Houston Strategies

Several items this week, but first, our Center For Opportunity Urbanism has released its first short promotional video!

• I tweeted with John Arnold about Mayor Turner's proposed pension reforms. Here's what he said. Mixed overall, and the jury is still out depending on the details. 
• News flash: To keep housing costs in check, you must allow both urban and suburban supply - urban is not enough. What if urban sprawl is the only realistic way to create affordable cities? WSJ
• In the same theme, Michael Lewyn has a great new paper out showing how NIMBYs drive up housing costs (Antiplanner reaction).

"In sum, less government regulation means lower housing costs."

• Richard Florida on the difficulties of density - which peaked in America in the 1950s - and the land-use trilemma (below). No matter what you do, there are tradeoffs. And we need to recognize the reality that, as society gets wealthier, people want more personal space.

• Atlantic CityLab talks about Houston's Cistern, which I visited on Saturday. Just amazing. Highly recommend the tour, especially as this may be your only chance to see them "raw" - next year they'll start hosting art exhibitions.  The 17-second echo is a pretty incredible experience, and the water is such a perfectly still mirror you'll swear there's another walking ledge down below...

"Clothing can protect you from rain, wind, and cold while biking – it cannot protect you from extremes of heat and humidity that Denmark does not face. Nobody has yet invented the air conditioned jacket. Houston should certainly improve its biking infrastructure where it can, but let’s not harbor any illusions about significantly reducing cars and their very critical air conditioning in this city…"

• If you're curious how the generations break down in Houston, especially millennials, the GHP has a great analysis in their latest report (link expires at the end of Sept 2016)