Houston Is Drowning - In Its Freedom From Regulations

[spanone]

We do value our freedom here in Texas. As I write from soggy Central Texas, the cable news is showing people floating down Buffalo Bayou on their principles, proud residents of the largest city in these United States that did not grow in accordance with zoning ordinances.

The feeling there was that persons who own real estate should be free to develop it as they wish. Houston, also known as the Bayou City, is a great location because of its access to international shipping in the Gulf of Mexico. It is not a great location for building, though, because of all its impervious cover. If water could easily sink into the ground, there would be less of it ripping down Houston’s rivers that just a week ago were overcrowded streets.

In less-free cities, the jackbooted thugs in the zoning department impose limits on the amount of impervious cover in a development. Some of the limits can be finessed by lining parking lots with bricks turned sideways, so grass can be planted in the holes.

If you meet the impervious cover standards, you still might get your entire plat chucked into the round file because some computer has determined that your business plan will attract automobile traffic in excess of the carrying capacity of nearby roads. Faceless bureaucracies have no respect for the inalienable right of every American to park his car on the public streets during rush hour.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/houston-drowning-freedom-regulations-193813435.html

[procon]

1. I heard that mentioned yesterday, how TPTB just paved over everything

to expedite builders. Looking at the flooding, it was another example of shortsighted profits winning over the long term safety needs of the people.

I live in the So Calif desert where the average yearly rainfall is only about 7", but my small town has an extensive drainage system because we still have major flash floods that come down from the surrounding hills. Even with our low rainfall, when it does rain it's often a sudden torrent and the ground doesn't have time to absorb it and the water can flood the streets.

Unlike Texas, we have regs on construction, so dummies can't pave over a streambed to build a stripmall. Public safety is foremost. All the major streets in town have gutters, drains and street grates that pour into a labyrinth of huge underground pipes. The runoff water funnels water into catch basins and a natural stream bed that was enlarged and fenced to carry water into a large reservoir.

Our flood control system was expensive, but it is well maintained, and expanded as our population grows and the land use changes.