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Urban Edge Stories by William Fulton

Houston, Dallas led metro area growth in 2021 even as their urban cores lost population

Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth were again among the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country last year, according to new statistics released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Urban Edge: Mar 24, 2022
Demographics

Remembering Pat Oxford, a trusted adviser to governors, presidents—and urban researchers

When you move to a city you know nothing about in your late 50s and your job is to make sure your organization has a big impact on making that city better, you desperately need tour guides. I had many when I first arrived in Houston in 2014, but none helped me more than Pat Oxford, a longtime Kinder Institute Advisory Board member, who passed away Feb. 13 at the age of 79.

Patrick Oxford, Rich Kinder and Hasty Johnson
Urban Edge: Feb 22, 2022

At first glance, Houston taxpayers seem to pay more into county coffers than it receives in services

Do property taxpayers inside the City of Houston subsidize Harris County services? It’s a question that comes up a lot, given the fact that city residents—like their counterparts in the county—pay separate property taxes to the county, but the county provides many services only to the unincorporated areas.

Kinder Institute Research
: Jan 26, 2022
Governance

Houston public health could benefit from a more collaborative governance structure

When COVID-19 struck in early 2020, public health experts in Houston swung into action. But, unlike in other major Texas cities, two different agencies swung into action: the City of Houston Health Department and the Harris County Public Health Department. Although they worked well together in a crisis, the pandemic gave new currency to the question of how public services are delivered in the Houston area.

Urban Edge: Jan 19, 2022
Health

Texas’ Proposition 2 gives counties, unincorporated areas an avenue to finance road and infrastructure projects

Amid all the high-profile constitutional amendments in this year’s Texas election (no COVID restrictions for religious services, property tax breaks for families of veterans and the disabled), one seemingly nerdy amendment stood out as important for urban and suburban areas such as unincorporated Harris County. That was Proposition 2, which allows counties to issue tax-increment bonds for transportation and other infrastructure.

Urban Edge: Nov 18, 2021
Elections, Transportation

Texas cities are as sprawling as ever. But they’re also more dense.

The popular perception is that Texas’s metropolitan areas are sprawling all over the place because the state has so much land. The truth of the matter is a little more complicated, however. Yes, all the metros in Texas are sprawling – but they’re densifying as well. And when you “net it out,” the density is winning over the sprawl in the big metros – while the sprawl is winning over the density in the smaller ones.

Urban Edge: Sep 15, 2021
Demographics, Urban Planning

Despite the pandemic, Austin, Dallas and Houston all built more housing last year. It still wasn't enough.

Here at the Kinder Institute, we do a lot of research on housing—especially in Houston but also in some of the other big Texas metro areas. And all of our research says that Texas is gradually losing its affordability advantage: Home prices are rising faster than incomes, making housing less affordable each year. This is obviously true in Austin, where home prices are skyrocketing, but it’s also true in Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth as well.

Urban Edge: Jul 21, 2021
COVID-19 and Cities, Housing

Houston and Harris County’s long reign of growth may have come to an end

Houston has always had a reputation as a fast-growing, go-go, get-it-done kind of place. But that’s changing.

News Story
: Jul 14, 2021
Demographics

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. 

Keys to preserving the Texas Triangle: Transit Education Technology
Perspective
: May 19, 2021
Demographics, Economic Development

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.

Perspective
: Apr 16, 2021
COVID-19 and Cities, Health, Transportation

6 post-pandemic predictions about how cities will be different going forward

As access to the COVID-19 vaccination becomes increasingly widespread, it seems possible to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But what’s next for cities? Here are six ways cities will be different — from Zoomburbs and public transit to the fate of retail and housing — in the years to come.

Feature Story
: Mar 15, 2021
COVID-19 and Cities, Economic Development, Housing, Placemaking, Transportation, Urban Planning

It seems like all of California is moving to Texas. Is that true?

In the past, the influx of Californians to Texas has fluctuated from year to year. However, since 2018, the West Coast migration has remained high. Why is that? (Hint: It’s not oil prices.)

Feature Story
: Mar 3, 2021
COVID-19 and Cities, Housing

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.

Perspective
: Feb 19, 2021
Governance, Health, Housing, Urban Planning

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.

Feature Story
: Feb 18, 2021
Placemaking, Transportation, Urban Disparity, Urban Planning

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.

The Kinder Institute has released a new report and an interactive map that paint a picture of the infrastructure priorities as identified by local and regional leaders across the nation.
Kinder Institute Research
: Feb 10, 2021
COVID-19 and Cities, Economic Development, Education, Health, Transportation, Urban Planning

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.

Perspective
: Feb 4, 2021

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.

Perspective
: Feb 1, 2021

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.

Perspective
: Jan 21, 2021
Economic Development, Elections, Governance, Housing, Transportation, Urban Planning

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.”

Perspective
: Jan 18, 2021
Urban Planning

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.

Georgetown texas
News Story
: Dec 16, 2020
Demographics, Elections
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