TheNiche

The Pew Center for Hispanic studies attempts to estimate the rate of illegal immigration at the state level and are considered the most reliable source. Having said that, everybody that is trying to market to this population knows that there's a pretty wide margin for error. Furthermore, the Census does pick up on some amount of the population of illegal aliens, as do the companies that try to estimate population growth based on Census figures, housing construction, sales, and occupancy rates, among other measures. Ultimately, even if you can estimate how many are here, it is hard to tell who is already counted and who isn't, confounding any attempts at estimates approximating the truth.

I wasn't responding to Copgo. But I do agree with you that it is boring for the price. Nor would I, but then we aren't in the target market.

When garage doors are perfectly perpendicular and very close to the street, it conserves on the size of the footprint of the driveway, which otherwise costs money and takes up land that could've been used to increase the home's size or provide for a larger total yard size. Those that will buy the house will live in the house; those that do not live in the house only drive by it. To a builder, the only person that matters is the buyer. He does not care that the neighbors would have prefered that the builder waste money and land so that they might be able to free-ride on a pretty view.

It's closer to the Houston area airports than Galveston, and considering our geographic location and the connectivity of our airport system, the Houston area is the best-located area to capture Caribbean cruise business from markets west of the Mississippi, especially from Texas. As Texas cities and the southwestern U.S. is growing by leaps and bounds, it looks like a plausible bet to me. Having said that, I am not familiar with specifics or details about who is financing what, so I could be very wrong from a public policy standpoint.

They might've been, yes. That's why I used words like "those" and "many" to indicate that what I describe applies to some people and not others.

The bulk of the population density in downtown Houston (which is 1.8 sq. mi.) is contained within a single building--the Harris County Jail. The downtown population that is not in group quarters is estimated to number about 4,000 according to the Downtown Management District. So of those that actually pay market prices to live there, the population density is only 2,222 persons per square mile. In comparison, the non-group-quarters population density throughout the entire Inner Loop area is 4,522 persons per square mile. In the Gulfton area, bounded by Westpark, Chimney Rock, Hillcroft, and Bellaire, the non-group-quarters population density is 24,061 persons per square mile. Surprised?

I think what musicman is getting at is that life is all about compromises and identifying opportunities. I would absolutely love to have a couple thousand acres of hill country land with an old farmhouse nestled in a secluded valley. Ain't happening. Alternatively, I'd love to create a home perched atop a 95-foot slip-form tube of concrete along Navigation Blvd. overlooking the turning basin at the Port of Houston. Ain't happening. At least, those things won't happen anytime soon. But in the near future, I'm going to be looking to downsize from a 600sf 1/1 valued at probably $52-55k into something even less expensive so that I might be able to save up my money to live out a dream. Sacrifice at present for wealth in the future. Compromises--gotta make them. When I was a college student, I nearly sold my condo and bought 40 acres and a tiny cottage 95 miles from town. Believe it or not, I could've quit the job I had at the time, taken out student loans, arranged my class schedule to only have to commute twice a week, found someone for a cattle lease, and as good as the deal actually was, with land appreciating like it was, I would've very nearly come out ahead financially! Didn't happen...but might should've. Opportunities--must identify them. And if you're good at the one, the other follows.

Depends on how nice the mobile home is.

Yeah, I spotted that and thought to myself that Duany has apparently not familiarized himself with incentives administered by the TDHCA or the reactions to them when a low-income apartment project is proposed in an otherwise-wealthy area. He readily acknowledges that he is not designing housing that will be sold to poor or many middle-class households, but seems not to understand that the prospective buyers 1) aren't going to want to deal with a tenant in their back yard, 2) certainly aren't going to want to deal with all the low-income tenants in their neighbors' backyards, and 3) that potential income is offset by a higher sale price.

CNN, CNN2, FOX News, CNBC, Discovery, FoodTV, History, Comedy Central, and sometimes FX. Discovery and History channels each have the annoying tendency to dwell on anything in the least bit apocalyptic, and for all its emphasis on science, the Discovery channel very frequently makes scientifically absurd statements in its various specials and seems to be trying to play off of interest in blue collar occupations to get another hit series like American Chopper. A pilot is being produced for the History Channel starring a guy in Sweeny that has a hobby in metal detecting. Depending on how they put it together, a show like that might do well enough. The ghost stories do get old quick, but I must admit that they can be entertaining. I like the science and slow deliberate explanations depicted in Good Eats on FoodTV. Not a big Rachael Ray fan, though. I find her annoying. Like kinkaid, I can't get enough South Park, and I like that Comedy Central is showing frequent Scrubs reruns now. CNBC is good for one thing and one thing only--Mad Money. His violent tantrums aren't much appreciated, but I like Kramer's ability to explain his position, maintaining a cautious trust in the audience's competence, whereas folks like Suze Orman seem to talk down to their audience and establish hard guidelines that I think are utter crap.

As well you should. I just got the news on Saturday evening that my grandfather in Austin has had his bladder cancer return and that there is a growth on his lung, although we don't know whether it has metasticized yet. He's stoic. My grandmother is trying to pickle herself in alcohol. Its pretty sad too, considering how well he fared in chemo during the last go-round. Didn't lose his hair, barely even slowed down.

Red, the first paragraph is devoid of very much information. When I read this, the only thing that registers with me is "Some people hold a notion that the U.S. is a meritocracy." Everything else is rhetoric or extraneous information, and the "some people" concept is very poorly defined. I do not follow how this paragraph is meant to communicate what you claim that it communicates. If anything, that the first two paragraphs use examples drawn more from politics than the economy act to confuse the reader as they come to the meat-and-bones of the third paragraph. Certainly a person can be successful in the one field and never in the other. A wealthy man need not be popular. Moreover, while there can only be one President of the U.S. at any given moment, there can be many multitudes of wealthy folks. I have given the data from the third paragraph the benefit of the doubt--I have no reason to doubt it at this point--and if you read my reply, it stated "I don't see it as necessarily a problem that economic mobility remains constant in the U.S.--neither improving or declining--and I don't see it as a problem that there is a gap between rich and poor." How you manage to turn that into me supposedly not wanting "to accept the reality that may be the third paragraph," is beyond me. I accept reality and don't see it as a problem. IMO, the article was rhetorically framing the article as a problem. That is what the press does. They cannot write articles that exclaim in bold type that "nothing has changed." That's not a good way to sell newspapers. They must create the illusion of crisis, conflict, and conjecture. To the extent that I have read their article, or at least the start of it, I have merely attempted to disarm them of class-based rhetoric.

Kleinberg only thinks that he's got an edge on it because, as far as I can tell, he apparently hasn't read Kotkin's report. I read the report and went to one of Kotkin's speaking events--he's on top of the education issue. Everyone in this debate is. The Chron is wrong, but not entirely for the reason you point out. As Houston built its burbs, it built offices and shopping centers as part of them. The majority of workers in our region work in suburban locations. For some reason, they cling to the myth of the monocentric city. Some of Duany's comments indicate that he clings to the myth as well.

Gotta love those balconies.

I appreciate the link, but they want me to subscribe. From what I can get my hands on, mostly just the multimedia bits and peices as well as what you've posted here, I'm not sure that I agree with what seems to be printed not as a quote from a study or expert uninterested 3rd party but as an editorial opinion. I don't see it as necessarily a problem that economic mobility remains constant in the U.S.--neither improving or declining--and I don't see it as a problem that there is a gap between rich and poor. In fact, it is exactly the kind of viewpoint that is framed here, that society is comprised of wealthy and poor (i.e. winners and losers) that I abhore. So many people are concerned with how the economic pie is divided. I want to bake a bigger pie. And as for citing France as having such high levels of economic mobility, I think of that as hogwash. Ask a French Muslim about opportunity.

If there's still green-tinted water further upstream, probably just upwards of where tidal influences cease, then I'd imagine that subsidence probably is the primary contributing factor to turning Clear Creek brown. Given that the Buffalo Bayou, San Jacinto River, and Trinity River dump so much silt into the Galveston Bay system, it is exceptionally difficult for me to believe that water was clear anywhere except in the shallow marshes, which could not possibly have existed throughout the entire bay system. Redfish bar used to be one of the shallower stretches of the bay, and I have read that ranchers used to be able to run cattle along the oyster beds between Smith Point and San Leon. Despite it being one of the shallower spots, there were oyster beds, not grasses. Also, while I agree that Galveston Bay and many of its tributaries have been dramatically altered, you might try looking to somewhere more like Double Bayou, Lost River, or East Trinity Bay for wild waterways. There are actually plenty of wild waterways in this state, but you have to go off the beaten path to find them...obviously.

Kinkaid, you miss the point. Those wealthy folks don't act like the poor don't exist. Otherwise, they wouldn't spend so much money to send their kids to a school without poor people. They perceive the poor as a problem that must be actively avoided (except for tax purposes or to get their name on a charitible organization's plaque) rather than shrugged off. ...and it annoys me too, at least on a personal level. But it seems to me that many of the rich kids that were born with silver spoons in their mouths tend not to be able to replicate the wealth of their parents. They are pampered, face few hardships, and are completely unprepared to leave the nest and enter a world in which society doesn't give a damn about them. And while it is true that they are more likely to have an advantage in getting better education, I have observed that education doesn't have much to do with intelligence or ambition. On the whole, while they may make more money than folks in society with their same intellectual abilities, I have witnessed efforts to maintain their parents' lifestyles that result in a massive burden of debt and either bankruptcy, a mommy/daddy bailout, or perhaps a sudden inheritance with freakishy good timing. It's pretty sad and pathetic, really. In contrast, perhaps those at the lowest rungs of society are best equipped to rise to the top. How many times in American history has a poor immigrant child become a major force in the economy or political realm? The first couple generations of Kennedys, David Sarnoff, and Arnold Schwarzenegger come to mind, but surely there are millions that have fit the mold, even if not in such a high-profile way. That archetype is persistent in our culture...and perhaps it is linked to the knowledge that society indeed does not give a damn about them, and that success--however they define it--is theirs and theirs alone to win or lose. I see the greater problem as not that society doesn't give a damn about poor folks, but that people are made to believe that each person is special or entitled to anything, or that society should give a damn about them. That is what irks me. I'm in. I'll even bring my beat up old 1981 Chevy pickup (gunmetal grey with rust spots), if only to park it on the curb and watch the neighbors squirm. Heh, heh.

From this thread: Duany complained extensively about the various utility easements that crossed the MDI site. Although he expressed the greatest enthusiasm for this site, the designs presented were by far the most conservative and, frankly, uninteresting.

It has nothing to do with any form of "hate". If anything, it's all about love, or rather, the greatest love.

Duplicate topic. Try this one: http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...&hl=fantome

Yes.

I agree with you on this part. That is exactly how the debate was framed. My assertion, though, is the METRO knew that the debate could be influenced by NIMBYism, even if just a little bit. And in elections, NIMBYs--which may or may not even care about things like light rail unless it could actually affect them--turn out far more reliably (even if they've never voted prior to then) and make a heck of a lot more noise than would the activist YIMBYs, which are the types that were following the issue and going to vote for the referendum one way or the other. This is an example of how single-issue voters can influence elections. But METRO played the game very astutely and took care to keep the issue very theoretical and not to disturb the NIMBYists.

The tax rate in West U is $0.402 per $100 valuation as compared to $0.645 per $100 in the City of Houston. The tax on a $1 million home in West U is only as much as a $1.6 million home in the City of Houston.

I know. I just wanted to take the opportunity to distance myself from the name.

No I don't. The name they're using took me by surprise.