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I don't get this. Every city in America, except Houston, has micro-managing governmental land-use planning. And what does it do? Does it prevent acres of ghetto in Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, New York and Baltimore? Did it prevent (or precipitate?) urban renewal disasters in San Francisco, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and St. Louis? Why did most cities typically experience their most rapid growth before zoning and begin shrinking after the implementation of zoning? Can anyone actually point out a city where governmental land-use planning was successful across the entire city?
You're obviously never going to prevent it but these neighborhoods took 60-70 years to rot and often some of the worst neighborhoods gentrify at some point down the road because of smart planning. If the 'bones' of the homes are good then theres always a chance trends can reverse and neighborhoods can be salvaged see the brownstones for proof of this reversal.
Contrast that to Houston where the pace of rot is staggering and irreversible because the construction standards are so low. So those parts of the city with no character, cheap shoddy construction are just going to get worse and worse with no hope for improvement.
Here in Houston, while I'm glad CityCentre is there, and I think it's pretty, and I go there for Studio Movie Grill and Yard House---I wouldn't want to live there. It's as sterile and uninviting as Las Colinas.
The real problem with CityCentre is the same problem all new mixed-use developments (like San Jose's Santa Row): all the high-end shopping. It's pretty, but if I actually lived there it would suck. Where's my HEB or Randall's for groceries? Where's my barber shop? Where's my 24-hour CVS or 7-11? Where's a gas station? A bank? In other words, where is all the stuff I'm likely to use on a daily or very regular basis?
You're obviously never going to prevent it but these neighborhoods took 60-70 years to rot and often some of the worst neighborhoods gentrify at some point down the road because of smart planning.
You are confused if you think gentrification occurs because of planning. It doesn't, it's a market process that happens in spite of the planners, not because of them.
Contrast that to Houston where the pace of rot is staggering and irreversible because the construction standards are so low. So those parts of the city with no character, cheap shoddy construction are just going to get worse and worse with no hope for improvement.
Odd. So rot is irreversible? I didn't know Montrose, the Heights, Midtown and the Museum District were always such highly desirable areas. I remember walking through Midtown 18 years ago when I first moved to Houston. It was scary. Rotting houses in Montrose, the Heights and the Museum District were pretty cheap. Perhaps my memory fools me?
You're obviously never going to prevent it but these neighborhoods took 60-70 years to rot and often some of the worst neighborhoods gentrify at some point down the road because of smart planning. If the 'bones' of the homes are good then theres always a chance trends can reverse and neighborhoods can be salvaged see the brownstones for proof of this reversal.
Contrast that to Houston where the pace of rot is staggering and irreversible because the construction standards are so low. So those parts of the city with no character, cheap shoddy construction are just going to get worse and worse with no hope for improvement.
Someone freaking gets it , that's exactly what I'm seeing.......for an example, you'll find "so-called" bad areas in most other cities that's still better kept up than Katy.
The real problem with CityCentre is the same problem all new mixed-use developments (like San Jose's Santa Row): all the high-end shopping. It's pretty, but if I actually lived there it would suck. Where's my HEB or Randall's for groceries? Where's my barber shop? Where's my 24-hour CVS or 7-11? Where's a gas station? A bank? In other words, where is all the stuff I'm likely to use on a daily or very regular basis?
Ummm, there's a Randall's (Shuttle to take you and your groceries back to your loft), a Walgreens, a few hair salons and a TGIF barber shop,spas, book stores, a Chevron, the post office, Chase Bank all right there......so I'm lost on what you're saying.
I wouldnt' want to live there but..if I had to move into an apartment while I did a remodel, I'd move in there in a heartbeat. I prefer to live on old, grid-system,wooded streets. Don't plan me into the box of winding roads/cul-de-sac life, that just breeds it's own brand of insanity.
Last edited by EasilyAmused; 04-25-2010 at 07:47 AM..
Someone freaking gets it , that's exactly what I'm seeing.......for an example, you'll find "so-called" bad areas in most other cities that's still better kept up than Katy.
You're obviously never going to prevent it but these neighborhoods took 60-70 years to rot and often some of the worst neighborhoods gentrify at some point down the road because of smart planning. If the 'bones' of the homes are good then theres always a chance trends can reverse and neighborhoods can be salvaged see the brownstones for proof of this reversal.
Contrast that to Houston where the pace of rot is staggering and irreversible because the construction standards are so low. So those parts of the city with no character, cheap shoddy construction are just going to get worse and worse with no hope for improvement.
Horse hockey.
Gentrification doesn't occur because some smart planner somewhere decided, "Ok, now Montrose is going to gentrify." Gentrification occurs randomly, because some brave soul or other decides to buy a house in a run-down neighborhood and spend a lot of money fixing it up. Maybe he's a gay guy who can't afford a $300k townhome in the newly gentrified former gay area. So he goes to a (usually) formerly black or hispanic area (or even deserted factory settings) and starts fixing it up, often alone, with no government help, no extraspecial planning on the part of the city, nothing.
After he tells 3 or 4 more friends and they start, then a movement begins to that area (tell me, what was Westbury 10 years ago? Washington Avenue?). The flippers watch the demographic trends very, very carefully. If the gays start moving into a formerly black area, and the trend picks up steam, then suddenly every flipper for miles is headed there, buying up broken down property, and refurb'ing. As the trend continues, the prices go up, and the former residents can no longer afford to live there. The nice black family that used to live in Westbury says, "Hey, I can sell for a big profit!" so they do, and then buy in their demographic's "next big thing", like Quail Valley.
In time, the area becomes fully revitalized and then the developers move in with multistory, multifamily townhouse developments and now the lower-end gays can't afford it either, and some brave soul (10 years younger) sets out to another area....
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Montrose was a seedy, ratty, run down neighborhood. Gays started fixing it up and it got to be the "gay-to". Then all that development started and now a single family home in Montrose is unattainable. Same thing happened in the Heights; when I lived here in 1979, the Heights was "iffy" at best, but all the cute young gay couples were moving over there and fixing up those dilapidated 50 year old houses with 1920's plumbing and no closets and kitchen floors that were falling in. Then all the cute young straight couples decided to start buying them (from the gay couples) and ran the prices up. The young gay couples fled to Oak Forest and Candlelight, and suddenly (last few years) Westbury, which is the new trendy gay area.
Then the developers started filling in the gaps like Rice Military, where just a couple of years ago one of my friends indicated there were still gunshots at her townhome every night. Now trendy for 20-something straights.
Oaklawn in Dallas was a run-down former blue collar/small commercial area. Gays moved in and fixed up these dilapidated 50 year old houses with 1920's plumbing and no closets....straights started buying....condos and townhomes started....now high rises....
SoHo ("South of Houston", pronounced "Howston", which I had hell learning) was this rotting area of tenements and the "artist" community (meaning gays, mostly, with some avant-garde straights) moved into these old dilapidated buildings and started fixing them up...then they got very popular for Wall-Streeters....
and the beat goes on.
NONE of this, not one scintilla, occurred with any urban planning.
Urban planning gives us perfect, sterile Las Colinas and perfect, sterile CityCentre, for people who like that sort of thing.
(BTW, Westbury is "Mid-Century Modern"---1950's and 1960's Ranch Style Houses. The very houses you're saying have no "bones".
Gentrification doesn't occur because some smart planner somewhere decided, "Ok, now Montrose is going to gentrify." Gentrification occurs randomly, because some brave soul or other decides to buy a house in a run-down neighborhood and spend a lot of money fixing it up. Maybe he's a gay guy who can't afford a $300k townhome in the newly gentrified former gay area. So he goes to a (usually) formerly black or hispanic area (or even deserted factory settings) and starts fixing it up, often alone, with no government help, no extraspecial planning on the part of the city, nothing.
After he tells 3 or 4 more friends and they start, then a movement begins to that area (tell me, what was Westbury 10 years ago? Washington Avenue?). The flippers watch the demographic trends very, very carefully. If the gays start moving into a formerly black area, and the trend picks up steam, then suddenly every flipper for miles is headed there, buying up broken down property, and refurb'ing. As the trend continues, the prices go up, and the former residents can no longer afford to live there. The nice black family that used to live in Westbury says, "Hey, I can sell for a big profit!" so they do, and then buy in their demographic's "next big thing", like Quail Valley.
In time, the area becomes fully revitalized and then the developers move in with multistory, multifamily townhouse developments and now the lower-end gays can't afford it either, and some brave soul (10 years younger) sets out to another area....
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Montrose was a seedy, ratty, run down neighborhood. Gays started fixing it up and it got to be the "gay-to". Then all that development started and now a single family home in Montrose is unattainable. Same thing happened in the Heights; when I lived here in 1979, the Heights was "iffy" at best, but all the cute young gay couples were moving over there and fixing up those dilapidated 50 year old houses with 1920's plumbing and no closets and kitchen floors that were falling in. Then all the cute young straight couples decided to start buying them (from the gay couples) and ran the prices up. The young gay couples fled to Oak Forest and Candlelight, and suddenly (last few years) Westbury, which is the new trendy gay area.
Then the developers started filling in the gaps like Rice Military, where just a couple of years ago one of my friends indicated there were still gunshots at her townhome every night. Now trendy for 20-something straights.
Oaklawn in Dallas was a run-down former blue collar/small commercial area. Gays moved in and fixed up these dilapidated 50 year old houses with 1920's plumbing and no closets....straights started buying....condos and townhomes started....now high rises....
SoHo ("South of Houston", pronounced "Howston", which I had hell learning) was this rotting area of tenements and the "artist" community (meaning gays, mostly, with some avant-garde straights) moved into these old dilapidated buildings and started fixing them up...then they got very popular for Wall-Streeters....
and the beat goes on.
NONE of this, not one scintilla, occurred with any urban planning.
Urban planning gives us perfect, sterile Las Colinas and perfect, sterile CityCentre, for people who like that sort of thing.
(BTW, Westbury is "Mid-Century Modern"---1950's and 1960's Ranch Style Houses. The very houses you're saying have no "bones".
LOL, I guess the 100's of brave souls that moved into Alief in the past 5yrs. will get the ball rolling
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, that's exactly what I'm seeing.......for an example, you'll find "so-called" bad areas in most other cities that's still better kept up than Katy.
