What people say they want

By David Crossley

A variety of recent surveys shows that people in America have strong opinions about their homes and communities, and about their desires. They are more concerned about traffic congestion than about crime (although it’s close). Huge numbers want walkable neighborhoods, more green space, more safety and peace, more transit choices, more of a sense of community, more of a sense of place. They want the resources for their daily needs much closer to home and work.

Among homebuyers, only 30 percent feel the single-use subdivision concept feels right to them. Eighty-five percent of Americans want growth management and much better inter-governmental cooperation.

Survey after survey delivers 70 and 80 percent support for concepts falling under the “Livable Communities”, “Smart Growth”, “New Urbanist” umbrella for neighborhood-focused planning.

Here is what the survey released recently by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Mortgage Bankers Association reveals:
  • Seventy-two percent say traffic around their homes has gotten worse in the last five years, and 41 percent say commute times have gotten worse.
  • Sixty-nine percent view a nearby abundance of shops and services as "extremely important". Sixty-seven percent say nearby parks and open space is important or extremely important.
  • In considering a move from suburb to city, only 20 percent say effective public transportation is not important in that consideration.

In the Smart Growth America survey, released in October, 2000, people had these views:

  • Eighty-three percent want to establish zones of green space, farming, and forests that would be off limits to development.
  • Seventy-seven percent want to use tax dollars to buy land for parks and open space and to protect wildlife
  • Sixty percent want state government to spend more on transit even if it means spending less for new highways.

In an American Lives survey released this summer, 48% of homebuyers want a town center with shops and places for people to meet and socialize, and. their top desires are for natural open space, walking and biking paths, and sidewalks.

These are very large shifts in public opinion. In much of the country, developers are racing to meet the market's demands, but there is almost no development in the Houston region that is sensitive the changes afoot, and what is being produced here is largely the work of developers from Atlanta and Dallas.

The Upper Kirby District, as a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ), has a spectacular opportunity to create models of the Main Street/New Urbanist concept of busy mixed-use town centers that fade away into quiet residential neighborhoods. Studies show that 100 percent of people who are able will walk five minutes to a store, park, or transit stop. More than five minutes, the number falls but 10 minutes away is very high as well.

The corner of Kirby and Alabama was a great opportunity to create such a walkable environment. That's history now, but the corridor along Kirby is ripe for walkability and the introduction of pedestrian safety devices at a few corners to tie the sides of the corridor together.

As it happens, this kind of community creation cuts down tremendously on car trips, most of which are just little errands, not work-home trips. This improves air quality. The City of Houston would like to claim a TIRZ or two in the new State Implementation Plan for clean air attainment, but first a TIRZ has to make a reasonable commitment to move in the direction of convenience and efficiency. Upper Kirby has a huge chance to be the first area in Houston to do what hundreds of small communities in cities and regions across the country are already doing: creating real neighborhoods.