[quote=Dahon.Steve;7610173]This is what's happening in many places around the country.
You're seeing poor areas being "rezoned" for business and luxury condos and once that happens, property taxes go through the roof. The poor and middle class are squeezed out of the neighborhood and forced to live elsewhere.
This is a good thing?
Slowly but surely, more and more people are moving back to the cities. The next generation is not going to live in the burbs unless they inherit the properties from parents or relatives. The rising cost of the single family home and two cars is rapidly becoming unaffordable. In fact, home prices in the burbs often equals or exceeds the price of apartments in many cities. With loans becoming scarce and difficult to attain, few will be able to live like the way their parents did.
Yes, slooooooowly some people are moving back to cities. Its the newest thing for singles and couples to move back to the city. For many, its the latest fad. The next generation, except for the higher income, are not going to be able to afford the city. The cost of housing, rental and owner-occupied has sky rocketed, driving many out. The very diversity many moved to the inner city for is disappearing.
As for loans becoming more scarce and difficult to attain, in the short-term, because of the recent credit crisis, that may be true. But, the growth of the suburbs and home ownership for middle class America did not depend on sub-prime loans and predatory lending. That's a fairly recent phenomena. Availability of loans for home purchase will return to a normal level more like that of previous decades.
You may not like the fact that our generation will be the last to have motor transport. However, we will never again discover an inexpensive fuel source in such great abundance as oil. Houston was created in large part due to this incredible discovery and now we are going to regress back to a simpler day as we finish it off. Our current lifestyle was never sustainable and we will go kicking and screaming as we leave the 21st century without the motorcar.
Are you sure there will be no personal transport for future generations? That seems a bizarre prediction. Its one we've all heard before, but its far fetched to believe we are going to regress to simpler days. All signs point to our lives becoming more, not less complicated.
When you think about it, there was a time (about 100 year ago) when no one in Houston owned cars. It's true! Go to the library and ask for the local newspaper (in microfilm) dated around 1908. You will find that people got along just fine without cars. It wasn't impossible and we are headed in that direction again. In fact, you won't find a single person complaining that life 100 years ago was miserable without a combustion engine. Working, shopping, marrying and everything you're doing today will continue 150 years from now in Houston except without an automobile. That's due to the fact, our personal motorized transport system was only temporary until the oil ran out. But no one told you this.
Obviously, you've been reading old issues of Mother Earth News from the early 70's. Yes, over a century ago, there were few cars. As one who holds a degree in American history, I'm fully aware that once there were no cars in Houston. Houston then was a much smaller city, just as Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Phoenix, and even L.A. were smaller. Its very doubtful we are going to return to those places being small once again. Trends point to them continuing to grow and prosper. What will change is the use of personal transport, not its existence.
I sometimes wonder how great life is going to be in Houston in 2108. If it resembles the way life was like in 1908, we will most certainly miss out. Unfortunately, we were born 100 years too early and 100 years too late to enjoy Houston when it was and will be once again, car free.
Houston will have more people. There will be resolution of its transit problem. Suburbs will continue to be around and continue to house the greater majority of families.
Yours is an apocalyptic view of the future. A more enlightened person would see a mix of personal vehicles that use from various sources, good living in decentralized parts of the metropolis (suburbs) with job centers located nearby, well developed mass transit, a healthy center city, and a good mix of housing opportunity. Many may chose to live car free, most will move toward more of a car light lifestyle. And, the problems facing us in the near future in regard to the use of petroleum is not just a problem for Houston. Most cities that have continued to grow over the last 100 years face the same ones, some to a higher degree. Rather than centering on Houston, why not look around and see how the future impacts the whole country?