4 ms·
I find it ironic that he lauds the Houston sprawl for keeping housing prices low. He makes some very excellent points about how the rest of the nation has perce
by secstate 9y ago
I find it ironic that he lauds the Houston sprawl for keeping housing prices low. He makes some very excellent points about how the rest of the nation has perceived or had the storm presented to them. But his "efficient use of land" argument for paving over huge tracts of wetlands is absurd.
"As a result, it's easier to develop real estate than most cities, which keeps real estate prices - especially housing prices - low relative to the rest of the country."
Easier development != intelligent, sustainable or ecologically friendly.
- liberte82 9y agoThe most egregious example of sprawl and lack of zoning that I learned from Harvey was that there are residential neighborhoods built inside the reservoirs. There were homes being flooded well before the reservoirs reached even the spillway points as it was assumed they just wouldn't fill up that high.
- StillBored 9y agoIts TX, zoning laws don't cover things like building apartments next to fertilizer (explosives) plants or anything else that infringes on peoples right to make a buck. I live near a TX lake, and full is defined at some level less than the spillway height. So, there are houses that are built above the full line, but below the spillway. Every dozen or so years those houses get flooded when the dam authority prioritizes flooding those houses over flooding the downstream communities.