Houston gets picked on a lot for its poor air quality, and it is true of course that some of it comes from auto traffic, but the city also has one of the largest ports in the US, and there are a lot of oil refineries in the area. The other Texas cities basically are no different. They're largely built in the same way, but what they lack is a seaport and factories and oil refineries located between them and the coast. All of that air pollution is being blown inland from the gulf. It's the same reason Houston is so humid. Its lush canopy of pine trees also doesn't help since they actually trap some of the air pollution. I've seen it myself even in rural low density areas (away from Houston) where you wouldn't expect to see much air pollution.
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