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Houston gets what developers choose to build in the inner-loop infill areas where older ranch homes are removed for closer-knit homes or multi-residential developments they choose to build.
Houston surely could get blocks with European-looking infill. This segment of one block got more deluxe infill. Looks like a narrow European street (though with each unit its own garage) but really a driveway/entryway.
Power-line and poles spoil fronts a bit but nice and colorful with Court-Yard in the middle section. It adds density and drill could be called more urban.
Certainly not bad .... and more dense then older Houston it replaces. But still it isn't the city planning what it wants to become. Just leave nice frontage and ditches if it has them .... or the developer and not the city, can cover them with curbing and drains.
But some of them Istanbul street-views are doable. They are basically higher density, larger developments with more real balconies and no garages. Some northern cities with diagonal streets already have some of the newer kinds posted in looks of street-views posted earlier.
For downtown high-rises .... why build a separate parking garage next door? Better use would be Podium-style high-rises with parking on its lower street-level first floors. If done right ..... they leave room for retail or eateries on the perimeter or least the main side. Leave parking garages off taking main street space.
Why separate garages for high-rises that kill the intersection?
Podium-style can be done better with businesses to eateries street-level on the perimeter and still the garage and high-rise living above or offices. But Houston allowing plain garages on that intersection ..... helps nothing for added vibrancy.
About people in Houston "preferring cars," it may very well be that much of that isn't an actual preference, but rather just the fact that they don't know any different.
About people in Houston "preferring cars," it may very well be that much of that isn't an actual preference, but rather just the fact that they don't know any different.
No, its that its a preference. If more people wanted to use public transit, the would. Every person in Houston knows that its an option.
About people in Houston "preferring cars," it may very well be that much of that isn't an actual preference, but rather just the fact that they don't know any different.
that's basically what I was trying to say to an extent but I still lean more of preference.
No, its that its a preference. If more people wanted to use public transit, the would. Every person in Houston knows that its an option.
I used to walk to the YMCA from my house, and my next door neighbor drove to the same YMCA to use the treadmill. He could not fathom that anyone should actually walk in Houston, and refused to even consider walking when I brought it up. I walked to the Y for years, and witnessed several accidents of cars as they were turning into the parking lot.
I guess you can call that a "preference" but it was developed more by conditioning than by ever actually experiencing the options and choosing one over the other. Most people in Houston have never taken local public transit, and it is not even an option for consideration in their minds. To me the word preference implies that an actual choice was made, not action/inaction driven by ignorance (not being ignorant, but ignorance in the sense that they really just don't know or understand).
No, its that its a preference. If more people wanted to use public transit, the would. Every person in Houston knows that its an option.
There's a little bit of transit in Houston. With more and better transit, more would ride it. The only question is how much more.
There's also the factor of prior choices. In urban cities, a lot of people choose not to have cars or parking spaces. Once that choice is made, they tend to keep to it, until a big change like moving. The starting point tends to be a choice...choose to rent a parking space or not, or live in a building with parking or without. The ability to choose seems to be unusual in Houston. The city seems to actively encourge people to not only have cars, but have two.
People don't move to cities like San Diego, Phoenix, Denver for urbanity but rather outdoor lifestyle and western culture. Due to that I would never imagine it being as urban as the northeast on a whole.
I never been to Houston so I can't comment on that.
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