In my weekly internet hunt for Rockets news, I came across this entry. Ok, it has nothing to do with the Rockets or basketball. But for those interested in Morey's thoughts on zoning in Houston, here you go! http://rwrld.blogspot.com/2008/09/zone-defense-strip-malls-with-real.html [rquoter] As Ron has stated eloquently in his blog before (Rockets Win Again with Rookie GM), "I go where the data goes". This tendency, along with the fact that "I doubt the deep doubts" (Socrates) makes life a bit of an adventure as I might change a belief at any moment. To demonstrate my willingness to change, I will provide one recent anecdote. First, a little background. I generally have libertarian views and believe the Guvment should basically only do roads, courts, police, the army, and tax externalities. Otherwise, stay out of our lives please. When I moved to Houston, I was excited to hear they had no zoning. I was very curious to see how well this worked, independent folks finally able to make free choice in how to use land! Long story short, I have basically come to the conclusion that it does not work and the list of what Guvment should do is now reluctantly one longer. (more) [/rquoter]
I completely agree. Anyone who doesn't agree needs to go visit some of these towns in the north east. I got the chance to do that this summer. Visited cities like Miami, Atlanta, Baltimore and Boston. And compared to those cities, our downtown sucks royally. Its way too spread out.
we got really in-depth with all the zoning laws (or lack thereof) in the city of houston in my government class last spring and i wholeheartedly agree with everything morey blogged. compare our mass transit system to chicago, new york or even LA and what do we have? crappy metro routes and a useless light rail system only being utilized in one small chunk of town. hell, look at I-10... that thing has been under construction as long as i've lived here and i don't foresee an end to the madness because planning for future expansion and population growth seems to be a big issue for our local government. our city - or should i say our city's structure royally blows.
While I also prefer the "master plan" of a zoned city and the ammenities it brings as a consequence, one inherent advantage of the lack of zoning is that it keeps the cost of housing much lower. Artificial controls over the acceptable use of certain areas creates an artificial shortage of available land and will naturally raise prices. Also, to say Houston is not zoned is accurate at the macro level, but less so at the micro or neighborhood level. That is why you see such strong deed restrictions in Houston neighborhoods because they must compensate for the lack of zoning controls (albeit on a much smaller scale). Its a trade off in the end. I wish you could have the best of both, but then that's true for a lot of things in life. Now, I am not sure what the hell this has to do with Rox Basketball!
er...my english is not so good, so youa re talking about the cities, the policy? Ah,, in my idea, I think each city has his own color! That's the reason why they all seem so charming
Am I missing something? All the article I can find is this: There's more somewhere I'm not seeing, right? Daryl wouldn't just stop there. He's supposed to be smart. He says he's data-driven. Please tell me there's more.
You must have missed the fact that it's written by Daryl Morey, the GM of the organization. It's basically the equivalent of starting a thread about Yao getting married or Shane Battier singing karaoke, and nobody ever has a problem with that kind of stuff being in the GARM...
I don't think it was supposed to be a persuasive article ... just his opinion on the "Way it should be"
I was a bit critical of the Yao getting married thread, on the grounds that it was an intrusion of his privacy and tabloid material. I don't know, maybe I'm being a bit hypocritical here. More than anything, I thought it was interesting to find out that Morey is a libertarian. In an attempt to steer this towards Rockets discussion, how might his political/philosophical views impact his decision making as a GM? That's actually something I've wonder about since posting on this board. I see people's political leanings over in the D/D thread, and their basketball leanings in here. It seems plausible that there could be some connection between the two.
Need I remind you of the best thread ever made in the GARM??? The one about Yao Ming's NEW HAIRCUT. That thread was AWESOME. And for a fitting tangent, I fully believe that it is possible to have conservative/libertarian leanings in theory yet still want this administration out of office UNCONDITIONALLY at the same time. When things suck, vote the other way until they stop sucking. That's my motto. Damn, I might be voting against incumbents for a while...
****ing Atlanta has a far more sophisticated mass transit system than we do. Its just 2 lines, but they meet at down town and you can go from downtown to North,South,East,West part of Atlanta. On the bright side, there are plans to add more light rails. I think there is supposed to be one going down 45 south to UH, maybe it'll go close enough to Toyota Center and MMP.
Is Miami located in the notth east? Please be serious,man, I guess no one is able to move Miami from Florida to Northern America unless the God intends to do so. Miami is a beautiful city over all although the weather there is extremely hot. I got the reason why Shaq decided to leave that city when I was enjoying my vacation there, it's that shaq can't stand the hot winds and the wet air any more. In fact, the bigger men are generally more sensitive to the hot weather. Mr shaq had two options to choose from: losing weight or walking. O'neal chose the former one but unfortunately the city he chose to walk to is even hotter that Miami. Then, there are two senarios for Shaq: senario one; loseing weight and trying to win a championship for Phoenix before he retires( even though the likelihood is slim) ; and senario two; walk away before the suns fans get tired of his exaggerated performances. If he chose the senario two, then I suggest him swim straightly to Honolulu and stay there until Gibert Arenas retires. After aernas retires, the job of making fun in the league will go back onto shaq's shoulder.
