>from the dried and burnt California fled on the coattails of tech elite that spread like locusts from the barren wastes of decayed silicone valley to greener pastures in Austin, those that could afford the move. 

As someone who's lived in Austin for 24 years, I think it is very kind of you to think that this place [i]won't[/i] go up in flames due to our severe drought cycles and like we didn't just have massive wildfires that ravaged the entire north side of town about 10 years ago.

Now as for the actual setting of Houston proper, I can give some decent knowledge of the place, owing to the fact that I have a ton of friends and some family who have lived there for a while.

[quote=@Krash]
[@Gisk]

I'm trying to imagine a future refugee crisis and exodus from California, I know California has a pretty heavy Asian population as well with China, Japan, Korea, and even Taiwan having sizeable communities and wondering what some of that combining with Texas might be, there will definitely be some elements that come in and it won't be absent of Asian culture at all. I just don't want it [i]dominating[/i] the scene for lack of a better word. I was def already toying with how that idea would change in story.
[/quote]

There are some pretty good-sized Chinese and Vietnamese communities in Houston. It's Chinatown is a decent size, but it's more of an "Asiatown" for the entire Asian-American diaspora than anything specifically related to Chinese-Americans (If you think racism might have something to do with that, congratulations for using your brain and welcome to Texas). Most of the Vietnamese came there during the mid-70s and have stuck around since. You get occasional groups of Koreans and Japanese, but again, nothing i'd really consider out of the ordinary for 

About Houston's layout: It's [i]fucking disperse.[/i] If you want cyberpunk-styled megacomplexes and giant concrete spires, Houston [i]is [b]not[/b][/i] your place. All those pretty skyscrapers you see in those pictures of Houston's skyline? Yeeeeep, those are [i]all[/i] office buildings. You aren't gonna find too many high-rises over in H-town: It's a lot of like 2 or 3-story apartment complexes that look like Motel 6's and then a bunch of neighborhoods from around there, all stemming off from the absolute congestion nightmare that is Houston's infrastructure. Seriously. Driving in Houston should be standard practice for measuring someone's blood pressure. 

Now, there [i]is[/i] a decently interesting take you could spin this all with Houston's economy: A huge part of Houston's historic economy was how all the refineries and petroleum companies were located there. But if there's a huge shock and the oil industry is going to shit with a huge push for electric stuff and alternative energy, then all of a sudden Houston's staying power is thrown immediately out the window and it becomes another Detroit. So you could do some cool stuff where like abandoned refineries are used as hideouts and marketplaces, and there's all these basically-abandoned office high-rises downtown that have been basically converted into squatters' communities, maybe run by the local slum lord.