Houston Is A Global City, Foreign Policy Magazine Declares

Photo courtesy GHCVB

A global city....with a disappointing football team

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Foreign Policy magazine, desperate to hike pageviews now that their "Hottest Women of Diplomacy" issue is a thing of the past (or of our imagination) has ranked the 65 "Global Cities" of the world.

The magazine looked at 65 cities with more than 1 million residents and then tried to

measure how much sway a city has over what happens beyond its own borders -- its influence on and integration with global markets, culture, and innovation...Data ranged from how many Fortune Global 500 company headquarters were in a city to the size of its capital markets and the flow of goods through its airports and ports, as well as factors such as the number of embassies, think tanks, political organizations, and museums.'

And how did Houston do? Pretty darn well. We came in 38th overall, seventh eighth among U.S. cities.

For some reason FP illustrates the city via a guy walking with an umbrella through the Hurricane Ike wind, but offers this analysis: "Long famous for its energy companies, Houston is now striving to also be a leader in medicine. The Texas Medical Center in Houston, renowned as a top-flight research center, reportedly conducts more heart surgeries than anywhere else in the world."

Heart surgeon to the world....Better than hog butcher, we guess

In case you're wondering, no other Texas cities made the list.