- Trammell Crow To Start Building 40-Story Residential Tower Downtown Early Next Year [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Clear Lake City ZIP Code Named Among Top 20 in the U.S. with Highest Real Estate Returns by HomeUnion [Culturemap]
- Vacancy Rates Soar for Houston Office Space [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Parsley Photo Studio Selling Its Building at Yale and 15th After 75 Years in the Heights [The Leader]
- Making the Case for Downtown To Be Houston’s Innovation District [Houston Strategies]
- Houston Food Truck The Bird Stolen, Trashed, Set on Fire, and Recovered in Brays Bayou [Eater Houston]
- Sneak Peek at a 10,000-SF, 32-Foot-Tall Bounce House Coming to Houston in October [abc13]
- How Houston Can Improve Its Flood Rescue Abilities [Houston Public Media]
- Texas Transportation Commission Approves Removal of Toll Lanes on Cesar Chavez Border Highway [El Paso Times]
- GreenSpace Holdings Using Used Shipping Containers in Construction of Pearland Self-Storage Facility [HBJ]
Photo of Lake Livingston: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
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I wonder if innovators would accede to being shepherded (or penned) into districts specially created for them by their elders. Depends on the incentives maybe, but details are sparse. I think innovators would prefer to find a district on their own and let it develop organically. But that sort of thing is anathema to central planners.
I would make the case that if you want Houston to be more like San Francisco then you should just move to San Francisco.
Someone should mention to this guy that Houston already has two of the largest innovation hubs in the entire US.
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They’re called the Medical Center & the Energy Corridor.
I am not sure whether downtown Houston will ever be an innovation hub, but it is worth it to do some forward thinking about what Houston will look like in a world that may rely less and less on fossil fuels in the future. Pittsburgh was very proactive at pursuing tech, medicine and banking when it became clear that the days of big steel were numbered. Detroit sat on its hands as the Big 3 automakers fell apart and sent jobs around the world. Investments in the Houston Med Center paid off in a big way for Houston that helped us weather the most recent oil bust far better than the busts of the 80s and 90s. And even if the energy industry keeps on rolling, the big oil companies are all moving towards suburban corporate campuses and are leaving lots of sq ft in downtown. Maybe it is time to reinvent downtown to attract non-energy sector employers.