Houston Strategies

Mayor Parker's legacy term, economists vs rail, Chicago vs us, GHP 2014 forecast, and more

Some smaller misc items this week:

• Great Cite story on the history, architecture, and future of Rice Stadium.  Hat tip to Walker.
• Chicago vs. Houston in 4 charts. Zing! Hat tip to Chris.
• 2014 GHP employment forecast, where they expect us to moderate to more sustainable growth.  I do think it would be good to have moderate growth for a while and let home builders catch up before we lose our affordability from demand temporarily outpacing supply.  Lots of good data, analysis and insights in here.  KUHF story here.
• A pretty cool scale model of downtown Houston.
• Do Economists Reach a Conclusion On Rail Transit?  Hat tip to Barry.  Conclusion:

"What conclusions can we draw from economists’ view of rail transit? Economists demonstrate a range of views regardless of the particular justification examined. Still some justifications receive more support than others. Although the matter is filled with disagreement and caveats, economists appear to be the most optimistic about rail transit’s impact on economic development, especially its impact on residential housing values. Economists seem to be less optimistic about rail’s ability to achieve environmental improvement and serve the transit dependent poor. Economists seem quite pessimistic about rail’s ability to achieve key transportation-related goals, like reducing congestion, and they tend to see other modes, primarily bus, as more functional and worthwhile. Economists often attribute rail’s political success to their belief that decision-makers are motivated by rent-seeking and romantic factors. Of those economists who offer a big-picture view, there appears to be wide, though not unanimous, agreement that rail’s costs exceed its benefits. And it seems that almost all economists who write about rail agree that various demographic features, such as suburbanization, the declining influence of central business districts, and increasing wealth will make it increasingly difficult to design successful rail systems."

• Another one from Barry: zoning success factors for streetcars.  Excerpt:

"Transportation engineers are loath to support new streetcar lines because they cannot understand why it makes sense to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in a rail line when a far cheaper bus service would provide similar, or even more, mobility benefits. From the pure perspective of moving people from one place to another, streetcars are irrational investments. Some Portland residents have expressed concerns that the streetcar has been excessively subsidized even as bus routes have faced service cuts and increasing fares because of declining revenue."

On a final note, after speaking with Mayor Parker last week at her holiday party, I do have very high hopes for her final term to finally address some critical long-term issues for Houston, including pensions sustainability and the Ike Dike.  These would be signature legacy accomplishments if achieved.  If you're in a position to support her on these issues (as well as others) in some way, I sincerely hope you do so (and yes, I'm talking to you, county, state, and federal legislators).  It's time to stop kicking the can down the road making these issues the next mayor's problem.

Labels: economy, growth, home affordability, hurricanes, infrastructure, mobility strategies, politics, rail, zoning

posted by Tory Gattis @ 6:52 PM