Is Houston underrated as a bike city?
URBAN EDGE : June 9, 2021
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?
Triumph of the Triangle: How Texas can hold onto its urban economic powerhouse
URBAN EDGE : May 18, 2021
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
URBAN EDGE : May 14, 2021
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
URBAN EDGE : April 27, 2021
“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.”
Coming out of the pandemic, how can cities counter 2020’s sharp rise in homicides?
URBAN EDGE : April 9, 2021
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
URBAN EDGE : March 22, 2021
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
URBAN EDGE : March 11, 2021
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
URBAN EDGE : February 19, 2021
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
URBAN EDGE : February 4, 2021
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
URBAN EDGE : January 31, 2021
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.