Texas

Champion cyclist Lance Armstrong tops a list of heavy water users in a city trying hard to conserve while meeting rising demand during a drought and steady or rapid population growth.

Restaurants are now a better draw than retail in a tough economy, and new retail centers are upping their percentage of eating places to follow suit.

A new interest in urbanism and public transit is attracting businesses to downtown. One proponent says, 'I can't remember a time since the early 1980s that we had a bigger year for downtown Dallas.'

A city in the midst of a revitalization effort has targeted landscape designs allegedly aimed at spiting the neighbors.

Officials in Abilene, Texas, are trying to pass an electronic sign ordinance "proactively" but are facing great resistance, as has been the case for other cities.

In this segment from NPR, a Dallas residential realtor talks about how his city -- where the average price has actually gone up about 2% over the last year -- has bucked the national downward housing trend.

The city of Austin considers a multi-billion dollar investment in a "biomass" power plant, burning wood waste in East Texas as a carbon-neutral, renewable energy source.

The Houston Chronicle looks at the holes in Houston's transit grid, which force some riders into ridiculously long commutes.

Andres Duany and other experts discuss how the convergence of high gas prices and the foreclosure crisis may reverse years of cheap gas and cheap exurban land. He's pushing mixed uses and reformed zoning in suburbia, and he's betting on Texas.

As the worst recycler amongst the 30 largest American cities, Houston has a lot of trash on its hands. But many obstacles stand in the way of the city closing the loop.

Officials in Fort Worth, Texas weigh regulations for natural gas compression stations arising from a boom in drilling shale for natural gas.

A Dallas suburb considers whether to change its sign regulations to allow a massive cuckoo clock in a public space. European cities often have them, but American cities rarely do.

Houston's MTA is planning to allow drivers to pay a toll to use the High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane on their freeways, and the local Sierra Club chapter is speaking out against the plan.

The New York Times profiles Marathon, a tiny town in Texas with no jobs to speak of but a growing number of second-home buyers looking for the quiet life.

The New York Sun looks west and finds a lot to love in Houston's cars, growth, and pro-development policies.

Residents of Austin, TX are risking violation of city ordinances forbidding loud animals to raise chickens in their central city neighborhood backyards. It's partly a way to cut out-of-pocket expenses.

A Houston bedroom community decides against allowing childcare centers to mix with other businesses in strip centers.

How often does one hear that transit is somehow a less respectable form of transportation than driving because of the "massive subsidies" transit receives? Well, a new study by Texas DOT says that highways don't pay for themselves either.

Stakeholders in Austin debate the future of a public golf course in the center of town while the University of Texas, owner of the land, debates whether to seek greater profits off the land. Neighbors champion the course as vital open space.