goin back to houston tm

The trademarked city, can the promise of the future be any better than this?  These following excerpts are from an old, and interesting article about Houston and a number of other American cities by Quinter and Fabricius in the book Mutations.

Here are some excerpts from a hard hitting critique of the capital of laizzez-faire:

“Houston’s famously ruthless ‘progrowth’ policies with zero local and state taxation in exchange for low civic services have resulted in Houston having less per capita parkland and poorer quality water, sewers, streets, and air than any other city in America.”

And don’t forget that’s America, where there aren’t too many really good downtowns to begin with.

“Despite its parochialism and idiosyncrasies, Houston may well be the ‘globalized’ city par excellence:  rigorous and pure in its shapelessness, cruel, unforgiving, and utterly delirious in its conviction that cities need be no more than mega-machines for doing ‘bid-ness’ at ever-expanding scales.  It also presents a clear omen and model for all other cities everywhere in the world of what the true destiny and impact of economic globalization could be for human societies.”

from the article Houston TM in Mutations, Actar press by Sanford Quinter and Daniela Fabricius