Is Houston underrated as a bike city?
The city has eight months of ideal cycling weather each year and has taken some sizable steps in building out its bike infrastructure in the past decade. But is anyone outside of Houston paying attention?
Is Houston underrated as a bike city?
The city has eight months of ideal cycling weather each year and has taken some sizable steps in building out its bike infrastructure in the past decade. But is anyone outside of Houston paying attention?
Maternal deaths are public health and health equity problems. They’re also preventable.
The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is rising, and Black women have the highest risk. Extending access to postpartum health care would prevent deaths.
Triumph of the Triangle: How Texas can hold onto its urban economic powerhouse
In 1966, a lawyer named Herb Kelleher met one of his clients, a pilot and investment banker named Rollin King, for a drink in a San Antonio hotel bar. Both were entrepreneurs looking for new opportunities, and they discussed starting an airline to serve an in-state. The legend is that King drew a triangle on a cocktail napkin, showing how the new airline would connect the major markets in Texas.
The Texas Triangle: A rising megaregion unlike all others
The Texas Triangle—the urban megaregion consisting of the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin metropolitan areas—stands out as a distinctive model among America’s large urban megaregions.
Black community, the moment to value ourselves is now
“One callous white police officer convicted does not signal the demise of anti-Blackness. Her talons are embedded deeply in this nation’s flesh. It is like putting a $100 down payment on a $100 million house. It is progress, but you might want to hold off on scheduling the housewarming party.”
COVID-19 devastated public transit, and underscored how indispensable it is
Ridership and revenues plummeted during the pandemic, but transit service remained essential for many frontline workers. After the pandemic, it’s important that the lessons learned are used to create better, more equitable transit networks.
Pandemic POV: I got back on the bus this week — and it was fine
A longtime public transit rider describes what it was like to use Metro again for the first time in more than a year.
How bikes paved the way for car dependency in America
And why there needs to be more investment in bicycle infrastructure in Houston and other cities.
Coming out of the pandemic, how can cities counter 2020’s sharp rise in homicides?
Among 34 large cities studied, homicide rates increased almost 30% last year, compared to 2019. Reasons for the shocking spike relate in large part to the pandemic and its societal impacts, but the killing of George Floyd may have been a contributing factor as well. Evidence-based approaches and committed elected officials will be key to reducing violent crime in American cities going forward.
America needs more police — just a different kind
In the 10 months since the killing of George Floyd, has policing in America changed at all? We need to rethink what it means to protect and serve the well-being of citizens.
Why it’s time to worry about soaring home prices in America
As the housing demand continues to outpace supply, prices have risen to levels not seen since 2008. While industry analysts don’t see the current boom going bust like the one leading up to the Great Recession, they are nonetheless concerned. One fear is the market could put homeownership out of reach for a generation of Americans and be bad for everyone in the long run.
Now that failing infrastructure has our attention, it needs our investment
There’s no question the United States is living off past investments in infrastructure without building the new infrastructure we need — or even upgrading the old infrastructure we have. It’s time to invest heavily in quasi-public infrastructure and ramp up effective public oversight of that infrastructure so it will work for us in emergency situations.
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.
5 lessons Trader Joe’s can teach the city of the future
Making the cities of tomorrow more resilient to pandemics and other threats won’t require completely rethinking planning and design as we know them, but it will require functional problem-solving, practical solutions, better data mining and analysis, and more flexibility. All of which have helped the beloved grocery store chain improve its bottom line during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rice University
Kraft Hall
6100 Main Street, Suite 305
Houston, TX 77005-1892