Houston lures business and top workers with 'back to basics' approach

[musicman]

Not sure how that defeats Duany's point. He didn't say that all inner city housing was ideal, he simply said that there is a problem with the monoculture housing in the suburbs. There may be pockets of homogeneity inside the loop, but none as vast as what we're seeing on the periphery.

What are you referring to as being "out of fashion"?

i think there are more pockets than you'd believe...

[H-Town Man]

i think there are more pockets than you'd believe...

You're missing the point, musicman. How far do those metal-sided townhomes go before the housing changes to something else?

But if you want to believe there is more or as much monoculture housing in the inner city as in the suburbs, that's fine. This really wasn't intended to be an argument about that.

[MidtownCoog]

So tell us why you think it was an "excellent point".

[musicman]

You're missing the point, musicman. How far do those metal-sided townhomes go before the housing changes to something else?

But if you want to believe there is more or as much monoculture housing in the inner city as in the suburbs, that's fine. This really wasn't intended to be an argument about that.

most of the new housing in the inner city is very boring is all i was commenting on. can you provide some photos of some new inner city hoods that you'd consider "in fashion", that aren't homogeneous?

[moni]

I know, I am always making comparisons with property in southern California but these threads are often about walkability of a neighborhood and I can't help but think about the people I have known who live in California and would not walk across the street to buy something if they can help it. Yes, they jog, they walk for exercise, but they rarely walk to make purchases and wouldn't admit it if they did. San Francisco is the exception to this rule. Everyone is just different in how they think a city should be. This alley behind the tin condos, looks almost exactly like a condo development that I lived in when I was in South Ontario California, most of the condos I have seen out there have this same sort of arrangement, with alleys lined with garages and sometimes gates. All I am saying, it isn't just Houston that has these sort of styles, and they are very popular even though not particularly attractive.

[H-Town Man]

most of the new housing in the inner city is very boring is all i was commenting on. can you provide some photos of some new inner city hoods that you'd consider "in fashion", that aren't homogeneous?

So tell us why you think it was an "excellent point".

I did not intend to comment on the quality of new inner loop housing. The difference between the inner loop and the outlying areas of the city, as I see it, is that the inner loop contains a more diverse array of housing clustered into one general area. You walk or drive a few blocks, and there's something different. Whereas in the suburbs, you can drive for miles in certain areas and basically only see one income level, one "culture" more or less.

I once had a student write about growing up in the "Kingwood culture," the isolated world of sameness that she had been a part of. She wasn't trying to bash it, just to say that it very much defined who she was, and that there wasn't really much option to be anything else. People growing up in areas where there is a patchwork of often starkly different neighborhoods don't seem to encounter this problem as much. I like other things about the suburbs, but I think this is one of its weaknesses.

[musicman]

I did not intend to comment on the quality of new inner loop housing. The difference between the inner loop and the outlying areas of the city, as I see it, is that the inner loop contains a more diverse array of housing clustered into one general area. You walk or drive a few blocks, and there's something different. Whereas in the suburbs, you can drive for miles in certain areas and basically only see one income level, one "culture" more or less.

I see your intent now and agree generally, however i see the inner loop housing becoming less diverse than previous yrs which is a bad thing.

[H-Town Man]

I see your intent now and agree generally, however i see the inner loop housing becoming less diverse than previous yrs which is a bad thing.

I would agree with that.

[RedScare]

The argument can be made that the entire country's housing stock is becoming bland and same. With the advent of air conditioning, many techniques used to stay comfortable in warm climes were no longer needed, hence housing styles became transferrable to other areas. With the advent of faster and more complete information delivery, first television, then cable, and finally internet, everything is nationwide. In fact, with the advent of "big box" stores and better transportation, the homogeny is not limited to housing. Virtually everything is national in scope.

The net effect in a country like the US, where virtually everyone is an immigrant, is that nothing retains its character, its local flavor. It has other drawbacks as well, such as new southern housing being essentially unlivable without huge air conditioners, and Houstonians no longer dressing for the weather, but on an aesthetic level, housing overall has become bland and repetitive. There is probably little being built anywhere in the US that I could not find in every other city. Only the terrain, and perhaps some of the older housing stock nearby gives it away. When it comes to master planned developments, where there is no older housing nearby, most of us couldn't tell one city's suburbs from another.

This is not a Houston problem...it is a US problem.

[lockmat]

Another chron article adding another side to this argument:

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolit...ck/4964631.html

I don't necessarily think we should be improving our city to attract outsiders, which may not be a bad thing. But this whole quality of life issue will hopefully improve the lives of people already here anyway.

[lockmat]

Lone Star Rising

How a combination of ambition, entrepreneurship, trade, and tolerance made Houston America

[lockmat]

I reread Opportunity Urbanism tonight. After doing so and looking at all their charts, it seems that Dallas better exemplifies what "opportunity urbanism" is. And Phoenix looks to be also.

I find it a little strange that Houston is getting more of the pub than those two cities and Atlanta and Charlotte.

http://www.houston.org/pdfs/kotkin/KotkinReportwithlinks.pdf

[rsb320]

I reread Opportunity Urbanism tonight. After doing so and looking at all their charts, it seems that Dallas better exemplifies what "opportunity urbanism" is. And Phoenix looks to be also.

I find it a little strange that Houston is getting more of the pub than those two cities and Atlanta and Charlotte.

http://www.houston.org/pdfs/kotkin/KotkinReportwithlinks.pdf

I found this article very interesting. I think Houston was singled out due to the international or global aspects that our city possesses. Examples are: International port trade, energy, space, fortune 500 companies, number of consulates and TMC.

[Houston19514]

I reread Opportunity Urbanism tonight. After doing so and looking at all their charts, it seems that Dallas better exemplifies what "opportunity urbanism" is. And Phoenix looks to be also.

I find it a little strange that Houston is getting more of the pub than those two cities and Atlanta and Charlotte.

http://www.houston.org/pdfs/kotkin/KotkinReportwithlinks.pdf

Not sure that either Dallas or Phoenix better exemplify Opportunity Urbanism or what causes you to say that. But it's not strange at all that Houston is singled out. The report was written for the Greater Houston Partnership, so of course its focus is on Houston. It does not ignore Dallas but specifically talks about it also being an opportunity city.

[lockmat]

Not sure that either Dallas or Phoenix better exemplify Opportunity Urbanism or what causes you to say that. But it's not strange at all that Houston is singled out. The report was written for the Greater Houston Partnership, so of course its focus is on Houston. It does not ignore Dallas but specifically talks about it also being an opportunity city.

The reason I thought that was because, for all the reasons they highlight Houston as the best example for an Opportunity City, which they show very much through charts, those cities exceed Houston (according to their charts).

Trust me, I love the region and love when it's touted...I was just pointing out something pretty obvious if one looks at all the cities, not just Houston, when looking at their charts.

[Houston19514]

The reason I thought that was because, for all the reasons they highlight Houston as the best example for an Opportunity City, which they show very much through charts, those cities exceed Houston (according to their charts).

Trust me, I love the region and love when it's touted...I was just pointing out something pretty obvious if one looks at all the cities, not just Houston, when looking at their charts.

I think you need to look again. It is not true that Dallas and Phoenix both exceed Houston on all of the charts (or Atlanta, for that matter). One or the other does in some charts. In other charts, Houston is above both of them.

More to the point, however, I don't think they "highlighted Houston as the best example of an Opportunity City." They very much discussed other opportunity cities, such as Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, etc. If the Dallas chamber of commerce hires him to do a report for them, I am sure that report would focus at least as much on Dallas as this one did on Houston.

[lockmat]

I think you need to look again. It is not true that Dallas and Phoenix both exceed Houston on all of the charts (or Atlanta, for that matter). One or the other does in some charts. In other charts, Houston is above both of them.

Yes, Houston is above them in some, but it seemed they were above Houston more often than the other way around. I didn't tally it up, but that seemed to be the trend.

More to the point, however, I don't think they "highlighted Houston as the best example of an Opportunity City." They very much discussed other opportunity cities, such as Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, etc. If the Dallas chamber of commerce hires him to do a report for them, I am sure that report would focus at least as much on Dallas as this one did on Houston.

I knew I shouldn't have used the word "best."

They did continually point out Dallas, Atlanta, Charlotte and Phoenix as other opportunity cities, but the paper was based off of and mostly focused on Houston, which seems to emply that Houston best exemplifies their "Opprotunity City." If they didn't think so, they could have named the paper, Opprotunity Cities, and talked about all of them as equals; but they didn't.

I'm not saying Houston isn't the best example, I'm just trying to be objective and point out some facts I noticed.

[lockmat]

If the Dallas chamber of commerce hires him to do a report for them, I am sure that report would focus at least as much on Dallas as this one did on Houston.

Maybe you're right...

In defining our concept of "Opportunity Urbanism," we rely heavily on a detailed investigation of trends in Houston, an understudied city that has enjoyed some of North America's most rapid economic and population growth over the past generation. We have studied Houston not as an end in itself, but to explore the fundamental economic and demographic dynamics of what Houston Mayor Bill White has defined as, first and foremost, an "opportunity city."