Houston: Time to Reconsider What Truly Counts as Pro-Business
Realty News Report Editor Ralph Bivins is the 2018 Winner of the National Association of Real Estate Editors’ Gold Award for Best Column.
HOUSTON – (Commentary by Ralph Bivins of Realty News Report) – Last year, more than 10 million visitors came to the Vieux Carré, the historic district founded in 1718. Fewer than 4,000 people live there, yet travelers from around the globe arrive to enjoy its cuisine, sip Hurricanes, and admire the stucco and brick buildings with grand balconies and intricate ironwork.
The City of New Orleans protects the Vieux Carré, commonly known as the “French Quarter” or simply “The Quarter.” Since the 1920s, demolishing buildings within the French Quarter has been prohibited. Local regulations limit and scrutinize renovation plans submitted by property owners.
If those old buildings had been demolished instead of preserved, the French Quarter would be little more than a footnote in history. Its surviving architecture is the reason the neighborhood remains a living, vibrant destination.
Without the French Quarter, New Orleans would lack much of its tourism revenue, many of its iconic hotels, and a large part of its convention business. If the Quarter’s buildings were 20 years old rather than 200, they wouldn’t draw the same interest or admiration.
Historic structures play the same role in Rome, Paris, and virtually every great city: they form the cultural backdrop that attracts visitors, supports local economies, and gives each place a unique identity.
By contrast, Houston has often been careless with its own historic assets.
“Preservation has not been a high priority for Houston,” says architect John Cryer III, immediate past president of Preservation Houston.
Too many valuable buildings have been torn down. Those losses are regrettable, and Houston should acknowledge the harm done.
Still, Cryer believes Houstonians are becoming more aware of the benefits of saving the buildings that make the city more interesting and beautiful.
It’s not only commercial landmarks that matter. Look at The Heights, a popular neighborhood known for its historic homes and prized bungalows. That area would not be nearly as desirable if its houses were generic starter homes from the 1970s.
Somewhere along the way, Houston’s free‑market, laissez‑faire approach to development led city leaders to assume it was wise to allow developers to demolish old buildings. They treated wrecking balls as a shortcut to economic progress and new construction.
That approach is short‑sighted and poor policy.
Houston needs to rethink how it treats historic properties and take steps to protect the buildings that give the city character, support tourism, and enhance quality of life.
