June 4 2002
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G U L F C O A
S T G R O W T H N E W S
A publication of the Gulf Coast
Institute
NOTABLE
QUOTES
³The city has invaded the
public imagination in the same way the suburbs did in the 1950s.²
-Saskia
Sassen, Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago, speaking at the American
Planning Association conference.
³Ultimately, it is the quality
of a community, and the commitment of local people to enhance that quality,
that proves to be the critical difference between the success and failure of
the evolving midopolis – the older suburbs.²
-Joel
Kotkin, writing in ³Older Suburbs: Crabgrass Slums or New Urban Frontier.²
http://www.rppi.org/102301.html
LIVABLE
HOUSTON/SMART GROWTH INITIATIVE
Next meeting: The Buffalo
Bayou Master Plan
For over a year, the Buffalo
Bayou Partnership has been working with Thompson Design Group on a Master Plan
for restoration and redevelopment of the Cityıs central waterway. Ann
Olsen, President of the Partnership, will share this remarkable and enormous
vision at the Livable Houston meeting. http://www.buffalobayou.org. The event,
which is open to the public, is Wednesday, June 26, at 11:30 am at the
Houston-Galveston Area Council, 3555 Timmons, second floor. BYOL. For more on
the Livable Houston Initiative, go to http://www.livablehouston.org.
REGIONAL
NOTES
Katy Freeway group to meet
Tuesday
A second community meeting to
explore a process to rethink the design of the Katy Freeway expansion and its
effects on the corridor will be held Tuesday, June 4, at 7 pm at Memorial High
School. The first meeting, in April, drew more than 200 people, mostly
from neighborhoods in Spring Branch. The school is at 935 Echo Lane, just south
of I-10. http://www.katycorridor.org
Clean air groups protest
rollback in pollution plan
Several air quality advocacy
groups will sponsor a trip to Austin on June 5 to protest a possible air
quality action by the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission (TNRCC).
Fearing that the commission will call for a rollback of
pollution cut requirements by industry from 90 percent to 80
percent in the
regionıs clean air plan, the groups will stage a protest and
ask the commissioners not to make the decision.
http://www.ghasp.org/publications/siprollback
Bicyclists ride against
no-biking signs
More than 50 bicyclists
recently defied ³Bicycles on Roadways Prohibited² signs in the Memorial
Villages by riding their bikes to the police chief and delivering a letter
³informing him that the signs are illegal, unconstitutional and downright
dangerous,² according to bike advocate and attorney Dan Lundeen. The
group has also begun a petition drive asking Texas Attorney General John Cornyn
and the Harris County District Attorney to investigate what they call civil
rights abuses and to put an end to the signs. http://www.bikehouston.org
Green building event announced
A seminar on green building is
set for June 14. The event will explore the US Green Building Councilıs
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system.
Sponsored by the American Institute of Architects, Houston; the Houston
Chapter of Associated General Contractors; and the Greater Houston Area Chapter
of the US Green Building Council, the event will be held at the AGC building,
3825 Dacoma. For more information, paual.p@agchouston.org, or call
713-843-3707.
Conservation conference
announced
A conference on parkland and
habitat conservation will be held in Houston by the Sierra Club on July 20. The
sixth annual Conservation Conference will be held at Armand Bayou Nature
Center, and will also highlight the statewide land & water conservation
plan that is currently being developed by Texas Parks & Wildlife. In
addition, the conference will feature two places that the Sierra Club and other
organizations are trying to protect in southeast Texas - the Katy Prairie and
the Trinity River bottomland hardwood forests. http://www.texas.sierraclub.org/
or call 512-477-1729.
NOTES
FROM OTHER PLACES
Urbanism
Realtors survey supports
walking, bike paths
In choosing where to live, the
availability of walking and bicycling facilities is more important than
availability of transit, according to a survey by the National Association of
Realtors. While crime and schools are still the top concern, quality of life
factors such as proximity to shopping and walking and bike paths are close
behind. Fifty percent said theyıd prefer to have a commute time less than
30 minutes even if it meant living in a smaller home or on a smaller piece of
property. Fifty six percent would prefer to limit growth in outlying areas and
concentrate it in urban areas.
Calthorpe proposes new urban
network
New Urbanist planner Peter
Calthorpe argues for radical changes in urban transportation networks in an
article in Planning magazine. In ³The Urban Network: A Radical Proposal,²
Calthorpe says ³There is a critical need for a new paradigm of growth on
undeveloped sites — one that complements urban infill and revitalization.
This paradigm would match a new circulation system with the new forms of land
use now emerging through the New Urbanism and Smart Growth movements.² Noting
that todayıs transportation network is designed specifically for sprawl
development, Calthorpe proposes ³a road network that reinforces access to
walkable neighborhoods and urban town centers without cutting them off from
local pedestrian movement.²
http://www.planning.org/planning/nonmember/default1.htm
Secession from LA would create
nationıs sixth largest city
If the secession of the San
Fernando Valley succeeds, Los Angeles would lose a third of its population,
according to an article in the Boston Globe . The new, as-yet-unnamed city,
with 1.35 million residents, would automatically become the nation's sixth
largest. Some state and local civic leaders claim that secession would weaken
both halves rather than strengthen the new, smaller wholes. It would also
compromise public safety, they warn, possibly delaying the construction of fire
and police facilities. No one is predicting how the November 5 ballot item will
come out.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/145/nation/LA_faces_great_divide+.shtml
³Creatives² drive ³cities of
ideas²
Research by social scientist
Richard Florida shows that a new productive force is driving a group of cities,
according to the Strait Times in a report by the Austin American-Statesman. For
these cities, the most important factor affecting their growth is the size of
what the Carnegie Mellon University professor calls the 'creative class'.
Cities still grow by adding houses and hotels, the report says, but it is the
people inside those buildings who determine how fast these cities expand and
how rich they become. Education is important, but not the most important
ingredient; cities are being shaped by people who create, who are in the
business of producing new ideas, the report says. These people are not
scattered across the country, but are gathering in certain cities, which the
report calls ³cities of ideas.² These cities have different economies than
other places in the US. They are the country's centers of growth and commercial
innovation, the report claims.
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/analysis/story/0,1870,122060,00.html
Urban road capacity growing 50 percent faster than population
Proponents of highway capacity
expansion often claim that road building is lagging
far behind population growth. The statistic they use to
support this argument is that lane miles of roadways have grown by only two
percent since 1990. But a new analysis by the Surface Transportation Policy
Project notes that the two percent statistic includes more than 8 million miles
of rural roads. While roadway capacity
in rural areas has not grown, the report says, roadway
capacity in metro areas has grown markedly and is outpacing population growth.
New numbers from the Federal Highway Administration show that lane miles of
urban roads grew by more
than 13 percent from 1990 to 2000. During the same period,
urban population
grew by only 8.5 percent. As a result, STPP notes, many metro
areas are adding roadways faster than they are adding people.
http://www.transact.org/Reports/decoder/roadlanemiles.htm
Regional
Note: In the Houston urban area, population grew by 8 percent, while
lane miles grew by 19 percent during the last decade, according to the Texas
Transportation Institute. http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/study/cities/houston.stm
Truck travel will nearly double
by 2020
While noticing that passenger
travel "is expected to grow more slowly," Federal Highway
Administrator Mary Peters indicated truck travel "is expected to grow by
more than 3 percent annually, "nearly doubling between 1998 and 2020."
Peters spoke to the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, which continues
its review of renewal of the Transportation Equity Act.
http://www.transact.org/
Transit use growing faster than
driving
For the first time ever, growth
in transit ridership has exceeded growth in driving for five years in a row.
Statistics recently released by the American Public Transportation Association
(APTA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) show that transit
ridership has grown by 21 percent over the past five years, while the number of
miles driven has grown by 12 percent. From 2000 to 2001, taking into account
growth in population, miles driven per person has dropped slightly in the last
year. At the same time, transit use per person has increased.
Twenty percent more Americans use transit today than did in 1995.
Altogether, more than 9.5 billion trips were made by transit in 2001, the
highest number of trips in more than 40 years. An analysis by the Surface
Transportation Policy Project notes that ³Transitıs growth is especially
remarkable because Americans have far greater access to automobile travel than
they do to travel via transit. [There are] almost 50 times as many lane miles
of roadway as route miles of transit service.² Only 4.3 percent of the 4
million miles of roads are served by transit. http://www.transact.org
Car-sharing growing in cities
In Washington, DC, as in
Denver, Atlanta, Boston, Seattle, New York, and several other cities,
car-sharing programs are catching on, creating a potentially significant
transportation link. For a cross section of motorists - from residents of
apartment complexes to budget-conscious college students, from rail passengers
who need a vehicle at the end of the line to employers who want an economical
fleet of company cars - membership means a simple, paperless way of paying for
a car only when one is needed. Cars are kept at high-density spots such as
apartment complexes, office buildings, university campuses, and transit stops.
Many who use the service find they can save as much as $3,000 per year by not
owning a second car.
http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-te.md.zipcar28may28.story
Segway gets walkers attention
With the Segway looking for
space on the nationıs sidewalks, America Walks has published an analysis of the
two-wheel motorized vehicle, with a list of positives and negatives. Segway
officials have already won in several states and expect to win in all 44 of the
legislatures that are in session this year.
http://americawalks.org/epamd/index.htm
Big box retailers looking inward
Big box saturation is beginning
to sour retailers' long love affair with the suburbs and theyıre looking at
cities, according to an article in the Washington Post. The backlash is making
stores - particularly discount chains - reconsider cities where executives are
looking for places to open. "There's a growing realization that there's a
huge untapped market," said David Cordish, a Baltimore developer.
"All the names that you know are starting to look at cities."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39138-2002May18.html
Rubber sidewalks donıt buckle
or break
To avoid buckled and broken
sidewalks – or to avoid cutting down shade trees because they cause the
problem – Santa Monica has begun using rubber tiles to make sidewalks.
The tiles, which are made from old tires, last far longer than concrete,
provide a more comfortable walking surface, and are easy to replace. According
to the Local Government Commission, more than 20 cities are testing the
product. http://www.lgc.org/freepub/energy/newsletter/jan_feb2002/page02.html
Energy
Distributed generation to grow
15-fold by 2011
The global electric capacity of
distributed generation sources will grow to 300,000 megawatts by 2011,
according to a new report from Allied Business Intelligence (ABI). Distributed
generation includes modular forms of generating or storing electricity that can
be located near the point of use - for instance, fuel cells or solar electric
systems. The upcoming report projects a 15-fold increase in the use of
distributed generation from today's 20,000 megawatts.
According to ABI, reciprocating engines and small gas turbines should dominate
the market until about 2005, when fuel cells are expected to grow in
prominence. The full report
is due out in late June. The press release is available at
http://www.alliedworld.com/pdfs/DGN02pr.pdf.
EVENTS
Brownfields 2002, Nov 13-15,
Charlotte, NC. http://www.brownfields2002.org/
Green Living &
Sustainability Fair, Sep 20-22 Fredericksburg TX. http://www.renewableenergyroundup.com
Note to readers: If you have news to share or have reports
from events, please let us know at issues@gulfcoastideas.org
_____________________________
David Crossley
Gulf Coast Institute
2001 Kirby Drive Suite 515
Houston TX 77019
Ph 713-523-5757
Fx 713-523-3057
http://www.livablehouston.org