Bob Lanier (born March 10, 1925) is a businessman in the real estate industry (Landar) who became mayor of the city of Houston, Texas from 1992 to 1998. March 10 is the 69th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (70th in leap years). ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... A businessman (sometimes businesswoman, female; or businessperson, gender neutral) is a generic term for a wide range of people engaged in profit-oriented enterprises, generally the management of a company. ... Real estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings. ... A mayor (from the Latin māior, meaning larger,greater) is in modern times the title of the highest ranking municipal officer, who discharges certain judicial and administrative functions, in many systems an elected politician, who serves as chief executive and/or ceremonial official of many types of municipalities. ... Chicago from the air. ... Nickname: Bayou City Location in the state of Texas Coordinates: Counties Harris County Fort Bend County Montgomery County Mayor Bill White Area    - City 1,558 km²  (601. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

Bob Lanier

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Background

One of the most popular mayors in Houston's history, Bob Lanier was elected three times in the 90s before term limits forced him from office in 1998. Lanier averaged 88 percent in his re-election races, with strong support in each political party and ethnic group.

Born to working class parents in the refinery town of Baytown, Texas in 1925, Lanier was a child of the Great Depression who was greatly influenced by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s policies. The idea that leaders could and should help the working class remained a fundamental belief for him throughout his life. Lanier worked his way through college and started his long and prestigious career as a suma cum laude graduate from the University of Texas Law School in 1949. Initially employed by Baker & Botts law firm, Lanier practiced for a decade before switching gears to pursue a business career.

During that business career he worked in banking and eventually he established himself as a major Houston real estate developer, focusing mostly on subdivisions and apartments.

Political career

Lanier always felt public service was a noble calling and before seeking his first and only elective office as Houston’s mayor in 1991, he was a gubernatorial appointee to the Texas Highway Commission, which he chaired, and chairman of METRO, Houston’s transit authority. Lanier also was a founding member of Houston Community College, which he continues to support.

As mayor, Lanier’s actions were guided by three core values:

• • That Houston should capitalize on its diversity
  • That his administration had to improve the city’s infrastructure, particularly the inner city, and bring it to the level of the more affluent suburbs.
  • That public safety should be improved.

His legacy reflects his success as mayor in those areas. To his successor, Lanier bequeathed a city that embraced its diversity, with urban neighborhoods in good shape and a population that enjoyed some of the lowest crime rates in decades.

Lanier left office with a 78 percent approval rating even after taking up and winning four tough battles in his final year: Lanier defeated a tax limitation referendum, won a pro-sports stadia election and legislation, successfully annexed a prosperous, resistant suburb, and successfully defended a major attack on Houston's affirmative action program.

Achievments

Joel Kotkin, senior fellow at the Davenport Institute for Public Policy at Pepperdine University has called Lanier’s inner city rehabilitation the best in the nation.

According to political scientist and pollster Dr. Richard Murray, director of the Center for Public Policy at the University of Houston, Lanier is considered one of the country’s top mayors, along with Chicago's Richard Daley, Sr. and New York's Fiorello LaGuardia.

The Texas NAACP presented him its Texas Hero award and he also received the Hubert Humphrey Civil Rights Award. His work in transportation earned him the National Auto Dealers' Award. His work in finance brought a Bond Market Association Award. And his achievements in beautification, working with his wife Elyse, led to two national awards for clean up, environment and beautification.

Lanier’s achievements were also recognized by the Texas State Leadership and Houston Preservation Award. He has received special recognition from former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore and former Texas governor, now President Bush.

In 2000, he received the Leadership Houston Distinguished Service Award and the Urban Beautification Award from the American Horticultural Society. Most recently, he was inducted into the Texas Transportation Institute's Hall of Honor at Texas A&M University.

Mayor Lanier also headed the corporation that oversaw construction of the city's new Hilton Americas – Houston, the city’s first convention center hotel – a project that started during his administration.

At a reduced pace, but not yet retired, Lanier manages his real estate properties, lectures several times a year, oversees the Lanier Public Policy Conferences at the University of Houston and participates in various civic, academic and political activities where he feels he can be helpful.

Personal life

He and his wife Elyse, live in Houston as do their seven children and 11 grandchildren.