Alief, on the far southwest side of Houston, is one of the city’s most unique and diverse neighborhoods. It is home to immigrants from dozens of different countries across the world, and large enough that many consider it to be its own town or suburb, rather than a neighborhood of Houston.
But Alief, the most populous neighborhood in Houston, is also losing residents.
Here are a few things to know about the history and dynamics of Alief, and what’s being done to attract residents:
Alief’s founding
First settled in the late 19th century, the prairie land southwest of Houston was officially named “Alief” in 1887 after Alief Ozelda Magee, the area’s first postmistress, according to the Alief Super Neighborhood Council. For decades thereafter, most of the Alief area remained a pastoral hinterland until Houston’s gradual westward expansion led the city to begin annexing parts of Alief in 1977…