5 ms·

It's true that the right-leaning government will override local control when it comes to most controversial issues in the blue cities, but when it comes to land

It's true that the right-leaning government will override local control when it comes to most controversial issues in the blue cities, but when it comes to land use, Texas leaves cities alone. I grew up in Dallas, now own a home in Los Angeles. Aside from the local zoning ordinances (Dallas is "zoned", but compared to Los Angeles, no it's not; and Houston doesn't have any formal zoning at all), California has _way_ more state-level codes than Texas when it comes to land development. Also, I would argue that, for better or worse, Marfa, TX in West Texas is a real manifestation of this essay. It's only a town of about 5000, completely walkable, and homes that were selling for $20k when news got out it was a secret artist enclave just 10 years ago are now going for north of $1 million. And, to assuage your concern: yes, it's blue (not enough to turn the rest of the rural county blue, but close enough to make the vote of the county 48% Biden - 52% Trump, almost exactly mirroring the overall result in the state). Marfa even disbanded its entire police department in 2009, and the red state government still left it alone. https://www.themanual.com/culture/marfa-texas/ https://www.themanual.com/culture/marfa-texas/ https://www.npr.org/2012/08/02/156980469/marfa-texas-an-unlikely-art-oasis-in-a-desert-town https://www.npr.org/2012/08/02/156980469/marfa-texas-an-unli...

splitstud 5y ago
Don't upend his leftist religious beliefs
jsabo 5y ago
Citation needed on the Texas leaving cities alone claim: Austin was very recently blocked from doing any significant rezoning due to state law https://www.kut.org/austin/2020-03-18/judge-throws-out-city-council-votes-on-new-austin-land-code-putting-rewrite-in-jeopardy https://www.kut.org/austin/2020-03-18/judge-throws-out-city-... Though granted this law was passed previously and wasn't a reaction to something Austin did a la TNC regulation
- thebradbain 5y ago
  As you noted, thar was procedural rather than reactive — Dallas passed a similar “form-based” code almost a decade earlier that Austin is using as inspiration, I believe, and it’s only been expanded since [1]. Austin also just passed a historic public transit capital program via referendum that the GOP was openly against, and though the state government could have used some shady but technically legal tactics to prevent Austin from building a subway under a state-owned park (simply by refusing to bring a bill up for a vote rather than actively taking the right away, too!), they didn’t and gave Austin a 99 year lease on the ground rights for $1. [2] Dallas and Austin are currently in a competition to ban parking minimums, which funnily enough has found much bipartisan agreement [3] [1] https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopment/planning/Pages/form-districts.aspx https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopmen... [2] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kvue.com/amp/article/news/politics/project-connect/underground-project-connect-stations-texas-house-bill-3893/269-2f1cc98d-5f69-4e85-b2ed-da09bd5f0c23 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kvue.com/amp/article/news/p... [3] https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopment/planning/Pages/parking-code-amendment.aspx https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopmen..., https://communityimpact.com/news/2019/07/23/austin-parking-requirements-urban-core/ https://communityimpact.com/news/2019/07/23/austin-parking-r...

splitstud 5y ago

Don't upend his leftist religious beliefs

jsabo 5y ago

Citation needed on the Texas leaving cities alone claim: Austin was very recently blocked from doing any significant rezoning due to state law https://www.kut.org/austin/2020-03-18/judge-throws-out-city-council-votes-on-new-austin-land-code-putting-rewrite-in-jeopardy https://www.kut.org/austin/2020-03-18/judge-throws-out-city-... Though granted this law was passed previously and wasn't a reaction to something Austin did a la TNC regulation

thebradbain 5y ago
As you noted, thar was procedural rather than reactive — Dallas passed a similar “form-based” code almost a decade earlier that Austin is using as inspiration, I believe, and it’s only been expanded since [1]. Austin also just passed a historic public transit capital program via referendum that the GOP was openly against, and though the state government could have used some shady but technically legal tactics to prevent Austin from building a subway under a state-owned park (simply by refusing to bring a bill up for a vote rather than actively taking the right away, too!), they didn’t and gave Austin a 99 year lease on the ground rights for $1. [2] Dallas and Austin are currently in a competition to ban parking minimums, which funnily enough has found much bipartisan agreement [3] [1] https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopment/planning/Pages/form-districts.aspx https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopmen... [2] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kvue.com/amp/article/news/politics/project-connect/underground-project-connect-stations-texas-house-bill-3893/269-2f1cc98d-5f69-4e85-b2ed-da09bd5f0c23 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kvue.com/amp/article/news/p... [3] https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopment/planning/Pages/parking-code-amendment.aspx https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopmen..., https://communityimpact.com/news/2019/07/23/austin-parking-requirements-urban-core/ https://communityimpact.com/news/2019/07/23/austin-parking-r...