Ty Jacobsen & Kirby Snideman
CDS Community Development Strategies

Google Earth has recently updated their aerial imagery, capturing the flooding that swamped Houston earlier this spring. The latest imagery is dated April 2016, which provides a stark contrast from imagery taken in previous months. 

Note: To access this imagery, you need to download Google Earth and utilize the historical imagery function. Click here for more information. 

The images below are side by side comparisons of various locations in Houston where the flooding was visually striking. In the first three images, the before pictures on the left were taken in March 2016. In the last image, the before picture was taken in November 2015. CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW TO ENLARGE.

Brazos near Thompsons
Below is Brazos River flooding near Sienna Plantation, Riverstone, and the town of Thompsons. You can see the difference between the levee protected neighborhoods north and east of the river vs. the rural land to the west and south around Thompsons. 

Every big city was once little. But why do so many small towns never really grow? Here are six common reasons why some small places stay that way. While most little towns cannot affect the first two, the last four might represent an opportunity for growth... if they can be corrected.

1) The times they are a changin’.
There are historical reasons cities are located where they are and sometimes the original location factors no longer exist or at least are not relevant.  When highways replaced railroads as the primary means of access some small cities became less of a destination and more of a self-contained community.  Typically, new highways intentionally bypass commercial areas to avoid stop lights and congestion.  Over time key industries/employers can dry up or even shut down and the demand for historically mainstay agricultural crops may diminish.  Replacing these employers or products can be slow if not impossible.  

The map below shows the largest race or ethnicity in each Census Block Group geography in the 8-county Houston region* in 2000 and in 2010.  Each of the four major race or ethnic groups in the Houston region are color-coded, and the shade of each color indicates the magnitude of the largest group in each geography.  The darker colors indicate Block Groups where greater than 80% of the population is part of the largest race or ethnicity.  The medium shades show where the largest group makes up between 50% and 80% of the population.  The lightest shade of each race or ethnic group’s color code indicates a geography where the largest ethnic group makes up less than 50% of the population.  It is these lightest shade Block Groups where race and ethnic diversity is highest.

J. Kirby Snideman, AICP
CDS Community Development Strategies

Multigenerational housing is making a comeback. After decades of decline, the number of Americans living in multigenerational households dropped to roughly 26 million in 1970. Since then it’s more than doubled; currently there are an estimated 60 million Americans (18%) living in a home with three or more generations. This article examines the reasons behind this trend and also provides a look at the new types of homes being built to accommodate multigenerational families. 

According to data from the American Community Survey (ACS), the number of Americans living in multigenerational households in 2012 was 57 million, or 18.1% of the total population. These 57 million Americans occupied 4.3 million homes. That accounted for 5.6% of all occupied homes in the United States. That’s up from 3.7% of occupied homes in 2000.
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Multigenerational households were more common at the beginning of the last century, but declined significantly following World War II. During this time the United States experienced a period of economic expansion which manifested itself in widespread suburban development and an increased supply of single family homes. With home ownership as national policy, mortgages became widely available. In addition, suburban growth and a ready supply of spec homes across the nation accommodated a highly mobile workforce, resulting in many families being spread across several states.