Interviews

Former Harris County Judge Ed Emmett reflects on Hurricane Ike 15 years later

Hurricane Ike made landfall on Galveston in the early hours of Sept. 13, 2008, as a Category 2 storm with 110 mph winds. It produced a catastrophic storm surge throughout Galveston County, especially the Bolivar Peninsula and in Chambers County. While Houston was mostly spared from flooding, about 100,000 structures in Harris County were damaged by wind, according to the Harris County Flood Control District. Over 2 million CenterPoint customers lost power, with some areas going several weeks until electricity was restored. The widespread outages marked the first time a curfew was issued by the city of Houston.

What should the future of transportation look like in American cities? A new book invites you to have a stake in it.

Houston is a city for cars today, but that doesn’t mean it has to be one in the future. In a new book, “Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities”, Veronica O. Davis makes the case that reorienting communities toward people rather than automobiles is in the hands of everyday people as well as policymakers.

Q&A: In Houston, a national developer finds the will and a way to build more affordable housing

A national not-for-profit affordable housing developer is broadening its reach into the Houston market with five projects across the city. It unveiled a new apartment community for adults over the age of 55 in Third Ward with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that included some of Houston’s top elected and housing officials earlier this month.

Q&A: How a green approach could help Houston shrink its flood risks—and its carbon footprint

If Houston took a nature-based approach to its drainage systems, it could help mitigate climate change, lessen the city’s severe heat and create job opportunities among other benefits, according to a recent report by the Rocky Mountain Institute.

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.

'The New Red Book' is a call to appreciate Houston as a bastion of Black heritage

A new book serves as a long overdue field guide to Black history in Houston, one that hearkens back to a century-old catalog of the city’s African American community. In “The New Red Book,” author Lindsay Gary takes readers to 50 sites, telling the stories about these important spaces and the people whose legacies remain relevant today.

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. 

In ‘More City than Water,’ Houston tells its Hurricane Harvey story. Will we listen?

Flood survival stories are a Houston shibboleth, a test of membership. Make it through a devastating downpour, and you are one of us. And everyone who lived in the Houston area in August 2017 has a Hurricane Harvey story. For some, it was another entry in a collection of flood stories, depending on how long they lived here and where; for others, it was their first, a rude awakening to very real vulnerabilities.

If it hopes to overcome future Harveys, Houston needs to double down on resilience and planning

A new book serves as a guide for how cities can best learn from one another to design systems and build ways to endure the worst climate shocks to come. This includes Houston’s experience—both for what to expect from a changing climate and how to respond. Its authors say Houston has done several things right, but they also worry that future disasters could outpace these efforts.

The return to work will determine the fate of downtowns. Is Houston ready for what’s next?

Central Houston President Bob Eury has been tracking COVID-19 case counts since the early days of the pandemic and has the spreadsheet to prove it. It was a ritual that he says helped him stay on top of the virus and how far off “normal” might be. But there may be one number he is tracking even more closely: how many of downtown’s estimated 168,000 workers are returning to the office.

The new BikeHouston boss has a vision for safer streets for all

Whether you ride a bike full time or part time, just for fun or for transportation, BikeHouston’s new executive director wants to make it safer to ride a bike in Houston. It’s why he left New York to come here.

Talking about walking: A conversation with Houston’s first chief transportation planner

David Fields is the City of Houston’s first chief transportation planner. Leaving the Bay Area for this newly created position, he arrived in Houston at a time, though, when transportation was changing.

To slow the coronavirus in Houston, we should ‘hunker down’ and hope for a controlled crash landing

An infectious disease expert from Rice University talks about the good, the bad and the future effects of our response to the coronavirus pandemic.

How buses can drive equity and success in cities — and even help kill zombie ideas

Ridership in most major metropolitan areas of the U.S. has been steadily declining in recent years. And transit experts worry about the trend’s impact on cities — economically and socially. But when you improve buses, as the experience in Houston and in so many other places shows, ridership and relevancy increase.

In Texas, this Latina's research is helping close the education gap

Ruth Lopez Turley's data showed that full-day pre-K had a more positive impact on school readiness, part of the work at the Houston Education Research Consortium.