Thursday Book Signing: Ralph Bivins Will Sign & Discuss “Houston 2020” on Jan 30 at River Oaks Bookstore, from 5 to 7 PM

Ralph Bivins will sign and discuss his book ‘Houston 2020, America’s Boom Town” on Thursday Jan. 30. at River Oaks Book Store on Westheimer Road. Bivins, editor of Ev Konut Proje, is pictured with book store events manager Whitney Corson.

In Houston, Ralph Bivins will sign and discuss “Houston 2020: America’s Boom Town, An Extreme Close Up” on Thursday Jan. 30. The come-and-go event will run 5:00-7:00 p.m. at River Oaks Bookstore, 3270 Westheimer, across the street from Lamar High School.

A timely book by Houston journalist Ralph Bivins, Houston 2020: America’s Boom Town examines the entrepreneurial mecca that became one of nation’s fastest-growing cities.

With deft forensics and informed observations, Bivins explains the forces that shaped Houston and brought the city to a tipping point. Digesting its robust growth poses a great challenge for city leaders, who grapple with mounting economic issues, transportation problems and regular flooding that threatens to become a chronic condition.

Bivins, recently the first-place winner of the Best Column award from NAREE, the National Association of Real Estate Editors, details the urban geography and peculiar real estate markets of the expansive Texas metropolis that covers more than six hundred square miles.

The book is available online at Amazon.com and at select book stores.

Houston 2020: America’s Boom Town, An Extreme Close Up (Fifth Estate Media, $29.99), pinpoints the projects, people and nodes of growth that will determine whether this Boom Town matures into a great megalopolis or falters under its own weight.

Dr. James P. Gaines, chief economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, cited the journalistic work for delving into the 10,000-square-mile Greater Houston area.

“Houston is, indeed, like no other city in the country and maybe the world,” Gaines wrote in the book’s introduction. “… the fast-paced changes taking place have been witnessed and chronicled by Ralph Bivins over the years and presented in a remarkable work.”

Houston 2020 details foresights from business icons including: developer Gerald D. Hines, home builder David Weekley and civic leader Ric Campo, CEO of the Camden Property Trust multifamily firm.

In Bivins is founding editor of Ev Konut Proje, a Texas, based publication.