I’ve been meaning to pass along a couple of interesting recent New York Times articles on Houston real estate entreprenuers, including this one on former Houston Rocket star Hakeem Olajuwon’s development of his Houston real estate empire, which one local observor notes was built by “buying high and selling higher.”
The other article is this one on the Third Ward’s Project Row House project, artist Rick Lowe’s ambitous redevelopment effort that utilizes contributions of services from local architectural students and members of Houston’s art and charity communities.
Unfortunately, the Times piece missed several less alluring parts of the Project Row story, which are filled in aptly by the always entertaining Slampo.
Houston has traditionally been an incubator for business entreprenuers, what with its relatively low cost of living, few barriers to entry and restrained regulatory environment. Olajuwon — despite his occasional missteps — and Lowe — despite the seemier side to his project — are actually couple of reasons why we should try to keep it that way. Progress is rarely achieved without risk. The best way to inhibit progress is to attempt to control risk-taking, which generally leads to perverse incentives. A much better policy is to encourage risk-taking and then allow the market to weed out the shysters. That some parts of that market must learn about the downside of risk the hard way is not a good reason to adopt policies that constrict creation of jobs and wealth.