Professional and Career Topics

The June 11 Source Article, "ASCE's top 10 Best Places to Be a Civil Engineer in 2025," lists Houston as the #1 city. Really? I have nothing against Houston, having lived here off and on for nearly 44 years. However, one needs to be prepared for an oppressive summer climate, the need to drive 600 miles to see the mountains, and an unbounded sprawl. The weakness of laws and ordinances regarding land use, while great for development, comes with a downside of contributing to the sprawl. There is more to a decision on where to live than salary and cost of living. Maybe other Houstonians could help get me out of my funk.

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Mitch Winkler P.E.(inactive), M.ASCE
Houston, TX
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I share your skepticism, Mitch. Such rankings are popular but seldom compelling to me. The list consists of cities much larger than I want to live in. The advantages cited in the article -- salaries and cost of living -- are too often offset by traffic and crime woes. They often provide health care, restaurant, and shopping selection superior to rural areas but none of these positives and negatives go into the ASCE rankings. In other rankings, the weight applied to these positive and negative factors sometimes seem suspicious. Nevertheless, were I looking for a place to relocate, I might use the ASCE rankings together with a quality of life ranking for small suburbs near those cities.

Bill Mc

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William McAnally Ph.D., P.E., BC.CE, BC.NE, F.ASCE
ENGINEER
Columbus MS
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