One has only to look at the successes of how Houston managed its growth from about 400,000 in 1965 (when yours truly arrived) to about 4,000,000 in 1995 (when yt moved to the beach at Wilmington). It didn’t manage its growth at all. There is no zoning in Houston. ?Property owners, via their own restrictive deed covenants, determine land use. ?The city follows the?people by putting in streets, sewers, and schools when and where needed as people?and companies determine their own locations.
Houston is actually a checkerboard of neighborhoods and business centers. ?There is “Greenway Plaza – a 30-block complex of 50-story office buildings having about 60,000 workers – 6 miles form the city’s “center.” ?Greenway Plaza is surrounded by neighborhoods of many different varieties from mansions to apartments as needed. ?There is the “Galleria Complex” about 5 miles west that is similar. ?Then ?Post Oak Park,? then ?Town and Country,? the ?Texas Medical Center,? etc., etc., etc. In general, everyone finds a place to live very near where they work and groceries, dry cleaners, and support stores seem to spring up nearby ? magically, perhaps just as Mr. A. Smith predicted.
AND NOBODY PLANNED ANY OF IT.
It is a model of what a combination of greedy developers chasing the buck by satisfying lazy families who don’t want to commute far by working for scheming corporate chiefs who want to attract the best employees for the lowest salaries.
Houston is beautiful and a great place to live. (We moved only to be near the beach.) ?Yes, there are periods when street widenings or other infrastructures lag growth and the traffic in an area is bad for a while; but things (schools, streets, police, etc.) always seemed to even themselves out over time.
Get government out of the way and unleash greed, laziness, and buck chasing. ?It is truly amazing how wonderfully it works ? as most of Houston?s millions will attest.
