Texas

Anthony Flint reports on the Buffalo Bayou restoration project in Houston, where a remarkably green sensibility has infused the capital of fossil fuels.

It's been over 12 years since Houston last planned for denser development patterns, but an updated code is on the way to lure an ever growing population away from the suburbs.

Highland Park, ZIP code 75205, represents the top of the 1% in Texas, and is the most enthusiastically Republican community in the country.

The recession is taking its toll on the nation's population growth rate. A lagging birth rate and a precipitous drop in immigration, particularly those entering the country illegally, resulted in a 0.7% growth rate. Immigration is at a 20-year low.

An LA based artist is about reopen a 100,000 square foot disused JC Penney as an arts complex in West Houston. The former West Oaks Mall anchor had been vacant for two years before becoming the focus of the new rehab concept.

Not only are more Californians leaving the state for greener pastures than those moving to it, but the birth rate is dropping as well according to a detailed new demographic report by county on 2010-2011 growth by the state Department of Finance.

What happened to the Trans-Texas Corridor, the 10-lane, privately-funded toll road/high-speed train/fiberoptic cable-laden highway to the 21st century promised by Rick Perry in 2002?

Houston's third outerbelt, the Grand Parkway, continues to move forward despite an outpouring of opposition, highlighting the special, institutionalized role real estate developers play in transportation decisions in Texas, writes Angie Schmitt.

"Redfields to Greenfields," a project currently being developed at Georgia Tech in partnership with City Parks Alliance advocacy group, would convert empty commercial sites into parks, writes Nate Berg for The Atlantic Cities.

VIA Metropolitan Transit Company met with the city council regarding future plans involving a new streetcar line. According to Vianna Davila, "VIA must drastically change its streetcar proposal if it wants the city to help pay for the project."

TransCanada is trying to use eminent domain to obtain easements from unwilling landowners for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

In an obviously difficult market for new housing, Cross Creek Ranch is standing out from the pack with a master-planned community that restores a degraded dirt parcel to a native landscape.

Since 2002, California has added 8.3% more drivers while reducing its gasoline consumption by 3.5%. And while taking the lead, they are not alone in this trend. Credit high fuel prices, economic stress and improved car technology for the reduction.

The city of Austin has released a new 197 page planning document to manage its population growth and inform planning decisions for the next three decades.

Texas is getting dryer and dryer--and the costs to implement water delivery projects only go up as localities and regions scramble to secure the bulk of the funds necessary to build them. Ramit Plushnick-Masti reports.

Montecillo, a 293-acre 'urban village', is the first development to take advantage of El Paso's new Smart Code. The project launched in May, and the developer is already preparing to get Phase 2 off the ground.

Austin, Texas is attempting to encourage electric vehicles in the city, but a startup electric cab company has run into trouble overcoming the hurdles of taxicab regulation.

El Paso is seen as one of the more successful mid-sized cities in the U.S. But as this op-ed from Domus explores, the fuel behind that success is the drug trafficking that has plagued Mexico and its border with the U.S.

Last week, the Federal Highway Administration awarded discretionary highway grants in what could be among the last expenditures before the Sept. 30 expiration of the gas tax. Included were $8m for Value Pricing Pilot Program projects in 5 states.

Now that Gov. Perry has declared his candidacy for President, the Houston Chronicle has begun a series of articles to spotlight how infrastructure has fared under the state's longest serving governor. Transportation is the focus of the first report.