Is Houston Better Off Flying Under the Rest of the Nation’s Radar?

Houston’s received a lot of positive press in recent years for things like being the most diverse city in the nation, for our abundant and growing food and arts scenes, for our economic success, for being the city today that the rest of America may look like in the future, and much more.

We still might not be used to all the attention and remain frustrated by lingering “East Coast bias” in national media. But there’s something to be said for flying under the radar. For example: is anyone really upset that Greater Houston’s largely been an afterthought in coverage of the most recent developments of the Robert Durst saga? Or that while much of the nation was socked in by blizzard conditions this winter, they didn’t notice we were carrying on blissfully above freezing?

How do we handle the attention we do get? And when are we better off simply flying under the rest of the nation’s radar? Do you want America to pay more attention to us, for both our successes and our shortcomings? Or are we better off keeping mum about all that’s great (and occasionally not-so-great) in Greater Houston?

We welcome your calls and discuss this with Craig Hlavaty, a reporter who’s written on this very issue for the Houston Chronicle Media Group; James Glassman, the founder and director of Houstorian, a preservation group; and Mike McGuff, Houston media blogger.