(Why Houston feels place-less)
On a more interesting note (at least to me), Houston has no legal zoning laws. Most cities are sectioned off into residential, commercial, and industrial zones, and if you want to build a certain kind of building, you have to do it on land in the corresponding zone. Not the case in Houston. You can put up whatever you want, wherever you want it. This makes for a very random and sprawling city. Nothing better demonstrates this than Houston skyscrapers. Most large cities have a business district where all the cool skyscrapers are grouped, creating an impressive skyline. Well, Houston does has a business district like that, but then, as you drive away from downtown, you see random skyscrapers littered around the city. Two here. Three over there. A single, thirty-story tower just sitting all by itself around a bunch of one and two-story buildings. The lack of zoning isn’t a “bad” thing but its awkward and, I think, makes the city unfriendly to pedestrians. Common words used to describe cities like “center,” “spine,” and “edge” mean a lot less here.
White Rabbits - It's Frightening
16 years ago
2 comments:
With no zoning laws in Houston, could you feasibly start up a strip joint next to a day care?
Probably not, but not because of zoning laws. I'm sure there is some hippie, obama-type law made just to ruin the freedoms of good americans that prevents that sort of activity next to a day-care or school. Also, the day-care would undoubtedly lose all it's business, so there would probably be a law suit involved.
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