Houston Strategies Google Group

[Houston Strategies] An agenda for Mayor Parker

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:39:45 UT

Congratulations to Annise Parker on her win last night, becoming, as
she pointed out, the first Rice alum to become mayor of Houston ;-).
Between her and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, the Rice mafia now
controls this town. Nerds rule, literally in this case. I'm hoping for
my appointment call any day now... (hint, hint)

[Houston Strategies] World's smartest cities, HOT lanes, Rice-BCM, iPhone app...

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:37:27 UT

I've been cleaning out the email inbox of old newsletters, which
yielded a lot of new small items to pass along:

- A great quote I came across: "Those who argue that it doesn't pay to
build a road because it just fills up again should test that argument
on libraries, schools, and hospitals." Alan Pisarski, author of

[Houston Strategies] Comparing Texas' Big 4 Metro Economies

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:08:45 UT

David recently sent me this economic brief on Texas from Comerica Bank,
choc full of interesting statistics comparing the big 4 metros of Texas:

- "Four of those top 40 MSAs are in Texas: Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth
(DFW), San Antonio and Austin. Respectively, the current dollar value
of their GDPs ranked 4th, 6th, 36th and 37th in 2008. Together, they

[Houston Strategies] Houston vs. Chicago, Seattle, Portland - plus stagnant s...

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:05:10 UT

Some smaller items for your weekend reading pleasure:

- The Wall Street Journal recently had an op-ed titled "What Oprah's
Departure Means for the Windy City," which serves as a warning to
Houston and other cities:"Chicago is a city of magnificent parks and
world-class cultural institutions and universities. But it is also a

[Houston Strategies] Houston one of five cities that will rise in the new eco...

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:29:17 UT

The Christian Science Monitor recently named Houston one of five cities
that will rise in the new economy, along with Boston, Seattle,
Huntsville-AL, and Fort Collins-CO. Not bad company. In fact, they open
the main article with us:
In Houston, the Texas Medical Center is expanding so quickly that it

[Houston Strategies] Houston a green capital? plus top rankings, reducing cri...

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:16:54 UT

Some smaller items for your reading pleasure when escaping the
relatives or shopping of Thanksgiving break (or work, if you're stuck
there this afternoon or Friday).

- IAH is the nation's best big airport, according to the Daily Beast
blog:"The Daily Beast set out to definitively sort the best and the

[Houston Strategies] Five steps to save the Obama presidency

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:47:14 UT

I usually try to avoid politics on this blog, but this Forbes op-ed
from Joel Kotkin on saving the Obama presidency not only resonated with
me, but also touches on some of the subjects I cover
here. Describing the administration as "Moveon.org run by the Chicago
machine" is painfully to the point. He notes:

[Houston Strategies] Houston=Brooklyn? plus rankings, not-so-smart growth, an...

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:44:16 UT

Clearing out some smaller items:

- In case you missed it, Randal O'Toole had a must-read Sunday
Chronicle op-ed on how smart growth would not save Houston from future
Ashby high-rises, and in fact would create more.
- New Geography: Smart Growth loses Houston mayor's race. Hat tip to
Josh.
- Has anybody seen a chart similar this one for Texas or other states?

[Houston Strategies] The essence and future of TX vs. CA

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:09:12 UT

I know there have been a lot of articles and references to Texas vs.
California recently in this blog, but, well, there's a new one with
some genuinely new contributions to the argument ("America's Future:
California vs. Texas", Trends magazine, hat tip to Jeff). And it says
some nice things about Houston too, so how can I pass on it? The

[Houston Strategies] Planes vs. high-speed vs. 'higher-speed' rail in Texas

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:09:15 UT

This story on the Eurostar London-Paris high-speed rail caught my eye
yesterday in the Chronicle Travel section. I have ridden it before, and
it is a wonderful service. The speed is deceptively quiet until a train
going the other direction passes by in the blink of an eye at a 300mph
net speed difference. And London and Paris have great local transit

[Houston Strategies] Texas schools are better than you think (but still have ...

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:33:22 UT

For a while I've been wanting to do a post on this McKinsey report
titled "The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's
Schools" (main report, supporting charts).
First, the (very) bad news:
This report examines the dimensions of four distinct gaps in education:
(1) between the United States and other nations, (2) between black and

[Houston Strategies] Voting, Houston's greatness, top ranking, and more

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:03:08 UT

Continuing from last week: originally, my plan was to break up the
smaller misc items into two posts of five items each, but then three
new items came up over the weekend, so you get eight in this one. The
first three are the new ones:
- Wondering who to vote for Tuesday? The Chronicle does a pretty good

[Houston Strategies] Toll plans, TMC problems, empty nesters, Ashby regs

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:14:52 UT

Yet again I've let the backlog of smaller items get too large, so I'm
going to have to break them up into a couple of posts.
- If you missed it, here's my reaction over at my Chronicle Opportunity
Urbanism blog to the front page story on the survey desiring more
land-use regulation, mainly based on the stream of Ashby high-rise

[Houston Strategies] Rice's chairman on Houston and its challenges

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:56:20 UT

Jim Crownover, former McKinsey director and current chairman of the
board at Rice University, spoke at event last week and made some
interesting comments on Houston. He discussed some of the incredible
growth Rice has seen in recent years, and expressed hope for the Baylor
merger. The benefits to Houston of the Jones Business School at Rice

[Houston Strategies] Report from the HRG Smart Growth Conference

tgat...@gmail.com (Tory Gattis) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:51:58 UT

It went quite well. Thanks to those of you who plowed through the rain
to attend. If you're interested in some of what was said, the Land Use
Prof Blog has a report. I'm also hoping to link to some of the charts
and video when it's up. But in the meantime, here are a few of my
observations and a portion of my intro speech: