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

texasmonthly.com

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

#511

Post by S_A_P »

lfnoise wrote: post #427
S_A_P wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really great response. I think there are a ton of both selfish and altruistic reasons for the urban sprawl that is Houston. I grew up here (Alief area) and that was the burbs when I was young. (It’s about 15-20 minutes drive from downtown) there was a 10 or so mile gap between where I lived and Sugarland. Now it all runs together. I now live due south of Katy in an unincorporated area about 40 miles away fr…

I grew up in Alief too, back when you had to drive past miles of farm fields to get there. We moved there because my dad, a pilot, flew out of Andrau Airpark. (Also, seeing your post history, I am a friend of Roger Linn.)

Tell Roger hey for me and I would love to beta test the next linn drum!!!!

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

#512

Post by ffdjjjffjj »

ctdonath wrote: post #428
crispyambulance wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> assumption that _everyone wants to be stacked on top of each other_ It's also an assumption that everyone wants to begin and end every trip, no matter how trivial, with a parking spot. It's an assumption that people will want to drive in traffic for 20 minutes minimum to get to a supermarket, do anything with their kids, or anything outside their property line. The notion of "stacked on top of each other" has unple…

There's the catch: is everything you could possibly want really a short walk/transit away? or is the proliferation of top-end (for you) options in a sprawling city way beyond what can be crammed within walking distance of _your_ home? Are you satisfied with a few arbitrary restaurants within walking distance? or, car enabled, would you rather go 30 miles for that REALLY good place that would never be so close in a co…

I think you’re underestimating the number and quality of restaurants that are easily accessible in say a mixed used NYC neighborhood vs what’s within a 30 minute drive of a Houston suburb. Especially if you aren’t a fan of the midrange chains that seem to proliferate in sprawling areas for whatever reason.

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

#513

Post by donjoe »

throwaway316943 wrote: post #506
donjoe wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so what's the alternative I think it's quite odd we nowadays think cars are the only possible form of transportation. We are not born with 4 wheels underneath our butt. The alternative is to build structures build for foot or bicycle traffic. Everything within 10k can easily be reached by either bicycle or foot traffic. By building infrastructure for cars, you create distances which are for cars only. They would ot…

Your argument still doesn’t make a clear case for removing cars. All those problems could also be solved by improving cars and infrastructure which has the added benefit of not completely demolishing and rebuilding around a system where you have to schlep your groceries up a hill in the rain on an old bicycle.

Alright, there are some options:

a) keep everything as is. Leave up to 80% of public space to cars (as in L.A. for example), destroy all social interactions which could otherwise happen in those places, increase commute time due to cities designed around long distances and destroy our environment.

b) buy a new bicycle and a good rain coat, use our feet, expand public transport, improve our wellbeing by doing some exercise, reduce obesity and diabetes, socialize in public space again and save tons of tax payer's money. Whilst saving the life of 1.2m people.

Which one sounds better to you?

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

#514

Post by swebs »

desert_boi wrote: post #420
brmgb wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading your comment made me interested into looking into some figures to compare cities in Europe and the USA. If you look at the population of agglomerations (some cities in Europe have ridiculously small limits - Paris is fifteen times smaller than London), you see than London (14,800,000) and Paris (11,400,000) are a bit less populated than the the biggest US cities New York (22,100,000) and Los Angeles (17,700,0…

Metro populations are very different than center city populations. In the US, the center city is often crippled financially and politically by burbs around them that don't pay to use infrastructure. Most large cities (Houston being a notable exception) are unable to annex surrounding municipalities.

If you work in the city, don't you have to pay city taxes? That's how it works with states.

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

#515

Post by LoSboccacc »

donjoe wrote: post #513
throwaway316943 wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument still doesn’t make a clear case for removing cars. All those problems could also be solved by improving cars and infrastructure which has the added benefit of not completely demolishing and rebuilding around a system where you have to schlep your groceries up a hill in the rain on an old bicycle.

Alright, there are some options: a) keep everything as is. Leave up to 80% of public space to cars (as in L.A. for example), destroy all social interactions which could otherwise happen in those places, increase commute time due to cities designed around long distances and destroy our environment. b) buy a new bicycle and a good rain coat, use our feet, expand public transport, improve our wellbeing by doing some exe…

this isn't a proposal but wishful thinking

there's a load of people, especially in big cities, that commute further than feasible with bicycle.

and no, people will not want to live within biking range from heavy industry.

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

#516

Post by larrydag »

dhd415 wrote: post #220
larrydag wrote: post #8

I live in Texas. This assertion is true of most cities in Texas also. Houston is the largest population center in Texas with 6M+ in the city. Also Houston is a busy center for interstate and international commerce especially for trucking.

The Dallas-Ft Worth metro area is more populous than the Houston metro area by about 500k people.

Yes that is true when you combine those 2 cities. Also known for their large interstate highway interchanges. In fact one of the newest is in North Dallas aptly named the "High Five" interchange.

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

#517

Post by msla »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #396
msla wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not talking about emergency vehicles or people who get escorts. I'm talking about the doctors who have to make their own way in their own vehicles.

It's okay, the minor negative effects of that are never going to be more important than the ability to protest effectively. Just like nobody blames normal traffic for killing people via doctor delays.

> Just like nobody blames normal traffic for killing people via doctor delays.

That's because normal traffic jams aren't intentional.

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

#518

Post by phone8675309 »

jcrawfordor wrote: post #322
xg15 wrote: post #111

> But it wasn’t strictly an “everything is bigger in Texas” ethos that caused Houston to sprawl the way that it does. 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…

As a decidedly amateur historian with interest in this area, I think that claim is true on its own but also does not tell the entire story. It is true that decentralization was viewed as a major component of nuclear survivability, particularly in the earlier part of the cold war. This was the time period during which the FEMA (today's name) crisis relocation program was being devised, for example, and the high cost a…

> Support for suburbanization was not coming just (or even primarily) from FEMA, all kinds of federal agencies had a hand.

There were also non-government actors pushing this - banks redlining the suburbs in order to achieve soft segregation in areas without formal Jim Crow laws on the books, for example.

The legacy of this is the most segregated city in the US, Milwaukee, is in the north, and a major cause was redlining.

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

#519

Post by dreamcompiler »

refurb wrote: post #328
apacheCamel wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Agreed. Did a road trip to New Mexico (in the winter!) and it was well worth the trip. Went to Santa Fe, Taos, Los Alamos, Pecos and some of the pueblo sites (which are incredible and you get amazing access to them). Super interesting place! I'm surprised it's not more of a tourist destination.

We actually think of ourselves as sometimes having too many tourists. Many people come here for the cool summers, the scenery, the art, balloon fiesta, and skiing in the winter.

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

#520

Post by sudosysgen »

jlawson wrote: post #484
sudosysgen wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You definitely get to supress infrastructure when you have enough people willing to protest. I don't get it, are you trying to imply that protests should have no disruptive effect? That is a good recipe for complete political dysfunction. Civil disobedience is based upon disruption. It is our right as citizens. Besides, if an ambulance or doctor needed to go through a protest, the vast majority of the time just askin…

You have a vote. Use it. You also have a voice. Use it. You have no right to undemocratically wield power over others by physical force. You have no right to force others to suffer to compel them to your will which they did not choose.

Limiting the political engagement of your citizens to only voting in a two party system is madness. When people stop being engaged, and stop voting, and your country turns to shit, I can say that I warned you.

No, seriously, this is insane. You want to, functionally, ban protests. There is absolutely no way you can have a functional country if you can't even have peaceful demonstrations.

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