Amazon's Unequivocal Rejection of Houston is a Wake Up Call!

AND NOT FOR THE REASON MOST ARE CITING...

Following Amazon’s omission of Houston from its announcement of its top 20 cities for location of its second headquarters (“HQ2”), Houston’s failure to make the top-tier has sent leaders in search of answers for what went wrong. A common reason being cited by the experts and business leaders is, a lack of innovation led to Houston’s exclusion from the top 20, and those folks are now raising the warning flag that we must invest in innovation.

Without having the benefit of soliciting feedback from Amazon’s leadership team, I’m going to postulate that a lack of innovation is not the reason Houston did not make the cut. The fact is Houston has been innovating for a long time, and over the last 10 years has been outpacing the nation in innovation in several ways. Two examples of this are horizontal drilling for oil and gas (“fracking”), and the Texas Medical Center Innovation Campus (TMCx), where the world’s top medical researchers are teaming up with healthcare and technology businesses and entrepreneurs. Not to mention the impact the Houston Technology Center and the presence of technology behemoths HP and BMC have had over the last decade, resulting in the technology sector driving a lot of diversification of the region’s economy. Furthermore, development of Generation Park, a booming craft brewery industry, and the Bayou Greenways 2020 project are other prime examples of a region pushing the boundaries of innovation in different sectors.

The missing component in this matrix of amazing things taking place in Houston can be boiled down to the acronym TIE--Transportation, Infrastructure and Education (“TIE”). Houston’s deficiency in these areas is glaring, and one could argue that these are the key factors that will catapult Houston into its rightful place as America’s leading city as we approach the midpoint of the 21^st century. We must begin by taking care of the foundational basics of what makes for great cities.

In Houston’s case, it begins with an improved public transportation system that connects our two international airports, Hobby and Intercontinental, to Downtown. We must also deal with our horizontal infrastructure by fixing our roads and drainage system, so that annual major rainstorm events do not flood so many of our neighbors out of their homes. We must further improve our vertical infrastructure by providing greater workforce housing opportunity, and in the process promote density and affordable housing development in all parts of the city, particularly those areas within proximity or easily accessible to major employment centers. Lastly, we have to make a renewed commitment to bringing about solutions to improve our education system in order to stem the tide of persistently failing schools. The creative workforce is not likely to be attracted to a city with few housing choices available in areas where their children can be zoned to good schools. The inextricable link between schools and housing choice renders significant limitations on the ability to provide housing in so many of Houston’s underdeveloped area, and the most significant way we can rapidly accelerate housing options within the city limits is to improve the quality of schools.

Laolu Davies-Yemitan is a real estate broker and developer who specializes in housing, multifamily development, and urban revitalization. He editorializes on issues related to affordable housing, real estate markets, and public policy. LaoluD.blogspot.com; Twitter: @laoludavies