Peter Brown For Houston Mayor

[TheNiche]

Give me money over a pedestrian friendly neighborhood any day. I think most people in my business think the same way. I can't think of a time when I heard the guy next to me say "I'm going to move to 'insert city here' because of the pedestrian friendly neighborhoods". I have heard them discussing moving somewhere for more money though.

Well that's only because you're in an engineering profession, and as we all know from reading Dilbert strips, engineers are not socially adept and probably lack souls.

If engineers had social skills and/or a soul, you and your coworkers would no doubt realize that you need to compensate for your aptitude for applied mathematics and your powers of algorithmic reasoning by being born into an upper middle class family capable of gifting you money--into your late 20's--so that you can purchase less housing at greater cost and also live in a city with a greater percentage of young affluent white (or Asian) women that have crammed themselves into a small breeding ground. Only by flaunting your access to resources and only by maximizing your exposure to members of the opposite sex will you ever find a suitable mate and fulfill the biological imperative that is procreation. That's the definitive way that we know that a person has a soul is that they act like an animal. Right? ...or maybe it was the other way around. But that wouldn't make sense. I'm confused.

Whatever.

The point is, people who think critically and that can't be herded like barnyard animals into their appropriate pens are dumb. You are dumb. Move to Portland, dummy.

It's a kind of vibe a place gets that artists dig. Chill. Besides if there are cheap places to stay (warehouses/efficiencies and the like) starving artists can live there.

Have you ever met a starving artist?

[jgriff]

Well that's only because you're in an engineering profession, and as we all know from reading Dilbert strips, engineers are not socially adept and probably lack souls.

If engineers had social skills and/or a soul, you and your coworkers would no doubt realize that you need to compensate for your aptitude for applied mathematics and your powers of algorithmic reasoning by being born into an upper middle class family capable of gifting you money--into your late 20's--so that you can purchase less housing at greater cost and also live in a city with a greater percentage of young affluent white (or Asian) women that have crammed themselves into a small breeding ground. Only by flaunting your access to resources and only by maximizing your exposure to members of the opposite sex will you ever find a suitable mate and fulfill the biological imperative that is procreation. That's the definitive way that we know that a person has a soul is that they act like an animal. Right? ...or maybe it was the other way around. But that wouldn't make sense. I'm confused.

Whatever.

The point is, people who think critically and that can't be herded like barnyard animals into their appropriate pens are dumb. You are dumb. Move to Portland, dummy.

Ow, I think you hurt my soul.

[LTAWACS]

Have you ever met a starving artist?

Aside from MusicMan? Yes.

[AtticaFlinch]

The point is, people who think critically and that can't be herded like barnyard animals into their appropriate pens are dumb. You are dumb. Move to Portland, dummy.

I'm going to move to Portland so I can be different like everybody else.

Anybody got some skinny jeans I can borrow so I can fit in?

[ricco67]

I thought gingers had no souls? Or do engineers who are gingers truly have no souls?

[20thStDad]

I thought gingers had no souls? Or do engineers who are gingers truly have no souls?

We have souls, but only the ones we steal from our victims.

[AtticaFlinch]

I thought gingers had no souls? Or do engineers who are gingers truly have no souls?

Gingineers?

We have souls, but only the ones we steal from our victims.

My kid's got a touch of ginger, just like her dear ol' dad. Let's just hope she doesn't become an engineer. I don't want her to have to supplement her soul with stolen ones.

[musicman]

Aside from MusicMan? Yes.

I'm not starving yet! I hope everyone is doing well!

[sifuwong]

Didn't he used to own "Civic Design" years ago?

[Lotus]

Nonsense. Houston will be just fine.

We should not fear the statistics you pointed out - that 75% of Houstonians under 30 are minorities, and most of them are poor. It was like that in New York a century ago - (well, they were German, Italian, and Irish then; not Latino; but they were poor). The influx of immigrants did not cause New York to become a slum. Quite the opposite.

(They didn't keep drop out rates in schools a century ago)

Give them a generation or two, and you'll see. In the mean time, look at this Op-Ed in the Washington Post. Pay close attention to myth number '3'.

I'm not as optimistic as you. Things have changed in the past 100 years. Back then, a dropout could still become an apprentice and earn a good living as a tradesman of some kind. A dropout now has much fewer options. Minimum wage, military....and a lot of the lower paying construction jobs go to....immigrants. I suppose endless war and continuing popularity of fast food places will absorb the "non-creative" masses. Plus lower income people seem to have twice the number of children as the others, so one has to wonder what the future will look like. Massive poor areas with pockets of walled prosperity?

[TheNiche]

I'm not as optimistic as you. Things have changed in the past 100 years. Back then, a dropout could still become an apprentice and earn a good living as a tradesman of some kind. A dropout now has much fewer options. Minimum wage, military....and a lot of the lower paying construction jobs go to....immigrants. I suppose endless war and continuing popularity of fast food places will absorb the "non-creative" masses. Plus lower income people seem to have twice the number of children as the others, so one has to wonder what the future will look like. Massive poor areas with pockets of walled prosperity?

Formal education as a metric of human potential is overrated. Why, just earlier tonight, my roommate received his diploma from UH in the mail. He read it to me verbatim, and we laughed as it conferred upon him all the "rights and privileges" associated with having a Bachelor of the Arts in Communications. There are no rights or privileges, and his degree is worthless. We both recognized that. What will allow him to earn more than a dropout is that he is smarter and more productive than the typical dropout. The dropout wasn't going to be successful, no matter how many credentials they might have acquired had they stayed in school. In fact, further schooling is probably a waste of time for someone who doesn't feel like they're getting anything out of it...and they'd probably only be a pest towards the people that wanted to be there, anyway.

I think that what is most instrumental in a city's success and vitality is that there are few barriers to acheivement, and Houston is a remarkable success. Compare us to Detroit, which almost literally is racially and economically walled off and which has economic barriers to growth that have driven migration patterns from there to here. Compare us to San Francisco or Boston, each an amalgam of white people and Asians, all of them raised to believe in themselves as some kind of unique snowflake with a higher purpose than the average among them, and backed up by some of the largest concentrations of inherited wealth in the world. In that context, Houston ain't bad. We're the kind of place that anyone so motivated can succceed in, perhaps even after multiple failures, and where success is defined foremostly in the context of one's abilities and secondarily by a lower threshold for success afforded us by a low cost of living.

If Peter Brown cannot appreciate Houston, then perhaps it is no wonder that Houston did not appreciate Peter Brown.

[citykid09]

If Peter Brown cannot appreciate Houston, then perhaps it is no wonder that Houston did not appreciate Peter Brown.

I don't think it was that he didn't appreciate the city, he just expected and wanted to strive for the best for Houston.

[TheNiche]

I don't think it was that he didn't appreciate the city, he just expected and wanted to strive for the best for Houston.

I think that Peter Brown's definition of "best" betrays his complete lack of appreciation for what makes our city so awesome.

[citykid09]

How would Houston be different if Peter Brown had become mayor instead of Parker? Peter Brown is a huge advocate of urban planning in Houston and I wonder how his ideas would have made Houston a more walkable urban city. For example, If Peter Brown had become mayor of Houston, I believe all the development on Washington Ave would have been much more like you would find in other cities (up to the street, sidewalk cafes, etc).

 

 

Here are some of his videos from around the city. He calls his self Pedestrian Pete on his Youtube Channel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope the guy he has with him in the above videos is coming to work for the city of Houston.

Here is a link to all of his videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/BetterHoustonOrg/videos

[Ross]

The Mayor can't force any type of zoning. Why would Brown be able to do things any differently?

[citykid09]

Peter Brown’s sees sidewalks, power lines and the way buildings are place on lots as major problems. I don’t think zoning would fix that, it would just tell people where something can and cannot be built. If there was a standard that building must be built up to the sidewalk, power lines were not allowed in the middle of sidewalks and that sidewalks should be a certain width then I don’t think the problem of not having zoning will be much of a problem. Also Peter Brown could have reduced the parking requirements by a bunch.

[Ross]

None of that would happen without the support of City Council, which isn't going to happen. The current ordinance requires the setback from the street, do you really think that Council is going to change that?

[citykid09]

None of that would happen without the support of City Council, which isn't going to happen. The current ordinance requires the setback from the street, do you really think that Council is going to change that?

 

Why wouldn't they? The are voted into the City Council to do what is best for the city and wouldn't all that I listed be best for the city and its citizens?

[IronTiger]

Either way, it would've taken years for anything to take effect since existing structures would be grandfathered in.

[Naviguessor]

Citykids issue is valid and the city needs to address it. Let's hope Parker's Complet streets initiative takes hold and is followed through with. Should've been done years ago.

[Ross]

Why wouldn't they? The are voted into the City Council to do what is best for the city and wouldn't all that I listed be best for the city and its citizens?

 

Overall. building setbacks on Washington are very low on the list of priorities for Houston citizens. In fact, most of them could not care less, since it has no impact on them, as opposed to things like sewer and water repairs, street repaving, the drug dealer down the street, etc. Those of us discussing this are a pretty small minority of the people in this city.

 

[nativehoustonion]

So what he is not mayor. Major parker has done so much for the city. Just wait till you will see east downtown due to the tax incentives with hotel and condos going up.

[citykid09]

I never said Mayor Parker has done nothing for the city, its just that it seems that if Peter Brown had become mayor there would have been more focus on urban planning. I don't see how it would be low on there list of priorities when its a quality of life issue. Houston is a fat city because people don't walk they drive and that is something that is for the most part forced because of the way that the city is developed. What is the point of requiring a set back with parking in the front?

 

 

I looked up the Washington Ave future plans and could not find it, but any ways, I came across a Washington Ave plan in another city.

Check it out:

 

Here is an image of the Houston Washington Ave plan:

 

My question is why make plans like this when you know that they are never going to happen because the city requires huge setbacks and parking, etc? It drives you nuts! You want to live in Houston but the way that development is currently done in the city you know that you can never get a true urban experence like you can get in other cities.

[Ross]

Houston will never have a "true urban experience". We are different. We developed differently, we are laid out differently, we are our own place. Accept it, and be happy with it.

 

 

[kylejack]

Peter Brown would be working with the same budget. It is easy to be a sidewalk advocate when playing in an activist role rather than a public official. I applaud his advocacy work, but I am skeptical that the sidewalk situation would be much different. Whose responsibility is the sidewalk? The City says the property owner. Yet there is no penalty for a homeowner failing to build a sidewalk. I don't see how changing the Mayor changes that.

[IronTiger]

And here I thought it was the dude with the suit and tie running for mayor, not the old man...

[Sky-guy]

Houston will never have a "true urban experience". We are different. We developed differently, we are laid out differently, we are our

own place. Accept it, and be happy with it.

If someone wants a "true urban experience" in houston, they should move downtown.

[nativehoustonion]

I like Washington Ave. But who skyline is that? Not ours!

[Dakota79]

I don't know how Peter Brown would be but maybe he could've convinced Culberson how important mass transit is to our city. I don't get how Dallas will have rail to both airports and we have the magic train to nowhere.

[citykid09]

I like Washington Ave. But who skyline is that? Not ours!

 

I think thats in Minneapolis. I think I found it while Googling "Washington Ave Houston." It would be nice if Houston Washinton Ave could become something similar to that.