It’s a little simple (and surely he could have found a better example than Houston), but still he makes a very valid point.
12 comments
Stossel is usually right and is truer to what our founders envisioned (as little fed as possible). I don’t like the lack of zoning in Houston, so don’t live there.
@ 1:02 pm on March 20, 2010
I’m not so sure Stossel makes “a very valid point,” Wick.
Houston is indeed a terrible example for him to tout as a successful approach to urban planning and management.
Beyond that, Stossel’s little essay is filled with dishonest reporting. For example, in his litany of reasons why Cleveland is a horrible city, he writes this:
“Cleveland prefers state capitalism. It owns and operates a big grocery store, the West Side Market. Typical of government, it’s open only four days a week, and two of those days it closes at 4 p.m.”
Guess what? Further reading reveals that it isn’t a “grocery store” in any conventional sense. It’s an indoor farmer’s market-type facility, and — as in Dallas — the city is the landlord, leasing the building to dozens of tenants who sell their own produce, etc. It also turns out Cleveland was gifted the land for the specific purpose of having a farmer’s market on the site.
Stossel’s characterization of the West Side Market fits his rant, but it’s just not true.
Another example: In arguing against publicly-funded stadiums, he notes that there are only 41 home basketball games a year and then asks, “How does that sustain a neighborhood economy?” His clear implication is that the home of LeBron James is somehow dark for 324 days a year. That doesn’t even pass the smell test. Like the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland is a year-round facility, hosting everything from rock concerts to “Stars On Ice.”
If Stossel’s case is so strong, why are some of his chosen examples so full of holes?
@ 2:17 pm on March 20, 2010
You could have said how sports stadiums hurt cities. Arlington seems to have specialized in it.
@ 2:26 pm on March 20, 2010
Another disingenuous point Stossel makes: “Half of Cleveland’s population has left since 1950.”
The post-World War migration from the dying and decaying industrial belt to the sun belt involved many factors, not the least of which were a desire for a job and the creation of the interstate highway system under Eisenhower.
I don’t think that historic exodus should be casually tossed into the thesis that Stossel posits. (Sorry for that tongue twister of a sentence!)
@ 3:08 pm on March 20, 2010
I personally love the convenience offered to me by Houston’s zoning laws, I can leave the Galleria and hit any number of strip clubs within minutes. Here, you have to fight the traffic on 635, making it virtually impossible for a lap dance and Nordstroms trip in under an hour.
@ 5:40 pm on March 20, 2010
Agree with Jackson. Don’t know if Stossel has a point in this specific story — he very well may — but in general Stossel is a joke of a reporter. He searches for facts that fit his ideology (less government is always good, climate change isn’t real), and when he doesn’t find those, he makes things up. Pretty easy to find the examples on the web. Also be sure to find the interview he does with Media Matters when the editor there asks him for specific ways in which the media watchdog has gotten its reports on Stossel wrong, and he comes up blank. Also, this article is old but relevant: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1133
@ 7:27 pm on March 20, 2010
Love me some John Stossel. I subscribed to Fox Business just to see his show. I always wonder if articles like this are linked to just so people can poo poo all over it.
@ 9:46 pm on March 20, 2010
Yes Melisssa, and so they can bring up media matters…that is some reference.
@ 2:06 pm on March 21, 2010
I will am waiting to see when wealthy cities such as Highland Park and Southlake rescind all land use zoning ordinances…then we will know that such restrictions are the problem and not the solution.
Too often the poor must live with the externalities (pollution, noice..) of private 3rd party economic behavior…but the elite still choose live in communities with the most restrictive regulation of land use and other private behavior.
@ 4:32 pm on March 21, 2010
Just read Joel Kotkin, he makes his case quite solidly. And I like John — worked with him years ago, he’s really a great guy.
@ 12:06 am on March 22, 2010
Houston policies work for Houston because Houston is not surrounded. So it can continue annexing land until they hit San Antonio or Louisiana. These same policies will not work for cities that cannot annex any more land.
@ 9:49 am on March 22, 2010
I always thought that as a general rule, any combination of “John Stossel” and “very valid point” didn’t belong in the same sentence without some sort of negation.
@ 9:50 am on March 22, 2010
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FrontBurner® launched in March 2003, the first blog in Dallas run by a media organization. This is where the editors of D Magazine come to waste a tremendous amount of time.
12 comments
Stossel is usually right and is truer to what our founders envisioned (as little fed as possible). I don’t like the lack of zoning in Houston, so don’t live there.
I’m not so sure Stossel makes “a very valid point,” Wick.
Houston is indeed a terrible example for him to tout as a successful approach to urban planning and management.
Beyond that, Stossel’s little essay is filled with dishonest reporting. For example, in his litany of reasons why Cleveland is a horrible city, he writes this:
“Cleveland prefers state capitalism. It owns and operates a big grocery store, the West Side Market. Typical of government, it’s open only four days a week, and two of those days it closes at 4 p.m.”
Guess what? Further reading reveals that it isn’t a “grocery store” in any conventional sense. It’s an indoor farmer’s market-type facility, and — as in Dallas — the city is the landlord, leasing the building to dozens of tenants who sell their own produce, etc. It also turns out Cleveland was gifted the land for the specific purpose of having a farmer’s market on the site.
Stossel’s characterization of the West Side Market fits his rant, but it’s just not true.
Another example: In arguing against publicly-funded stadiums, he notes that there are only 41 home basketball games a year and then asks, “How does that sustain a neighborhood economy?” His clear implication is that the home of LeBron James is somehow dark for 324 days a year. That doesn’t even pass the smell test. Like the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland is a year-round facility, hosting everything from rock concerts to “Stars On Ice.”
If Stossel’s case is so strong, why are some of his chosen examples so full of holes?
You could have said how sports stadiums hurt cities. Arlington seems to have specialized in it.
Another disingenuous point Stossel makes: “Half of Cleveland’s population has left since 1950.”
The post-World War migration from the dying and decaying industrial belt to the sun belt involved many factors, not the least of which were a desire for a job and the creation of the interstate highway system under Eisenhower.
I don’t think that historic exodus should be casually tossed into the thesis that Stossel posits. (Sorry for that tongue twister of a sentence!)
I personally love the convenience offered to me by Houston’s zoning laws, I can leave the Galleria and hit any number of strip clubs within minutes. Here, you have to fight the traffic on 635, making it virtually impossible for a lap dance and Nordstroms trip in under an hour.
Agree with Jackson. Don’t know if Stossel has a point in this specific story — he very well may — but in general Stossel is a joke of a reporter. He searches for facts that fit his ideology (less government is always good, climate change isn’t real), and when he doesn’t find those, he makes things up. Pretty easy to find the examples on the web. Also be sure to find the interview he does with Media Matters when the editor there asks him for specific ways in which the media watchdog has gotten its reports on Stossel wrong, and he comes up blank. Also, this article is old but relevant: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1133
Love me some John Stossel. I subscribed to Fox Business just to see his show. I always wonder if articles like this are linked to just so people can poo poo all over it.
Yes Melisssa, and so they can bring up media matters…that is some reference.
I will am waiting to see when wealthy cities such as Highland Park and Southlake rescind all land use zoning ordinances…then we will know that such restrictions are the problem and not the solution.
Too often the poor must live with the externalities (pollution, noice..) of private 3rd party economic behavior…but the elite still choose live in communities with the most restrictive regulation of land use and other private behavior.
Just read Joel Kotkin, he makes his case quite solidly. And I like John — worked with him years ago, he’s really a great guy.
Houston policies work for Houston because Houston is not surrounded. So it can continue annexing land until they hit San Antonio or Louisiana. These same policies will not work for cities that cannot annex any more land.
I always thought that as a general rule, any combination of “John Stossel” and “very valid point” didn’t belong in the same sentence without some sort of negation.