Zoning and What Not

I have been to Houston more in the last 4 months than I have been in my entire life--which totals me at 4. Before I went to Houston, I literally expected only three things: smog, traffic and humidity. My first visit, last October for a school field trip, I was blown away by the size of it. I seemed to drive forever on curving highways hundreds of feet in the air to allow others to pass below. People drove quickly, turned widely and seemed to traverse the entanglement of construction and access roads with ease. I wondered at the impact the intensity of this city had on me--I grew up in Dallas, for goodness sake, not the back roads of Abilene--but it was also striking when I realized it wasn't as bad as I had pictured. Yes, it was humid, yes it was crowded with one passenger SUVs, and yes, I drove in the wrong direction for 24 minutes before I realized where I was headed, but there were pockets of hope in this city. Sparks of eclecticism folded into the fabric of side streets and neighborhoods. I left Houston having eaten brunch at a local cafe with a new attitude about the city.

The next visits though, for a wedding and subsequent activities, took me to the heart of Houston suburbia. Row upon row of similar houses, slightly curved roads and chain after chain after chain on in the shopping strips. And flatness. It was all very beige. This was bleaker than the Houston I had imagined--it was nothing special, nothing at all.

I feel like I'm ranting about Houston. I shouldn't. I've only spent a total of 7 days there, and my newly graduated friends who moved there have found reasons to love it and stay. So I'll get on with my point...

My friend and I were driving around, and noting the discomfort that we felt in this city--she's used to the parks of Austin--and she articulated the reason quite well: there are just tall buildings everywhere. Not everywhere like NY, where the scale of architecture adds to the rhythm of the city, but simply random big, wide, sort-of tall buildings poking out every here and there like pimples on an bland canvas. They glorified the whim of designers and clients, and sat, stirring within us the sense of purposelessness. For the first time, I saw the negative effects of un-zoned cities. While it seems freeing to have no restrictions as to what business goes where, I think going to Houston showed me how detrimental it can be to not zone cities. I think it would be better to create small zones, to avoid the blanket of housing we see in Westlake and Lake Travis, but also to avoid the sky-poker flirtation we see in the outskirts of Houston.

This blog was too negative, so here's a nice picture.

I haven't figured out sizing yet...