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Your comment is basically "Houston would be great if it did a whole lot of things that there is t a snowballs chance in hell happening." If you can talk about "

by 1_2__3 10y ago

Your comment is basically "Houston would be great if it did a whole lot of things that there is t a snowballs chance in hell happening." If you can talk about "killing car culture" in Houston with a straight face it's hard to take the rest of the comment seriously.

sotojuan 10y ago
I agree. If you go a few hundred beyond downtown/Museum District/Heights/Montrose area, it's impossible to live without a car (even in those areas it's not that easy). I know it's not fair because it's technically not Houston, but the city will always be synonymous with sprawling, McMansion-filled suburbs with a Walmart (and a Target in front of it), and a mall every few miles.
SwellJoe 10y ago
Which is true of every major city. NY and SF would be great if they would address the cost of housing; no chance in hell of that happening, as far as I can see. Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Dallas also have the car culture problem on a massive scale but don't have the benefits Houston has (that whole lack of zoning thing leading to some potentially great neighborhoods). At some point, we're all going to have to agree that cars are trying to kill us and take the necessary steps to resolve that problem. The cities that figure it out first will be the next great American cities, I would guess.
- bradleyjg 10y ago
  NYC has affordable housing. Manhattan increasingly doesn't, but so what? We have plenty of transit options from the other boros to Manhattan. NYC's biggest current problem isn't affordable housing, it is that transit capital projects are grotesquely expensive because of a combination of: diffusion of political responsibility, a broken bidding process, and very strong construction unions. What we have is great, but without the ability to undertake new projects, including rehabilitation, without spending much more time and money than any other city in the world, it will eventually be a big problem.
  - SwellJoe 10y ago
    When did that happen? I tend to check housing prices when I pass through cities I really like, and the only reasonably priced housing (compared to almost every other major city, except in California) I found back in ~2011 was in Long Island.
cylinder 10y ago
Yeah, funny post. It's not going to happen. Houston has never had a culture of proactive urban planning and intervention. I grew up there and the city always had a vibe of people just living there to make money and one day leave. In my 30 years all that happened other than freeways and road expansions was Discovery Green and Buffalo Bayou park trail expansions.
- SwellJoe 10y ago
  As the article points out, Houston is proactive about urban planning, when it comes to cars. The city requires, by law, parking (and huge roads). Miles and miles and miles of parking. Veritable oceans of parking lots. All mandated by the city. That's intervention and that's urban planning. It is bad urban planning, but it is urban planning nonetheless. So...yeah. I agree it's unlikely to happen any time soon. But, that's true of every city I've lived in: The things that most need to change have the most political pressure not to change, and so they won't, and that aspect of the city will continue to suck. SF won't change the things it needs to change to resolve its housing crisis; Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, won't do anything to change their car addiction; etc. So, I probably agree with you. I wish for a better Houston, because there's a lot of like about it, but I don't have high hopes of it actually becoming a better Houston.

by 1_2__3 10y ago

sotojuan 10y ago

I agree. If you go a few hundred beyond downtown/Museum District/Heights/Montrose area, it's impossible to live without a car (even in those areas it's not that easy). I know it's not fair because it's technically not Houston, but the city will always be synonymous with sprawling, McMansion-filled suburbs with a Walmart (and a Target in front of it), and a mall every few miles.

SwellJoe 10y ago

Which is true of every major city. NY and SF would be great if they would address the cost of housing; no chance in hell of that happening, as far as I can see. Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Dallas also have the car culture problem on a massive scale but don't have the benefits Houston has (that whole lack of zoning thing leading to some potentially great neighborhoods). At some point, we're all going to have to agree that cars are trying to kill us and take the necessary steps to resolve that problem. The cities that figure it out first will be the next great American cities, I would guess.

bradleyjg 10y ago
NYC has affordable housing. Manhattan increasingly doesn't, but so what? We have plenty of transit options from the other boros to Manhattan. NYC's biggest current problem isn't affordable housing, it is that transit capital projects are grotesquely expensive because of a combination of: diffusion of political responsibility, a broken bidding process, and very strong construction unions. What we have is great, but without the ability to undertake new projects, including rehabilitation, without spending much more time and money than any other city in the world, it will eventually be a big problem.
- SwellJoe 10y ago
  When did that happen? I tend to check housing prices when I pass through cities I really like, and the only reasonably priced housing (compared to almost every other major city, except in California) I found back in ~2011 was in Long Island.

cylinder 10y ago

Yeah, funny post. It's not going to happen. Houston has never had a culture of proactive urban planning and intervention. I grew up there and the city always had a vibe of people just living there to make money and one day leave. In my 30 years all that happened other than freeways and road expansions was Discovery Green and Buffalo Bayou park trail expansions.

SwellJoe 10y ago
As the article points out, Houston is proactive about urban planning, when it comes to cars. The city requires, by law, parking (and huge roads). Miles and miles and miles of parking. Veritable oceans of parking lots. All mandated by the city. That's intervention and that's urban planning. It is bad urban planning, but it is urban planning nonetheless. So...yeah. I agree it's unlikely to happen any time soon. But, that's true of every city I've lived in: The things that most need to change have the most political pressure not to change, and so they won't, and that aspect of the city will continue to suck. SF won't change the things it needs to change to resolve its housing crisis; Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, won't do anything to change their car addiction; etc. So, I probably agree with you. I wish for a better Houston, because there's a lot of like about it, but I don't have high hopes of it actually becoming a better Houston.