Our Quality of Life
As green space is consumed by suburbs and the highways that feed them, as those highways grow more congested (no matter how many lanes are added), as Houston falls under more restrictions on cars, heavy machinery, and ship channel industries, many state governments, cities, suburbs, and small towns are talking about better ways to grow. Since 21st century "knowledge workers" can do their work and live anywhere--at least that's the conventional wisdom these days--quality of life becomes the most important factor in job decisions.
Quality of life is an elusive characteristic. It includes cultural amenities, weather, outdoor recreation opportunities, a dynamic and energetic population, educational opportunity. Often times those job decisions are based on perceptions and impressions rather than experience. How many times have you heard about the oil company transfer who came to Houston under duress and once here won't accept a transfer someplace else?
We know Houston is a good place to live and it will get better as we clean up our air and manage our traffic. But we still face challenges about managing our growth, making sure that the region develops in cooperative fashion.
"Metropolitan Perspectives: Smart Growth and Choices for Change" is an exhibition now on view at the National Building Museum in Washington. Its introduction, using a quote from Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley in the December 1999 Atlantic Monthly, sounds the challenge: "Suburbs are not the enemies of cities, and cities are not the enemies of suburbs. That is the first principle of metropolitanism. Cities and suburbs have a common enemy, namely, sprawl." AIA Houston hopes to bring the traveling version of that exhibition to Houston during this year. And we hope to do much more thinking about both the challenges and the promise of a healthy metropolitanism.
We aren't alone in this quest. The National Associationof Home Builders, the National Association of Realtors, and the National Endowment for the Arts underwrote the exhibition. The Urban Land Institute will support the traveling version. The Greater Houston Partnership, the Gulf Coast Institute, APA, ASLA and others are examining the problem. We plan to work with all these groups as we analyze the issues and attempt to discover solutions.
You can participate, too. Join the Urban Design Committee or call Ernesto Maldonado, past president and co-chair with James Vick of a task force on growth issues for Houston. Surf the web for a rich variety of studies. Look at www.nga.org for the National Governors Association material, at www.fanniemae.org for scenario planning and multiple definitions of "sprawl," at www.nbm.org for the text of all four parts of the Building Museum's exhibition. It's your city, your region, and your quality of life. Let's work together to fulfill the promise of Houston.
Martha Murphree, Hon AIA
