tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-113216062024-03-19T03:48:45.787-05:00Houston StrategiesAn open dialogue on serious strategies for making Houston a better city, as well as a coalition-builder to make them happen. All comments, email, and support welcome.Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.comBlogger1389125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-68441332743931816492024-03-13T16:32:00.001-05:002024-03-13T16:33:11.457-05:00Inside the new Jurassic World Exhibition in KatyI was fortunate to attend last week's media preview of the new Jurassic World Exhibition at Katy Mills Mall (even Katy's mayor was there - see pics), and I'll admit it was pretty darn cool. Inside a giant tent they have a series of staged experiences you move through with lots of great interaction, especially for kids (and plenty of Instagrammable stuff for the adults too, lol). The dinosaurs Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-2767745742223835872024-03-06T17:17:00.002-06:002024-03-06T17:18:44.567-06:00A more reliable Texas electricity grid at a lower costBill King has an excellent blog post on the reliability issues with the Texas electricity grid, including during Winter Storm Heather in January, concluding with:"Because of cheap natural gas prices and the significant contribution of wind and solar, Texans enjoy some of the lowest electricity prices in the country, running 18% below the national average. But that low cost comes at a price – an Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-80835819142133028212024-02-28T17:10:00.002-06:002024-02-28T17:10:43.786-06:00The Benefits of Congestion ReliefThe Antiplanner has an excellent post that deserves its own dedicated post over here because it gets at what's wrong with one of the most pernicious fallacies regarding highway congestion relief. Key excerpts (bold highlights mine):"Data published by the University of Minnesota Accessibility Observatory a few months ago reveals some of the benefits of congestion relief that resulted from the Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-52229301081430688922024-02-21T16:16:00.004-06:002024-02-21T16:17:09.195-06:00Houston as an affordability model for other citiesAffordable housing has become a hot topic in Houston, so this might be a good time to share this excellent piece in Market Urbanism: Houston as an affordability model (Planetizen coverage). It does a great job framing Houston vs. other major metros. Key excerpts with my highlights:"When market-oriented housing researchers point to Houston’s relatively light-touch land use regulations as a Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-56807201746139199002024-02-12T19:58:00.001-06:002024-02-12T19:59:06.422-06:00John Arnold on Houston, real impact of lowering min lot sizes, HTX attracting tech, TX #1 attracting businesses A few smaller items this week:Texas attracted more relocating businesses than any other state, report finds"More than 25,000 establishments relocated to Texas from 2010 to 2019, bringing more than 281,000 jobs with them and resulting in a gain of nearly 103,000 jobs for the state, data compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank shows.The report said Texas appeals to relocating businesses for a Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-60205850061283914252024-01-30T20:45:00.002-06:002024-01-30T20:45:53.435-06:00Stanford on CA vs TX, the rationality of cars, Dallas now #2 in finance, both parties are NIMBYs A few smaller items this week:Stanford paper: A tale of two states: Contrasting economic policy in California and Texas. Hat tip to George.Key TakeawaysCalifornia’s state and local government revenues and spending are 60 percent higher than Texas on a per-resident basis.On economic performance — both have much to celebrate. Population and employment surged in Texas while California’s Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-44228914560711065292024-01-15T15:59:00.003-06:002024-01-15T16:02:09.039-06:00The social and political ramifications of unaffordable housingDue to over-zealous NIMBY housing regulations all around the world, housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable to younger generations (graph below, hat tip to Jay). That is leading to more and more young adults living with their parents rather than moving out on their own (2nd graph below, also hat tip to Jay). The NYT has a story today: "‘The Social Contract Has Been Completely Ruptured’: Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-8858473471298844082024-01-05T17:35:00.005-06:002024-01-05T17:41:31.671-06:00Texas high-speed rail updateHappy new year everyone! This week we have another excellent analytical guest post from Oscar Slotboom, author of Houston Freeways (reposted from HAIF here). TL;DR: if it was marginal with 2% interest rates before pandemic inflation, it is now *way* underwater economically at current construction costs and interest rates!
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On November 17, Texas Central provided the H-GAC TPC a status update Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-47642946953200423692023-12-25T17:52:00.000-06:002023-12-25T17:52:59.623-06:002023 HighlightsTime for our annual round-up of the best posts of 2023, with this year featuring as many great posts from Oscar as from me. If you missed them earlier this year - or just didn't have time to read them then - hopefully the holidays are a more leisurely time for perusal.
I'd also like to thank MyBestPlan for their ongoing generous support. They always have the best and cheapest Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-10285792874362517852023-12-19T17:14:00.002-06:002023-12-19T22:31:12.314-06:00Houston's growing wealth, diversity, investability, tech scene (even over Austin!), food scene, and more Continuing to clear out some smaller items before the end of the year...Houston has the 15th-largest millionaire population in the world - almost 100k - ahead of Seoul, Paris, Geneva, Dubai, and... Dallas 😏 And it's grown a whopping 65% since 2012, about the same as SF+Silicon Valley!Techcrunch: Is the Texas boom town of Austin losing its luster?"Techstars isn’t the only entity Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-40477790930915520262023-12-12T17:28:00.002-06:002023-12-12T17:28:43.974-06:00Google optimizing traffic signals, idea for HTX office to residential conversions, Why Texas is Becoming America's Most Powerful State, NYT on Houston winning vs homelessness, and more Just catching up on some backlogged smaller items this week...New Whitmire administration: Can Houston please sign up to be next for this?! "Google AI models that can autonomously optimize the traffic timing at that intersection, reducing idle times as well as the amount of braking and accelerating vehicles have to do there." And I'd be happy to help get METRO on a better path Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-90965122469408027972023-12-06T17:46:00.002-06:002023-12-06T17:47:39.286-06:00The Economist on how America's car dependence makes the country fairer and more efficientThe Economist magazine has a fantastic article (no-paywall link) on the upside of America's focus on cars for mobility - and I would argue Houston is at the pinnacle in America for major metros. The whole thing is great, but here are the best excerpts (highlights mine): In praise of America’s car addictionHow vehicle-dependence makes the country fairer and more efficient...It seems a classicTory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-826919431536492192023-11-26T09:27:00.002-06:002023-11-26T09:27:51.217-06:00Recent TxDOT study recommendations reflect new reality and introduce complications
This week we have another excellent analytical guest post from Houston Freeways author Oscar Slotboom!
In September TxDOT held public meetings for its preferred alternative for future improvements to Interstate 45 North Freeway from Beltway 8 to Loop 336 (south) in Conroe, and in October meetings were held for SH 225 and the East Loop.
Both studies recommended the addition of Max Concretehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13957736961842204312noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-39515240090682545682023-11-08T16:59:00.004-06:002023-11-08T16:59:56.554-06:00Missing middle land use reform in HTX, Austin copying Houston min lot sizes, surveying home preferences, mapping zoning authority by state, distressed offices, and more Some smaller items this week:Who Zones? Mapping Land-Use Authority across the US. TX, OK, and AL are the only states that don't let unincorporated counties zone, which is very good for housing supply and affordability. Hat tip to George.Vox: The future of cities, according to the experts - Cities aren’t going anywhere, but they do need to change. This is all over the place. “Cities Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-50821385783310153922023-10-23T17:48:00.002-05:002023-10-23T17:48:46.731-05:00Strong Towns is a weird urbanist cult + Tokyo's Houston-like minimal land use regulationStrong Towns is a weird urbanist cult that can’t produce hard numbers to back up their assertions suburbia is financially unsustainable (how many suburban municipality bankruptcies have you heard of?). If you really think about it, every suburban home has a few tens of thousands of dollars of city infrastructure that go with it (some pavement and pipes), a very reasonable replacement burden from Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-28364738489611600102023-10-04T17:25:00.002-05:002023-10-04T17:26:33.055-05:00Building the New America and Texas' winning approach to housing supply and affordabilityOur think tank, The Urban Reform Institute - A Center for Opportunity Urbanism, just released a new report, "Building the New America":This new report examines the housing trends that are driving today’s migration of people and jobs, and suggests a strategy that better fits the aspirations of most Americans. You can download the whole report here.It includes my sidebar on Texas' winningTory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-15596875150776220312023-09-27T17:39:00.000-05:002023-09-27T17:39:08.229-05:00Houston #1 std of living confirmed, #2 F500 HQs, higher speeds = higher incomes, screwy city metrics, and more Continuing to work through the summer backlog of smaller items...Visual Capitalist: Unzoned Houston has the highest purchasing power at the lowest cost-of-living in the world... aka the highest standard of living in the world. More cities should use these indexes as their north star metrics of progress.Houston is still affordable when factoring out distorted data: "Demographer Wendell Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-58580704531406594532023-09-10T18:01:00.003-05:002023-09-10T18:02:45.876-05:00METRO $ needs to support higher City priorities, dropping fertility rates, updated home affordability, better bike safety, and tragic land-regulation consequences in Maui Summer blog break is over and I'm back! Quite a few backlogged items:Bill King: Houston Metro Riders Pay 4% Of The Cost Of Their Rides. Subsidies have shot up as ridership has fallen post-pandemic. It's clear at this point METRO has way too much money for too few riders, and the City could desperately use that money to be redeployed to much higher priorities like police and street Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-19005419765774754282023-08-06T16:41:00.003-05:002023-08-06T16:42:57.043-05:00More on METRO's Uptown BRT failure, wealth moving south, forensics reality, TX beating CA on homelessness, and moreA few smaller items this week:More on Houston's BRT Failure with the Uptown Silver Line. Yet they're just going to pretend it didn't happen and plow ahead with the $1.5B Universities BRT line reducing Richmond to one lane each direction?!? 😠"A Houston bus rapid transit route over dedicated bus lanes is attracting less than 10 percent of the riders that were projected for it. The SilverTory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-54697898137064576572023-07-26T21:47:00.002-05:002023-07-26T21:50:13.191-05:00How Houston beats NYC for the middle classI recently discovered this 2008 City Journal piece by noted urbanist Ed Glaeser comparing NYC and Houston, and despite being 15 years ago the points are still valid, if not even more so. I highly recommend reading the whole thing, but here are my favorite, albeit still extensive, excerpts:Edward L. Glaeser: Houston, New York Has a ProblemThe southern city welcomes the middle class; heavily Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-28186121029059418862023-07-19T17:59:00.006-05:002023-07-19T18:00:49.673-05:00The epic failure of METRO's Uptown BRT, housing costs vs fertility, YIMBY righteousness, and Honolulu rail-fail A few short smaller items this week:I've been saying this for a long time: Higher Rent, Fewer Babies? Housing Costs and Fertility Decline. Lots of good graphs in this one. As economies grow and people get wealthier, they want more space per person, and if they can't afford it, they shrink their family size to compensate. Nobody wants to raise a family in a 2 bedroom apartment anymore. Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-62199988106788622032023-07-10T17:36:00.001-05:002023-07-12T13:42:03.425-05:00Houston has less kludge and more opportunity, the value of mobility, and more A few misc items this week:Every planner should prominently post this quote in their office: “You can’t overestimate the value that mobility has on people’s quality of life and their ability to achieve their full economic potential.”NYT: American Cities Have a Conversion Problem, and It’s Not Just Offices - Piles of regulations, or “kludge,” and a culture of “no” are limiting the ability toTory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-81380942125942314762023-06-27T17:51:00.001-05:002023-06-27T17:53:55.040-05:00Induced Demand debunkedI've wanted to write for a while about "induced demand", the specious argument that expanded roads just fill up with new traffic so why should we bother?Two articles below debunk the induced demand argument in their own ways, but here's my own TL;DR summary: Which type of infrastructure should government invest in: transit almost nobody will use, or lanes everybody will use? Induced demand is a Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-77654567985293753172023-06-19T17:10:00.001-05:002023-06-19T17:26:14.637-05:00$2 billion for 2mph, Houston beats Dallas for pandemic in-migration and home construction, Phoenix growth stopped by a lack of water Some smaller items this week:NYT: The Places Most Affected by Remote Workers’ Moves Around the Country. Houston attracted far more migration during the pandemic than Dallas, and almost as many as Austin! (data from the 'Look Up Migration Data Where You Live' section)This is just nuts: $2 billion taxpayer dollars and 14 years to improve Amtrak train speeds 2mph (!!) between Chicago and St. Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11321606.post-32414416786181078222023-06-13T17:17:00.004-05:002023-06-13T17:20:53.410-05:00"Urban doom loop" coming for cities with commercial real estate crashFrom "The Next Crisis Will Start With Empty Office Buildings" in The Atlantic (no-paywall link), which discusses the rapidly declining value of office buildings in a remote work world, with follow-on property tax revenue declines for cities:“Many cities face a difficult choice. If they cut certain services, they could become less attractive and trigger a possible “urban doom loop” that pushes Tory Gattishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14219981302409618830noreply@blogger.com5