Interviewed on PBS News Hour about post-Harvey Houston development and recommendations going forward, New Opportunity Boomtown, Big Houston, market urbanism, and more
Before getting to this week's items, PBS News Hour had a 9-minute segment this week on Houston development after Harvey, which includes about a minute interviewing me starting at the 6:50 point. They interviewed me for about a half-hour on the top of my condo midrise in Midtown on Jan 12th, and it was freezing that day, thus the heavy coat. I think they did a fair job with the sound bites and summary of our conversation – I love that they used my “don’t throw the development baby out with the hurricane bathwater” line (which is my mantra/tagline on all things Harvey) - although I wish they had included the stat about Houston land developed since 1992 would have absorbed less than 0.4% of the water that fell.Moving on to this week's items:
- Speaking of Harvey, the National Hurricane Center has officially declared it a 1,000-year event (scroll down). Given that scale, it's amazing we did as well as we did. It also seems to me that it creates a very simple benchmark for new development: if it wouldn't have flooded during Harvey, it's fine.
- Boston explores what it would be like if they got a Harvey-like rainfall, and it's not pretty. No city could cope with the amount of rain we had. Hat tip to George.
- Nolan Gray at CityLab gives three recommendations for a post-Harvey Houston to help it become more dense and urban, including:
- Eliminate parking requirements (agree to long-term reductions)
- Scale back minimum lot sizes (agree)
- Get street design right (disagree on being hostile to cars)
I like that he gives a shout-out to the flexibility and adapatability of our lack of zoning, but I'm not as opposed to development on the fringes as he is. I like that we allow both urban and suburban development and let people choose what works for their lives.
- The Kinder Institute blog has their own discussion of regulatory changes to make Houston more walkable, which sound mostly ok to me, although I'm more of a fan of neighborhood opt-in rather than mandatory.
- Seven more good recommendations for a post-Harvey Houston.
- Texas Monthly: Further Proof That Houston Is So Much Bigger Than Most Cities. Great comparative maps and they don't even include the Grand Parkway loop! Hat tip to Howard.
- Samantha Brown's Places to Love series comes to Houston - and she loves it! (video)
- Houston gets listed as a New Opportunity Boomtown
- Guardian profile of a really interesting free-market/libertarian architect (Howard Roark! ;-) that is being attacked by more extreme urbanists on the left. Hat tip to George.
- From Market Urbanist Scott Beyer: Richard Florida's book hits, then misses, the New Urban crisis: If spatial segregation is the cause of urban America’s problems, then zoning deregulation is the solution. Maybe not a surprise, but I love this and totally agree!
- Another great Market Urbanism post on the history and market distortions of zoning, with something originally aimed at preventing nuisances quickly being abused to be exclusionary.
Labels: creative class, density, development, economy, hurricanes, land-use regulation, market urbanism, new urbanism, perspectives, tourism, walkability, zoning
posted by Tory Gattis @ 7:09 PM
2 Comments:
I'm not sure the CityLab article struck me as "hostile to cars". Restricting traffic speed isn't the same as restricting traffic volume. Some sort of traffic calming is a pre-requisite for increasing the incidence of walking, which in turn is necessary to reduce congestion. And lower parking minimums will only result in less parking if other modes increase their share.
Also, our RoW's are generally overly wide. In parts of the city, 36% of land area is right of way. It's very difficult for the remaining 64% of land area to generate enough tax revenue to support all that infrastructure.
It's Rodeo Time.
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