Examining Metro’s Impact on Midtown Houston

I am still curious as to how the Metro line will impact Midtown Houston. I believe the long term viability and impact will be significant, but to date it hasn’t spurred the volume of development that I would have expected. With Midtown linking two of the largest employment centers in Houston (Downtown/Medical Center), it would seem there would be a race to develop everything in its path to house this multitude of employees and commuters. Instead, while development is taking place a couple of blocks away, nothing seems to be happening immediately adjacent to the Metro Line. There is more vacant land and deserted buildings along the Metro in midtown Houston than any other portion of the Midtown area. Why is this?

• Unreasonable adjacent landowners?

• Even if you could commute from home to work, you still have to drive everywhere else in Houston. Could you fix this with share car program?

• Perhaps there isn’t a significant amount of housing in the area. Maybe what housing is there hasn’t been developed in reasonable proximity for people to try the Metro.

• I wonder how many of the people living at Post Midtown/Camden have actually ever used the Metro. Houston is such a car designed and dependent city; is it just going to take more time for people to get used to this type of travel?

• Is it just a timing thing with the economic woes of the country? Although, Texas seems to be escaping most of that for now.

When people finally start to realize the advantages of using the Metro to get around the city, the Midtown area will undoubtably reap the benefits. I just wish it was happening faster and am surprised we haven’t seen more!