Bus Service between Houston and The Woodlands.

The Woodlands currently has a bus line through to Houston; however it only operates during rush hour and is therefore unreliable. The Woodlands should provide some sort of 12 hour bus service into Houston. The Woodlands now has nearly 100,000 residents and Houston has 2 million people in its city limits, the 4^th largest city in America. The drive from The Woodlands to the center of Houston is 30 miles, which is a stressful highway trip for residents to take. The metropolitan area would greatly benefit to have multiple public transportation options and bus service greatly improves those transportation options. It would greatly improve our pedestrian transit and make commuting through Houston much more comfortable. I hope more of The Woodlands residents start speaking out on the need for an efficient, 12 hour, bus service between Houston and The Woodlands.

Preserving The Woodlands Planning

The Woodlands area has been faced with the problem of rapid population growth. A master planned community, the construction of a new corporate campus for Exxon/Mobil will create a large population influx into the area. Here is my proposal for how we can deal with this population growth.

The Woodlands should study the possibility of building new villages and expanding westward.

When The Woodlands was first built, there was not much constructed within the South Montgomery County/North Harris County area. However, soon after The Woodlands was built, there was a large influx of economic development and now it is one of Houston’s largest edge cities. It seems like the entire reason for the population influx was The Woodlands good planning and livability. I think it is important, that as we grow, we keep that livability and good planning, as that is the reason we have grown in the first place. Right now, we are going through another boom, instigated by the construction of Exxon/Mobile’s new campus. I believe a good way to handle this, is to create another village for The Woodlands and build it west of The Woodlands. The Woodlands is a great city and a great part of the Houston Metropolitan Area. I hope and pray that we will keep The Woodlands good planning together and I think an antidote would be to expand The Woodlands and build new villages as we face this population growth.

Aesthetical Law in Houston

Cities are built upon their urban environment. However, cities are also built upon capitalism, progress and success. We must find the fine line between a need for an aesthetically pleasing community and a progressive, opportunistic place to create a way of life for yourself, your family and your friends, here in Houston. I have researched the various entities in Houston, of whom have taken upon the role of enforcing the aesthetic standards of our city. In this blog, I will make my case for the best way to enforce aesthetical law. However, in this same blog, I will also explain why the best solution can be found right here, in zoning-free Houston.

Aesthetical law must be enforced on our community; however, it should not be decided by sovereign entities but instead by the neighbors who live in the community. One of the first things one must understand when it comes to the enforcement of aesthetics upon a community; is that all locations have a different habitat to begin with. Therefore, each community uses a different platform and pattern to enforce aesthetical standards.

On the same token, I believe that everybody has different tastes, therefore, tastes cannot always be enforced by law, just as much as cities cannot determine the natural environment they are born within; they cannot let the decisions of how to preserve aesthetics be determined by an all-sovereign dictator on how to design the community.

I believe the people who live in and experience the neighborhood are the ones who determine the aesthetics of their area. I believe in localized government, therefore, I believe that the individuals, who get affected by the decisions the most, should be the ones making those decisions. So, believe it or not, that is the way it is done, right here in no-zoning law Houston. Houston is divided into “super neighborhoods” each district runs that neighborhood but it is not done by elected officials but rather, those who live there.  Regular meetings are held and decisions are made by those residents. After much research, preparing me for a blog on aesthetical law I have found that Houston is the city (that I know of) which handles this process the best and most closely to the conclusion I have come to. The people who live in the neighborhood are the ones who should decide the aesthetic standards of that community and that’s the way it should be done by every local government across the country.