Houston Area Liberty Campaign

In addition to the Empower Texans’ recommendations of the Texas State Constitutional Amendments, here is another analysis by The House Research Organization, a non-partisan source of impartial information on legislation and issues considered by the Texas Legislature. The HRO is an independent administrative department of the Texas House of Representatives. It is governed by a broadly representative steering committee of 15 House members elected by the House membership to set policy for the organization, approve its budget, and ensure that its reports are objective.

The HRO’s analysis has a bit more background and gives pros and cons of each amendment as well as actual text of the amendments, so that you may make informed decisions when you vote.

You can early vote between Monday, October 19th and Friday, October 30th.  Early voting will be held:

(Mon) October 19 – (Fri) October 23      8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
(Sat) October 24                                  7:00 AM – 7:00 PM
(Sun) October 25                                 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM
(Mon) October 26 – (Fri) October 30     7:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Locate your early voting location here.  However, please note that on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2009, you may only vote at your specific precinct location, (Harris County resident only on immediately preceding link).

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Nationally recognized urban economist Randal O’Toole will be the lunch speaker for Houston Property Rights Association (HPRA) on
Friday, October 23. Mark your calendars.

The event will be in the ballroom of the Courtyard Restaurant, noon to 2 PM
1885 St. James Place, October 23, 2009.
We will charge $20 for this event, more than our usual $16.

Mr. O’Toole is an Oregon resident and a Senior Fellow with the Cato Institute best known for his criticisms of light rail and urban planning,
most notably the Smart Growth theory of planning, and his defense of automobile use. Lately he has been pointing out the foolishness of high speed rail.

[Some background on our speaker: Mr. O'Toole began his economics career as a conventional environmentalist but his work led him to re-examine his assumptions. Though he moved into the free market camp he has not lost his preference to use bicycles and mass transit rather than autos. He is also a rail fan who enjoys searching out and photographing trains and who helped restore one of the largest locomotives made in the US, the "City of Portland."]

http://www.cato.org/people/otoole.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randal_O’Toole
His blog: http://ti.org/antiplanner/

by Randal O’Toole

This article appeared in the Houston Chronicle on January 19, 2008.

Houston is the freest major city in America, with no zoning and only moderate government intrusions into how property owners use their land. This freedom has made Houston the most affordable major city in America, with housing costs that are less than half of most other major urban areas. This freedom has also created an innovative and growth-friendly environment that is creating tens of thousands of new jobs each year.

Despite these benefits, the recent controversy over the Bissonnet/Ashby high rise has inspired local planning advocates to call for an increased amount of government planning of land in Houston.

Proposals have ranged from a “general plan” for the entire city “based on citizen vision, values and goals” to a variety of ordinances that appear to be aimed at limiting dense developments.

Though planners may have the best of intentions, such planning is likely to lead to higher living costs, more traffic congestion and dramatically reduced job growth.

We can see this by looking at other cities with zoning and planning.

In a sense, American cities have engaged in a controlled experiment with planning, with Houston and a few other cities doing very little, many other cities doing some planning and some cities doing highly restrictive planning.

Advocates of planning say that it will make cities more livable, but the results of many experiments across the country show just the opposite.

Cities with strong planning authority, such as Portland, Ore., and San Jose, Calif., almost invariably have the least affordable housing, the fastest growing traffic congestion and growing taxes and/or declining urban services. In the long run, these problems tend to suppress urban growth and job creation.

The national real estate firm Coldwell Banker reports that, in 2007, a Houston family could buy a four-bedroom, two-and-one-half bath, 2,200-square foot home for $170,000. The same house would cost more than twice that much in Portland and more than eight times as much in San Jose. Read the rest of this entry »