Research
What Happens in the Shadows: Streetlights and How They Relate to Crime
This report analyzes crime data in relation to streetlight distribution across Houston.
Amenitizing Urban Waterways: Planning Public Space Improvements with Vulnerable Communities in Mind
How can cities ensure that urban waterfront redevelopment benefits as many people as possible?
Learning from Close Calls: A Glimpse Into Near-Miss Experiences
A report analyzing the near-misses of more than 100 cyclists, walkers and public transit users.
Dangerous Crossings: The Links Between Intersections and Crashes in Houston
A report about the relationship between intersections and crashes in Houston.
Taking Stock: Housing Trends in the Houston Area
A report analyzing housing trends in the Houston metropolitan area.
Building Stronger Suburbs: Adaptability and Resilience Best Practices From Suburban Houston
A report on how suburbs can adapt to modern challenges and opportunities.
Houston in Flux: Understanding a Decade of Bayou City Development
This report quantifies, visualizes and analyzes new construction and demolition in Harris County between 2005 and 2015.
Redeveloping the East End: Catalyst for Sustainable Transitions
This report provides recommendations for sustainable development in the East End neighborhood.
Rice Village: Parking, Management and the Built Environment
The following report offers an analysis of three major issues facing Rice Village — parking, management and infrastructure.
Urban Edge
How a former landfill could help fight floods and reimagine a swath of southwest Houston
A proposal to transform a former landfill in southwest Houston into a mixed-use development with a flood control component recently caught the attention of statewide planners who recognized it for its contributions to resilience.
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.
Greener Gulfton effort plants seeds for alleviating neighborhood's nature inequity
In August of 2020, a heat mapping campaign identified Gulfton as the hottest neighborhood in Houston. The effort, co-led by The Nature Conservancy and the Houston Advanced Research Center, indicated that the southwest Houston neighborhood was 17 degrees warmer than the coolest neighborhood measured. A community-driven plan, “Greener Gulfton,” seeks to decrease the sweltering temperature, while adding an array of benefits to the immigrant-rich area that 45,000 residents call home.
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.
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