Posts Tagged ‘Houston’
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 [...]
A different take on the economies of cities
A team of researchers from the Santa Fe Institute are looking to change the way we measure the economic performance of cities. They suggest that gross and per-capita economic numbers fail to take the inherent advantages that larger populations create. Most data, therefore, simply confirms that large cities outperform small ones. A better measure would be to establish the ‘normal’ performance of a city of any given population size, and then compare the real performance of actual cities against this norm. We can then see whether cities are actually over or under-performing their size. They ranked 363 cities in their study, read the whole article to see how Houston did!
Re: Koehler St. Development
I’ve had a number of people ask me to share this, and it’s beginning to circulate around the web, so I thought it would be best to put the original text of my letter to City Council here where I can keep an eye on it. Here is what I wrote to the City concerning [...]
China’s idea of the future
China is dreaming up some pretty radically innovative ideas for the future of it’s cities. The latest idea is this “bridge bus,” which I’m not even sure exactly how to describe. Here’s an attempt: Basically you take a bus and make it 15′ high or so – just a hair shorter than whatever the standard [...]
Free-Market Parking
Today I want to take a look at the free-enterprise approach to parking in more detail. Let’s look at why the free-enterprise system makes sense in the first place, then we’ll try to understand why free-market parking solutions would work in Houston. The common-sense argument against parking regulations First, remember that the traffic patterns flowing to [...]
The Economics of Parking
A few days ago, Wendy Siegle asked me a question about the current situation with Houston’s parking ordinance. The gist of her questions was this: What is the real issue with parking in Houston? She observed that the perceived problems seem to be confined to Central Houston, and that different people want different things to [...]
Parking Ordinance Meeting No. 1
This post will be the beginning of a series regarding parking ordinances in general, and the review of its existing ordinances that the City of Houston is currently conducting. I’ll try to provide some reporting and feedback on the meetings I’m able to attend, as well as some background and commentary on the way these [...]
Cable-Propelled Transit
Via Houston Strategies, I found this article about modern cable-propelled transit systems very interesting. Say the words “cable car” and most people think of trolleys being towed up and down San Francisco’s hilly terrain. Most view them as a charmingly antiquated heritage system for the tourists, not as modern mass transit. But cable cars are [...]
Asnychronous Travel
People often talk about the value of transit in reducing congestion, or in reducing commute times by providing an alternative to congested freeways. This is all fine, but there’s another benefit to efficient regional transit service that I personally find much more valuable. Transit provides travel redundancy – an additional option for people to get [...]