Houston Strategies

• World's smartest cities, HOT lanes, Rice-BCM, iPhone app, and more

  I've been cleaning out the email inbox of old newsletters, which yielded a lot of new small items to pass along:
  A great quote I came across: "Those who argue that it doesn't pay to build a road because it just fills up again should test that argument on libraries," [...]
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  Posted: December 10, 2009, 5:33pm EST
  

• Comparing Texas' Big 4 Metro Economies

  David recently sent me this economic brief on Texas from Comerica Bank, choc full of interesting statistics comparing the big 4 metros of Texas:
  "Four of those top 40 MSAs are in Texas: Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), San Antonio and Austin. Respectively, the current dollar value of their GDPs" [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 4:08pm EST
  

• Houston vs. Chicago, Seattle, Portland - plus stagnant stadiums, giving thanks, and more

  Some smaller items for your weekend reading pleasure:
  The Wall Street Journal recently had an op-ed titled "What Oprah's Departure Means for the Windy City," which serves as a warning to Houston and other cities:"Chicago is a city of magnificent parks and world-class cultural institutions and universities. But it" [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 6:04pm EST
  

• Houston one of five cities that will rise in the new economy

  The Christian Science Monitor recently named Houston one of five cities that will rise in the new economy, along with Boston, Seattle, Huntsville-AL, and Fort Collins-CO. Not bad company. In fact, they open the main article with us:
  In Houston, the Texas Medical Center is expanding so quickly that [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 5:29pm EST
  

• Houston a green capital? plus top rankings, reducing crime, and elevated busways

  Some smaller items for your reading pleasure when escaping the relatives or shopping of Thanksgiving break (or work, if you're stuck there this afternoon or Friday).
  IAH is the nation's best big airport, according to the Daily Beast blog:"The Daily Beast set out to definitively sort the best'" [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 9:16am EST
  

• Five steps to save the Obama presidency

  I usually try to avoid politics on this blog, but this Forbes op-ed from Joel Kotkin on saving the Obama presidency not only resonated with me, but also touches on some of the subjects I cover
  here. Describing the administration as "Moveon.org run by the Chicago machine" is painfully [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 9:47pm EST
  

• Houston=Brooklyn? plus rankings, not-so-smart growth, anti-poverty incentives, mixed-use difficulties

  Clearing out some smaller items:
  In case you missed it, Randal O'Toole had a must-read Sunday Chronicle op-ed on how smart growth would not save Houston from future Ashby high-rises, and in fact would create more.New Geography: Smart Growth loses Houston mayor's race. Hat tip to Josh.Has anybody' [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 9:44pm EST
  

• The essence and future of TX vs. CA

  I know there have been a lot of articles and references to Texas vs. California recently in this blog, but, well, there's a new one with some genuinely new contributions to the argument ("America's Future: California vs. Texas", Trends magazine, hat tip to Jeff). And it says some nice things [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 6:08pm EST
  

• Planes vs. high-speed vs. 'higher-speed' rail in Texas

  This story on the Eurostar London-Paris high-speed rail caught my eye yesterday in the Chronicle Travel section. I have ridden it before, and it is a wonderful service. The speed is deceptively quiet until a train going the other direction passes by in the blink of an eye at [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 6:09pm EST
  

• Texas schools are better than you think (but still have a long way to go)

  For a while I've been wanting to do a post on this McKinsey report titled "The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools" (main report, supporting charts).
  
  First, the (very) bad news:
  

  This report examines the dimensions of four distinct gaps in education: (1) [...]

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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 5:33pm EST
  

• Voting, Houston's greatness, top ranking, and more

  Continuing from last week: originally, my plan was to break up the smaller misc items into two posts of five items each, but then three new items came up over the weekend, so you get eight in this one. The first three are the new ones:
  Wondering who to vote [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 6:03pm EST
  

• Toll plans, TMC problems, empty nesters, Ashby regs

  Yet again I've let the backlog of smaller items get too large, so I'm going to have to break them up into a couple of posts.If you missed it, here's my reaction over at my Chronicle Opportunity Urbanism blog to the front page story on the survey desiring more' [...]
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  Posted: October 29, 2009, 5:14pm EDT
  

• Rice's chairman on Houston and its challenges

  Jim Crownover, former McKinsey director and current chairman of the board at Rice University, spoke at event last week and made some interesting comments on Houston. He discussed some of the incredible growth Rice has seen in recent years, and expressed hope for the Baylor merger. The benefits to Houston [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2009, 6:56pm EDT
  

• Report from the HRG Smart Growth Conference

  It went quite well. Thanks to those of you who plowed through the rain to attend. If you're interested in some of what was said, the Land Use Prof Blog has a report. I'm also hoping to link to some of the charts and video when it's up.' [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 5:50pm EDT
  

• Free conference this Wed on the issues of smart growth

  HRG is putting on a free conference this Wednesday afternoon at the GRB downtown: "The Truth About Smart Growth: Setting the Stage for the Housing Collapse - National Conference About What Works & What Hurts." I will be doing some speaking at the event, and look forward to seeing [...]
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  Posted: October 19, 2009, 8:33am EDT
  

• Lessons for Houston from the global urban revolution

  Thanks to a generous invitation from the World Affairs Council of Houston, I was able to attend a recent talk by Jeb Brugmann, author of "Welcome to the Urban Revolution: How Cities are Changing the World", on "Cities of the Future: Ideas for Houston from" [...]
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  Posted: October 18, 2009, 5:27pm EDT
  

• Summer 3Q09 Highlights

  First, a quick note: I'll be traveling over the next week or so, and probably not blogging.
  
  It's time for the Summer 3Q09 quarterly highlights post. These posts have been chosen with a particular focus on significant ideas I'd like to see kept alive for discussion and action, and' [...]
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  Posted: October 07, 2009, 8:33pm EDT
  

• Touting Houston's approach to planning

  Just wanted to pass along some of the great excerpts/quotes from this morning's front page Chronicle story on Montrose's award:
  

  Eclectic, walkable and one of top 10

  Montrose, the central Houston community known for its diverse lifestyles, vibrant street life and stately historic homes, is being honored by the American [...]

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  Posted: October 07, 2009, 6:21am EDT
  

• Thoughts on recent transportation news

  The Chronicle has had several transportation and transit related articles in the last few days. The first, on different agencies and plans for commuter rail, discusses Metro vs. the freight rail district vs. the city of Galveston. All three proposed lines have flaws that could potentially make them as [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 4:44pm EDT
  

• Houston culture and brand, moving Americans, HSR, rail maps, and more

  Another set of smaller items:
  HSR ridership rarely gets anywhere near projections, creating serious revenue shortfalls. "High speed rail is an unprofitable train wreck."Houston ranked as the #8 cultural capital in America, according to Forbes. Hat tip.Americans are relocating less (mainly because of the economy and [...]
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  Posted: October 01, 2009, 7:31pm EDT
  

• How Houston stacks up on income and cost of living

  I recently came across this document from Atlanta with a lot of interesting data comparing 17 large and/or fast-growing American metros, including Houston (hat tip to 'Rail Claimore'). Some observations:
  We're one of only three cities that are both very large and the fastest growing since 2000, along' [...]
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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 5:39pm EDT
  

• Why the feds should stay out of high-speed rail (and most transportation)

  Set aside for a minute whether high-speed rail (HSR) makes sense or not on a cost-benefit basis. Regardless of whether it does or not (and some smart people are arguing not), I'd like to make the argument that federal funding has no place in HSR. Instead, it should' [...]
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  Posted: September 24, 2009, 7:34pm EDT
  

• HSR, carbon impact, tech jobs, low stress, NPR, and more

  Tonight I just want to pass along a few smaller items of interest:
  Christof has a couple of interesting new posts on his Intermodality blog, including ten transportation opportunities of the next mayor and third-generation commuter rail.The Wall Street Journal has a special section story today about [...]
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  Posted: September 21, 2009, 6:01pm EDT
  

• Critiquing Gene Locke's Transportation Plan (and HRG, NPR)

  Today I attended mayoral candidate Gene Locke's transportation briefing, during which he unveiled his transportation plan, which had the usual stuff (improve regional coordination, get more state and federal money, etc.) but also introduced a few novel items (including the cute C.H.O.I.C.E.S. acronym).
  
  I also had' [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2009, 5:54pm EDT
  

• Houston a "World Capital of the Future"

  Joel Kotkin has an article on the "World Capitals of the Future" (originally in Forbes), focused mainly on emerging countries, but with a nod to a handful in North America, including Houston (Forbes detail page).
  

  Of course, none of these cities' wealth or economic power have passed' [...]

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  Posted: September 13, 2009, 6:17pm EDT
  

• Why it's good Houston lost the 2016 Olympics, plus job sprawl, traffic, and HSR

  I recently came across this story on crumbling public support for the 2016 Olympics in Chicago, as the costs, risks, and hassles become more clear.
  The Tribune/WGN poll is the first measure of public sentiment since Daley did an about-face in June, saying he would sign the standard host [...]
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  Posted: September 03, 2009, 10:29pm EDT
  

• Is a 'SmartCode' the answer to Ashby?

  Andrew over at neoHouston has a really thought-provoking and detailed post (including a chart and map) on how a 'SmartCode' could be applied in Houston to prevent problems like the Ashby high-rise. It also includes a wonderful defense of Houston:
  

  On the other hand, many in Houston, including myself, [...]

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  Posted: August 31, 2009, 6:41pm EDT
  

• CA disease, DC danger, Ashby, rail, peak oil, toll roads, free buses, and more

  Smaller misc items and some of my recent Opportunity Urbanist posts:
  In catching up with my badly backlogged newsfeeds, I found several items on the Antiplanner of interest:
  A ranking of states by both personal and economic freedom, where Texas scored very highly on both.
  A [...]
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  Posted: August 27, 2009, 4:21pm EDT
  

• Houston’s Texas Medical Center May Outgrow Downtown Dallas

  A quick pass-along from Bloomberg. A few good excerpts:
  Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city, has been buoyed by construction in the Texas Medical Center, an area with 3,000 job openings that is likely to become larger than Dallas’s downtown, said Jeff Moseley, chief executive officer of the [...]
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  Posted: August 23, 2009, 9:35am EDT
  

• My new Chronicle blog, Opportunity Urbanist

  The Houston Chronicle recently asked me to write a City Brights blog for them, and I couldn't say no to such a great opportunity to reach a whole new audience. I started it earlier this week and they put me on the home page the first day, which' [...]
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  Posted: August 20, 2009, 6:10pm EDT
  

• Why the 'Livable Cities' rankings are wrong

  Joel Kotkin has a great piece over at New Geography (originally at Forbes) describing what's wrong with all the 'livable' and 'best' city rankings from places like The Economist, Mercer, and others. Highlights:
  For the most part, the top ranks are dominated by well-manicured older European cities such' [...]
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  Posted: August 16, 2009, 7:07pm EDT
  

• Houston's intangible identity

  You may have seen the recent commentary in the Chronicle defending Houston against criticism from Outside magazine (great HAIF response: "This just in: RVing magazine rates Manhattan poorly!", or my own version, "Boating magazine disses Albuquerque.") Christopher Dentler sent me an email we agreed would be worth sharing on [...]
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  Posted: August 10, 2009, 4:56pm EDT
  

• Regs, housing value, graffiti, blue states, HSR, Astrodome, and more

  Finishing off the smaller items I started last week:
  An update to my high-speed rail post from earlier this week: Glaeser analyzes the Houston-Dallas route and finds the costs far exceed the benefits (3 or 6 to 1). AC changes some benefit assumptions and disagrees, finding a [...]
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  Posted: August 06, 2009, 5:57pm EDT
  

• Rail updates: HSR, commuter, and airports

  There's been a lot of rail buzz in the blogosphere lately, some sparked by the Obama administration's interest in supporting high-speed rail. Harvard professor Edward Glaseser has an op-ed in the Boston Globe expressing strong skepticism:
  

  For most workers in America’s sprawling metropolitan areas, no train is going to [...]

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  Posted: August 03, 2009, 5:18pm EDT
  

• Nanomedicine, zoo, TOD, regional transit, Astrodome, and more

  Another wave of smaller items to pass along:
  A great idea from neoHouston: to limit land speculation that jacks up prices and prevents development near rail lines, raise appraisals - and therefore property taxes - to match asking prices. He gives an example of a $5m appraised property selling [...]
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  Posted: July 30, 2009, 3:02pm EDT
  

• Houston's global competiveness rankings + radio show

  Just finished a fun KPFT radio show this afternoon, "Growing up in Houston", where we talked about The Economist special section on Texas and our issues with children's education and health care. The hosts were Bob Sanborn and Diana Zarzuelo from Children at Risk. I dropped the [...]
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  Posted: July 27, 2009, 6:30pm EDT
  

• Speaking at open lunch event this Friday

  And here are the details:
  
  Opportunity Urbanism
  
  The HPRA speaker this Friday is Houston blogger Tory Gattis, who will discuss his work with urban scholar Joel Kotkin and his optimistic views about Houston as a city that allows rapid social mobility for citizens "as an alternative to" [...]
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  Posted: July 23, 2009, 7:21am EDT
  

• Transportation fantasyland in DC

  I want to pass along this Wall Street Journal op-ed on some of crazy transportation goals starting to get traction in Congress. The main excerpt:
  

  Messrs. Rockefeller and Lautenberg aim to "reduce per capita motor vehicle miles traveled on an annual basis." Mr. Oberstar wants to establish a federal [...]

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  Posted: July 20, 2009, 5:20pm EDT
  

• City of NWHou? Growth, hipsters on the move, rankings, and more

  Another round of smaller misc items for your weekend reading:
  Shareef has assembled a page of top Houston rankings from the last few years, which I have also added to my permanent right-side blogroll links. It's a pretty amazing list.
  Animated map of job growth and loss over' [...]
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  Posted: July 16, 2009, 6:17pm EDT
  

• The Economist special report on Texas and TX vs. CA

  
  The Economist magazine has a 10-page special report on Texas this week (pdf), only the second state they've ever covered in such detail (after CA). In fact, the cover and lead op-ed is about CA vs. TX.
  
  Yours truly' [...]
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  Posted: July 13, 2009, 4:49pm EDT
  

• Houston's impressive GDP ranking + a survey

  The NY Times had an interesting story yesterday about how the transportation stimulus funding is overly biased towards rural areas, which doesn't surprise me at all given the geographic nature of politics and the obvious fact that a road network will be more expensive per capita for a dispersed' [...]
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  Posted: July 10, 2009, 8:12am EDT
  

• Spring 2Q09 Highlights

  It's time for the Spring 2Q09 quarterly highlights post. These posts have been chosen with a particular focus on significant ideas I'd like to see kept alive for discussion and action, and they're mainly targeted at new readers who want to get caught up with a quick overview of the [...]
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  Posted: July 07, 2009, 9:33pm EDT
  

• Transform NASA into the "Google of Government"

  Welcome everyone checking out the blog after reading this morning's op-ed in the Houston Chronicle. Since Chronicle links aren't permanent, I'll repost it in its entirety below. The main place for this post is on my work blog, but because NASA is so important to Houston, I thought' [...]
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  Posted: July 05, 2009, 9:15am EDT
  

• TX Smart Growth and Houston Urbanism

  In case you missed it, Governor Perry vetoed a smart growth bill that came out of the recent legislature (Houston Tomorrow, Kuff, HRG). Setting aside all of the negative impacts that have come from smart growth plans elsewhere (the CA housing bubble, among others), and as relatively [...]
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  Posted: June 29, 2009, 5:37pm EDT
  

• Securing Houston's economic and world-city future

  Houston has a unique window of opportunity right now to secure its economic future as well as improve its world-city status. We're currently the global capital of the oil and gas industry, one of the most important industries in the world. The short to medium-term future for oil and gas' [...]
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  Posted: June 25, 2009, 5:57pm EDT
  

• Rankings, livability, density, economy, clean energy, and more

  Clearing out some more small items:
  New Geography takes issue with the Economist's "most livable" city rankings, which are so unaffordable they are really only "most livable" for wealthy elite executives. Houston even gets a mention. Hat tip to Hugh and Wendell.In case you missed it in the [...]
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  Posted: June 22, 2009, 10:06pm EDT
  

• WSJ on the Ike Dike

  A crazy week, so just another pass-along article from the Wall Street Journal on the proposed 60-mile long, 17-feet high, "Ike Dike" defense around Galveston and Bolivar. Estimated price tag is $2 to $4 billion, which is a bargain compared to the surge damage from even one hurricane. Some [...]
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  Posted: June 19, 2009, 3:31pm EDT
  

• Rail to the airport

  Running a little behind this week, so I just wanted to pass along this story from USA Today on domestic airports adding rail service. People love the service, of course, and many airports are doing it, but later in the article they get to the economic irrationality of it [...]
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  Posted: June 16, 2009, 10:20am EDT
  

• Taxes drive the rich (and the not-so-rich) to Texas

  Tonight just a quick pass-along from a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "Soak the Rich, Lose the Rich", which has a lot of nice things to say about Texas:
  The tax differential between low-tax and high-tax states is widening, meaning that a relocation from high-tax California or Ohio, [...]
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  Posted: June 11, 2009, 5:29pm EDT
  

• Rankings, plaudits, Metro costs, Mayor's race, TOD regs, and more

  When I finally started to catch up after my vacation, the backlog of smaller items for the blog grew way too fast (approaching 20+), so it's time to start whittling that list down:
  Details of how each of the four mayoral candidates view land-use regulation, light rail, TOD, economic' [...]
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  Posted: June 08, 2009, 6:24pm EDT
  

• Job seekers heading to Texas

  I wanted to blog on this Fort Worth Star-Telegram Sunday business feature before my trip, but ran out of time. The journalist interviewed me for the story and I have a couple of quotes. It's a long article with a lot of good stuff, so let's get right to [...]
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  Posted: June 04, 2009, 5:17pm EDT
  

• Atlanta vs. Houston

  I just got back from an enjoyable family vacation through Charleston, Hilton Head, Savannah, the Smokey Mountains, and Atlanta. The last couple of days were in Atlanta, and I thought I'd draw on that very limited experience to make some comparisons with Houston. Houston and Atlanta are very similar in' [...]
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  Posted: May 31, 2009, 5:50pm EDT
  

• Surface transportation innovations for Houston

  I was recently able to catch up on a stack of Surface Transportation Innovations newsletters from the Reason Foundation, and thought I'd pass along some of my favorite items:
  Why the Obama administration's plan for inter-city high-speed rail is problematic.Committee charts future for public-private partnership toll roads [...]
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  Posted: May 18, 2009, 5:12pm EDT
  

• Gas cost vs. commuting and a realistic climate change solution

  A quick post at halftime tonight: just want to pass along a couple of interesting pieces.
  
  The first is a couple of graphs of total commuting cost by car vs. the price per gallon of gasoline. They demonstrate why it's hard to get people' [...]
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  Posted: May 14, 2009, 10:22pm EDT
  

• Mapping the money

  Check out this cool set of maps showing the higher-income neighborhoods for each of the 25 largest U.S. metros (hat tip to NeoHouston). Most cities show a similar pattern with a small area of wealth in the core, surrounded by the poor, then some middle class suburbs, then [...]
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  Posted: May 11, 2009, 7:02pm EDT
  

• MetroRail cost disputes, TX growth, rankings, and more

  OK, my queue of smaller misc items has been spiraling out of control, so here are some of them:
  A Dallas Morning News editorial by columnist William McKenzie discussing my post on Texas and America's four great growth waves can be found here. Hat tip to David' [...]
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  Posted: May 07, 2009, 8:00pm EDT
  

• PBS 7pm tonight - Houston Have Your Say on the Economy

  A quick pass-along (thanks to Sandra for the heads up). Don't miss it tonight.
  On a global scale, how competitive are Houston’s industries and workers? A local partnership of community and media groups will take up the topic during a televised community forum.
  
  At 7 p.m. Thursday, May' [...]
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  Posted: May 07, 2009, 8:26am EDT
  

• Why Conservatives Should Care About Transit and TOD

  Kirsten asked for my reaction to this article laying out 'conservative' arguments for transit and walkable communities. I am all for both within a free-choice framework, but I disagree with most of the arguments given here. Summing up and then addressing his arguments:
  
  1. Federal funding is biased [...]
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  Posted: May 04, 2009, 5:28pm EDT
  

• Houston better than Portland

  Long-time readers of my blog know why I couldn't resist a chance to use that headline... ;-)
  
  A hearty congratulations to the Rockets. The last time they made the second round of the playoffs was 1997. Now it's time to shock Kobe and the Lakers. BTW, does anybody [...]
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  Posted: May 01, 2009, 11:12pm EDT
  

• A poignant last post on Houston

  I ran out of time today, so just a quick pass-along tonight: some excerpts from a moving last post at the Keep Houston Houston blog. (although I recommend reading the whole thing)
  

  It happened like this: Many years ago I was tripping on the smart-growth kool-aid. I got [...]

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  Posted: April 30, 2009, 10:21pm EDT
  

• How the crash will - and won't - reshape America

  A couple months ago, Richard Florida (of Creative Class fame) published a major article in The Atlantic on 'How the Crash Will Reshape America' (hat tip to Deborah). A short summary of his thesis is here, and here are some cool interactive maps of patent activity, income [...]
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  Posted: April 27, 2009, 6:44pm EDT
  

• The four Houstons

  I was thinking recently about how metro areas fragment as they grow. They stop being one unified city, and instead are an assembly of overlapping urban clusters where people tend to live and work within the same zone. Here's the main indicator: can most people reasonably commute to all or' [...]
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  Posted: April 23, 2009, 9:50pm EDT
  

• Topping the F500, skyline, polls, regs, good PR, and a piracy solution

  The smaller misc items continue to pile up rapidly. One of the more interesting ones is the 2009 Fortune 500 list (Chronicle story), where Texas pulled away from NY (56) and CA (51) with 64 headquarters, 29 of which are in the Houston metro (up from 26 [...]
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  Posted: April 20, 2009, 5:53pm EDT
  

• Best cities for jobs: Texas runs the table

  The annual best cities for jobs ranking was released this week at Forbes, and Texas ran the table with the top 5 slots on the large city list: Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Ft. Worth, and Dallas. That's pretty impressive when you think about it. Still, everybody' [...]
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  Posted: April 16, 2009, 5:08pm EDT
  

• Radically increasing IAH express bus ridership and revenue

  As I mentioned last week (first item), ridership on Metro's spiffy new IAH express bus service has been a little anemic, averaging only 1 or 2 people per bus trip. But I think there's a way that could be substantially improved. Continental represents the vast majority (~85%) of the [...]
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  Posted: April 13, 2009, 9:06pm EDT
  

• Texas and America's four great growth waves

  Update: A somewhat expanded and refined version of this post can be found on the New Geography website here.
  
  Update 2: A Dallas Morning News editorial by columnist William McKenzie discussing this post can be found here. Hat tip to David Winans.
  
  Let's talk about' [...]
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  Posted: April 09, 2009, 10:40pm EDT
  

• IAH bus, LRT, alt energy, TX vs CA, Houston hooky contest

  Clearing out some smaller misc items:
  After 7 months, Metro still has pretty disappointing ridership on its IAH airport express buses: 98 total per day, or 1-2 per bus trip (!). That sparked quite a debate on HAIF here. The month-to-month growth rate is good, and I think they [...]
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  Posted: April 06, 2009, 9:47pm EDT
  

• Winter 1Q09 Highlights

  It's time for the Winter 1Q09 quarterly highlights post. These posts have been chosen with a particular focus on significant ideas I'd like to see kept alive for discussion and action, and they're mainly targeted at new readers who want to get caught up with a quick overview of the' [...]
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  Posted: April 02, 2009, 9:28pm EDT
  

• Texas on the brink?

  Terry sent me this link to a short essay and some stats titled "Texas on the Brink". I thought I'd share my response with you:
  
  Although I don't really think "we're on the brink" (most of our economic growth stats outpace the nation), I do partially agree' [...]
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  Posted: March 30, 2009, 8:18pm EDT
  

• How to make Houston and Texas the next Silicon Valley

  Paul Graham, the famous tech investor and writer, has a new essay out claiming any city has the potential to be the next Silicon Valley - or at least a close second - just by throwing money at the issue. Specifically, he thinks about $1 billion dollars would do [...]
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  Posted: March 26, 2009, 10:24pm EDT
  

• Houston's vulnerability, top rankings, and more

  Time to clear out some smaller misc items:
  A newsletter I read, "Musings from the Oil Patch", takes issue with the Dallas Fed's characterization of Houston's energy vulnerability:"Houston’s energy industry does have a vulnerability, but it’s not $40 a barrel oil and $4 a Mcf natural gas. It" [...]
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  Posted: March 23, 2009, 6:03pm EDT
  

• The Grand Parkway, stimulus-for-tolls, and the secret benefit of HOV->HOT conversions

  I'd like to address three distinct but related issues in this post. The first is defending the Grand Parkway, which recently had segment E approved from 290 to 10W. As the Energy Corridor grows its job base, instead of people moving farther and farther out I-10, they can grow up' [...]
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  Posted: March 19, 2009, 10:17pm EDT
  

• Ten principles for developing a great city

  I recently came across these excellent principles from the Lone Mountain Compact (hat tip to Josh). For the most part, Houston already follows most of them most of the time, but it couldn't hurt to have them formally adopted by the City Council, the CoH Planning Commission, H-GAC, Harris' [...]
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  Posted: March 17, 2009, 10:00am EDT
  

• How Houston will weather the recession

  Joel Kotkin has an article both on the New Geography site and in Forbes (hat tip to David) this week on how Houston will weather the recession. It's a good piece and I recommend reading the whole thing, but here are a few excerpts that appealed' [...]
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  Posted: March 12, 2009, 9:24pm EDT
  

• Houston housing (plus toll roads)

  I've been meaning to get to this one for a while. For the fifth straight year, Houston ranked as one of the most affordable metros in Demographia's International Housing Affordability Survey (hat tip to Hugh, sorry for the delay). Our median multiple of house prices to income is [...]
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  Posted: March 09, 2009, 7:09pm EDT
  

• MetroRail, Portland, energy, stimulus, and a race

  So Metro approved the contract for 4 of the 5 new light rail lines this week. Although there have been complaints about the 2012 plan delays, it looks like Metro used the time - and the intervening economic collapse - wisely to get the costs [...]
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  Posted: March 05, 2009, 7:29pm EST
  

• A World's Fair for Houston? Bill Gates touts KIPP, and more

  Wow. Just finished watching an amazing Rockets game where they completely dismantled Lebron James (the only shutout in his career for assists) and the Eastern conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers (holding them to their lowest score of the year). This team definitely has the potential to go all the way, even [...]
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  Posted: February 26, 2009, 10:27pm EST
  

• Houston vs. how Americans want to live

  David Brooks had an extremely insightful column last week in the NY Times on what Americans are looking for in their ideal living environment. I liked the opening in particular:
  

  You may not know it to look at them, but urban planners are human and have dreams. One [...]

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  Posted: February 23, 2009, 10:11pm EST
  

• #1 in Everything, State of the County, MetroRail budgets

  Judge Emmett gave a good State of the County address at a GHP luncheon today (Chronicle coverage, Examiner coverage). Some highlights:
  The county is financially in good shape, certainly far better than most governments across the country"71 percent of all new jobs created in the U.S. in" [...]
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  Posted: February 19, 2009, 7:30pm EST
  

• The top four urban stories of late '08 (and my response on Houston's freedom)

  So I've been backlogged on my Planetizen emails since October. That's over 35+ emails with links to 700+ stories related to cities and urban planning. But I caught up last week and have selected what I think are the four most interesting stories I came across:
  The benefits of [...]
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  Posted: February 16, 2009, 7:05pm EST
  

• Rail Anti-Christ, HOV->HOT, rankings, HSR, popular cities, and more

  After the PBS town hall a couple weeks ago, first one and then another person commented or emailed me referring to the "Rail Anti-Christ". I didn't understand what they were referring to, but figured it couldn't be a coincidence. After inquiring, they explained it to me. The videos of [...]
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  Posted: February 12, 2009, 7:02pm EST
  

• $50K In Houston Equals $123K in NYC, study finds

  This stat comes from a recent report from the Center for an Urban Future focused on the disappearing middle class in NYC. The Gothamist has a good blog post summarizing, including some nice graphs (#1 and #6 include Houston data). In the sixth graph, note that the average [...]
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  Posted: February 09, 2009, 9:27pm EST
  

• Comprehensively addressing graffiti

  The City Council Quality of Life committee met today and talked about, among other things, graffiti abatement. You may remember Councilmember Sue Lovell's graffiti op-ed a couple weeks back in the Chronicle (why oh why, chron.com, can't you have real permalinks like the rest of the newspaper web site [...]
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  Posted: February 05, 2009, 6:10pm EST
  

• Houston resilience, transportation stimulus, and energy conservation

  For those of you who didn't catch the PBS town hall forum last week, here's the video online. I think I did ok, making points about the difficulties of commuter rail in a city like ours, some deceptive transportation cost stats, and the win-win benefits of [...]
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  Posted: February 02, 2009, 8:22pm EST
  

• Bridge to Opportunity

  The Chronicle story on the planned 'Tolerance Bridge' for pedestrians over Buffalo Bayou near Montrose mentioned that the Mayor asked the Houston Arts Alliance to come up with a better name. It says they're taking suggestions through Jan 31st, but my email keeps bouncing' [...]
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  Posted: January 29, 2009, 8:30pm EST
  

• A Pragmatic Approach to Houston’s Future (part 2 of 2)

  Continuing from part 1 earlier this week (both parts also posted here, along with other essays). Don't forget to watch Houston Have Your Say on the Future of Houston on PBS Channel 8 tonight at 7pm.
  
  So, given that set of realities, what’s the right answer' [...]
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  Posted: January 29, 2009, 2:18pm EST
  

• A Pragmatic Approach to Houston’s Future (part 1 of 2)

  Local PBS has asked me to participate in a panel exploring Houston's future - specifically regarding traffic, livability, and regional growth (more here, including a participant list). The panel will be broadcast live at 7pm Thursday evening on local channel 8 PBS. They asked me to write an' [...]
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  Posted: January 26, 2009, 9:35pm EST
  

• Houston's SXSW, Metro rail update, and more

  Just want to pass along a few smaller misc items tonight:
  More on a Houston Energy SXSW-like mega-conference I brought up last week: got some nice backing from Carrie Feibel over at the Chronicle Politics blog as well as a HAIF thread, and now I'm talking' [...]
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  Posted: January 22, 2009, 9:42pm EST
  

• Speaking at open event this Wed evening

  Just going to pass along this announcement about my speaking at the Emerging Green Builders event this Wednesday evening. It's free and all are welcome - just RSVP here so they know how many to expect. Hope to see you there!
  
  
  The Emerging' [...]
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  Posted: January 19, 2009, 9:49pm EST
  

• Mayor White's last State of the City address (and what he should do next)

  Mayor White delivered his final State of the City address at a packed GHP luncheon today (he's term-limited out this year). I can't say there was any breaking news (here's the Chronicle story), but it was a fine speech. He argued that, even with the economic crisis, Houston' [...]
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  Posted: January 15, 2009, 7:00pm EST
  

• Keep Houston Houston

  It's late tonight, and I've been wanting to pass this along for a while: a really insightful little blog post on what makes Houston great, and a proposal for a new slogan: Keep Houston Houston. Great stuff. Enjoy:
  At any rate, we’ve all seen “keep Austin weird” [...]
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  Posted: January 12, 2009, 10:07pm EST
  

• Do Houstonians really drive more vs. other cities?

  Demographia has published a short white paper debunking the myth that Houstonians drive more than people in other cities based on flawed 2006 FHWA stats. Those stats show we drive 36 vehicle miles per capita per day, the most in the nation among major cities (table 1, page [...]
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  Posted: January 08, 2009, 5:51pm EST
  

• Why Does Hollywood Hate the Suburbs?

  The Wall Street Journal had a recent in-depth piece on Hollywood's and the "liberal intelligentsia's" long abhorrence for the suburbs. The whole thing is an interesting read, but here are the excerpts that jumped out at me:
  There were two overarching reasons for condemning the suburbs, during the '50s' [...]
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  Posted: January 05, 2009, 5:42pm EST
  

• 2008 Highlights

  It's time for the Fall 4Q08 quarterly highlights post, which in this case sums up all the highlights from 2008. These posts have been chosen with a particular focus on significant ideas I'd like to see kept alive for discussion and action, and they're mainly targeted at new readers who' [...]
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  Posted: January 01, 2009, 9:48pm EST
  

• Rail, bikes, IAH, Texas, infrastructure, and more

  Sorry for the late post this week - busy holidays, you know. Got some smaller misc items to pass along:
  Galveston rail moves forward. One of the lines I agree with (also here), and the $400m price is almost reasonable given the length and potential ridership.AP gave [...]
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  Posted: December 24, 2008, 4:48pm EST
  

• Doing Urban Corridors the right way, the Houston way

  Had a conversation this week with Josh at HRG about the Urban Corridors initiative moving forward at the Houston Planning Commission, which involves encouraging dense development near Metro rail stops. There are debates about the right standards, but the real issue is mandatory vs. incentives. Another big issue [...]
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  Posted: December 18, 2008, 9:09pm EST
  

• Opportunity Houston in Fast Company

  I'm short on time tonight, so just a quick pass-along. The Greater Houston Partnership's $40m Opportunity Houston program to promote economic development just got a real nice write-up in the most recent issue of Fast Company. (Hat tip to Justin)Houston Launches Multimillion-Dollar Effort to Shield Its Economy
  
  Flush [...]
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  Posted: December 15, 2008, 10:15pm EST
  

• David Brooks gets in wrong on old vs. new transportation infrastructure stimulus

  I'm normally a big fan of David Brooks' columns at the NY Times, but this week's column on innovative infrastructure stimulus (reprinted in the Chronicle on Thursday) was more of a mixed bag. First, I thought his opening was very insightful:
  The 1980s and 1990s made up the' [...]
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  Posted: December 12, 2008, 8:55am EST
  

• State and local transportation issues, part 2

  Continuing from last week on the transportation conference:
  

  • The second-to-last segment on financing priorities and options was moderated by Bill King. It also turned into the feistiest session, with some back-and-forth on the practicality of density and rail (including the Texas T-bone high-speed plan), and how important predictability is [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2008, 6:24pm EST
  

• State and local transportation issues, part 1

  I spent all day Wednesday at a a statewide conference on "Transportation Infrastructure: Establishing Public Policy Priorities" put on by Texas Lyceum at Reliant Center, with the objective of getting something substantive done at the upcoming legislative session in January. The turnout was impressive - several hundred I'd say. It [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2008, 6:29pm EST