|
|
Houston (U.S.)
The fourth-largest city in the US is a sprawling metropolis of
highrises(高楼大厦), malls and parking lots(停车场). Hot, humid and flat, Houston may
not be Texas" premier destination, but it has much to offer, including great
museums, beautiful parks, a hip young population and a variety of excellent
excursions.
The days when cows and oilmen(石油商)roamed the streets of Houston are long
gone. Houston dominates southeastern Texas, thanks to a historic commitment to
growth typical of the Lone Star state(得克萨斯州的别名), characterized by a lack of
zoning and other planning restrictions, resulting in a sprawling, confusing
city.
Downtown Houston, the original business center, is a thicket of highrises
interspersed(散布)with parking lots, ringed by elevated freeways. The streets can
seem surprisingly empty during the day, with nary a pedestrian(一个行人也没有)to be
found braving the hot and shimmering sidewalks. But the people are there. In a
variation of a post-apocalyptic(后世界末日)nightmare, most downtown buildings are
linked by air-conditioned underground pedestrian tunnels lined with shops and
restaurants. After dark, the area is sparsely populated above and below ground,
though some life can be found around the new baseball stadium and in the north
end"s nightclub district. Major neighborhoods include Houston Heights, an
affluent, quiet residential area north of downtown, overlooking the Buffalo
Bayou(布法罗湾); Montrose, the center of Houston"s gay scene, with a funky mix of
shops, restaurants, galleries and tattoo parlors a few blocks southwest of
downtown.
Houston got its start in 1836, when brothers Augustus and John Allen set up
a trading post on the Buffalo Bayou, a river that now meanders(蜿蜒)through the
heart of the city. The Allens named their new holding Houston in honor of
General Sam Houston, who had just defeated the Mexican Army at San Jacinto. The
coming of the railroad boosted the economy in the 1860s and 1870s, but the real
prosperity was still around the corner.
It was the 1901 discovery of oil at nearby Spindletop that put Houston on
the road to riches. The city"s only obstacle to growth was its
sweltering(闷热的)summer heat, but beginning in the 1930s, the widespread
availability of air conditioning made massive downtown development a
reality.
Beginning in the 1950s, downtown underwent wave after wave of skyscraper
construction. Hand in hand with the building boom was a craze to raze: dozens of
older commercial and residential buildings were leveled and turned into parking
lots for the growing army of office workers. NASA"s Mission Control Center
opened a few miles from Houston in 1963, and six years later the city"s name
became the first word ever spoken by a human being on the surface of the
moon.
Throughout the 1970s, Houston"s fortunes continued skyward(向上的). When oil
reached a barrel in 1981, Houston was awash in money as scores of happy Texans
got rich quick; four years later, the price of oil plummeted(直线下降)to single
digits and Houstonians got poor even faster. Glitzy(耀眼的，炫目的)but empty highrises
stood next to giant construction holes that had to be filled back in when the
financing ran out.
In the 1990s, Houston"s economy diversified as the city rode the general
economic boom that swept the US. In 1997, Houston elected its first black mayor,
Lee Brown. The following year, Houston was drenched by a torrential downpour and
menaced by tornadoes. The floodwaters were strong enough to sweep houses off
their foundations. Several people were killed and large areas of the city
remained under water for days.
|
|
发表于 2016-7-9 23:20:58