Province
As a Houstonian, I was amazed and angered at Randal O’Toole’s report for the Fraser Institute that promotes the insane idea Vancouver should model itself after Houston, Texas.
I grew up, live and commute in Houston and I can tell you that none of my co-workers enjoy their commute.
We have large, wide slabs of concrete freeway that cut up the city and it is still not getting us anywhere. Several friends take three freeways to get home and they still take two hours.
Toll roads won’t solve the problem. I pay almost $250 each month in tolls so I can avoid the other congested arteries and it still can take me 11/2 hours to get home. So what great city is O’Toole talking about?
Houston is most definitely unplanned. That’s how you can have oil refineries within a few miles of residences.
Houston residents are constantly fighting the “free market,” which believes adult video stores or bars should be literally next to homes, churches or schools.
The pollution and lack of planning have driven Houstonians to flee the city into distant suburbs. Gas is cheaper but if you’re driving farther, it comes out the same price.
This destroyed the tax base for Houston itself and prevented it from creating the kind of infrastructure a city needs to thrive.
Further, the distant suburban living prevented a cultural identity from forming for the city. Houston isn’t a city, it is a name attached to a collection of suburban centres which needed a central node to pass through or a name to apply to a sports team.
It has only been in the past four years after Houston finally started planning its community, including a new rail system, that we have begun to turn all that around.
We’re finally seeing people move back into the city. We’re seeing civic pride return, parks restored, and a tax base stable enough to actually fund its city.
Do people really want Vancouver to go the way of Houston, when Houston is trying to go the way of Vancouver?
Desh Sriva, Katy, Texas
© The Vancouver Province 2007
