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CNU-Houston Meeting Tommorrow
CNU-Houston will be meeting tomorrow to discuss the Transect. The Transect is one of the key elements of New Urbanism – it’s the idea that human environments form a spectrum from natural countryside to agricultural lands to small towns to the neighborhoods and centers of large cities. The Transect is an attempt to classify the [...]
Discovery Green Thrives while Boston’s Greenway Struggles
A coworker forwarded me this very interesting article comparing Houston’s Discovery Green with Boston’s RFK Greenway. …since Discovery Green opened in spring 2008, people have flocked to the 12-acre park, especially on weekends, when downtown streets feel empty enough for tumbleweeds. It boasts a signature restaurant, a café, an express branch of the public library, [...]
John Norquist to Speak in Houston Tonight
If you’ve heard of New Urbanism but don’t know much about it, you should absolutely attend John Norquist’s presentation tonight. As part of Houston Tomorrow’s Distinguished Speaker series, Norquist will be giving a free speech at 7:00 at the United Way Center, 50 Waugh Dr. The good folks at Houston Tomorrow have described the event [...]
A tiny step in the right direction
I was pretty excited to be quoted in the Chronicle two days ago. With regards to the passage of the Transit Corridor Streets ordinance, Mike Snyder reported the following: The changes drew support from real estate organizations including Houstonians for Responsible Growth, which generally resists new development regulation. But others who have followed Houston’s efforts [...]
CNU Houston Meeting Tonight
If you’re an avid reader of the blog you may be interested in being part of the local CNU chapter. We’re meeting tonight at 5:30PM at the Black Labrador Pub (4100 Montrose). For slightly more information see http://cnu.neohouston.com. Anyone who’s interested is invited, and I hope to see some of you there!
Comparing Interfaces: Real Urbanism versus Immitation Urbanism
Today we’re going to take a look at some of the residential infill development that has taken place in Midtown, and see what a difference good interface can make. If you haven’t read the background material on this one, here’s a quick summary. Interface is the connection between public and private space. It’s the street, [...]
What to do with empty lots?
Cities and developers around the country are trying to find innovative ways to use vacant lots while they wait for the market to recover. What can Houston learn from these efforts, and where might we apply them?
Comparison of Houston Home Prices
Given Andrew’s recent post on property taxes and their effect on housing prices here in Houston (and the relatively intense reaction it garnered among some), I thought I would do a little comparison. I am currently looking at purchasing property here in Houston and my initial reaction has been surprise at how much more expensive [...]
Property Taxes and Home Prices
- – – UPDATE – – - Do to the many, many comments I’ve recieved from people who seem to think I’m somehow bashing Houston here, I thought I’d repeat here what I posted in one of the comments: I’m not arguing that Houston collects disproportionately more taxes than other cities do, because I don’t [...]
Transit Corridor Streets
There’s been a lot of chatter about the Urban Corridors effort this week. Mike Snyder started things off by providing us an update on the ordinance, and several other bloggers have chimed in about it. Most notably, Cory Crow wrote a pretty scathing rebuke of the idea, though I think he was reacting more to [...]