Houston: Density & Land Area of Inner Loop (610)

[Wonderful Jellal]

Originally Posted by rogerbacon

I can't understand why any sane person would want density. Density = bad. Congestion = bad. Packed in like sardines = bad. It is a pressure cooker waiting to explode. People use the word "sprawl" on this forum like it is a bad thing but sprawl is GOOD. It means more space and more breathing room for everyone. It means yards where children can actually play without having to worry about bing run over by cars when they are forced to play in the street.
Your poll didn't have the choice I would have voted for: I would like to see the inner loop become far less dense. I understnad they are building a third loop around the city. THAT is how cities should grow. More roads and more infrastructure but not by packing people in close together. God, you people don't know how much land you have out here. Use it! Back in Miami there is no land left (ocean on one side, protected everglades on the other). Even there most people are against being forced into apartments crowded together. People want land!
Houston has an amazing road system with traffic not nearly as bad as Miami. Be thankful that the city sprawls out as much as it does. If it was denser traffic would be much worse. Oh, but the counterargument that you can almost hear people screamiing, is that with enough density then you could get rid of the cars and have (publicly subsidized) mass-transportation. And THAT is the real motivation behind some people's interest in density. They want to get people to stop driving. Your car reperesents your freedom, your independence, your ability to do things on your own schedule. Mass-transit is the antithesis of that in every way: collectivism, socialism (because it is subsidized by people who don't 'benefit' from it), central planning. If I ever had to pick one example to illistrate the difference between a free-market society and a socialist-communist one, it would be the car vs mass-transit.

WOW ! Great post, I'm entirely agree !
I like a densier Houston inner loop, but the metro area must sprawl more

[houstoner]

Let's not turn this into another city vs. suburbs argument. This isn't an either/or proposition. The fact of the matter is that Houston simply has enough subdivisions, MPCs, and suburban developments. Has them out the wazoo, in fact. There is plenty to choose from for those who prefer a suburban lifestyle, but not much if you want an urban lifestyle. That's the problem. It's time to shift the focus on putting the CITY in that "world-class city" moniker, if Houston wants to be worthy of it. I applaud efforts on making the urban areas more urban for those who prefer it, although I fear it's only going to appear more urban in some ways. Many of the townhouses and condos going up are still single-family homes. More highrise apartment buildings would have to built to achieve the kind of density I'd like to see, and I don't know if that will ever happen. But if the L.A. model is the best we can hope for, so be it. It beats what's available to urbanites there now.

[crone]

I vote for density.
Just returned from 4 days on St. Charles avenue, NOLA. What a great place. Step outside you door, board a trolley, walk a few blocks and get whatever one needs. We should all be so lucky.
There are very few places one can live in Houston without a car. I've been looking for a place for old poops to live and walk to grocery ,shops, banks,etc. As a child in the Montrose you could walk to school, 3 movie theaters and Butera's grocery or get the bus downtown. Houston is no place for old people anymore
We are tethered to freeways.

[tstone]

You don't need density for grocery, liquor, banks, haircutter, eye doctor, etc. We regularly walk 3-5 minutes one way for those. Some young poops use strollers, and seems every single old poop who walks there uses one of these:



Not everything is at your fingertips, but it sure is convenient being able to walk to a few necessities-- and still have suburban-style space.

[300zxtwinturbo]

Not everything is at your fingertips, but it sure is convenient being able to walk to a few necessities-- and still have suburban-style space.[/quote]

Whats so great about suburban style space? here suburban space tends to be a tiny yard and lots of parking lots, I don't get it. Plus inner cities have MUCH better parks if you want some REAL space or to be able to lose the crowds for a while. Track home suburbs dont have that much space in houston. They actually offer less space because they lack the public spaces that the city offers. So aside from your tiny yard there isn't anywhere for a kid to go growing up in the suburbs, unless your parents take you there, you sure ain't walking. As a kid growing up in the burbs, everything around you is car oriented and off limits, there is nothing to do and no where to go, unless someone drives you to the local mall, or 24 hour fitness. Thats all I remember about growing up in the suburbs, put simply it sucks, its time for houston to offer a good inner city environment where you could enjoy the city without driving, or just by taking a walk and using GOOD public transit. Things being this close can only come through density

[crone]

My 90 year old momma rode her 3 wheel bike to just about any place she needed to go in So. Lake Tahoe. Here, she needed a driver.
I cannot tell you how many times I have gone down Red Oak Drive and encountered people in wheel chairs trying to navigate a 2 lane road with ditches and no sidewalks. It is scary for the wheel chair person and the car driver.
No thought has ever been given to anything but cars in 95% of Houston suburbs.
Now, I'm trapped and cannot get out of suburbia.
Ya'll better be on guard for old ladies driving. I have no alternative. In Austin, pot heads, in Houston, blue heads.

[wills]

This makes me glad I moved. The whole county has less population than some of those zip codes!