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Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

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Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#61

Post by oblio »

crmrc114 wrote: post #43
totalZero wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Houston, you drive. There is no reason to judge space in one place by the use patterns of a totally different place.

I have lived in walking cities, I prefer to have a car. I can enjoy my own music or podcast- my own schedule in the case of mass transit. I can also enjoy my own aircon and heat settings. I know lots of people want to bike/walk everywhere- that is just not for me. I think this comes up everytime someone talks about urban planning here. Some people just have no interest in living within high density areas- I am one of…

Tragedy of the commons, though.

Your immediate best interest might be bad for the community.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#62

Post by wongarsu »

exabrial wrote: post #7

The elephant in the room is the assumption that _everyone wants to be stacked on top of each other_. I do agree that designing cities around cars has ruined a lot of nice places though.

As a European, I don't like living in the same house as 5 other families, whose sleep schedule doesn't necessarily align with mine. The acoustic isolation is probably a lot better than in typical US houses, but not perfect either.

However I do like living 3 minutes from the next supermarket, and 20 minutes from the city center with all the shop, and 25 minutes from my work (all distances by foot).

I would love to have all the advantages without any of the disadvantages, but at least around here most people prefer living closer together over commuting longer distances.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#63

Post by ben_w »

jfengel wrote: post #32
apacheCamel wrote: post #10

>Siena’s history dates back millennia. Houston, meanwhile, was founded in 1836. Every time I am made aware of just how young the US is, it blows me away. I've never been to Europe, I would really love to go some day, but I can only imagine the feeling of actually seeing these really old places/structures in person.

What really strikes me is just how many ordinary buildings are older than our country. The monuments and palaces are one thing, but it's very common to eat in a restaurant or pub that dates to the 17th century. Not as a tourist trap or destination, but just as a perfectly ordinary building that has been retrofitted (sometimes awkwardly) with bathrooms and lights and such. I've been in 500 year old cottages that weren…

Anecdotes like this abound in the UK.

The oldest part of the closest church to my childhood home was built in the “early 13th century”, according to its website. The cottages next to it (now a pub) seem to date to about the same time as the first British colonies in America.

Then there’s Cambridge university, which celebrated 800 years since its foundation in 2009: https://www.cam.ac.uk/about-the-university/history/800th-ann...

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#64

Post by Ericson2314 »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #49
Ericson2314 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just so you aren't in for a shock, "millennia" is including all sorts of neolithic stuff in the ground that could probably well be said of places in the US too. In terms of street layout, little is per-roman, and in terms of buildings, little is > 1000 years old. The most common thing would be more 17th 18th 19th century buildings (in increasing frequency), and if you go to parts of Massachusetts (and maybe Virginia)…

Colonial architecture is still pretty recent in the grand scheme of things. Native construction is far older and some of it is still standing. Oraibi, Taos, and Acoma are all close to a millennia old and there are structures in the US going back another couple thousand years like las capas or poverty point. If you head south into Mexico, you can find structures even older than that. There's nothing like gobekli tepe,…

Right that's true, but little of that stuff is part of the fabric of an intact, living city right? Either because it was raised by colonizers (e.g. Just a few things from technocratic remain, which are largely dug up rather than continuous, right?) or abandoned first (like Mayan cities).

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#65

Post by ben_w »

lordnacho wrote: post #36
apacheCamel wrote: post #10

>Siena’s history dates back millennia. Houston, meanwhile, was founded in 1836. Every time I am made aware of just how young the US is, it blows me away. I've never been to Europe, I would really love to go some day, but I can only imagine the feeling of actually seeing these really old places/structures in person.

As a European, it's not the age that matters so much as the uniformity of American cities. A lot of places between the coasts seem to be the same simcity arranged slightly differently. Come to Europe and see very different styles within a short distance.

So much so, that I didn’t really understand SimCity until I visited the USA.

I don’t think I’ve even seen a water tower outside the states, and if I have they are disguised as other things. (Unless you count the tanks on top of literally every Cypriot building, but even those are nothing like the American/SimCity type).

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#66

Post by Const-me »

sithadmin wrote: post #17
blakesterz wrote: post #11

"Rather, Cold War–era urban design philosophy in the U.S. prioritized sprawl because older cities that had urbanized pre–World War II—New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit—were seen as being susceptible to nuclear strikes. Less-dense cities such as Los Angeles and Houston were less likely to be targeted for a nuclear attack. Sprawl was a deterrent against Soviet aggression." That's the first time I've heard th…

I'm not sure I buy it; it sounds like a 'just-so' story. Sprawl is popular because it allows for larger properties at lower prices relative to dense urban development. The vast majority of real estate developers have likely never seriously considered factors like probability of a nuclear strike as a criteria for selecting land for development.

They considered transportation infrastructure. See National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Aid_Highway_Act_of_195...

They also considered jobs availability. I wasn’t able to find good enough sources on the policies of the era, but many articles on the Internets say the sprawl of industries was caused in part by federal policies: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44250919

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#67

Post by apacheCamel »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #47
apacheCamel wrote: post #10

>Siena’s history dates back millennia. Houston, meanwhile, was founded in 1836. Every time I am made aware of just how young the US is, it blows me away. I've never been to Europe, I would really love to go some day, but I can only imagine the feeling of actually seeing these really old places/structures in person.

There are cities in the US that are older than the US, by a large margin. Come to New Mexico and you'll see. Obligatory edit: After COVID, please.

I actually took a trip to New Mexico when I was younger, the parts that we visited were awesome. All the people were amazingly friendly. I grew up in the Northeast so it was a pretty big culture shock. I believe it was in Albuquerque. We visited the Nuclear Museum and a couple little local shops and even a local reptile zoo. I would love to go back for the hot air balloon festival someday.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#68

Post by bonestamp2 »

jankassens wrote: post #38
jupp0r wrote: post #23

So a city of 30k people requires less infrastructure than a city of 6M people? Where are the examples of major metropolitan areas without big freeway intersections?

Just looking around Tokio on satellite view: there are a few highways, but nothing compared to the many-layered intersections you see in US cities like Los Angeles or San Diego.

Tokyo is amazing in many ways, but especially infrastructure. I was embarrassed when I went there for I felt like the countries I grew up in were lazy by comparison. The most popular type of vehicle on the road there (in my observation) was a concrete truck.

The subway system is unbelievable. They don't try to build huge line extensions every few years or decades the way we do, they are constantly expanding and improving it all the time. It's absolutely amazing what they have built there, and at the same time remained incredibly polite and gracious.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#69

Post by iso1631 »

apacheCamel wrote: post #10

>Siena’s history dates back millennia. Houston, meanwhile, was founded in 1836. Every time I am made aware of just how young the US is, it blows me away. I've never been to Europe, I would really love to go some day, but I can only imagine the feeling of actually seeing these really old places/structures in person.

My local cafe/bookshop was 300 years old when Houston was founded (probably not a cafe then mind). I've lived in houses older than Houston. The nearest church, where my kids do carol services and nativities, has parts of its structure dating back 250 years before Columbus set out on his voyage.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#70

Post by criddell »

komali2 wrote: post #22

Ex houstonian here, university of houston and everything. Decently fun city, interesting history, cool people. The road and traffic situation is nightmarish. I slowly came to this realization in college when I went abroad a couple of times. I found out that didn't have to be How Things Are. The university of houston has a problem where students aren't attending classes because parking isn't available. Stories of tryi…

How did you manage to ride a bicycle in Houston without getting sweaty and gross?
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