Texan and Urban

I moved to Houston from Seattle for college back in 1994, and was confused to find out how different those two US cities were: the heat, the HUGE bugs, the jungle-like plants cracking through the cement, the more diverse but more segmented society, the odd prevalence of billboards advertising bail bonds and paternity tests and divorce lawyers along the never-ending highways. 

Texas continues to urbanize fast  - here's a great article from the Dallas Morning News about how Texas has two of America's biggest cities and how Texan urbanism is developing fast and differently from most coastal cities.