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Exactly. Look at the rendering in the article. Now, imagine that bus with steel wheels instead of rubber. Boom. You got rail. This plan sets aside the ROW for rail but puts BRT in there while waiting for rail funding. This is what should be done on the U-Line as well. Take the funding that is available for BRT, set the ROW up for rail, and when the time is right, convert to rail.

Um, it's a bar being replaced by a bar in a bar-heavy part of town. What exactly is the issue here?

You don't need to post in crazy font. Your tone in your first two posts is enough.

eh, i would argue that a parking garage with a retail component is actually perfect for the area, especially with the massive apartment building going on south of alabama. Like it or not, parking is necessary, and this seems like the best way to keep parking while still keeping the streetfront along main as pedestrian friendly as possible. it also avoids the various issues developers run into when mixing retail and residential in a single building.

(Yes, I'll catch flak for this.) The supreme irony - building parking garages in a burgeoning pedestrian area adjacent to a light rail stop. "Look! It's laying golden eggs! Let's kill it!"

Yea a lot of the work is going to be done section by little section until all of that black tar is removed. Very time consuming, literally toothbrush work. I highly doubt any sort of sandblasting due to its historical significance.

For non-subscribers, here's a link to the full article. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.houstonchronicle.com%2Fnews%2Fhouston-texas%2Fhouston%2Farticle%2FProject-would-create-Uptown-transit-corridor-4427406.php%3Fcmpid%3Dbtfpm&ei=MRRnUb2sMIXY8gTuw4DoBg&usg=AFQjCNEJxunb0db9LL-QT0d6Mm8G2RydtQ&sig2=5oeDXTZ-Q9o5tsuJffsjJQ&bvm=bv.45107431,d.eWU

I'm really curious to see the budget for this because $556 million is a lot of money for 4.4 miles of brt. I know that they've grouped some other things into this, but that seems like a big number.

I will admit, OTC would not be my first choice if I lived in the area. Nevertheless, youre judging a bar that hasnt even opened yet. I just wonder if you would be happy with *any* similar business in that location. Your townhouse may have been there before Union, but not before the building itself, which was clearly retail. Bagby is not exactly a quiet, neighborhood street, so, particularly considering the lack of zoning, there was always a risk of a rowdy bar moving in. And yes, if Texans are stupid, what exactly are you?

Mill Creek Residential. They also have one that will be built on 502 S. Post Oak (6 story with parking garage in the middle).

Need more exclamation points for effect.

The place wasn't too pricy.

I've never heard Metro characterized that way.

I did work removing this thick black tar from the old historic courthouse downtown. They usually use an acid to burn the tar away and clean uo the area. From there I could seem them painting it after its cleaned up.

Slightly off topic, as this is a Dallas sighting, not a Houston sighting... But Dallas is dumping a metric assload of money into its tourism budget this year. In Chicago, there are huge visit Dallas ads on the bus shelters, downtown information signs, subways, and transit buses. They've even splashed out for bus wraps of the double-decker tour buses. Unfortunately, the ads themselves are unremarkable except for their frequency. I couldn't find any of the actual ads online, but this is pretty close: They were at least smart enough to run their tourism ads right after TNT did a big splash for its Dallas TV show. Let's hope that if Houston ever gets serious about tourism advertising it doesn't choose a photograph featuring a traffic jam, a flooded bayou and a smog-shrouded skyline like Dallas did above.

2013/04/06: