How Houston Is Becoming America’s Next Dense City

[wwmiv]

Why does everything have to be a pissing match?

L.A. is very clearly denser, larger, and more urban than Houston. In fact, that’s a necessary logical corollary to any argument that states (as do most above) that Houston should follow Los Angeles’s path to creating urban density as it matures into the next urban American city (something Los Angeles already did).

[Crawford]

The premise is incorrect, though.

Houston isn't becoming denser, it certainly isn't "becoming America's next dense city" and LA's density has almost nothing to do with modern-day development patterns, but rather legacy density, high ground coverage and higher than average household size. And it's dense, in part, because the dense areas are poor/working class rather than gentrified.

[SLO]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Why does everything have to be a pissing match?

L.A. is very clearly denser, larger, and more urban than Houston. In fact, that’s a necessary logical corollary to any argument that states (as do most above) that Houston should follow Los Angeles’s path to creating urban density as it matures into the next urban American city (something Los Angeles already did).

Houston developed a little later and can use LA as a case study.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

Or this:


am3 by bill barfield, on Flickr

Whoever designed these things should be thrown head first into that gap

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by SLO

Houston developed a little later and can use LA as a case study.

Exactly.

[jd3189]

It will be interesting to see how Houston develops in the future. It may not have the traditional density of other cities, but it’s gonna have a unique cityscape. Someone long ago once said that it could become the American version of Bangkok, Manila, or any of those large South Asian cities. Maybe not full blown, but I can see it in a few of these pics.


But I don’t think Houston will be dense without competition from other Southern cities. Atlanta could still work around its landscape. Charlotte, unlike Atlanta, seems flatter and able to expand much more easily. And, barring hurricanes, global warming, sea level rise, and all that stuff, it doesn’t seem that Miami and South Florida are done growing yet and it already has higher densities than Houston. And I didn’t even mention the potential of Dallas.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

There are things I really like about Houston. However, it's built environment is not one of those things. The reality there is that Houston can boost it's density numbers all it wants. But until the city ceases it's habit of fronting every street with seemingly nothing but garage doors and blank walls and security fences, it will continue to be a low quality urban environment. Population density is only part of the equation.

yes, some (but certainly not all) of the residential infill is regrettable from a street-fronting perspective, but i think the tougher nut to crack that houston needs to work much harder on are its commercial streets. even in a hip and trendy neighborhood like montrose, which sports a respectable (for a sun-belt city) population density of ~9,700 ppsm, the commercial corridors are pretty bad from an urban perspective.


here's the intersection of montrose blvd & westheimer rd, two of the main drags of the neighborhood:

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7446...7i16384!8i8192

not exactly an urban paradise.


and google street-viewing around montrose, i couldn't find a single high quality pedestrian-oriented retail street in the neighborhood. if there are any that i couldn't find, please correct me, houstonians.

i don't say this to rag on houston (as is so popular and tiresome on this forum), but more to point out where i think the city really has its work cut out before its gonna start garnering more respect from outsiders for its urban chops. i understand houston is a sun-belt city, and it is what it is. i too am from a flawed city, so i get all of that, but along with all of the higher density residential infill going on in the city, lets hope that we will also see more conversion of the city's neighborhood retail streets into more pedestrian-friendly urban environments down the road as well.

all of the texas donuts in the world won't have urbanists swooning until the neighborhood commercial streets get de-strip-malled, intensified, and cohered.

[JAYNYC]

Originally Posted by Quixote

Dude. Just. STOP.

Seriously.

[JAYNYC]

I lived in Montrose near Midtown for two years. There are some decently walkable retail oriented areas. Not by NYC standards, but Houston is Houston, not NYC.

https://goo.gl/maps/mxVMqFPdUmFTBkxJA

https://goo.gl/maps/nyTE2k6CGLLipKm9A

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7446...7i16384!8i8192

[wwmiv]

Steely Dan, you are spot on with this analysis.

[JManc]

The shopping center to the left of Steely's Google link might look trashy but it should absolutely be saved and restored; there's an art deco facade dating back to 1937 still under that all that shitty cladding. Montrose in either direction is has been improving and densifying but it will never be an urbanists' playground. The stretch along Westheimer has long been kinda seedy, transient and anything goes.

I literally just got back from Chicago and my wife and I stayed right on E. Grand near Michigan and I would love that kind of density and walk-ability here but between Houston's zoning (or lack of), parking requirements and laissez faire attitude towards development, that ship has sailed. Best we can hope for is some quality new urban-ism as shown in JAYNYC's post above.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by JAYNYC

I lived in Montrose near Midtown for two years. There are some decently walkable retail oriented areas. Not by NYC standards, but Houston is Houston, not NYC.

https://goo.gl/maps/mxVMqFPdUmFTBkxJA

https://goo.gl/maps/nyTE2k6CGLLipKm9A

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7446...7i16384!8i8192

from your 1st and 3rd examples, i think we might just have different standards for what constitutes a "decently walkable neighborhood retail street". i totally understand that "houston is houston", my point was simply that its lackluster neighborhood commercial streets are perhaps the biggest thing hurting the city's overall urbanism image.

something like this is MUCH closer to my standard of a decently walkable neighborhood retail street: https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6627...7i13312!8i6656

your 2nd example is much more what i was thinking. according to google maps, it's just outside of montrose's borders, hence why i didn't find it. it's only one block long for now, but a good start none-the-less. if houston can continue extending neighborhood retail street corridors with more development like that, then its increases in residential density will be much more meaningful.

[JManc]

There's nothing in Houston apart from maybe a few blocks on the Heights that resembles your Seattle example in age or aesthetic. Even there it was Most of walkable areas here are less than 20 years old and subject to parking, ADA and a whole other load of obstacles.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by badrunner

Whoever designed these things should be thrown head first into that gap

I actually agree. Those driveways, and hundreds more of similar layout around town are a total pain in the ass, but the palm trees kind of amazing, especially in person, and the houses do illustrate the row house (or almost) trend.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

I actually agree. Those driveways, and hundreds more of similar layout around town are a total pain in the ass, but the palm trees kind of amazing, especially in person, and the houses do illustrate the row house (or almost) trend.

They're ugly on the outside but my wife and I looked at one of these and they're pretty nice inside. The gap (recent trend) between each unit is some loop hole around insurance or building codes.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Lol, what? La of all places?
La was always much denser than the other Sunbelt cities. The city always had dense areas, it's just adding to them. Downtown always had better bones to build on .

Yup. There is a huge stock of medium-sized multi-family apartment blocks that date from the '30s onward. That Korea Town photo shows multiple apartment buildings sharing single blocks. Houston has a LONG way to go to achieving that kind of urban pattern. What Houston HAS been doing for the last quarter century or so is laying the foundation (literally laying giant sewer pipes and changing minimum lot size and parking requirements) for much higher density development.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by JManc

They're ugly on the outside but my wife and I looked at one of these and they're pretty nice inside. The gap (recent trend) between each unit is some loop hole around insurance or building codes.

You know what I hate about the whole Rice Military and, to a lesser extent, Jackson Hill redevelopment is the piss-poor street level infrastructure. It looks like a bunch of row houses got dropped into some country town. I mean, drainage ditches along the streets? Spotty curbs and sidewalks? Drives me nuts.

[Will O' Wisp]

I'm surprised this thread has gone on for so long without anyone posting Houston/LA's actual density statistics.



As of the last census LA is much, much denser than Houston. To the point that people living 30 miles away from LA city hall are on average living in a significantly denser area than people living just over a mile from Houston's CBD.



Even in comparison to other sun belt metros Houston lacks overall density. Cities famed for their sprawl like Las Vegas, Houston, and Riverside all outweigh Houston's density. Houston isn't even the densest metro in Texas (El Paso is).

So yeah, Houston may be improving but it still has a long way to go...

[JManc]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

You know what I hate about the whole Rice Military and, to a lesser extent, Jackson Hill redevelopment is the piss-poor street level infrastructure. It looks like a bunch of row houses got dropped into some country town. I mean, drainage ditches along the streets? Spotty curbs and sidewalks? Drives me nuts.

That was the first thing my wife noticed about that area; $500k+ homes and ditches. She was not impressed with the area. You would think the residents would want the city to fix all that. Reminds me of my parents old house in rural upstate NY.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

your 2nd example is much more what i was thinking. according to google maps, it's just outside of montrose's borders, hence why i didn't find it. it's only one block long for now, but a good start none-the-less. if houston can continue extending neighborhood retail street corridors with more development like that, then its increases in residential density will be much more meaningful.

That's "Midtown," just outside Downtown, and that style of development is increasing in that neighborhood. It's also, amazingly enough, popping up in Downtown proper.