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The city will only annex areas near the Exxon-Mobil campus, so about 300,000-400,000 people, no where close to Los Angeles' size. After that annexation, the remainder of it's extra-territorial jurisdiction will be left to the suburbs to either incorporate or annex on their own right. Parker only wants the financial benefits of the tax base (both civic and corporate) of the Exxon-Mobil employees.
Yeah, kidphilly, it'll probably be 200 square miles give or take.
I thought you said Houston would be adding 1.6 million to the city? Wouldn't that bring it to 3.8 million, almost eclipsing LA, and of course with a much faster population growth only a matter of time.
If you want one, try Kirby and Westheimer. And yes, it is true.
Wow, so this is your example of Houston urbanity?
The corner of Kirby and Westheimer has two big parking lots, a strip mall, and one of those new urbanist style apartment buildings, sitting on top of parking.
The surrounding blocks seems thoroughly suburban in nature. It looks like regular postwar suburbia; pedestrian and transit hostile and thoroughly auto-oriented. It's semi-dense for a suburb, though. Looks like suburban LA to me.
I thought you said Houston would be adding 1.6 million to the city? Wouldn't that bring it to 3.8 million, almost eclipsing LA, and of course with a much faster population growth only a matter of time.
It's extra-terrirotiral jurisduction has 1.6 million people that aren't in any incorporated city or town or village. Technically the city has the power to annex all those people into the city over-night if it wanted to. It wont though, because after the 1996 annexation of Kingwood (it's last annexation), the city made an agreement with the Woodlands and Katy that it wont be annexing their way, to allow each respective suburb a chance to grow into their own. However, the deal also states that if the Woodlands were to violate that clause and incorporate from a "township" to a "city", the city will annex them and everything around them.
The agreement now is that the city will take only the Exxon-Mobil campus and it's surroundings (Springwoods Village, and the like) and that's it. So only about 300,000-400,000 of the 1.6 million in it's extra-territorial jurisdiction.
They wont be able to annex more after that, well technically could, but it would be a severe violation of the agreements and would probably spend the next decade in civil lawsuits / court affairs. The city's not going to risk that.
Texas and Virginia are the only two states in the United States where counties literally have less administrative power than the municipalities they serve.
The corner of Kirby and Westheimer has two big parking lots, a strip mall, and one of those new urbanist style apartment buildings, sitting on top of parking.
The surrounding blocks seems thoroughly suburban in nature. It looks like regular postwar suburbia; pedestrian and transit hostile and thoroughly auto-oriented. It's semi-dense for a suburb, though. Looks like suburban LA to me.
I did say that Houston's inner loop is developing and has the chance to create a dense and urban environment. Before 2007, this intersection was completely different than what is there now and there are still massive changes that will be made in the next couple of years on this intersection alone. I never said Houston was urban throughout. I never said Houston will be as urban as Chicago. It doesn't need to be nor should it be.
Though isolated and island like, you said Houston is not building any urban developments in the city. That is false.
But the point is that Houston isn't really building anything urban. They're building some townhouses and stuff, which is typical in the suburbs. There's basically no urbanity (of the traditional, walkable, transit-oriented sort) in Houston.
Really if you live in that part of the country, and want a walkable environment, New Orleans is your best bet, by far.
Standard- Did you even look at that map?
There are a significant number of new residential units being added in downtown Houston in dense 20, 30, and 40 story buildings. Downtown is walkable, has a theater and a convention district, 3 major sports arenas/stadiums, multiple restaurants, and has 2 rail lines connecting it to other walkable parts of the city..like the museum district and midtown.
Some of you hear keep believing what you want but cities like Houston and Dallas are taking huge strides to improve the urban connective tissue. And unlike some of the older northeast cities...they have the money, job growth, and population growth to really keep the momentum going.
No, and why would I? We're talking about urbanity, not development.
Quote:
Originally Posted by H'ton
There are a significant number of new residential units being added in downtown Houston in dense 20, 30, and 40 story buildings.
Tall buildings have nothing to do with urbanity. I've been to downtown Houston, which is a commercial area, and not very urban. No one from Houston has yet to show me a neighborhood with urbanity and walkability.
Quote:
Originally Posted by H'ton
Downtown is walkable, has a theater and a convention district, 3 major sports arenas/stadiums, multiple restaurants, and has 2 rail lines connecting it to other walkable parts of the city..like the museum district and midtown.
Ok, now you're being silly. Every downtown is at least semi-walkable. Downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma is semi-walkable. A light rail line is hardly evidence of urbanity. A sports arena is hardly evidence of urbanity.
The museum district and midtown are hardly urban. And downtown Houston, pound-for-pound, is one of the weakest big-city downtowns in America, with basically no shopping (last department store recently closed), little street level vibrancy, and lots of parking lots and set-back 80's office buildings in plazas.
Show me one neighborhood that has similar urbanity to 99% of the cities on earth and you may have a point. Houston may be a boomtown, but probably has worse urbanity than any other city of its size and importance anywhere on the globe.
Here's some Houston population density stats at the Census Tract level. At each level, it's how many people live at that density
* 50,000 - 59,999 per sq mile = 3440 people
* 30,000 - 39,999 per sq mile = 13,278 people
* 20,000 - 29,999 per sq mile = 33,429 people
* 15,000 - 19,999 per sq mile = 34,558 people
Here's some Houston population density stats at the Census Tract level. At each level, it's how many people live at that density
* 50,000 - 59,999 per sq mile = 3440 people
* 30,000 - 39,999 per sq mile = 13,278 people
* 20,000 - 29,999 per sq mile = 33,429 people
* 15,000 - 19,999 per sq mile = 34,558 people
So there's a little bit, not a ton, but a little
Here's the deal with density figures for Houston. Houston cam really be looked at as 2 different cities. What I call the city is the "inner-loop" which is stylistically, politically different and is WAY more dense. Inside the loop you will find most of the walkable parts of the city- downtown, midtown, museum district, the Village, the Universities (UH and Rice), etc.
Outside the loop is where you start to see incredibly less density, differnt political views on everything (including urbanity) and except for a few pockets ..there are less walkable areas outside the loop.
Anyone who has lived in Houston for any amount of time easily knows the difference between the Inner Loopers and the suburbanite Houstonians.
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