I used to live outside of Houston (out 290 past Jersey Village) but have some experiences with a number of parts of H-town.

Currently, I live in Austin, Tx.

Watcha wanna know?

Houston is a big city, geographically, spread out in all directions.  One's subdivision or local high school is a more important landmark than almost anything, especially if one lives outside the Loop (IH-610) or the Beltway (Sam Houston Toll-road also called Beltway .  IH-10, US Routes 290 and 59 are important roads as well.  Areas in the south and east are more prone to flooding from heavy rains.  Buffalo Bijou runs through downtown.  Bush International is the major airport, but Hobby still operates and is located almost downtown (kinda like O'Hare and Midway, Kennedy and LaGuardia or DFW and Love Field).  There are a number of different school districts in the area (HISD is only for Houston proper) and if one grew up in or around the area, one's school district, and especially high school is a more important indicator of living area than nearly anything else.

Nasa's Houston Control is in Clear Lake.  Rice is actually IN Houston (West U area), the Ninth Ward is sorta the Houston equivalent to Compton (in S-Central LA) but the city if fairly diverse racially.  There are very large communities of Vietnamese, Koreans, Hindi's, Hispanics (Mexicans, Texicans and Tejanos).  There are still plenty of rednecks though. 

The place was built on a swamp and it feels like it.  It's damn near always humid (one wit, okay it was me, likes to joke that the rain is only humidity you can actually see.)

Belaire is a township within Houston City limits, but it's a different municipality, complete w/ it's own police force (whose job seems to be mostly harassing motorists who don't live in Belaire.

Sharpstown has a high concentration of Vietnamese and is at rare times referred to as 'Little Saigon'

Montrose is the "arts" district and a long time bastion of more liberal/socially progressive lifestyles.  Also has some of the best bar/club venues.

River Heights is where the 'old money' used to live way back when.  It was pretty run down for a while but has gentrified greatly.

Houston has very little in the way of zoning laws (or at least it used to).

Harris County Constables range throughout the area.  HPD is restricted to Houston.  If you're writing anything about law enforcement, keep that in mind. 

Lots of so-called Houstonians don't actually live IN Houston.  They live out in the surrounding 'burbs.

The city has a butte-load of great eateries.  Not many know Houston as a gourmand's paradise, but whatever you may be hungry for, you can find it, and it's usually top notch.  Maybe not world-class, Michalen three-star, but damn good. 

That's about it for now.  If you have specific question about specific areas, e-mail me