Who are Houston’s next heroes?
A few months back, I found myself in New Orleans shooting a commercial for a local ad agency and I dove into a deep conversation with the sound designer Thomas Walsh, a local New Orleanian.
It was just two days after the city turned out en masse to celebrate late musician Dr. John, who died June 6, with a triumphant secondline tribute and a week since NOLA lost beloved chef Leah Chase, who passed away June 1 after feeding the city Creole goodness for decades.
We began to talk about how the city we were sweating in was undergoing a slew of changes. A generation was dying that had put NOLA on the map, and locals we were left wondering who would replace them. We mused about the magic of Malcolm “Dr. John” Rebennack Jr.’s shaman style and Chase’s rich gumbos that tasted like a thousand hugs.
I also thought about my own hometown.
Houston has heroes, big and small, living and dead. Names that I have mentioned in this column endlessly. Carnival barker broadcasters, cowboy doctors, superhuman athletes, and wizards of meat and booze. When Dr. James “Red” Duke died in 2015 I had my first pang of sadness that the city had lost yet another personality that couldn’t be topped, not to mention a kind and quirky soul who saved countless lives.
I looked at my own generation and wondered who was up to the task. Does anyone even care enough? Or more succinctly, “Who will Houston kids be making shirts, stickers and street art about in 40 years?,” if those sort of things still exist.
I am assuming by then we will have long since unveiled statues of Mattress Mack, J.J. Watt, and José Altuve around the city, perhaps with Mayor Bobby Heugel cutting the official ribbons with Gov. Simone Biles dropping by for a photo op via hologram.
Beyoncé Freeway, anyone? The Bun B Beltway? Women like bar magnate Alba Huerta, politician Lina Hidalgo, will have also made marks on the city that we can’t fathom at this point.
When I posed the question to local concert promoter and Houston booster Mark C. Austin, it took him a bit to respond.
“Honestly, this makes me nervous as hell for our future. Who is actually grinding out there?” he asked.
City of midlevel VPs?
Astros star Alex Bregman, chef Ryan Lachaine and 8th Wonder Brewery’s Ryan Soroka were on Austin’s short list, already showing flashes of being adept at community organization.
Financial analyst Erika Jensen is excited for what Haley Carter, a USMC veteran and former professional soccer player, has in store for Houston.
“She’s a tattooed badass who works a lot with local organizations and gives back a lot to the community,” Jensen says. “She’s been a vocal critic of FIFA in handling the Afghanistan women’s team abuse scandal and she’s currently in law school. I think Haley is here to stay. I think we’ll see a lot more activism from her and maybe even a political career.”
KHOU-TV’s Brandi Smith, herself one of the city’s most influential people, bandied about some names.
“I think Rep. Dan Crenshaw has real potential to make a name for himself in Houston and, ultimately, Washington, D.C.” Smith says. “I’m curious to see where his career takes him, but I suspect 10 years from now he will still be involved in Texas politics at some level.”
She also name-checked Lucky Cat Beauty owner Aubrie Layne and Eureka Heights Brewing Company’s Casey Motes.
“Casey is one of the most genuinely nice and chill guys, and it’s really a perk that he happens to brew some of the best beer in town,” Smith says. “If Saint Arnold is the grandfather of craft beer in Houston, I think Eureka Heights will end up being known as the lovable wacky uncle.”
Marco Torres, photographer extraordinaire, is a Houston influencer unto himself. He is a fan of David Rodriguez of The Tipping Point lifestyle brand.
“He is another one who many see as an OG, innovator, mentor, chef, entrepreneur and advocate for immigration reform,” Torres says. “He actually filmed a segment with Anthony Bourdain, but it didn’t make the TV edit.”
Evan Mintz, former Houston Chronicle deputy opinion editor and current communications director at Arnold Ventures, has his reservations. He’s not sure if we have the same personality power in the city we once had.
“This is a really interesting problem because for decades Houston has been dominated in many ways by powerful, wealthy leaders. They had the money and owned the companies,” Mintz says. “Houston doesn’t have that many billionaires and CEOs anymore. Houston is a city of midlevel VPs who don’t really have any power to change things. On the flip side, we also don’t have a well-developed grassroots culture to fill the leadership gap.”
Big names like John Arnold, Richard Kinder and Tilman Fertitta are around, but beyond those, everything gets hazy.
“The economic trends that led to that decline of leadership also work to dilute the personality of the city. How can you have a Mattress Mack when every strip center has a mattress store owned by a mattress chain owned by investors?” Mintz says. “How can you have a carnival barker broadcaster when TV stations are owned by a national media company? How can Houston have Houstonians if every part of the city just feels like somewhere else?”
As Mintz puts it, we’re now in an age where being a Houstonian — or even a Texan — isn’t about how you engage with your world but what you buy and how you rep it.
“Our identity can be reduced to a series of brands: Blue Bell, Whataburger, Buc-ee’s,” Mintz says. “It’s not about who people are. It’s about how they spend their money. As if what it means to be a Houstonian can be bought at the store.”
“Texas: Come And Buy It,” Mintz jokes.
‘Futuristic’ is past
There are glimmers of hope, though, he admitted.
“Bobby Heugel is personally responsible for the development of Houston’s bar scene. He’s making the sorts of places that will be around for decades because they set a standard for the quality of product,” Mintz said. “Dr. Renu Khator has transformed the University of Houston from a commuter school (to paraphrase a certain presidential candidate) to a competitive institution.”
Mintz thinks that syndicated KTRH 740 AM talk show rabblerouser Michael Berry is among those whose impact will be felt for decades to come.
“I don’t like him, but I’ll hand it to him. He is very good at being a talk-radio host and he creates a culture around himself that other people emulate,” Mintz says. “How do you go from a clean-shaven city council wunderkind to a bearded dude selling moonshine who lives in River Oaks? I mean this as a compliment, but he’s a fantastic huckster.”
According to another former colleague, the city will have to set aside its past to embrace the future. The next batch of Houston’s movers and shakers have an unsure road ahead and Mother Nature will play no small part in it.
“I do worry about what this city will look and feel like in 10 years, or even in 30 years,” says Allyn West, who now works with the Environmental Defense Fund, tasked with thinking about how a city and an economy with an overwhelming dependence on oil and gas will
grow in the face of climate change. “Houston has to figure out how to deal with flooding and with the climate crisis. Or else we don’t really have a future.”
“I’d like to think that the people who shape Houston in the future, for the better, will be those who can figure out how to challenge some of the obnoxious perspectives about the way we move around, how we get our energy and where we live,” West says.
Part of Houston’s evolution will include shedding some of its vestigial nostalgia. “Houston hasn’t been a city of the future since the 1960s, you know? You can coast on a reputation only so long,” West says. “We’re still talking about the Astrodome, about NASA, about the first heart transplant, as though those things are still ‘futuristic’ now, but they’re not.”
The next batch of Houston “icons” will be the ones who make it a better place to live, and that won’t mean winning sports titles or opening up new bars for the cool kids.
“The people who will do the most transformative work for the future of the city will connect across the big disciplines, such as urban design and planning, landscape architecture, community building, resilience and sustainability and equity work,” West continues.
Let’s just hope they have a personality to match those heroics.