Archive for the 'transit-oriented development' Category
The Metro board met today to make some big decisions on the rail plan (Chronicle story). The bombshell is that all the lines they thought were going to start as bus rapid transit (BRT) are being upgraded to full light rail (LRT). Evidently the numbe…
Whose “quality of place”?, transportation history, and Houston mixed-use
Closed Published by Tory Gattis September 3rd, 2007 on Houston StrategiesThree miscellaneous pass-alongs today:A blog post comparing creative class rankings with domestic migration census data, finding an inverse relationship: a higher CC ranking tends to have lower, or reverse, migration. By far the most migration is to o…
What can Houston learn from LA’s transit-oriented development failure? (+Tory rides transit!)
Closed Published by Tory Gattis July 5th, 2007 on Houston StrategiesTom managed to beat me to the LA Times front page story on the utter failure of dense transit-oriented development (TOD) there to get people out of their cars.”Among the few academic studies of the subject, one that looked at buildings in the Los Angel…
Houston as a land use model, our skyline and social rankings, LA rail rejects “trust, but verify”, Bangkok TOD, and more
Closed Published by Tory Gattis January 1st, 1970 on Houston StrategiesTime again for the miscellaneous small items, which I hope will give you plenty of reading material for a while. I’ll be traveling over the holidays, so this may be the last post for 2007. Have a Merry Christmas, and I’ll see you again in the New Yea…
OK, I’ve finally got some time to pass along some of my notes and thoughts on the Tuesday night land-use forum. I already covered my introduction speech in the previous post. Unfortunately, the Powerpoint presentations do not seem to be posted yet, b…
Doing Urban Corridors the right way, the Houston way
Closed Published by Tory Gattis January 1st, 1970 on Houston StrategiesHad a conversation this week about the Urban Corridors initiative moving forward at the Houston Planning Commission, which involves encouraging dense development near Metro rail stops. There are debates about the right standards, but the real issue is…
A Pragmatic Approach to Houston’s Future (part 2 of 2)
Closed Published by Tory Gattis January 1st, 1970 on Houston StrategiesContinuing from part 1 earlier this week (both parts also posted here, along with other essays). Don’t forget to watch Houston Have Your Say on the Future of Houston on PBS Channel 8 tonight at 7pm.So, given that set of realities, what’s the right a…
Houston resilience, transportation stimulus, and energy conservation
Closed Published by Tory Gattis January 1st, 1970 on Houston StrategiesFor those of you who didn’t catch the PBS town hall forum last week, here’s the video online. I think I did ok, making points about the difficulties of commuter rail in a city like ours, some deceptive transportation cost stats, and the win-win benefi…
My advice to the Metro committees
Closed Published by Tory Gattis January 1st, 1970 on Houston StrategiesMost of you may have heard that Mayor Parker appointed transition committees to take a hard look at Metro, and she wants them to think outside the box, including the possibility of free fares (farebox revenues make up only 20% of Metro’s budget - the r…
Gov 2.0, crossroads Houston, HSR, TOD, and more
Closed Published by Tory Gattis January 1st, 1970 on Houston StrategiesA busy holiday season week with a business trip to Austin thrown in, so just a few small misc items to pass along: Fast Company on “How an Army of Techies Is Taking on City Hall: Still waiting for a full reboot in Washington, D.C., an army of citi…