Is Texas the Happiest State in America?

Our daily roundup of Texas headlines.
 

By Becky FogelSeptember 19, 2016 11:07 am

Which states are the happiest? The folks over at finance website WalletHub looked at about 30 metrics to figure it out.

“So those metrics included emotional health, income levels – that age-old question of whether money really does buy happiness – and even things like activity rates and community involvement,” says Jill Gonzalez, an analyst with WalletHub.

It may be too soon for Texans to adopt this song as their theme music, because the Lone Star state is in the middle of the road in terms of overall happiness – ranking 29th out of all 50 states, plus D.C.

“When we’re looking at the depression rate, Texas has the fourth lowest depression rate in the country, which does bode well here. But people aren’t really talking about it,” Gonzalez says. “We looked at what’s called a hedonometer, which basically gauges the presence of happiness on social media by state. Texas ranked 48th so it seems that on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram Texans aren’t really giving out a positive attitude.”

The happiest state in WalletHub’s ranking was Utah.




The city of San Antonio is recommending that 29 old-time gas stations get historic landmark designations.

The San Antonio Express News reports that all of the stations were built before World War II.

Proponents say landmark status is a way to preserve the stations’ unique art deco and Mission Revival designs.




If voters approve a new stadium for the Texas Rangers in November, that doesn’t mean Globe Life Park is getting bulldozed. In fact, it may be turned into something else altogether. Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams announced a redevelopment plan on WFAA’s Inside Texas Politics show on Sunday.

“When you walk inside the ballpark, remember when you look up and see those beautiful green trusses with the Texas stars on them,” he says, “all that space was originally designed by the architects to be repurposed for restaurants, retails and convention center space.”

But what about the field? “You look at the field itself and it’s not hard to envision a park, and festival spaces, and amphitheaters that could be there,” he says.

Texas Rangers co-chairman and Managing Partner Ray Davis said in a statement that it’s “the Rangers’ intent to preserve the beautiful exterior façade of Globe Life Park.”