Why Houston’s Urban Planning is Better Than London’s

London can't compare to Houston! Freedom is at stake!

Thank you so much for watching! Hope you enjoyed it!

If you're new to my channel and videos, hi! I'm Evan Edinger, and I make weekly "comedy" videos every Sunday evening. As an American living in London I love noticing the funny differences between the cultures and one of my most popular video series is my British VS American one. I'm also known for making terrible puns so sorry in advance. Hope to see you around, and I'll see you next Sunday! :)

If you want to know HOW I make my videos including gear, lighting, all the tiddly bits that connect it all together, (with cheaper alternatives and kit I used to use), I've listed each item, what it's great at, and why I use it on the gear section of my website here:

Otherwise: here's a quick list of some of my kit without descriptions from the above link:

Camera: Sony A7siii

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Main Light: Aputure 120d mkii

Shotgun Microphone: Sennheiser MKH-416

Really useful SSD: SanDisk Extreme Portable 2TB

[luminitababoianu]

Is there anything more drastic and "soviet level control" than the American HOA's rules?!! 😅😂😅

[HF-tjdb]

That commenter spoke about bureaucracy… It is *illegal* in Houston to build European style housing. Those giant retail parks with a sea of parking aren’t like that because the market chose it- it’s illegal to do otherwise due to minimum parking requirements and a ban on mixed use zoning. Mid rises? Illegal. Flats over a corner shop? Illegal. If you’re that worried about the market not being able to do its own thing, you’re better off calling up Houston’s city planners rather than London I’m afraid :))

[ConsciousAtoms]

Here in The Netherlands they had the bright idea to delete the part of the building code that requires every apartment to have outside space such as a balcony. The argument was that market pressure would lead to a diversification of apartments, with cheaper ones having less outside space (or none), while more expensive ones would have balconies.

The result? There's a period of a few years that hardly any apartment buildings with balconies were built, as my country's chronic housing shortage meant that apartments were selling anyway, balcony or no balcony. The requirement to include outside space was inserted back into the building code just a couple of years later.

[MrGrahawk]

The reason the Council are demanding green roofs and underground parking is because the developers said that's what they would do. Of course they included something like a green roof so the planners will look favourably on the development. And then decided to ignore such things when they built the place. We have a planning system so developers can't stuff up everything. They can only stuff up the things the have permission for.

[CatholicSatan]

Yes... in the US _more space is devoted to parking than housing._ So nice to see acres of treeless featureless asphalt burning the atmosphere on hot days...

[Jamie_D]

The important part is they weren't being told how to do it, they were being told to do it how THEY SAID they would do it, thus adhering to their contract, either written or verbal.

[ThePwig]

I’m seventh generation Texan and native Houstonian. I’ve also traveled a lot, including Europe and of course, London. Houston is a hellhole compared to nearly everywhere I’ve visited in Europe. You don’t even need a car to get by day to day in most big cities over there. There is no comparison.

[localzuk]

The thing I'd say to those comparing the size of Houston to London is that they're missing a big point of the city planning. If you compare the Houston metro area and the London metro area, the population is half. 7m in Houston metro area, 14 million in London metro area. Yet, the Houston metro area is more than 10, 000 square miles to London's 3300 square miles. The better urban planning means people don't need to travel so far. They don't need to make awkward 2 hour journeys hopping from train to bus to underground etc... Because the planning has meant that things people need to get to are easy to get to and are nearby!

[meliana]

The air quality in London has really improved. I used to commute into London from rural Kent, (by train!) in the early 2000s, and everyday my nose would be filled with black stuff. It never happens when I visit London these days. Massive improvement.

[AlexTenThousand]

All of these "the market should regulate itself" people don't realise that "the market" would very gladly turn them into soylent green and sell them to the remaining humans if it meant making even the littlest of profits.

[tradeprosper]

Houston paid a huge price for not keeping developers from building in flood plains.

[jennafoy]

Evan, thank you so much for caring about the access needs of the disabled community!! I am a semi-ambulatory wheelchair user, and when I'm not using a wheelchair to get around, I use a walker. It's quite shocking how little some people care about those of us in the disabled community being able to get around and have access to any and all public spaces!

[beauthestdane]

Being someone who lives in the US, I absolutely agree with you that living somewhere where a car is not a necessity would be amazing. In fact, I plan on doing so in a few years. It's not in the US, because there are not many places here where that is possible. I also hate living in a big city personally.

[ornleifs]

About owning a car in London - a friend of mine lived there for many years and owned a car but it frequently happened that when he wanted to use the car, the battery had gone dead cause he used it so rarely and the main reason was that for most thing it was way quicker and more convenient to use the underground.

[PhilliesNostalgia]

I think why it felt so weird for that Houstonian, is that Houston essentially does not have any zoning, nothing. City Beautiful I think has a good video on Houston and it’s lack of zoning and weird planning rules

[RedCactus]

The thing about the journey between Epsom and Watford Junction isn't even true. You can get a train from Epsom to Clapham Junction (CLJ) on either Southern or Southwestern, and then a train from Clapham Junction to Waford Junction on Southern or the Overground (which would involve a transfer at Willesden Junction). That takes around an hour and half in total.

I realise that this is quite nitpicky, but if they want to criticise the transport in London, they should atleast do it correctly.

[thom-ko]

Surely the fellow from Houston who commented (i m assuming here) would agree that we should keep people to their word. The issue here is not that these buildings do not have a green roof or only provide above ground parking. The issue is the developers were granted huge exemptions to the planning rules (notably on the amount of floor area they were allowed to develop) based on a promise that they chose to make to give back that public space in some other way. Actually imho green roofs on highrise roofs are nonsense, it s just bullshit used to sell schemes to laymen. But the issue is the developers broke their word and their contract with the community. They should be made accountable because that s exactly why we elect a government: to protect us from conmen and liars. I'm sure when that person orders a delivery meal in a restaurant and pays for a burger with beef, cheese and lettuce, they wouldn t be happy to receive just bread and beef. Doesn t make them a soviet dictator

[daveansell]

I once went to a physics conference in Houston. The conference centre was about 1km from the hotel. The only people we saw walking to the hotel were road workers, policemen and European academics.

We asked how to walk to the restaurant district and no-one in the hotel knew how to do the 20min pleasant evening walk.

Walking about at midday in August was a bit hot though.

[PurpleNurpleSPN]

As a Londoner with a car - I can say my car sometimes sits in my underground car park for a month or more without me needing it. I used to rent cars until they got outrageously expensive! My insurance/MOT costs are cheaper than renting cars for the times I need my car now (my car was a bargain bought from a friend as well). It's definitely a luxury though, I don't NEED the car, but it's much easier for me when I visit family (my mum used to live in the countryside with no public transport so I needed a car to see her - or she'd have to pick me up at a train station miles away)

[harrysmith]

I think what people often miss when talking about car ownership in cities is that cars are inherently space-inefficient. When space is at a premium, like in cities, it's important to prioritise moving the most people while taking up the least amount of space. That's why cities like New York, Tokyo and London are able to have such a high population density, which in turn leads to a higher density of economic activity