As an expat New Orleanian still grieving the cultural and human losses of Katrina, I have only sympathy for all of Harvey’s victims.
Yet I have nothing but contempt for the city planners, officials, real estate developers and their lobbyists who have prevented Houston from adopting local zoning laws like those which have averted catastrophe nationwide for nearly a century.
Even as it expanded to become the country’s fourth-largest city, Houston greedily sacrificed the health, lives and humble property of its residents on the altar of its twin idols, growth and profit.
These craven priorities allowed 25 percent of Houston’s remaining absorbent wetlands and tall grass prairie to be paved over in just the last 15 years, despite the warnings of geoscientists and climatologists that more frequent, deadly and devastating floods would result.
