Tuesday, June 01, 2021

Be Someone City Opportunity Urbanism event, relaxing min parking reqs, HTX #1 building homes, hurricane risk, and more

The lead item this week is a Houston event I'll be speaking at Wednesday evening June 16th: Building a 'Be Someone' City: Houston and the Rise of Opportunity Urbanism

"Cities have historically been the gateway to America and our nation’s promise of opportunity and upward mobility. Today, however, many of our nation’s highest profile cities have become ‘luxury products’ affordable only for the highest income earners. Houston and other ‘opportunity cities’ have historically bucked this trend by embracing policies that lower the cost of living, create jobs, and enhance the quality of life for all. But a continuation of this success is under threat from an array of proposed ‘command and control’ policies that will erode our city’s dynamism. Houston’s success is no accident, and it’s future is worth fighting for.

Join the Liberty Leadership Council and the Urban Reform Institute for a vibrant discussion of Houston’s market-centered, ‘people-oriented’ approach to urban policy, planning, and development.

We’ll talk zoning, transportation, infrastructure, housing, and everything in between—all while enjoying views of downtown and toasting the Bayou City."

You can register here and I hope to see you there!

Moving on to this week's items:

  • City Journal: End of the Road for Parking Requirements - They serve as a tax on housingHouston should pass a plan to automatically reduce parking minimums citywide by 8%/year - enough for real impact over time w/o public blowback. Why keep building parking that autonomous taxis will make obsolete in the 2030s or even sooner?
  • Excerpts from a Market Urbanist Scott Beyer Facebook post after his most recent trip to Texas:

"Texas is already known for high econ freedom and autonomy from the feds. The more I learn, the more unique it seems on this front. Counties without zoning. Toll roads galore. Limited land handed to the feds. Independent not unified school districts. Separate energy grid. Higher speed limits. And I could go on. The governance here is truly different. 

A culture of exceptionalism: Texas wants to be the best, and has built an unapologetic brand around it - “everything’s bigger in Texas.” Coastal urban America used to have that bravado, but is now overcome with Nimbyism and guilt-mongering."

"More permits (48,208) were issued last year for new-home construction in the Houston area than anywhere else in the U.S. DFW ranked second (43,884), and Austin held the No. 5 spot (21,653)."

  • Houston and NOx and SOx – Companion Pollutants
  • Drive & Listen: Wow this is super cool and mesmerizing. You can set the speed of the vehicle, street noise, music - even change radio stations while driving in 50 different cities around the world, spending as much time as you like in any one of them. Someone needs to do this for Houston!

Finally, we'll end with a little dark humor meme that makes a great point:

Ever-growing layers of bureaucracy are how societies stagnate, and it's the direct cause of increasing unaffordability in cities across the country.

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1 Comments:

At 12:22 PM, June 03, 2021, Anonymous Mike said...

It wasn't too long ago that the autonomous taxis were going to be here in the 2020s, or even sooner! Keeps getting pushed back.

 

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