Houston Strategies: Houston Strategies kickoff

Houston Strategies kickoff

This is my second attempt at a blog, after the launch of The Social Systems Architect last year. Since it can handle attachments and extra-long posts very well, I will still post "heavy" content there and put a link here. It's also the place to go to browse some of my previous Houston-related writings, including a Next American City magazine article and several published Houston Chronicle editorials (which, for some strange reason, are not kept in their online archives). If you don't have the time - no worries - I'm sure most of that content will trickle through here over the coming months.

This blog was inspired by the highly-encouraging feedback I've gotten on several "broadcast" emails (you know who you are... thanks). I decided it's time to join the 21st century and do a high-frequency blog while cutting down on the clutter I add to peoples' inboxes. This blog will be regularly updated with short, crisp postings that (hopefully) will spark some interesting dialogue and debate in the comments. If you care about the future of Houston and can't find something interesting here at least once a week, then I'm not doing my job - and I'd much rather you let me know that than just taking me out of your daily/weekly/monthly site-review rotation.

To throw in a little teaser marketing, in the months ahead we'll explore topics such as

• Applying Jim Collins' best-selling "Good to Great" model to Houston
• A more authentic identity for Houston than "Space City"
• A new urban economic benchmark
• Updating Jane Jacobs for the car-based city
• Realistically repurposing the Astrodome
• A practical, affordable, and rapid solution to our traffic congestion woes (probably not what you're thinking)

Stay tuned.