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Introduction

Houston is at a crossroads, with one pathway leading to adaptation and long-term success in the 21st century, and the other leading to failure based on inability to compete in the 21st century. Robert Johnson, the great blues musician, is pictured below because of a story surrounding his music. As the legend goes, Johnson left his home not being able to play the guitar, made a deal with the devil at the crossroads, and came back as a genius guitar-playing blues musician, embellishing the mythology of the crossroads as a mystical place. Some of the ideas of this paper may seem like a deal with the devil to some of you, but in my opinion, we need to learn to play the guitar and don’t really know how right now.

Figure 1 — Blues Musician Robert Johnson

The paper is broken into five parts: Houston’s past, current issues, ideas from others, our current assets for change, and ideas for adoption as future policy. The basic premise is that Houston’s current financial position in the world is at risk if we don’t change. And when you speak about money in Houston, people listen.

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