Houston's Urban Planning Is Better Than People Realize
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- čas přidán 17. 12. 2022
- Houston is often considered one of the worst cities when it comes to urban planning-but it's not all bad. It manages to stay affordable by avoiding a certain bad policy that so many other cities fall victim to. For the search engine: this video is about Houston, urbanism, minimum lot size requirements, zoning, and housing.
I'm uploading a short one this week, but next week's video, which will be about Los Angeles, will be significantly longer. If you liked the video and want to see more content from me, subscribe! - Zábava
Don't forget about lack of traditional zoning. I've been living in Houston 12 years and it's been wild how much has changed.
Please make this video longer for the algorithm. Houston isn't perfect, but it isn't as bad as Not Just Bikes makes it seem when he takes his examples from outside the Beltway.
Not just outside the Beltway 8, but outside the Loop 610... The vast majority of what makes up Houston (including its population and most of its negative reputation) is what's found outside the 610 Loop --an area which is tremendously vast. In contrast, the most interesting, most dense, most walkable & enjoyable parts of Houston are found within the relatively smaller "inside the Loop" area.... unfortunately, those denser & more walkable neighborhoods within the 610 Loop (that give Houston most of its positive reputation) have also become generally the most expensive parts of the city.
No it very much is. Houston is as opposite of a city of love as can possibly be.
having spent 10 years of my life i'll never get back h-town, it's much closer to how it's presented by NJB than other vision. Smaller lot size and other zoning regulation has only led to more problems not more solutions and liveability in Houston. Because public infrastructure is crappy as hell so...of course terrible transit, super wide roads, terrible pedestrian access (where are all the singapore style covered sidewalks at least?), and the fun floods that come every few years now from the lack of better planning. Smaller min lot size is one of the very few redeeming qualities the city has (but only over other US cities).
Your one of the best if not the best Urbanist CZcamsr. There are manny sides to Houston, some good others bad. Also Houston really needs to build a metro system.
We have one. And one of the things I do like about us is that for a car city in TX, we’ve voted twice in favor. We just gotta expand it lol. And get at least hobby airport connected to the green line.
We already have Metro bus and rail, but it needs to be significantly expanded.
Extending the light rail which is made for shorter distances won't work. BRT is a good alternative but it can use a subway.
I'm from Houston and I actually did notice those smaller houses being built inside Loop 610 not really much outside the loop but I actually thought it was a pretty cool thing but I didn't realize that other cities didn't really have such small houses.
But I should say the area inside loop 610 has a lot of potential for being more walkable and bikeable and great for public transportation, they're taking steps in the right direction but i think they could do a lot more.
Although anything outside the loop is pretty hopeless for now and especially bad outside beltway 8
I agree. While it may be better than outside 610, the bar is astronomically low and there is still a looong way to go before it's even comparable to cities with average PT like Seattle or Vancouver.
I agree with you both
I’m from Houston and I totally agree the freedom developers have to build in Houston makes the redevelopment process of the city more affordable, faster and nicer. There are countless new developments that will take the city into the future. Would love if you did a video diving deeper into this
Thank you for making this video! As someone who lives in central Houston and loves urban planning, I also try to explain that Houston does an amazing job with infill development and has a good amount of urban density within its city limits. The development and increases in density in inner Houston are very unknown to most Texans and even most Houstonians and it could be used as a model for the rest of the US. A fun fact to keep in mind though is that the most dense neighborhoods in Houston actually are outside of the 610 loop in the west and southwest parts of the city.
No zoning and sprawl give more freedom to be creative. I'm glad Houston has no zoning and is spread out.
You should make a video on Culdesac in Tempe!
It’s really great that we don’t have much zoning laws! There’s an apartment on my street, I live in a small duplex, and my neighbors have a single family home with horses and chickens.
And across the street is an empty lot that’s filled with native plants, fruit, and berries
And I’m a 6 minute walk from the train station. And my rent for a three bedroom duplex is 1200. People need to stop shitting on this city 😆
This is honestly such a good video but it feels like it was accidentally cut short lol. Feels like you could make a 5-10min vid on a topic like this,
Why is this video only 1:15?
So many weird requirements. Why minimum lot sizes? Why min parking requirements? Why not just eliminate those things and let the market decide. If a developer builds a house with no parking he prob wont sell it. But if he builds an apartment with no parking because its near transit he might be able to make more money by doing away with wasted space.
Houston native here, while the city is constantly being berated and criticized by urbanist youtubers, they city is doing much, much more than people realize compared with other sunbelt cities. With smaller minimum lot sizes, just imagine what we can do with duplexes on the same amount of land. Quite honestly the next logical step for the city to take, or for any city for that matter. (weirdly enough they're still not legal despite no zoning)
pog
Most people cant even afford to live within the loop of Houston lol...plus the crime and weather alone makes Houston unwalkable regardless. Houston is a sprawling mess.
Ugh. Do something about that liminal bedroom.
Oh shit, I was fucking wondering why Houston had so many houses for sale that looked like that!! That makes so much sense!