How Houston Is Becoming America’s Next Dense City

[dc_denizen]

How Houston Is Becoming America’s Next Dense City

https://catalyst.independent.org/201...xt-dense-city/



Interesting article about Houston's densification

Anyone who advocates for “Market Urbanism”—aka free-market city policy—must grapple with a common response: “but then we’ll get a bunch of Houstons.” The implication is that Houston is a sprawling mess of traffic, pollution, and bad architecture, and has become this way due to no regulation. The city doesn’t have zoning, after all, and skeptics warn that replicating it will lead to the same urban form elsewhere.

But Houston’s narrative should be more complicated. If I were to summarize Houston, I’d say the aspects of it that thrive are due to it having a functioning market; while the aspects of it that urbanists hate are the outcome of its centrally-planned paradigm. Let’s unpack both.

There’s a quality about Houston, though, that transcends its built pattern: affordability. For decades, Houston has been the nation’s leading example of an “opportunity city”. It has, like coastal cities, high demand—aka fast growing job opportunities and population growth. But unlike those metros, it builds lots of housing, thus stabilizing prices. The median home price is $190,000, which is just 4/5ths the national average, according to Zillow. Midtown’s median home prices are $309,000, extremely low for a centrally-located urban neighborhood. This affordability has made Houston a refuge for expats from expensive states, and for immigrants—it is now the nation’s most diverse city.

The affordability can be tied to both Houston’s density and sprawl. Rather than one being good and the other bad, both forms of growth have helped stabilize prices. But the multi-family infill housing is the most organic outcome to be found in the Houston model. If America had a more market-oriented urban approach, those aspects of Houston—the density and affordability—would be the ones most likely replicated. For this reason, “getting a bunch of Houstons” should be an urbanist goal.

[tdawg]

Just read the article and feel like the exact same thing could be said of Atlanta.

[dc_denizen]

I would argue that Houston has more potential given its grid and haphazard development

easy to get to LA levels of density across the core urban area

[IMG]Houston Skyline-Almeda-Sept 2019-Mabry Campbell by Mabry Campbell, on Flickr[/IMG]

[LA21st]

Do you know what LA's core density is? From East LA to Century City or so, it's alot for a sun belt/newer city, and it's 12 miles of it. Just the core, anyway.
I don't see anything in these pictures to suggest that. It still reminds me of the outer SFV or San Gabriel Valley , if anything. Or OC.

[SFBruin]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Do you know what LA's core density is? From East LA to Century City or so, it's alot for a sun belt/newer city, and it's 12 miles of it. Just the core, anyway.

Outside of Ktown/Westlake, the core of LA isn't that dense.

Iirc, most neighborhoods are between 10k and 20k ppsm. Maybe some reaching 25k.

Based on the pictures shared by dc_denizen, it's conceivable that Houston could reach these density levels in these types of developments.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

Outside of Ktown/Westlake, the core of LA isn't that dense.

Iirc, most neighborhoods are between 10k and 20k ppsm. Maybe some reaching 25k.

Based on the pictures shared by dc_denizen, it's conceivable that Houston could reach these density levels in these types of developments.

Numerous neighborhoods of 10-20k ppsm for a newer city isn't bad at all.

I don't see it, but lets say it does. As others have said, where's the pedestrian neighborhoods in houston?

Even places in LA that used to be less walkable 10 years ago are changing rapidly like Palms and such.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Numerous neighborhoods of 10-20k ppsm for a newer city isn't bad at all.

I don't see it, but lets say it does. As others have said, where's the pedestrian neighborhoods in houston?

Even places in LA that used to be less walkable 10 years ago are changing rapidly like Palms and such.

Houston’s commercial corridors that are within the innerloop have a hybrid of walkable and car oriented businesses. The walkable destinations are unfortunately very leap frog. There are plenty of mixed use buildings on retail corridors but they are usually broken up by a shopping center for example that might be on the next block. Nothing unique, it just is what it is.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

Outside of Ktown/Westlake, the core of LA isn't that dense.

Iirc, most neighborhoods are between 10k and 20k ppsm. Maybe some reaching 25k.

Source?

[homebucket]

SFBruin is pretty much spot on. Outside of Ktown and Westlake at 42.6k and 34.7k ppsm, respectively, most LA neighborhoods are between 10-20k ppsm, with the exception of Hollywood which reaches just under 24k ppsm.



https://statisticalatlas.com/place/C...e/neighborhood

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

Outside of Ktown/Westlake, the core of LA isn't that dense.

Iirc, most neighborhoods are between 10k and 20k ppsm. Maybe some reaching 25k.

Based on the pictures shared by dc_denizen, it's conceivable that Houston could reach these density levels in these types of developments.

LA was a pretty big city in the prewar era, and has lots of prewar, high density form, including lots of older apartment buildings. Houston is highly unlikely to replicate this density.

Also, a lot of LA's density is due to human density, not structural density. LA's dense areas are largely due to poor(er) immigrants crowding together, which makes it very different than, say, Chicago's dense areas, even if they have similar density numbers. Houston is unlikely to replicate this human density, since immigrants aren't headed to the core anymore.

LA arguably doesn't "benefit" from density in the same manner as equivalents, since the built form is a lot worse and the density is more weighted to poorer households. So on paper LA looks like it has similar or more dense housing tracts than say SF or Chi, but it doesn't feel remotely similar. Koreatown and all those areas west of downtown LA aren't particularly pedestrian or transit friendly and still have a car-first feel.

[destroycreate]

Originally Posted by Crawford

LA was a pretty big city in the prewar era, and has lots of prewar, high density form, including lots of older apartment buildings. Houston is highly unlikely to replicate this density.

Also, a lot of LA's density is due to human density, not structural density. LA's dense areas are largely due to poor(er) immigrants crowding together, which makes it very different than, say, Chicago's dense areas, even if they have similar density numbers. Houston is unlikely to replicate this human density, since immigrants aren't headed to the core anymore.

LA arguably doesn't "benefit" from density in the same manner as equivalents, since the built form is a lot worse and the density is more weighted to poorer households. So on paper LA looks like it has similar or more dense housing tracts than say SF or Chi, but it doesn't feel remotely similar. Koreatown and all those areas west of downtown LA aren't particularly pedestrian or transit friendly and still have a car-first feel.

100% - I lived right in the heart of Koreatown here but aside from a few stretches, the blocks were extremely long, distances far, cars speeding extremely fast, and single buildings sometimes taking up whole blocks. A lot of the streets were very wide too. So while it is the densest part of LA, it's arguably one of the least pleasant to walk...not to mention there are zero green spaces or parks so if you have a dog, it's really just walking them through a concrete jungle.

[craigs]

Wow, we can start threads with articles sourced from think tanks that only exist to promote a particular political ideology? Good to know!

[dc_denizen]

Well that's more of an infill corner of inner houston

the houston model would be tightly packed SFH, tons of houston boxes (5-6 story midrises), and a smattering of highrises.

whereas LA is tightly packed SFH, tons of small apartments, and a smattering of highrises.

this pic shows the SFH built density of houston

River Oaks-Houston Skyline-ROBB-Mabry Campbell by Mabry Campbell, on Flickr

[JAYNYC]

Houston is definitely on a path towards substantial density over the next decade. Its grid pattern and local emphasis on infill (inner loop) development lends itself to the movement.

Not sure why blatant boosters of other cities would suggest or argue otherwise.

[dc_denizen]

my point is the built environment is already dense, and could support much higher densities (multifamily units can pack 20x more people into the same square footage) if the underutilized land was built up at certain nodes (This is already happening of course)

it's not like atlanta with very sparse SFH built environment. this is about as dense as SFH can get .

[LA21st]

Uh, the entire LA city of LA has been building 5-8 story mixed use complexes (many in walkable districts) for the last 8-10 years and they're everywhere. There's probably hundreds more planned/u.c.

I have no idea how you think these aerials are like central LA. I really don't .

[dc_denizen]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Uh, the entire LA city of LA has been building 5-8 story mixed use complexes (many in walkable districts) for the last 8-10 years and they're everywhere. There's probably hundreds more planned/u.c.

I have no idea how you think these aerials are like central LA. I really don't .

good for LA. however, I doubt they've built as much as houston.

these are called 'texas donuts', not LA donuts

http://ktgy.com/work/type/residential/wrap/

texas donut:

[LA21st]

?

As far as mixed use buildings? Yes, LA has built more and I'm sure there's more planned/u.c too.

Like I said, the core density of LA is very high for a sunbelt city and it's only increasing. Not sure what you're talking about.

[dc_denizen]

for the record, here is Koreatown, the densest area of central LA. the commercial streets are far superior to houston , but the built environment is not that different than the more developed parts of the inner loop

[IMG]KoreaTown by HunterKerhart.com, on Flickr[/IMG]

[LA21st]

Again, not sure what the similarties are. The last pic of Houston you showed (with the dounts) reminds me of LA's Playa Vista (new neighborhood) near LAX than anything in central LA.

That's not the best pic of Koreatown either.