Beacon Hill-Massive Development in Waller County (Houston, San Antonio: cul-de-sac, crime, lawyer)

[Hudlander]

Originally Posted by fnh

Chiming in as someone who lives in both Houston (inner beltway) and Seattle (inner city). While our Seattle home is smaller and cost more than our Houston home, on balance it's more of a wash than one might think. Insurance, utilities and property taxes in Houston are all far, far higher, while the public services and amenities in Texas are dreadful. In Seattle we discovered we just don't need the sprawling suburban home and yard at all because we can walk out the front door and stroll to several parks/schools/libraries/stores/cafes/post office, even forests and beaches, or easily hop onto good public transit that takes us almost anywhere that's too far to walk. Our neighborhood/city is a true extension of our home.

In Houston people think their home needs to be their everything because in Houston, there's little to nothing offered outside of them. It doesn't have to be that way, but it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when people consistently choose against the public good, not realizing that they too are part of the public.

Great post, absolutely correct.
So many of the subdivisions in Houston are just dreadful.
Small 1 ranch homes right next to another house, very little yard that would be useless in the heat, and having to drive everywhere.

[hbcu]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

Great post, absolutely correct.
So many of the subdivisions in Houston are just dreadful.
Small 1 ranch homes right next to another house, very little yard that would be useless in the heat, and having to drive everywhere.

sadly that's in the outer suburbs - I live near a development that's advertising 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 2 car garage at 1,228 square feet for a starting price of $221K

homes packed in like sardines, bland development and to make matters worse, that's a starter home. If you have no car you are screwed as it's at least 2 miles from major development in an old cotton field. Sadly, they have so much land left to cram more homes in there I'm afraid what'll it'll look like in 5 years.

[Hudlander]

Originally Posted by hbcu

sadly that's in the outer suburbs - I live near a development that's advertising 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 2 car garage at 1,228 square feet for a starting price of $221K

homes packed in like sardines, bland development and to make matters worse, that's a starter home. If you have no car you are screwed as it's at least 2 miles from major development in an old cotton field. Sadly, they have so much land left to cram more homes in there I'm afraid what'll it'll look like in 5 years.

Which would be a shame to turn the pretty prairie into some shantytown of sardine homes.

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

Which would be a shame to turn the pretty prairie into some shantytown of sardine homes.

Forgetting for the moment that at one time, ALL of the US was a pretty prairie...

Those sardine homes are full of people who now have a place to live, a home to call their own, an affordable place where they live with dignity and can raise kids (or not).

Never forget one man's ceiling is another man's floor.

NIMBY.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by astrohip

Forgetting for the moment that at one time, ALL of the US was a pretty prairie...

Those sardine homes are full of people who now have a place to live, a home to call their own, an affordable place where they live with dignity and can raise kids (or not).

Never forget one man's ceiling is another man's floor.

NIMBY.

Thank you. I am tired of people opposing 40' lots, just because they think it's "people living like ants" or whatever. This is builders trying to provide housing in the most affordable manner to reach the middle class, we shouldn't be trying to shut them down.

The world's civilizations and great cities were built with houses on much smaller lots than 40'.

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by astrohip

Forgetting for the moment that at one time, ALL of the US was a pretty prairie...

Those sardine homes are full of people who now have a place to live, a home to call their own, an affordable place where they live with dignity and can raise kids (or not).

Never forget one man's ceiling is another man's floor.

NIMBY.

Absolutely right. Its like these people want us to have unaffordable housing or something.

[astrohip]

No, they don't care what we have. They just want it somewhere else.

It is NIMBY in its full splendor.

[Hudlander]

Originally Posted by astrohip

Forgetting for the moment that at one time, ALL of the US was a pretty prairie...

Those sardine homes are full of people who now have a place to live, a home to call their own, an affordable place where they live with dignity and can raise kids (or not).

Never forget one man's ceiling is another man's floor.

NIMBY.

No we just want a nice cohesive community, not some ugly sprawl hand out to a private developer.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

No we just want a nice cohesive community, not some ugly sprawl hand out to a private developer.

"Hand out"? I agree some urban design elements could be better in these places, but the developer isn't getting "hand outs" unless you count the later MUD reimbursement for the upfront infrastructure costs.

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

No we just want a nice cohesive community, not some ugly sprawl hand out to a private developer.

Almost every "nice cohesive community" started as some sort of sprawl. As time goes by, and houses get built, and businesses develop, and schools are built, it turns into... yep, you guessed it, a nice cohesive community.

How do you think they can just create this Utopia you want? Overnight? Not how it works. Some developer puts his money on the line and takes a risk. Builders follow, and the first homeowners take similar risks. Sometimes it fails, sometimes it's spectacular in its success. But it doesn't start out as the Woodlands, it turns into it over decades.

Look, we're going round and round here. You clearly have a bug up your behind about this particular development. You've nay-sayed it, and whined and complained, and all without knowing anything about what is actually going to happen. So I'm going to back out of the room for now...