several renewable-fuel facilities, some focused on planes while others create diesel. It partnered with British Airways and Shell to develop the U.K. jet-fuel facility.
Pictured is the Envia Energy plant with downtown Oklahoma City visible in the distance. Envia was the first commercial project to use Velocys’ technology. The facility takes biogas from a landfill and converts it into a waxy crude that is separated to produce wax, diesel and naphtha fractions. These products are then transported to other facilities to produce products like finished diesel fuel https://www.houstonchronicle.com/bus...photo-15857486
We have two examples of Houston's increasingly diverse economy today.
First we have a international company opening a ramen noodle plant somewhere in Houston.
Sun Noodle ramen plant to rise in Houston
Generations of college students saw ramen as a quarter-a-cup salvation, a cheap way to make it through late-night cramming. Graduates look back at the Styrofoam cups of hot noodle soup as an essential rite of passage.
But Americans increasingly are embracing the humble Japanese noodle dish as an artisan cuisine. Foodies wait in hour-long lines to slurp steaming bowls of ramen conjured up by celebrity chefs at prices that easily top $10 a bowl.
Now, one of the most revered high-end ramen makers plans to open a manufacturing plant in Houston.
The proposal by Honolulu-based Sun Noodle, which supplies fresh Japanese noodles to many of the top ramen shops in the U.S., is part of the company’s continuing expansion into burgeoning markets. The company made an offer on a property in Houston after months of scouting locations. The company did not disclose the proposed plant’s exact location, citing pending negotiations. More Information
Sun Noodle
Founded: 1981
Headquarters: Honolulu
Employees: 200+ employees
Production: 250,000 servings of ramen noodles daily Plants
Honolulu: 30,000 square feet
Torrance, Calif.: 20,000 square feet, opened in 2004, expanded in 2008
Carlstadt, N.J.: 46,000 square feet, opened in 2012, expanded in 2017
Houston: To be determined
The plant would be Sun Noodle’s fourth, and it would serve restaurant and grocery clients in Texas and the central United States, as well as Mexico and South America where there is a growing appetite for ramen. The company’s Honolulu, Los Angeles and New Jersey plants produce 250,000 servings of noodles daily and ship them to clients around the globe. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/bus...photo-15875373
Next Sports and outdoor retailer Rtic Outdoor is expanding across the U.S.A.
The company will change its name to Rtic Outdoors — pronounced “arctic” — to incorporate products beyond its coolers and drinkware. Currently, the company offers travel products, as well, but over the next several months it will launch products such as grills, tents, chairs and more.
Rtic also announced that it plans to open its first flagship store in Houston on Nov. 1. Customers have been able to buy products in the front room of Rtic’s warehouse in Cypress, and the flagship store will be next door to the warehouse, the Houston Chronicle reports. The flagship store will be at 20510 Hempstead Road, per the Chronicle.
Over the next couple of years, Rtic plans to open at least 20 stores including in Atlanta, per the Chronicle. The stores will offer a better retail experience, the Facebook post explains, and they’ll still be able to ship products to customers’ homes just like the website.
Today we have two companies opening new and or expanded manufacturing facilities in the Greater Houston area increasing Houston's economic diversity.
FIRST
Accredo Packaging, a supplier of plastic film for the prepackaged food and consumer products markets, will expand its Sugar Land headquarters by nearly 60 percent. The expansion will bring 175 new jobs to the campus by next year.
The company, which opened the 32-acre campus at 12682 Cardinal Meadow Drive in 2009, has hired Houston-based design/build firm KDW to build more than 200,000 square feet of warehouse and manufacturing space for the latest expansion.
A refrigerated-desserts company with Spanish roots has expanded its local footprint with a new manufacturing plant in northwest Houston that its management says was made possible by an ongoing relationship with H-E-B.
On Friday, Reina Meals inaugurated the 70,000-square-foot factory, which is expected to employ 25 people when fully staffed. The plant will produce a variety of personal-sized packaged desserts, including gelatins and flan, that retail for up to $2.99 apiece.
Port of Houston just keeps getting bigger all the time.
It takes a smooth and practiced hand to load container ships at Port Houston. With two joysticks and myriad buttons, crane operators must hoist cargo over the side of an expensive vessel and onto an already massive stack of metal shipping containers.
Developing that touch takes time, a luxury no longer afforded to the increasingly fast-paced maritime sector. There’s little patience for trainees slowing down operations.
So to increase a work force crucial to the port’s future, the West Gulf Maritime Association and Port Houston spent more than $500,000 on two simulators that they will officially unveil on Thursday.
The expanded Panama Canal allows larger container ships to travel between Houston and Asia. Local population growth is spurring the need for imported goods. And the export of plastic resins will continue to ramp up as more petrochemical facilities come online.
All of this is expected to accelerate the port’s container business, which handled more than 2 million of the 20-foot-equivalent containers in 2015. That number ballooned to 2.46 million last year
The port is likewise investing in new equipment. Three ship-to-shore container cranes and five rubber-tired gantry cranes, used to stack containers within the terminal, are currently en route to Houston. That will bring the operational crane totals to 26 and 85, respectively, at Bayport and Barbours Cut container terminals.
Lets not forget about the Port of Galveston, which is separate from the Port of Houston, which includes, the Port of Texas City, Bayport , Barbours Cut and of course the Houston ship channel all the way to the turning basin.
Port of Galveston vessel calls, cargo see increases in June
The Port of Galveston could be headed toward a record year.
Both vessel calls and cargo volume increased in June, up 18 percent and 47 percent, respectively, when compared to June 2017.
The increase in vessels was largely driven by lay vessels and barges, which stop temporarily at the port for repairs, fueling or Coast Guard inspections. Yet cargo ship calls were up 22 percent and cruise ship vessel traffic increased 5 percent over June 2017.
Bulk grain exports led the increase in cargo volume for June with a 160 percent increase over June 2017. The increase in grain exports stems from a decision to dredge the channel and ADM Grain Galveston facility berth to accommodate larger grain vessels, according to the news release.
Roll-on-roll-off cargo, like the BMWs and Minis unloaded in Galveston, was up 25 percent due to additional vessel calls for the month. Bulk liquid imports were up 30 percent for the month.
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(you call continuous) there have been 17 post about the biomedical and pharmaceutical industry in Houston. Eight of those have dealt with the TMC specifically. You can check them out yourself in post numbers #77, #79, #89, #99, #101, #134, #156, #163 and more will be posted as they come available...
The proposal by Honolulu-based Sun Noodle, which supplies fresh Japanese noodles to many of the top ramen shops in the U.S., is part of the company’s continuing expansion into burgeoning markets. The company made an offer on a property in Houston after months of scouting locations. The company did not disclose the proposed plant’s exact location, citing pending negotiations.
