Author Archive
I’m looking for an intern
For those of you who don’t know, I started my own real estate development / urban-design consulting practice last January. Business has been steadily improving, and now I’m to the point that I could use a little help managing it all. At the moment I’m looking for an intern who could work with me in [...]
Why so much of the internet is shut down today…
… the Old Media industry wants it to stay shut down for good, and so far Congress is on their side. Congress is preparing to pass legislation (called SOPA and PIPA) that would create rigid censorship of the internet, and more importantly would impair the very architecture of the net itself, making it much more [...]
Regarding the proposed High Density Ordinance
Today the Houston City Council will make its final decision on the proposed “High Density Ordinance,” which adds a new requirement that high-rises built in residential neighborhoods have at least a 30 foot gap between them and the nearest house. A thoughtful response to this issue was released last week, and I agree with that [...]
CNU’s take on the proposed parking ordinance changes
The following statement concerning the proposed changes to the City of Houston’s Parking Reg’s was posted at CNU-Houston.org today. I helped write the statement, so I thought I’d share it with this audience as well. Feel free to leave comments or questions and I’ll respond (on behalf of myself, not CNU) as much as I [...]
Metro Construction Time-Lapse
I saw this on Houston Tomorrow, courtesy Swamplot. Metro rebuilt an intersection on Harrisburg in 72 hours and recorded it in time-lapse video, pretty cool stuff. This isn’t shocking speed, Portland built their entire streetcar network a block at a time and did each block with this kind of speed. My recollection is that the [...]
What I’ve been working on
Over the last eight months I’ve been putting a ton of time and energy into a project that’s part of my consulting practice. The challenge I kept running into was a need for photographs to illustrate different types of developments, both to show people what I’m talking about and to help come up with new [...]
City of South Miami: No riding bikes without our permission
This is almost too ridiculous to be true. At a recent city commission meeting, what began as a simple invitation to the city manager and commission to join Mari Chael and local residents on a “joyous bike ride” around scenic South Miami has escalated into a $1 million insurance binder permit demand and other red [...]
“Justice Has Been Done.”
NYTimes, Chron.
Liner Buildings
One of the things that drives me crazy is when I’m walking around somewhere and I encounter a building with a giant blank wall set back some distance from the street. Wearing my capitalist hat, I see these kinds of “nothing” spaces and I just cringe at the lost income that it represents for the property owner. Wearing my urbanist hat, I see these kind of spaces and feel frustrated by the lost opportunity. Where there could be life, there is void. Here’s an idea for how to use these spaces to improve walkability and boost the economy at the same time.
Simplified.
For those who have been reading neoHOUSTON a long time ( and visit the web page rather than just pulling our feed! ), you’ll notice a radical overhaul of the web site today. In what’s become roughly an annual tradition, I’ve redesigned the site to fit where I feel it is and is going as of right now.