William Fulton

Repairing the urban fabric torn apart by highways in America

How rebuilding freeways has helped heal mid-20th-century transportation scars in cities like San Francisco, Dallas, Syracuse and Washington, D.C., along with a cautionary tale from Houston.

The US needs a bottom-up plan to fix its glaring infrastructure needs

A major, federally led infrastructure strategy is vital to meeting the nation’s challenges. A new Kinder Institute report shows that to be truly responsive to the needs of America’s cities and regions, a bottom-up consultation process with regional and local leaders and a focus on three priorities will be necessary.

Why I was wrong about Willie and Houston

Responses to an essay on music and place lead a writer to reconsider his musical relationship with the two big cities he knows best — Los Angeles and Houston.

Why 'Born to Run' always makes me think of Houston

I know, it's weird — the thing about how music always associates with place. I first heard the Beach Boys on a snowy winter's day in my brother's chilly bedroom — and decades later became the mayor of a surf town. And even though I have been listening to "Born To Run" for 45 years, I now always associate it with a drive from Austin to Houston a few years ago.

Here’s how the Biden administration will be a boost for American cities

From an eviction moratorium to support for infrastructure, transportation and affordable housing, there are many moves President Joe Biden may make that will benefit cities. Here’s a look at some of them.

Do you have the ‘place gene’?

Urban planners and designers sometimes think they have an exclusive “lock” on an understanding of place. But in fact everybody can develop their own “place gene.”

Texas’ largest suburban counties are growing fast, but are they growing less reliably Republican?

In the past three decades, the populations of these counties near Houston, Austin and Dallas have tripled in size, become less white and shifted politically. Here’s a closer look.

In Houston, some want to see the mayor lose control — at least some of it

The city’s strong mayor has the power to set the City Council agenda, which means nothing can go before the council without the mayor’s OK. A coalition led by the fire union is trying to rein in that strength.

Finding the small-scale urbanism his hometown lost to urban renewal

After a car-centric urban renewal plan irrevocably changed the town where he grew up, a young urbanist found the essence of Auburn, New York, in Southern California.

Urban renewal was supposed to save my hometown, instead it ripped it apart

A failed plan to breathe life back into the economy of the beautiful, walkable city where I grew up left it half the place it once was, broke my father’s heart and shaped me as an urbanist.

How to remove a statue rather than topple it

In the past four-plus months, many cities have been confronted with renewed outcries to remove offensive or ‘problem’ monuments that commemorate values of a bygone era. In some cases, these statues have been forcibly removed. In the latest essay in his ongoing series of stories about cities and why they are great, Bill Fulton revisits how Ventura, California, handled the controversy surrounding a statue of Father Junipero Serra.

Pandemic pivot: My favorite street is closed to cars — but open to people

Main Street in Ventura, California, which has been closed to cars and opened to restaurants and other businesses affected by the coronavirus, is my favorite street. This essay is both a discussion of what makes a great street and a personal reminiscence about what this particular street means to me.

As other cities consider defunding police, Houston increases HPD’s budget

In the past 20 years, many social functions and gaps in city services have fallen to police departments, which, at the same time, have been acquiring more paramilitary equipment. Now, as cities face large budget deficits because of revenue losses from the COVID-19 pandemic and protestors call for defunding the police, it's yet to be seen how police services will be affected.

How will property tax reform impact cities? Houston’s revenue cap offers insight

The state’s property tax reform bill, which limits the amount cities and counties can raise property taxes to 3.5%, is expected to significantly affect one of the largest sources of revenue for local governments. Many will be looking for ways to circumvent the financial constraints of the measure. That’s something Houston has been dealing with since 2004.

4 things limiting Houston’s ability to generate more revenue

Houston lost $25 million in sales tax revenue in March alone because of COVID-19. But the city’s fiscal struggles existed before the coronavirus pandemic. A new Kinder Institute report compares the revenue sources and service levels among the three largest cities in Texas — Houston, Dallas and San Antonio — all of which are expected to see COVID-19-related revenue losses of between 10 and 15%. Of the three, Houston is the most constrained in its options for increasing revenue.