About the billion dollar federal recovery for Texas and lessons learned.

[Baitball Blogger]

I don't have any problem releasing relief money because fellow Americans need our help and I lean Democratically. That's just who we are and what we do. But we also believe in regulation. Because of the probability that climate change may be an issue and we may be facing more of these disasters in the future, shouldn't national level building regulations finally be imposed in these deregulated affected areas?

If we don't use intelligence in this matter, one day we might not have the money to take care of everybody in need.

[Not Ruth]

1. I also do not have problems releasing money

Which does not mean that I want to see the equivalent of lighting it on fire. I want to see it spent with an eye to what we all acknowledge is the reality of climate change.

[Igel]

2. Do you believe in regulation for the sake of regulating, or for a purpose?

Houston as regulations. Harris County has regulations.

They're not the same kind of regulations or implemented in the same way or the same extent as places like California or NYC, but they exist. We don't have *zoning* which is less about how to build and what you can build. And they're not nearly as rigorous and exacting as some would like them to be, but those regulations would be denounced by a clear majority of people pretty much anywhere in the US. Some people would say that SF's and NYC's regulations are a bit puny.

We hear about how horrible all the paving over is, and how Houston's increased the amount of impermeable surfaces. But Houston's mostly suburbs and has some green corridors in addition. Our impermeable surface area as a percentage of total area in Houston proper is less than NYC's or SFs or many other major cities. And they have zoning. That said, you dump 40" of rain in less than 4 days pretty much anywhere, you get flooding. The problem is that (a) Houston's fairly flat, (b) many drainage systems are old and can't accommodate later build-out of the territory, and (c) in the event of a lot of rain, the natural bayou/creek system floods. (We'll overlook things like soil type. If we use things that could be used to diaper babies with as analogies to soil, some of the US has Pampers, some has cloth, but we too often have aluminum foil.) Even in 1935 with all that nice open green space we had a flood that submerged much of downtown pretty convincingly. It happens. We go on. Consider Houston to have a pre-existing condition to be covered by health insurance.


https://www.publicworks.houstontx.gov/floodplain.html

https://edocs.publicworks.houstontx.gov/documents/divisions/planning/enforcement/residential_permitting_101.pdf