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Article snippet: HOUSTON — This city sprawls over 600 square miles, an area so big that Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Detroit could all fit within it simultaneously. The nine-county Houston metropolitan region, covering more than 10,000 square miles, is almost as large as the entire state of Massachusetts. No single image or patch of land tells the whole story of Houston. But a journey along the 21-mile stretch of Interstate 45 starting near George Bush Intercontinental Airport that leads downtown toward the site where the city was founded is one place to start. The highway now traverses vast stretches of dislocation and pain in the wake of Hurricane Harvey’s wrath, as Houstonians begin coming to grips with the devastation that the receding floods left behind. But the road also reflects the essence of an often misunderstood city. On the surface, Houston is a utilitarian, sometimes unsightly sprawl of supercharged commerce. Underneath, it can often be a place of remarkable heart and grit, a city built on inhospitable ground that fully expects to rebuild from the storm’s ravages. Here are snapshots along the road. The view from up here on the highway is unromantic and brutally efficient, not unlike the overall aesthetic of a city synonymous with air-conditioning and AstroTurf. It is all pavement, sky, Jersey barrier, billboard and Long John Silver’s. But down below on West Road, another Houston goes largely unseen. A homeless man who lives beneath the overpass with his wife ... Link to the full article to read more