livablehouston.com

[lockmat]

livablehouston.com

The article that appears is very interesting and gives me hope.

Has anyone else visited this site before? If so, does it lend pretty reliable and realistic information?

[TheNiche]

livablehouston.com

The article that appears is very interesting and gives me hope.

Has anyone else visited this site before? If so, does it lend pretty reliable and realistic information?

Much of the data is accurate enough, and Crossley seemed like at least a well-intentioned guy when I met him, but the agenda should be pretty clear, so it should go without saying that they're going to cherrypick information that supports their arguments. Read it critically...but that goes for just about every source you could ever come across. Nobody, myself included, should be taken at face value. Gotta think for yourself.

Edited December 13, 2006 by TheNiche

[lockmat]

Much of the data is accurate enough, and Crossley seemed like at least a well-intentioned guy when I met him, but the agenda should be pretty clear, so it should go without saying that they're going to cherrypick information that supports their arguments. Read it critically...but that goes for just about every source you could ever come across. Nobody, myself included, should be taken at face value. Gotta think for yourself.

Thanks Niche. I appreciate the reminded wisdom

I found that site from this link , which I thought was also interesting. Probably worth looking at more than the other one I posted.

[TheNiche]

Thanks Niche. I appreciate the reminded wisdom

I found that site from this link , which I thought was also interesting. Probably worth looking at more than the other one I posted.

They're both Crossley's pet projects.

[Pumapayam]

Much of the data is accurate enough, and Crossley seemed like at least a well-intentioned guy when I met him.

Is he a public speaker, that is interesting, where and when was this when you met him?

From the beginning of the article:

Hundreds of square miles of Houston greenscape

Edited December 13, 2006 by Pumapayam

[TheNiche]

Is he a public speaker, that is interesting, where and when was this when you met him?

I met him at an industry luncheon; he was not the speaker, but has spoken to various like-minded organizations that'll have him.

Relating to this topic, it is interesting to note that the lack of backyard and rooms for trees in home lots is going to be a big contributer and neighborhood once covered with tree tops change to roof tops.

This is mostly true of infill, such as within Bellaire and West U., where land prices are high, or of housing designed for the lower end of the market. But for developments of any substantial size, flood control regulations require that a certain amount of detention be built for every impermiable square foot of surface. This tends to create a lot of lakes or green spaces that older developments didn't have.

[Original Timmy Chan's]

But for developments of any substantial size, flood control regulations require that a certain amount of detention be built for every impermiable square foot of surface. This tends to create a lot of lakes or green spaces that older developments didn't have.

On the other hand, storm water detention requirements (and the need to dispose of the resulting excavation in an economical manner) are the sole reason that new developments are clear cut of existing trees. This tends to create subdivisions that are devoid of mature trees that older developments DID have!

[TheNiche]

On the other hand, storm water detention requirements (and the need to dispose of the resulting excavation in an economical manner) are the sole reason that new developments are clear cut of existing trees. This tends to create subdivisions that are devoid of mature trees that older developments DID have!

This much is true. However, trees, grass, and shrubs regrow. Open spaces, once covered, rarely ever again are permiable.

[SpringTX]

I just read Crossley's articles on that Livable Houston Magazine website (www.livablehouston.com) such as "A garden city future", "It's about Houston's urbanity", "Thirty Percent", "Houston's Urban System", and "We must build urban villages".

While this guy is thoughtful and meticulate and has a vision, I think his new-urbanist dream for the future of Houston is completely unrealistic on a large scale like he describes in "A garden city future". I think his philosophy is, at best, compatible with revitalizing downtowns and creating new-urbanist developments in the suburbs like The Woodlands Town Center/Market Street/East Shore.

But his vision doesn't address the other half of our society, which is the middle-class, who raise children, chase job opportunties, seek to minimize commuting times, and seek maximum land and housing space on a limited budget. This segment of society is burdened with the most critical of tasks: nurturing our future. But this whole demographic is absent from his vision, and he concedes this.

His vision is incomplete. He moans about lost trees, but then wants everyone to live in what could best be described as a giant Greenwich Village. He berates our world designed around cars, but then admits that he's personally part of the problem. He describes himself as being more "moral" than most people in his distaste for automobiles, but then admits he can't adhere to his own "morals". He wants a future Houston designed around mass transit, but doesn't talk about how alternative forms of transportation comprise only a miniscule proportion of traffic in even the most progressive and chic cities that he apparently so badly wants us to emulate.

How is his vision responsible planning for the Houston region or for our society as a whole?

If he's going to develop a compelling vision for the future landscape of the Houston metro area, he's going to need to address transportation, technological, economic, and human factors as well as just aesthetic and environmental factors.

If he would have posted any of those articles on HAIF as new threads, he would have received a number of very valid and challenging objections to his trendy and incomplete visions. What I love about HAIF is watching the Picasso, pie-in-the-sky urban planning dreamers (like I used to be) get smacked in the face by people from the construction, development, and transportation sectors.

Edited December 28, 2006 by SpringTX