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Houston doesn't even HAVE zoning laws. Companies in Houston can and do build industries like petrochemical processing plants in or near residential neighborhoo

Houston doesn't even HAVE zoning laws. Companies in Houston can and do build industries like petrochemical processing plants in or near residential neighborhoods. For example: https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/arkema-explosion-risk/ https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/arkema-explosion-r... You can do almost anything you'd like since it is your land. Very different culture to California.

astrange 4y ago
It has everything but zoning laws; parking minimums are enough to ruin a city's land use.
- ericmay 4y ago
  I think the OP was just pointing out that Houston doesn’t have zoning laws (in comparison to California). Note that this has not stopped Houston from becoming a sprawling suburb with massive amounts of parking lots. Houston didn’t build good density (or even a city really) despite the lack of zoning laws. I don’t think zoning is the culprit here but it’s difficult to compare cities and compare them across different states. Also I’m not sure there’s a meaningful distinction between zoning laws and a local regulation like parking minimums. The effect is the same so zoning laws as a concept becomes a bit of a red herring unless we take zoning to include all general rules and regulations that govern how buildings can be built, transit, etc.
  - colinmhayes 4y ago
    Houston's parking minimums are absolutely the main culprit for the amount of sprawl it has even in its downtown areas. Every single business needs a parking lot so everything is in a strip mall and therefore unwalkable.
    - ericmay 4y ago
      Sure but I don’t think it’s helpful to try and separate those from zoning regulations here. Also I think even without those mandatory minimums a city like Houston is dead set on cars at all cost. Frankly, all of America is this way too it’s just that there are a few cities where geography has constrained sprawl. I fear for my own city, Columbus. The state, county, and city governments just do not understand that car-first infrastructure is a failed policy and will bankrupt us.
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gnicholas 4y ago
OT, but can I ask where you're from? I'm from CA and I generally hear "different from" (not "different to"). I've lived elsewhere in the US, but never Texas, and wouldn't have expected them to say "different to" — which I think of as being a British English construction. Do people say "different to" in Texas?
- bigyikes 4y ago
  I’m a native Texan, also lived in CA, and “different to” also sounds somewhat foreign to me.
  - silverpepsi 4y ago
    Midwest and I've definitely always believed "different to" was a British phrase and not even grammatical in US English (i.e. a native speaker who hadn't encountered it throughout life in UK publications would judge it as flat out wrong)
  - fy20 4y ago
    Native Brit, never lived in USA, "different to" sounds like what the King would say.
- deleted 4y ago
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- idbehold 4y ago
  Interesting. What about the opposite? "Similar from" sounds incorrect to me. So why do we prefer "different from" and "similar to" vs. "different to" and "similar from"? Why is there any implicit directionality?
  - unlockextralarg 4y ago
    France is close to Germany but far from Canada. Kefir is similar to yogurt but different from it. You must conform to the law and not deviate from it.

astrange 4y ago

It has everything but zoning laws; parking minimums are enough to ruin a city's land use.

ericmay 4y ago
I think the OP was just pointing out that Houston doesn’t have zoning laws (in comparison to California). Note that this has not stopped Houston from becoming a sprawling suburb with massive amounts of parking lots. Houston didn’t build good density (or even a city really) despite the lack of zoning laws. I don’t think zoning is the culprit here but it’s difficult to compare cities and compare them across different states. Also I’m not sure there’s a meaningful distinction between zoning laws and a local regulation like parking minimums. The effect is the same so zoning laws as a concept becomes a bit of a red herring unless we take zoning to include all general rules and regulations that govern how buildings can be built, transit, etc.
- colinmhayes 4y ago
  Houston's parking minimums are absolutely the main culprit for the amount of sprawl it has even in its downtown areas. Every single business needs a parking lot so everything is in a strip mall and therefore unwalkable.
  - ericmay 4y ago
    Sure but I don’t think it’s helpful to try and separate those from zoning regulations here. Also I think even without those mandatory minimums a city like Houston is dead set on cars at all cost. Frankly, all of America is this way too it’s just that there are a few cities where geography has constrained sprawl. I fear for my own city, Columbus. The state, county, and city governments just do not understand that car-first infrastructure is a failed policy and will bankrupt us.

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gnicholas 4y ago

OT, but can I ask where you're from? I'm from CA and I generally hear "different from" (not "different to"). I've lived elsewhere in the US, but never Texas, and wouldn't have expected them to say "different to" — which I think of as being a British English construction. Do people say "different to" in Texas?

bigyikes 4y ago
I’m a native Texan, also lived in CA, and “different to” also sounds somewhat foreign to me.
- silverpepsi 4y ago
  Midwest and I've definitely always believed "different to" was a British phrase and not even grammatical in US English (i.e. a native speaker who hadn't encountered it throughout life in UK publications would judge it as flat out wrong)
- fy20 4y ago
  Native Brit, never lived in USA, "different to" sounds like what the King would say.
deleted 4y ago
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idbehold 4y ago
Interesting. What about the opposite? "Similar from" sounds incorrect to me. So why do we prefer "different from" and "similar to" vs. "different to" and "similar from"? Why is there any implicit directionality?
- unlockextralarg 4y ago
  France is close to Germany but far from Canada. Kefir is similar to yogurt but different from it. You must conform to the law and not deviate from it.