RPA wrap-up
The Regional Plan Association, which created America 2050, provided a nice wrap-up of the conference on its website:
Houston, with its long refusal to adopt zoning, is the city most planners love to hate. Yet underneath this apparent disdain for big government, the city has a complexity and receptivity to new ideas and people that make it especially appealing to visiting New Yorkers, even visiting planners.
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The challenge is to integrate this energizing urban core into what is being called the Texas Triangle Megaregion. … The Texas Triangle is one of the fastest growing of the nation’s emerging megaregions. In addition to Houston, it encompasses Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio. Together these places encompass nearly 80% of Texas’ population and an even larger share of its economy and population growth. Until recently the cities of the Texas Triangle shared little more than football rivalries. But as a result of research by America 2050 and partners at Houston Tomorrow, the University of Texas at Austin, and Texas A&M University, there is a growing awareness that all of these cities share economic clusters, infrastructure systems, aquifers, and other natural resources.