Max, I think if you'd been around longer, and seen the changes I have seen, you wouldn't be so sanguine about just how Houston is. Large parts of it have been ruined, compared to how they once were, and could have remained, had Houston passed zoning laws. How would you feel if a dry cleaners was put into a house in your neighborhood, with the front lawn covered with concrete for parking? Another home with it's lawn covered with concrete and turned into a dump attempting to sell used cars? Yet another home painted an appalling color, it's lawn covered with concrete for parking, and turned into an insurance office? All that, and much, much more, happened within a block and a half of where I grew up. Why? Because there was no zoning. Quirky? Austin is still quirky. Large tracts of Houston are trashed. Austin, by the way, has zoning, although I wish they would tighten it up.
What will happen to the dancers? Think of all the pretty, young, college students, single-moms, that the city will be leaving out in the cold if they can't dance at these clubs no more. They won't be able to support themselves. O my!
this is why neighborhoods in houston have powerful homeowners associations. i realize there have been situations where that has happened. but on the whole, i like living in a city that doesn't have this stuff on one side of town and that stuff on the other. i can tell you without a doubt that in the neighborhoods i grew up in (and still live in) that there's no way that situation would happen with the homeowners associations as they are.
i think you guys are being a bit dramatic. no one is criminalizing these places. they're requiring some of them to move. many of them have known they have to move for about 10 years now. the demand for these places will still be there. they will move...or others will come in and take their places in areas where the city won't shut them down for proximity violations. it's not as if there won't be any topless clubs left in houston. and it's not as if we're going to see some huge underground movement of topless dancers.
That's groovy that you live in and around neighborhoods with good homeowners associations. So do I, although that can also, at times, be a pain in the butt, zoning or not. The fact remains that you just don't know enough about the changes to old Houston neighborhoods due to a lack of zoning. You are looking at things through rose-tinted glasses. I'm looking at Houston through a perspective of over 50 years, and while newer middle and upper-middle class neighborhoods (as well as the ones above that income range and older neighborhoods that fit the same income range)) may have strong associations, that wasn't the case in the neighborhoods built for returning vets from WWII and Korea, the people moving up from the days of the Depression, the working class. You just aren't seeing the big picture.
deckard, i'm a 4th generation houstonian. my parents grew up here. my grandmother on my dad's side grew up here. her mother grew up here. i know what you're talking about. it doesn't change my opinion. i do not want zoning in houston.
Houston is chaos in motion. While there may be good points to the no zoning, there are also some bad points. Houston doesn't have to have zoning or strip clubs, I no longer live there and never plan to move back, so it really doesn't matter to me.
i wanna make a "your mom" joke here, but it just seems really inappropriate, and only re-enforces the idea that i'm too young to understand!
They'll start closing down and moving out of the city. I can see it now: Bellaire, Texas....Tittytown, USA!
I can't talk about Dallas but I there are plenty of cities with zoning and quirky neighborhoods. Come and visit Minneapolis and I will show you the quirky neighborhood I live in. Also if you are living in West U or Bellaire you are living it a separate municipality with its own land use controls. If I recall correctly West U has some very tough regulations. While you might like how things just sort of happened some of those things that just sorta happened without zoning are things like strip joints in residential neighborhoods, industry in the middle of residential neighborhoods and also undeveloped lots in the middle of the otherwise urbanized areas. For example when I was growing up not far from me at Buffalo Speedway and Holcombe there were a few acres of undeveloped land that stood empty for decades even though it was close to the Med Center, Rice and Greenway Plaza. That kind of development is a strain on city resources, hampers community development and also an eyesore.
I'm not up on Texas and Houston Municipal laws but I don't know how much legal power homeowners associations have and how far they extend. Can a homeowners association prevent someone from buying in the first place? If the person claims they are starting a business and not a home can the homeowners association kick them out of the neighborhood? From what I remember when I was a kid my neighborhood didn't have a homeowners association so I don't know how widespread they are. For that matter maintaining the homeowners association is dependent on their being relative stability in the residents. Where there's a lot of turnover of residents I'm not sure how even a strong homeowners association could maintain themselves.
I am sure that there will be a flood to the clubs that are still open, girls will get turned away and then start creating ads on the craigslist 'erotic services' section to make ends meet.
It sounds like if your income is high enough to live in a neighborhood with a strong home owners assosciation your o.k. but if you are not fortunate enough to live their you are stuck with anything popping up in your backyard. What is sounds like is zoning laws (via homeowner associations) to protect the wealthy but no one watching out for those not as fortunate.
