@luminitababoianu4334
Is there anything more drastic and "soviet level control" than the American HOA's rules?!! 😅😂😅
@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.
@meliana751
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.
@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.
@jennafoy4233
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!
@HF-tj8db
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 :))
@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!
@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...
@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.
@nbartlett6538
Also what gives these "bureaucrats" the right to do this is: they were elected by the people.
@daveansell1970
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.
@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.
@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.
@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)
@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.
@JennaGetsCreative
I genuinely don't understand why so many people on this side of the pond behave as if they're allergic to public transport. I grew up in the Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada, and I never bothered to take my road test and get a car because I could get anywhere I needed to go. In my early 20s I worked a 5 minute walk away from my house and there were buses stopping in front of work every 15 minutes that would quickly connect me to transport hubs in 2 different direction, into Langley city or into the heart of Surrey. From the hub in Surrey I could hop on the SkyTrain and be anywhere in the Vancouver area in under an hour, and from Langley I could catch a different bus system and get closer to the mountains. Then I moved to Newfoundland. Now I need a car.
@tradeprosper5002
Houston paid a huge price for not keeping developers from building in flood plains.
@RedCactus23
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.
@Andrew8468
I have no idea where Texas Monthly got their directions from Watford to Epsom but as a Canadian who has NEVER been to London, I am smart enough to use the TfL route planner. The most direct route I saw for a 10am-ish journey was 2 Southern trains and took 1:39.
@ConsciousAtoms