Back in January, I wrote an op-ed in the Chronicle giving MetroNext’s draft 2040 plan a grade of B-, with the primary penalty being too many miles of extremely expensive, low-ridership light rail, including two redundant lines to Hobby airport. Since then, they’ve made some good improvements to the plan, the most dramatic being consolidating […]
Just a few items from the Houston Strategies blog this week: Very cool animated “bar race chart” of metro areas adding the most population between 2011 and 2018. As you can see, Houston was #1 much of it while oil boomed and the rest of the country struggled to get out of the 2008 crash. […]
by Tory Gattis — Most Houstonians are familiar with Houston’s most famous piece of graffiti, the “Be Someone” message in giant letters on the Union Pacific bridge over I45 north of downtown.
by Tory Gattis — METRO recently released a draft $7.5 billion 2040 transit plan they’ve labeled “A Plus” (the previous “A” plan plus some additions), but unfortunately it’s more like a B- when it comes to addressing Houston’s real transportation needs over the next two decades.
by Tory Gattis — In most ways, 2020 transportation in Houston will only be incrementally different from today: completion of the U.S. 290 expansion, new toll lanes on the Texas 288, the extension of the Texas 249 toll road beyond Tomball toward College Station, the next segments of the Grand Parkway 170-mile mega-loop.
The core urban challenge of our time is ‘affordable proximity’: how can ever larger numbers of people live and interact economically with each other while keeping the cost of living – especially housing – affordable?
By Tory Gattis
Houston’s changes during the past 30 years have created some challenges, but also is a driver of opportunities that other cities can learn from.
By Tory Gattis — How enlightened planners can be champions…