Houston needs to become more progressive in developing itself

No. Taxes.

 

Yeah no ****, I think the thing people don't realize is we have a ton of conventions and visitors for business. Houston is a place to live and earn a living not Vegas or New Orleans for a weekend

 

How about we fix some potholes? Maybe make driving a little easier since that's the only freaking option we got.

It's like dodging landmines every time I get in the car. I already have to worry about idiotic drivers..

 

Invest in a giant sun, and then charge for it's use.

 

What are some of the big conventions that come here?

Of all the major cities, Houston is the least desirable to travel to. Lots to do but you'd never know it considering how far apart everything is.

Need to expand CBD and lighten parking standards inside 610. Latest codes made it *worse*. Hampers development.

 

How in the world did that list not include the "big dig" in Boston?

 

Oh look, this thread again.

 

I'm pretty sure that thing was a political albatross due to the costs and timing.

 

Which, ironically enough, benefit everyone else. Not every startup can afford skyscraper rent, not every worker can quickly get or flip a mortgage, and not every commuter can pay $150 - $300/month for an unreserved spot before 7:00 am.

 

Apparently you have missed the redevelopment of Herman Park, Buffalo Bayou, the Memorial Park Plan, Tinsley Park, Discovery Green and just announced plan to rebuild Broadway to Hobby. Not to mention the mayor's emergency pot hole program.

That's a couple of hundred million dollars worth of redevelopment of public spaces mostly paid for by innovative TIRZ plans that would be impossible in most cities. It's city government working hand in hand with private business.

 

Houston's made some great strides in the last 20 years and it is a much better city. While redoing the freeways through downtown would improve things I think there are many other areas that I would prioritize first for planning for Houston (yes I know that word scares a lot of people.)

Transit is getting better but it still isn't that good when compared to many other places. Part of this is a problem that Houston is so spread out but a good mix of multimodal transit could greatly improve Houston and also the economic disparities.

While things have improved inside the Loop outside the Loop it still isn't that great. The haphazard development is a problem and an eyesore. The drive into downtown from both 59 and 45 from IAH is ugly and not a good introduction for visitors to one of the largest and most important urban areas in America.

I would say that economic disparity remains to be one of Houston's biggest problems. While Houston has some of the richest neighborhoods in the US it also has some of the poorest and parts of Houston still look like the Third World. It's troubling that the economic booms of Houston haven't made more of a difference to the poorest neighborhoods and possibly has exacerbated the disparities between the richest and poorest parts. There is obviously no easy solution to addressing economic disparities, and Houston isn't alone in this problem, but it is something that should be addressed.

 

It was a nightmare, but it definitely transformed Boston haha

 

As a city... we're on it. We've been on it. But 75% of "Houstonians" wouldn't know or care because they don't like near the city. And who cares about tourists. You come here to work, make money and create a life, then you go vacation somewhere else.

 

Come help clean up with Clutch Community

 

I liked this city before everyone from the North East and California moved here... driving prices up, ruining the real estate market for first time buyers and basically clogging up our freeways...

Then they are amazed at how affordable it is here because we don't have all of their taxes, and then complain about not enough parks and amenities, that would then raise their taxes.

 

so houston should be for the poors only? since they dont care about parks and nice things?

 

This has been discussed on various Houston architecture forums for years. In particular the removal of I-45 around downtown including the Pierce and the burying and/or lowering the grade of 59 downtown. I wish they would do both as it would connect downtown to the west/south/east wards. It would bring about so much positive change for the city.

 

You can do both actually. I don't want to cater to tourists, but rather to give the people in this city something decent to use and look at. Our issue is that the answer to everything is "more freeways and more parking".

Need more rails, lighter parking regulations (this kills development), and get some developers with some balls to build stuff that people are interested in (hence the boring glass boxes and redundant looking apartments). The only real interesting parts of town are Hermann Park and the Menil/St. Thomas. Maybe Rice Village.

We're "getting there" I guess but that's like telling someone who's 400 lbs that they're "getting there" after losing 5 lbs.

 

Houston has some pretty poor infrastructure.

First of all we need to have better quality streets and wider sidewalks throughout the inner loop at least. There are many streets where there isn't even a sidewalk, smh.

Secondly, the piecemeal light rail system isn't going to cut it, our transit ridership will always be low until we get a more extensive rail system (preferably heavy rail) to reach more places in the city and relieve and truncate bus lines for better efficiency.

A good model for building a heavy rail system is Washington DC, they built an incredible heavy rail system from scratch starting in the 1970s and it has become an integral asset to the city.

Unfortunately, the political climate will not allow such large capital expenditures on heavy rail mass transit for the next few decades at least. There needs to be an extreme shift in politics for this to be possible, which likely will not occur until Houston has many more millions of people and the traffic is much worse.