[Magdalen] Houston

[Rick Mashburn]

I am Lynn but I did live in Houston for many years. The city center has no
zoning and very little in the way of restrictions on land use. The newer
areas of town do have restrictions but they are very developer - friendly.
As noted earlier, many of the master planned communities make extensive use
of water features which look good and provide recreational opportunities.
But, they are actually there for flood control.

There are two huge reservoirs in what was the far west side of town. Three
were designed as retention ponds in the late '40s to hold water and reduce
flooding in Buffalo Bayou - the largest bayou in the city.  It runs through
several tony neighborhoods and downtown before flowing into Galveston bay.
The problem was that growth enveloped what was the country and now both
reservoirs are surrounded by upscale neighborhoods.

I hope I got most of that right!

Peace, Rick

On Aug 30, 2017 4:01 PM, "Jay Weigel" <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Lynn, is it still true that Houston has no zoning? I know that used to be
> the case.
>
> On Wed, Aug 30, 2017 at 2:06 PM, Lynn Ronkainen <houstonklr at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > ...I call the "efforts" to accommodate too much concrete (new outer loops
> > and tollways, 100s of new subdivisions , to name a few) by the USArmy
> corps
> > of Engineers
> > : "TX mathmagic".
> > They forecast scenarios, calculate "additional run-off" added to the
> > existing "area" loosely defined, then come up with formulas for widening
> > already existing rivers, creeks and bayous (words often used
> > interchangeably), and/or digging huge sloped sided grass-planted basins,
> > also based on mathemagical calculations, that "confirm" safe retention of
> > water in case of flooding (??!!?) for new communities, which are then
> often
> > dug larger and deeper so they can become a "water feature" of the new
> > community, which still conforms to the formula because they've dug it
> > larger to accommodate the water they're adding for decorative purposes.
> >
> > No one knows or wants to say ENOUGH, NO MORE, so the city and the area E,
> > W, and N keep building and expanding.
> > When I moved in 1987 the middle class subdivisions in the unincorporated
> > areas 20+ miles from the city were very transient- corporate employers
> > transferring people in and out, sometimes in just a few years. People had
> > no sense of potential tragedy in the form of nature events if they didn't
> > actually experience them. The '90s saw more new residents who moved in
> for
> > long term OR like us, transferries laid off and unable to move without a
> > job at the other end in a new location.
> >
> > Such is life. I have been thinking for a while about moving away from TX
> > but it is complicated.
> >
> > Have confirmed Sunday tickets home (for now at least), have figured out
> > the rest of our itinerary- blessed to be seeing even more family and old
> > friends than our original scenario included. My house/condo is still
> dry. I
> > am blessed.
> > Lynn
> >
> >
> > On Aug 30, 2017, at 9:40 AM, ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > One of our local meteorologists (that is, he's a college instructor, not
> > someone on teevee) commented on the amount of Houston that's been paved
> > over because of rapid overdevelopment.
> > (Lynn's part of town has more undeveloped land than downtown.)
> >
> > He wrote:
> > Dump a glass of water on a granite counter.
> > Dump a glass of water on a sponge.
> > Note the difference.
> > -M
> >
> > On Wednesday, August 30, 2017, Roger Stokes <
> roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com
> > >
> > wrote:
> >
> > > The problem is the sheer volume of water that has to be dispersed. I
> read
> > > that there has been something like 6 cubic miles of water dumped on
> > Houston
> > >
> >
>