Urban Planning

Houston needs improving. Are Houstonians really willing to pay for it?

From parks to police to garbage pickup, our surveys have tapped into a surprising level of support for raising revenues to help the city of Houston improve services and raise the quality of life across the city. What should we make of that? Are Houstonians really willing to pay more for better local government?

With conservation districts, Houston could have a new path to preserve neighborhoods

In October 2010, city officials were poised to strengthen Houston’s historic preservation law by adding a provision that, for the first time, would empower the city to forbid the demolition of certain homes in designated historic districts. Preservationists, who referred to the concept as “no means no,” were elated. But during last-minute wrangling over details, a Heights resident named Calvin Simper urged the City Council to reject the whole idea.

The Plant/Second Ward developers hope to balance walkability and affordability in Houston’s East End

A Houston-based real estate acquisition, development and management company is in the beginning phases of reshaping parts of the East End and Second Ward into a more walkable and equitable place that adds to the neighborhood’s diversity.

Is Houston really better off without zoning? One planner makes the case in ‘Arbitrary Lines’

A new book, “Arbitrary Lines,” argues that a century of zoning has hardened racial and class segregation in cities across the U.S. and worsened the effects of inequality by making it almost impossible to build anything but single-family homes in some cities. Author and planner M. Nolan Gray says there is a better way: Just look at Houston. 

After 20 years, the center of Harris County's population has moved outside the Loop

In 20 years, the population center of Harris County moved 2 miles, taking it from the heart of the historic Heights area and outside the Loop for the first time. It’s yet another sign of the suburban surge underway in the Houston area.