Get the latest tech news
Houston, We Have a Solution (2023)
Houston was notorious for its sprawl. But it has seen a gentle density revolution since the 1990s. Allowing neighborhoods to opt out of citywide reforms was crucial in its transformation.
The city’s planning authority implemented reforms that gave landowners automatic permission to build new townhomes, subject to certain conditions; alongside an opt-out system for local residents who do not want these changes to their area. It might surprise readers to know that Houston, synonymous in many people’s minds with car-centric America, is now mid-ranked among American cities on the Foot Traffic Ahead walkability ranking, with its substantial improvement acknowledged in the latest report. Indeed, what was once ‘renowned worldwide as the global citadel of carbon-based fuel extraction’ is now an ‘unexpected and almost entirely unheralded success story’ of urban renewal and better environmental planning, according to Jake Wegmann at UT Austin’s School of Architecture.
Or read this on Hacker News
