“THINGS ARE SMOKIN’ IN TEXAS” CHAMBER SPEAKER HOBBY SAYS

  

“Things are ‘smokin’ in Houston, and Texas,” according to Paul Hobby, the keynote speaker at last (Thursday) night’s Washington County Chamber of Commerce Banquet at the Fireman’s Training Center.

Hobby is the Chair of the Greater Houston Partnership, which he says ‘tries to steer the beast’ that is the Houston area economy.  Hobby told the packed house that, the Houston and Texas economy is booming after the economic disaster of the last five years, saying that Houston was the last in the recession and the first out.

He attributes this not to the oil or the geographic location,  ‘the optimism thing.’   Hobby says comparisons with California or with Chicago won’t work because in Houston ‘nobody’s in charge.’  Hobby explained after his talk.

Hobby said Houston has no problem with dispensing with its past and moving on, referring to the Astrodome, which may face demolition.  He said he was a typical Houstonian, in saying that it was time to move on.

Hobby recounted his family’s long history in Texas, noting his grandmother Ovita Culp Hobby founded the Houston Post, his grandfather, Will Hobby was governor and his father, Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby was the longest serving lieutenant governor in the state’s history.

Hobby has a record of achievement, being for former advisor to the lieutenant governor, former assistant U.S. District Attorney, a graduate from the University of Virginia and the University of Texas Law School.