From time to time, Houston Matters seeks to learn more about the communities that make up and surround the Greater Houston area. On this edition of the program, we learn about the city of Katy, 30 miles west of downtown Houston.
The city is named for the "Katy" Railroad – which was, in turn, a nickname for the MKT or Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, which ran through town starting in 1895.
Katy is a home rule city, incorporated in 1945, and while it has just 15,000 residents, it's surrounded by a Greater Katy area covering some 180 square miles, with a population of about 270,000.
We talk with Katy Mayor Fabol Hughes and Kayce Reina, Director of Tourism, Marketing and Public Relations for the city. Then, we welcome your questions and comments for Jim Levesque, Editor of the Katy Edition of the Community Impact Newspaper.
Also this hour: Houston Public Media’s Laura Isensee reports on a graduation ceremony for the online college Western Governors University and talks with new WGU Texas Chancellor Veronica Stidvent.
And: The Houston Cinema Arts Festival kicks off today, featuring more than 50 narrative and documentary films about artists in the visual, performing and literary arts. Among them: Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People. Houston Matters’ Maggie Martin talks with writer and director Thomas Allen Harris about the film, which explores the role of photography in shaping the identity, aspirations and social emergence of African Americans from the days of slavery to today.
