A better alternative to channelizing Buffalo Bayou, VC leaving CA for TX, life science and entrepreneurship rankings, big solar, and more

My lead item this week is my proposed alternative to channelizing Buffalo Bayou or an expensive tunnel to better drain the westside reservoirs and avoid a future Harvey flooding tragedy: a 27-mile drainage trench or pipeline(s) using power-line right-of-way, satellite mapped here. I got inspired after reading Jim Blackburn’s Chronicle interview about how bad the Army Corps of Engineers study was.  And if a trench is problematic for some reason, maybe giant pipelines like these could work for a small fraction of the cost of a bored tunnel?  Would genuinely love to hear feedback in the comments on the feasibility of this from people more knowledgeable than I…

On to this week’s smaller items:

• Upholding the proud tradition of “everything’s bigger in Texas”,  Texas will host the largest solar project in the US.
• City Journal: Deconstructing Housing Opponents – A recent book explores the local dynamics of America’s housing crisis. Hat tip to George.
• A new study by CBRE finds that Houston is the #2 Emerging Life Science Cluster in the U.S.

“Houston is on track to be a top market for life sciences. The report factored in size and growth of life-sciences employment, venture capital and National Institutes of Health funding, and more.”

• Continuing the accolades, Houston (yet again) has both the #1 entrepreneurship grad school in the country (Rice) and the #1 undergrad (UH).
• WSJ: California, Love It and Leave It – Bad policy has made the state unlivable, so I moved my family and my venture-capital firm to Texas.

“California’s restrictive zoning laws make it nearly impossible for many essential low- and middle-income workers to live anywhere near major cities. In Texas, permissive zoning allows every member of our staff to live close to work and spend time with friends and family instead of enduring grueling commutes.”

Finally, I wanted to end with a really cool set of pics from The Atlantic: Texas – Images of the Lone Star State. Definitely worth checking out.

This piece first appeared on Houston Strategies Blogspot.

Tory Gattis is a Founding Senior Fellow with the Center for Opportunity Urbanism and co-authored the original study with noted urbanist Joel Kotkin and others, creating a city philosophy around upward social mobility for all citizens as an alternative to the popular smart growth, new urbanism, and creative class movements. He is also an editor of the Houston Strategies blog.