Power Moves

Transportation, Politics, and Development in Houston

AvKyle Shelton

Inbunden, Engelska, 2017

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Beskrivning

Since World War II, Houston has become a burgeoning, internationally connected metropolis-and a sprawling, car-dependent city. In 1950, it possessed only one highway, the Gulf Freeway, which ran between Houston and Galveston. Today, Houston and Harris County have more than 1,200 miles of highways, and a third major loop is under construction nearly thirty miles out from the historic core. Highways have driven every aspect of Houston’s postwar development, from the physical layout of the city to the political process that has transformed both the transportation network and the balance of power between governing elites and ordinary citizens.Power Moves examines debates around the planning, construction, and use of highway and public transportation systems in Houston. Kyle Shelton shows how Houstonians helped shape the city’s growth by attending city council meetings, writing letters to the highway commission, and protesting the destruction of homes to make way for freeways, which happened in both affluent and low-income neighborhoods. He demonstrates that these assertions of what he terms “infrastructural citizenship” opened up the transportation decision-making process to meaningful input from the public and gave many previously marginalized citizens a more powerful voice in civic affairs. Power Moves also reveals the long-lasting results of choosing highway and auto-based infrastructure over other transit options and the resulting challenges that Houstonians currently face as they grapple with how best to move forward from the consequences and opportunities created by past choices.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2017-12-15
Mått:152 x 229 x 25 mm
Vikt:454 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:312
Förlag:University of Texas Press
ISBN:9781477314296

Utforska kategorier

Kulturvetenskap inom Samhälle och politik
Socialhistoria och kulturhistoria inom Historia och arkeologi
Arkitektur inom Kultur

Mer om författaren

Kyle Shelton is the director of strategic partnerships and a fellow at Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research. His writing on transportation and urban development has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Journal of Urban History, Nature, and CityLab.

Recensioner i media

As our nation struggles to find the will to repair and develop our failing infrastructure, Shelton's detailed and nuanced account is timely indeed. This is a book worth pondering, written about a city that continues to stumble towards sustainability, justice, and accessibility. (Southwestern Historical Quarterly) This book will be of value to regional policy-makers and activists, urban historians and planners, Houston history buffs, and historians of transportation, technology, and the environment. It was a pleasure to read Shelton's work. (Environmental History) A detailed look at how Houston's transportation infrastructure has shaped the planning and building of the city…While Houston appears to be a typical sun belt metropolis, dominated by automobiles and riven by class and race boundaries, Power Moves sheds light on how the city came to be and what unique Houston characteristics the nation is finally noticing. (Journal of American History) An important addition to the historiography of Houston…Power Moves is essential reading for students and scholars of Houston history and urban history. (Pacific Historical Review) [An] important book...impressively researched, the arguments being well-evidenced...It is difficult not to be discouraged about the prospects of infrastructure democracy because of very different conceptions of the public good (and because of climate change, a result in great part of our transportation choices). But Power Moves shows that democratically achieved positive outcomes, given the right conditions, can sometimes be the result. (Journal of Transport History) Shelton lays out this history of transportation politics in a factual and linear fashion...The book is well researched and outlines some specific outrages, but it is, at its heart, a history. (Texas Architect) [Power Moves] is an ambitious amalgamation of urban studies literature with strong roots in history, and offers important lessons for scholars, practitioners, and students...Shelton's emphasis on citizen participation to steer highway and transit debates sets Power Moves apart from most other texts on highway development and urban renewal...Power Moves makes a significant and timely contribution to the history of transportation infrastructure in modern American cities. The concept the book introduces around infrastructural citizenship provides a useful methodological tool for understanding how development decisions of the past continue to impact the present and future. (Planning Perspectives)

Innehållsförteckning

Introduction1. Building a Highway Metropolis: The Origins and Advent of Houston's Postwar Growth2. Whose Highways? Planning, Politics, and Consequences3. "Only You Can Prevent Another Freeway": The Harrisburg Freeway and the Struggle to Shape a Neighborhood4. Infrastructural Elections: Transit Referenda in the 1970s5. By Road or by Rail? The 1983 Transit Debate6. The Legacies and Limits of Infrastructural CitizenshipConclusionAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex