. Consequences of obesity Though Houston is the largest city in the United States without formal zoning regulations it has developed similarly to other Sun Belt cities because the city's land use regulations and legal covenants have played a similar role. Regulations include mandatory lot size for single-family houses and requirements that parking be available to tenants and customers Such restrictions have had mixed results Though some have blamed the city's low density urban sprawl and lack of pedestrian-friendliness on these policies the city's land use has also been credited with having significant affordable housing sparing Houston the worst effects of the 2008 real estate crisis the city issued 42,697 building permits in 2008 and was ranked first in the list of healthiest housing markets for 2009. Average precipitation inches (mm) 5.35 Gulf beach near Sabine Pass, During its recent history Houston has flooded several times from heavy rainfall which has been becoming increasingly common. This has been exacerbated by a lack of zoning laws which allowed unregulated building of residential homes and other structures in flood-prone areas. During the floods in 2015 and 2016 each of which dropped at least a foot of rain parts of the city were covered in several inches of water. Even worse flooding happened in late August 2017 when Hurricane Harvey stalled over southeastern Texas much like Tropical Storm Allison did sixteen years earlier causing severe flooding in the Houston area with some areas receiving over 50 inches (1,300 mm) of rain the rainfall exceeded 50 inches in several areas locally breaking the national record for rainfall the damage for the Houston area is estimated at up to $125 billion U.S dollars and it is considered to be one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States with the death toll exceeding 70 people on January 31 2018 the Houston City Council agreed to forgive large water bills thousands of households faced in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey as Houston Public Works found 6,362 homeowners' water utility bills had at least doubled. .
Since 1980 most Texas voters have supported Republican presidential candidates in 2000 and 2004 Republican George W Bush won Texas with respectively 59.3 and 60.1 percent of the vote partly due to his "favorite son" status as a former governor of the state John McCain won the state in 2008 but with a smaller margin of victory compared to Bush at 55 percent of the vote Austin Dallas Houston and San Antonio consistently lean Democratic in both local and statewide elections, Part of the state's tradition of cowboys is derived from the massive cattle drives which its ranchers organized in the nineteenth century to drive livestock to railroads and markets in Kansas for shipment to the East Towns along the way such as Baxter Springs the first cow town in Kansas developed to handle the seasonal workers and tens of thousands of head of cattle being driven, Tourism has not been a highly significant source of economic activity in East Texas although several high-traffic corridors pass through East Texas which have aided economic development along those routes These include: Interstate 30 (from Dallas through Texarkana) Interstate 20 (through Dallas and on through Shreveport) Interstate 10 (through Houston and Beaumont into Louisiana) Interstate 45 (through Houston up to Dallas) and U.S Highway 59 (through Houston and north past Texarkana; in process of being upgraded along most of the route to Interstate 69). The 70,000-seat Rice Stadium designed in 1950 by Hermon Lloyd & W.B Morgan and Milton McGinty is of reinforced concrete with 30-inch (760 mm) diameter columns supporting the upper decks. Architecturally the stadium is an example of modernism with simple lines and an unadorned functional design the entire lower seating bowl is located below the surrounding ground level Intended solely for football games the stadium has excellent sightlines from almost every seat.
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