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Prism Geo · United States · Texas · Houston · What problems are increasing?
Civic record · Houston

What problems are increasing in Houston?

Every civic news report geolocated to Houston, classified into an open problem vocabulary, and trended as a share of the city's total coverage.

Summary

Houston's civic burden is shifting from everyday violence toward shocks and systems: disaster and emergency coverage took a bigger slice, up 7.9 points, while crime and violence fell 9.3 points. Power outages were the fastest-growing specific problem, up 2.08 points.

WATCH Watch whether outage and flood coverage keeps displacing crime as the city's defining civic concern.
Full category ledger
CategoryNews ReportedShare Change (points)Action RateFatal Rate
Disasters Emergencies4,303+7.90.5%33.0%
Governance Policy1,534+3.83.7%2.1%
Infrastructure Utilities762+2.64.7%2.4%
Immigration Border438+2.511.6%2.3%
Policing Law Enforcement1,855+2.219.7%25.0%
Corruption Fraud475+1.249.3%0.0%
Terrorism Conflict68+0.467.6%5.9%
Legal Judicial737+0.223.1%5.8%
Education98+0.21.0%0.0%
Labor Employment55+0.214.5%0.0%
Protest Civil Unrest256+0.05.1%5.1%
Environment Pollution343-0.14.7%2.3%
Human Rights Social99-0.18.1%6.1%
Elections Politics235-0.43.0%0.0%
Public Safety818-0.73.8%16.0%
Public Health782-1.83.6%20.3%
Missing Persons652-2.617.6%5.2%
Accidents Road Safety3,008-6.24.1%45.4%
Crime Violence11,002-9.336.6%34.7%
Rising sub-problems
ProblemNews ReportedΔpp
Power Outage233+2.08
Flood2010+1.54
Hurricane272+0.93
Hurricane Power Outage69+0.93
Helicopter Crash83+0.79
Storm Damage72+0.71
Murder Suicide101+0.70
Meteor Impact42+0.56
Robbery Shooting43+0.49
Homicide Attempt90+0.48
Receding sub-problems
ProblemNews ReportedΔpp
Homicide6171-4.41
Crowd Surge249-2.85
Homicide Attempted404-1.17
Theft217-1.07
Officer Shooting444-1.02
Crowd Crush75-0.88
Coverage volume by year
2026: 1,615201720261,615
Corroborated fatal events (≥3 news reports agreeing; conflicting tolls merged into a range, never summed)
Coverage MonthEvent TypeDeaths ReportedCorroborating News Reports
2019-02Homicide9010
2018-08Hurricane68–8812
2017-10Hurricane Relief60–8010
2020-07Disease Outbreak807
2017-09Flood7014
2018-08Flood687

27,520 pieces of news reported · deaths shown only for corroborated events, never summed

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