Nicole Sauce's Thought of the Walk
In the past few months, I have often talked to lovers of urban planning and smart growth, and many who fear man's carbon emissions will kill us all within 20 years. In most cases, they tell me that America's "green spaces" will be gone forever if we do not take action now. Rigorous zoning and planning become the answer (as well as legislating which light bulb I use for each lighting situation).
Yet planning and zoning for growth, paired with government subsidies ultimately lead to increased density, failed mixed use land use experiments, and people in their cars sitting in traffic for longer, even when communities were created by well-degreed master minds for walking and mass transit. It also pushes the cost of housing way up, and thus the poor people way out.
A better idea? I think all sides win if we simply stop having the government provide infrastructure.That's right, you want to build something? No city water will be provided, no city sewage, electricity, additional road infrastructure, gas, cable - no nothing. YOU the builder have to PAY for it.
Sure, things will still get built, but when faced with the high costs of installing infrastructure, suddenly more efficient building techniques become the least expensive. Water saving fixtures become a god send - and locations in timbuktu become less appealing.
Increasingly often, I take a walk. Each time this happens, I have a thought. This is Nicole Sauce's Thought of the Walk.
Yet planning and zoning for growth, paired with government subsidies ultimately lead to increased density, failed mixed use land use experiments, and people in their cars sitting in traffic for longer, even when communities were created by well-degreed master minds for walking and mass transit. It also pushes the cost of housing way up, and thus the poor people way out.
A better idea? I think all sides win if we simply stop having the government provide infrastructure.That's right, you want to build something? No city water will be provided, no city sewage, electricity, additional road infrastructure, gas, cable - no nothing. YOU the builder have to PAY for it.
Sure, things will still get built, but when faced with the high costs of installing infrastructure, suddenly more efficient building techniques become the least expensive. Water saving fixtures become a god send - and locations in timbuktu become less appealing.
Increasingly often, I take a walk. Each time this happens, I have a thought. This is Nicole Sauce's Thought of the Walk.
So is it true that Houston doesn't have strong planning laws? That is what someone was telling me. It seems that sometimes less planning is good.
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They do not have zoning - the city has largely grown organically. Neighborhoods control their immediate environment through deed restrictions. Interestingly, some of the coolest mixed use developments are in Houston and happened without governmental force. And the traffic ain't bad, and the biking ain't bad (until the summer heat sets in). There is even a HUGE park in the middle of the city with gator warnings. That park is where I usually walk for the thought of the walk... Unfortunately, the central planning elitists are hard at work trying to convince joe public that Houston is a terrible city, traffic is bad and that we need to more closely mirror Soviet and Nazi-style land use methods. Funny thing is, when you point out the similarities, they go into denial...
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