Houston #1 Standard of Living Globally, HTX vs LA, and more
I’m back in town clearing out a backlog of smaller items:
- Unzoned Houston has the highest purchasing power at the lowest cost-of-living in the world… aka the highest standard of living in the world. More cities should use these indexes as their North Star metrics of progress. Hat tip to VeracityID and George.
- Major NYT feature story: How Houston Moved 25,000 People From the Streets Into Homes of Their Own – The nation’s fourth-largest city hasn’t solved homelessness, but its remarkable progress can suggest a way forward.
- Love this 713 Day video from the Rockets!
Happy #713Day!
Nothing but love for this city today and every day. 🤘 pic.twitter.com/lBj5YN9dK0
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) July 13, 2022
- I still think free transit is potentially a good idea for Metro – now Luxembourg in Europe is trying it.
- NYT: The Flight of New York City’s Wealthy Was a Once-in-a-Century Shock. Hat tip to George for the archive link.
- Joel Kotkin: Reconsidering the City – If they are to survive and thrive, cities need to become more people-friendly.
- Remote work is killing big offices. Cities must change to survive, pointing out a silver lining:
“Knowledge workers like me, who move out of the city, make urban spaces more affordable for essential workers who staff hospitals and restaurants. Meanwhile, small towns and cities that were hollowed out by de-industrialization over the last 30 years get an influx of new residents to support their tax base. Again, the majority of jobs don’t allow for remote work, but a great deal of wealth is concentrated among the jobs that do. Empowering or even encouraging those workers to live wherever they want could have a positive impact on the affordability of cities and the economic health of rural communities.”
Finally, a short funny video well worth your time on Houston vs. LA. It’s awesome and actually well-balanced. Matches my experience with CA vs. TX (and particularly Houston) as well. My blog readers will particularly appreciate the 3:55 (traffic) and 16:19 points (feeders) 😉 but I really appreciated the point about the purple political diversity. Hat tip to George.
This piece first appeared at Houston Strategies.
Tory Gattis is a Founding Senior Fellow with the Urban Reform Institute (formerly 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.
