Photos taken by me.
Improving Houston As A City
After looking at Houston and looking at Tokyo in VR, there is a lot in Houston that can definitely be improved. I spent hours looking at Tokyo’s colossal systems and infrastructures; I feel like I could help Houston by learning what I’ve looked at and researched. However, alone I don’t feel I can do anything, nor am I the right person to put myself out there and make public speeches to talk to officials. My behavior seems to subconsciously programmed to avoid conflict or embarrassment to which I continue to work on today. Making public speeches seems to be by far my most ongoing and most difficult challenge for me. Without the proper conditions/ conditioning, I don’t think I’m the best person for this task. Nevertheless, diving into Houston’s infrastructure I feel there is too many people with no real skills, decent amount of training, or an ability to create value from nothing. I strongly believe we need to find ways to teach everyone skills, training to improve themselves and their skills in their desired trade. We are going to need the help from people from all walks of life; especially those who deem are most useless. We need to give them skills and get them to build value for themselves and their environment. Reverting back to Tokyo, Houston can learn a lot from Tokyo. Tokyo can be a great example of change in how Houston makes decisions and develops. There is so much Houston can learn from Tokyo’s infrastructure. I would like to say, Tokyo can be a shining example for what Houston can become. We will need everyone’s help to get there. I believe education needs to be more cheap or cost effective. Teachers should be paid much more depending on their quality levels, level of dedication to the profession, and teaching structures. Our city can make use of recycling and reusable/ renewable resources. Houston can also emphasize on its culture and make the city feel more united with more larger events. If we observe Tokyo’s industries in motion, we can see there are many more smart choices to be made when we look more into how things are runned and managed. I strongly believe together we as Houstonians can make Houston better than Tokyo and the rest of the world. Right now Houston feels like it’s in a recession. If a company isn’t growing is shrinking. It needs to be inviting to industries to mover here. We should ask many important questions such as how much wealth is being made not by large corporations and by small citizens. It’s proven in modern studies corporations aren’t the creators of personal wealth, it’s them people creating their own values and businesses. We should ask. How many millionaires are being made annually? What industries can we help boost? How many people have great ideas and cannot do them, stored them away, or who have forgot about them? How can they have access to funding so that they can grow their field and industry as quick as possible to promote city and wealth growth? How attractive is Houston to investors? How much did industries raise from investors in the current to last year compared to previous years? If we tackle all the problems in this great city, we can make Houston the next best and biggest city in the world. People can be proud to come and to join Houston. We can make Houston the Tokyo of the west. Heck, we can make Houston better than Tokyo making the rest of the US and the world look like an early 2000s city simulator game when we can be building tall high rises, next generation technology, and industries that can only exist twenty years from now. I believe it starts with improved urban development focused on being social, better education (education remade utilizing the best practices of proven psychology whose research already exists), making citizens learn new skills and trades available to everyone with the use of making it more cost effective and even more accessible to learn and train for them. I also want to emphasize that when it comes to employment or creation of businesses, it’s about quality and value which will be at the peak of competition. We have the numbers, but we need the man power with skills and perhaps focus skills in areas and need to push our city to the next level (part of my previous idea to survey ever industry in Houston is to see what are the demands in skill sets). If the Houston council think we are doing sufficient or are good enough, then they and we should ask ourselves is this the best we can do? If we visit Tokyo and look at how their urban infrastructure is like, is this honestly the best we can do? I believe there is so much we can improve on. Everything starts with the common citizen. I personally would like to make a list of businesses in Houston or from throughout the US and build training programs and facilities for those businesses we can make a demand for in our cities. We can incentivize people to bring or make those business here in Houston and get those who already know the business trades to teach it. We can perhaps make this as part of a stimulus or perhaps afford to take on a little and manageable-to-pay healthy debt from our surrounding businesses and pay businesses back while perhaps negotiating for assets they would like to have within a reasonable trade range. Overall, I believe Houston is the perfect city to improve, grow, and expand providing a level of quality unlike any other place in the US.
This next section is a plan of what I would like to consider doing to improve Houston:
How would I improve Houston
A few months ago, I would have to ask what are the real
problems? For example why can’t the fire fighters pay their mortgages and
afford their cost of living? Is it the increase of property tax or association
with some sort of costs? Why does it cost a lot? I think it would be a good opportunity to
investigate or ask the local universities to investigate and examine. They
perhaps can also offer their solutions to the problem. Moreover, it seems
reasonable to me that fire fighters should make $25 to $30 and hour at the
most.
Looking at the issues addressed by the council, it seems
logical that fundamental and philosophical systems are used are not addressed.
I propose we should open philosophy as a part-time occupation for the city and
its system’s needs. I believe to allow for future potential hyper critical
thinking minds, we need to improve education dramatically to where it rivals
the education found overseas. We should have less emphasis on testing and
balance it with critical thinking. I will address more educational needs later
because many people seem to have the notion for more resources or to throw more
money when it’s the teachers and their teaching structure that should be at
peak proficiency.
My goal
My goal would be to make Houston get an improvement-wakeup call
and starts looking where it can go for incremental long-term improvement
towards a city that can vastly expand and rival that of the world. My mission
is simple to build Houston into a city that rivals Tokyo. The pillars of this
mission is to: 1 improve schools fundamentally and improve society intellectually.
2. Increase Small businesses and product development which will increase
employment. 3. Increase Technology companies and technology startups. 4.
Decrease the cost of living and increase wealth status (if possible) for all
Houstonians. 5. Focus on mental illness 6. Decrease crime and gangs. The goal
is to have Houston set an example for the rest of the world to gather resources
and plan ahead. I also want Houston to be number one in education, technology
(especially VR), oil and gas, medical, and product manufacturing.
New team:
Make a resource research and info gathering team called the
RRIG Team. It would be a good idea to add this team to the organization and
planning chart as a resource citizens can inform to if they come across
interesting technologies or city ideas. This team’s job is similar to marketing
analysis in which they gather information and data from all of the world, and
even travel to see things or gather further information in person. The team
will be a collection of members who are the best academic students and mentors
from a variety of different subjects; some members can even be the brightest
minds from throughout the US; it’s important that some have philosophical
backgrounds as well. This team will have two weeks to complete a variety of
research and information gathering on a selection of important topics to
improve the city. Every two weeks will be a new topic. They can have aid from a
local institutional debates or discussions. If they run out of time in one
topic, they can prospone it for two weeks at another time. This team is also
responsible for conducting an annual public survey for every single district to
check on the quality of life, cost of living, what are the problems, what can
be improved, and their opinions on how can it be improved. I had the thought of
giving the team two week for every topic we needed answers to.
Education:
It seems clear to me the critical thinkers of tomorrow are
going to have a foundation from our education system early in life so it’s
important to reconsider the quality of education in today’s society. As stated
before, we will have to balance testing along with critical thinking. For this
we need to revisit our education system and it’s fundamental structures. What
is it that makes education overseas more better? I believe the solution is not
only the subject materials taught, but also the quality of the teachers. For
example, a good teacher sparks natural curiosity and interest and has a structure
which starts from the very basics and builds upward in complexity. I propose
teacher get paid a minimum of $20 an hour and a max of $25. In return they must
provide comprehensive and complete teaching material, fully detailed class
structure, and a plan to get students to critically think. Simply asking
questions does nothing if it doesn’t spark curiosity. There will also be the
removal of homework assignments as it doesn’t show signs of subject retention
among the majority. Every teacher will have a rating and their teaching
structure must be accompanied by a mentor to ensure the teacher is utilizing
the best structure possible and teaching quality. In addition to teaching
structure new technological tools such as games and VR can help improve
learning subjects. We can utilize or fund local game companies to create
immersive educational experiences for the current era of improved education. Along
with utilizing technology, we need one psychologist to every school. Each psychologist
will be trained how to deal with troubled students and conflicting parents.
They can instruct or guide the parents on the best methods to teach their child
and even provide ways to improve marriage and parental relations to influence
and overall improve the behaviors of the child. They will also have access to
financial councilors who can help the parents budget more wisely or explore
unfamiliar options. It’s important that parents should have resources for their
family’s financial health as one of our pillars is to raise the wealth status
for Houstonians. Finally the last step to improve education is a philosophical
and fundamental subject that Asian countries have but is not adopted in western
society. This is the subject of ethics. In Japanese culture, students are
taught ethics from grade school to the end of high school. From what’s right
and wrong to critical logic and reasoning techniques that will help a student
develop their “mental age”. The subject of ethics is still new to western
society, but will be the critical source for fundamentally and philosophically
changing the view western society to be more cooperative and safe. Houston can
be the first city to study, utilize science and psychology for developing the
subject of western ethics and essentially use it to ideologically eliminate
crime and substance abuse.
Business and entrepreneurs:
I think it’s a good idea that Houston starts offering grants
for startup businesses, especially small businesses. I suggest the city of
Houston should offer $1000 to $15,000 for startup costs. Businesses have to
pitch their ideas for the rest of the city to hear about them (in case it can
get the attention of other investors). The city will then offer grants to the
companies it could benefit having the most or who have the most chances for
success and to expand. Another idea is to open an office downtown so that
donors can give money to the ideas they liked most.
Pubic wealth
We want to bring up the community as a whole for the purpose
to make everyone who contributes wealthy. We want to do this by increase
business, incentivizing small businesses, and giving opportunities to start-ups
to obtain funding. Those who do not contribute also benefit. How? We would like
to lower the cost of renting which will allow them to spend more or save money
to invest in greater opportunities such as their education or side projects.
Public roads:
I notice a lot of Houston’s visible budget goes to roads.
Japan has cement that expands into the cracks of the cement, this might be a
good resource to look into.
A quick idea to help Houstonians is an improved exit ramp
from Pease road to I45. Many make the mistake to not get on the far right to
get onto the freeway.
Urban infrastructure and urban sprawl:
There is a lot about urban infrastructure that affects how
we behave, think, and react. We should review and relearn about what it means
to have functional social and housing environments to better shape our society
and urban infrastructure.
Traffic:
This may sound strange but I would add more to the
functionality of traffic lights. I would have traffic lights blink green three
times as a pre-indicator that it’s about to turn yellow. This allows drivers an
advanced notice that it will turn for them to speed up or prepare to slow down.
It gives them three additional seconds along with the seconds on the yellow
light to slow down and eventually stop. This allows the brain to have more
reaction time while having additional security before a surprise red light and
a possible traffic ticket.
Another idea I had was to add a diamond lane to I45 and I69.
This is the lane in the far right that allows cars to go at a minimum 70 miles
an hour to 90 miles an hour. It comes from an idea that exists in California.
It’s free for all to use under a c class and M class license.
I had an idea for a double deck style monorail system in
which had a glass canopy on the top level so that you could see all of
downtown. I believe this will allow Houston transit to be more effective by
allowing more people onboard.
Another idea I had was to allow for Houston’s railroads to
provide touring services for citizens. Perhaps we can utilize a modern design
so that individuals to travel in comfort. Perhaps we can extends service from
Galveston to Conroe or perhaps extend that to all of Texas as a casual means of
transportation.
I had the idea to allow for road communication through the
use of cell phones. Using cellphones by blue tooth through a Houston traffic
communication app in one’s car could benefit the city. The city’s site can be
used to advertise this app. The app can also show debris on the road or other
points of interest. What makes this app different? It’s dedicated to the
Houston area. The app could also be a resource to collect data around
surrounding areas in real time. Perhaps we can link this app with all the other
resources or make it a digital hub to connect all Houston resources.
Security:
Observing our power grid infrastructure, it seems our power
grid systems are very much exposed. I suggest it would be a very good idea to
utilize a safety measure to protect the power grid or perhaps have a backup
source of electricity. Another hot topic would be to have a source of
protection in case of any electromagnetic pulse from the sun or physical
threat.
Although this may sound outrageous, I also had the thought
to not allow the homeless in the downtown area as it poses a security risk to
citizens. I have seen many times homeless people burdening people or act
irrationally downtown. I disagree to see this is allowed. I believe they should
have the resources available to dress more blended with those in normal society
or have a valid reason for being downtown. It makes no sense to use food as an
excuse as things cost more downtown and asking people for money is a great
security risk as they could become hostile and demand money.
I had the thought to add an anti-scam security agency that
actively looks for scams and fraudulent activity and persecute if investigated
and obtained significant evidence.
Public entertainment:
I would make large common board games for people to play in
public parks. I would also make fun-weather proof lego-like pieces made of
latex for people to build structures in parks.
Crimes
It’s important to ask why are they committing crimes. Is it
ideology or culture? How do you stop it? More police? Influencing education or
entertainment? Has methods of informing society worked in the past to prevent
crime? If it was rated from one to ten, what rating would these methods get for
effectiveness? When it comes to crime I think there are various factors such
as: culture (music, entertainment), ideology (believing certain values which
has crippled poverty), poverty, environment (drugs), family structure, level of
education, and ethics. I believe tackling the complexities of what drives crime
will be our solution to eliminating crime. For music and entertainment I
believe we can start by have a “viewer digression, this form of entertainment
is made for a mature audience and features a fictional world for your
entertainment. Please do not replicate the culture found in this form of
entertainment”. Moreover, we want to crack down on crimes and gangs. Just as
there are sex offender databases, there should be one for gangs and repeated
offenders. I had the thought of calling it the Crime Index. If someone commits
a misdemeanor or felony who is under the age of 18, their parents can be held
liable with large fines. As Houston wants to define itself as “a city against
criminal activity”, the city can build a database for criminals and gang
leaders. The police can then monitor the leaders for illegal activity and call
of their arrest at a moment’s notice.
Illegal drugs
Drugs have been a massive problem throughout US history. It
seems like a very difficult thing to tackle. I want to propose open-use drug
houses where all drugs can be legal and users can use them at will only within
the facility. The facility can then persuade them to seek help, rehabilitation,
mental illness treatment, and a safe space where they are not disturbing
society and committing crime. This is the same step Portugal as taken and crime
related to drugs went down dramatically. It also offers an opportunity to
compete financially with cartels and eliminate their business from the area by
offering superior products for cheaper costs. The only rule is that they have
to use the facility to use their substances, if they use or sell them on the
street, they will be subject to the law.
Poverty
Homelessness in Houston has bar far plagued the city for a
very long time. It’s important that we begin to tackle the issues of poverty to
improve Houston streets and make them safe throughout Houston. I believe a step
in the right direction is putting the homeless back to school and give them
educational opportunities where they can pick up and the basic educational
foundations and learn more robust subjects such as law, agriculture, carpentry,
welding, pottery, textiles, mechanic work, philosophy, creative writing and
other subjects that a homeless person might find useful or applicable to a
career or entry level job. This can be done through donations and volunteer
work for those willing to borrow their time to teach for free. Perhaps there
can be a cost effective fee that even the homeless can afford. Moreover, I
believe even the homeless should be of social use. It would be a great idea to
give them an area of land where they can help grow produce and become self-sustaining
in terms of nutrition. I believe local farm areas could be a valuable area for
them to build a sense of value and work ethics to which they can later use for
other things. Another idea is a place where they can sell items like a swap
meet or a workshop area for them to create things. It would also be a great
opportunity to recondition them to reenter society and be valuable members to
society; perhaps they can get vouchers for therapy, medical, or dental
assistance. Another idea I had is to supply them with more homeless shelters
that also offer a bit of privacy which also contains lockers. If they do not
want to use the facility perhaps we can also offer a lot for them to safely pitch
their tent under the condition they help their community through many tasks. It
would also be recommended that they purchase permanent markers to label their
objects as stealing in this community is absolutely forbidden. If caught
stealing you will be kicked out and face the consequences for stealing by the facility
or lot security and by the police.
Mental health is also a massive problem in Houston. It’s
more common to drive by homeless areas and to see an individual behaving very
strangely for no reason at all. We can also see the influence drugs and
substance abuse has had on people who walk the streets. It my opinion that if
Houston’s going to be the best city, it needs a plan to treat those who are
mentally ill and provide with the help they need. I believe the law states they
can only be helped if they are want help up until they pose a threat to society
or themselves. Surely there are ways to convince them by witnessing their own
behaviors. I believe to cater to mental illness in the streets of Houston we
should run a mental health campaign to combat mental illness. We can do this
through various institutions to collectively run micro campaigns and get
Houston businesses to contribute to these campaigns. Running a local even is a
suggestion but if we were to rate it, we would have to wonder how effective
would the campaign be?
