"Dagnabbit! We need more government! Revrun!"
Living in Houston, this article is DEAD-ON...if people weren’t told there was no zoning, they’d never guess it. The city is as well organized as any other city, with businesses on main drags and residences on side streets.
The “no-zoning caused it” chorus is simply the Left here desperately salivating at the thought of having dictatorial powers over landowners.
Sorry....can’t buy that argument. Building in low-elevation flood plains near oceans is a real bad idea. Those areas need to be kept in their natural environmental state to protect inland areas where more responsible construction can occur.
Some perspective for those that understand snow more than rain. 52 inches of rain = 62 FEET of snow.
Has Houston flooded in lesser rain events?
Does Houston have a flood control element in its General Plan?
Are developers required to pay the cost of extending and expanding the flood control channels which their development will surcharge with water?
Does Houston’s system of flood control channels connect directly to the Gulf of Mexico?
More cover for the Democrat Mayor.
He’s a Harvard lawyer.
The left’s insatiable appetite for power marches on ...
Houston’s problem is that it is a nice place to live.
This draws lots of Democrats.
This puts lots of Democrats in a place where all the water drains to.
It puts a lot of Democrats in a place where hurricanes regularly come ashore.
This causes large numbers of people who want government to run their lives to live in a place that has weather problems.
What could go wrong?
it’s a function of too much gov’t subsidies for sprawl
sprawl is massively subsidized
The blatant ‘regulatory failure’ is that areas which have flooded 3 or more times in the last 20 years are not in 100-year flood zones.
That’s the Fed’s fault, though local governments lobby for a small zone.
Texas needs it’s flood area maps redrawn.
If Irma hits the coasts of S.C. and N.C. the same may happen if huge amounts of rain deluge the area. The coastal land for at least forty to sixty miles from the shore are no more than five to ten feet above sea level and fairly flat similar to Houston, Galveston, and San Antonio.
When I was looking for a home near Lumberton NC, I asked about basement and was told that the water table there was measured at about 5 feet down.
50 inches of rain is over FOUR FEET of rain.
ANYWHERE would flood with that kind of rainfall.
I have a friend who lives in the mountains.
Mountains have forest fires.
She paid to have someone come and cut down the trees close to her house.
She swept up all the pine needles.
This is called taking an active role in disaster preparation.
She didn’t go to the county commissioner meetings and talk about global warming.
She went to work.
She didn’t go to the state legislature and talk about immigration matters.
She went to work.
Life is all about opportunity costs.
If the mayor is spending his time on issues that we elect other people to work on, then that is time, effort and money not spent on issues that affect Houston.
The only purpose of zoning is so lawyers can get a generous cut of all development dollars, just like the legalized mobsters they are.
Require the houses flooded now be rebuilt on columns or “stilts”, no exceptions.