Houston is located 165 miles (266 km) east of Austin 88 miles (142 km) west of the Louisiana border and 250 miles (400 km) south of Dallas the city has a total area of 637.4 square miles (1,651 km2); this comprises over 599.59 square miles (1,552.9 km2) of land and 22.3 square miles (58 km2) covered by water. Most of Houston is located on the gulf coastal plain and its vegetation is classified as Western Gulf coastal grasslands while further north it transitions into a subtropical jungle the Big Thicket Much of the city was built on forested land marshes swamp and are all still visible in surrounding areas.[citation needed] Flat terrain and extensive greenfield development have combined to worsen flooding. Downtown stands about 50 feet (15 m) above sea level and the highest point in far northwest Houston is about 150 feet (46 m) in elevation the city once relied on groundwater for its needs but land subsidence forced the city to turn to ground-level water sources such as Lake Houston Lake Conroe and Lake Livingston the city owns surface water rights for 1.20 billion gallons of water a day in addition to 150 million gallons a day of groundwater, Many of the organs of the Harris County government reside in the Harris County Campus in Downtown Houston. 5.3 Administrative divisions In 2006 the Houston metropolitan area ranked first in Texas and third in the U.S within the category of "Best Places for Business and Careers" by Forbes magazine. Ninety-one foreign governments have established consular offices in Houston's metropolitan area the third-highest in the nation. Forty foreign governments maintain trade and commercial offices here with 23 active foreign chambers of commerce and trade associations. Twenty-five foreign banks representing 13 nations operate in Houston providing financial assistance to the international community. Music The Niels Esperson Building stood as the tallest building in Houston from 1927 to 1929 Sports 10.1 Land use politics. . . . .
. The Astrodome was well-renowned for a four-story scoreboard called the "Astrolite" composed of thousands of light bulbs that featured numerous animations After every Astros home run the scoreboard featured a minute-long animated celebration of pistols bulls and fireworks the scoreboard remained intact until 1988 when Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans) owner Bud Adams suggested the removal of the scoreboard to accommodate increased capacity demands for football baseball and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Harris County spent $67 million of public funds on renovations. Approximately 15,000 new seats resembling the 1970s rainbow uniform pattern were installed to bring seating capacity to almost 60,000 for football on September 5 1988 a final celebration commemorating the scoreboard occurred prior to expansion renovations! . . . 12 Further reading The Houston Ship Channel connecting the Port of Houston to the Gulf passes through Galveston Bay Houston is the largest city on the bay while smaller ones include Galveston Pasadena Baytown and Texas City the bay provides nursery and spawning grounds for large amounts of marine life and is important for both commercial and recreational fishing, 1950s 7.1 Ixtoc I explosion and oil spill, Texas has a reputation of very harsh criminal punishment for criminal offenses It is one of the 32 states that practice capital punishment and since the US Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976 40% of all US executions have taken place in Texas as of 2008 Texas had the 4th highest incarceration rate in the US. Texas also has strong self defense laws allowing citizens to use lethal force to defend themselves their families or their property.
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