wilcal

Chatted with an attorney today who was doing fact-finding for a contractor who had not been paid for a significant part of their work on this project. He seemed to think that there are several construction liens against the property. Looks like last permit activity was some electrical last fall.

SOUND THE KLAXONS https://www.newsweek.com/texas-poised-first-bullet-train-line-us-1888433 President Joe Biden is reportedly seeking to revive a project that would construct a high-speed railway from Houston to Dallas in Texas utilizing Japanese bullet trains. According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, citing unnamed administration sources, the White House is looking to make an announcement on the project following talks between Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington, D.C., this week.

I think that there has been a little bit of a recent spark, but there is a looooong way to go. It will never flourish unless the crazy streets are rebuilt into something that fosters community. They are set up for speed and throughput for long-distance commuters. I have no idea if NHHIP will end up hurting or helping Midtown. I think the easiest next step is to close all of Main to cars and try to do something a la Las Ramblas in Barcelona.

They could do a bit better marketing it. No renders of the unit? The plans are really small. Hopefully it will be improved, soon!

Took this day before yesterday. This is getting very dangerous and out of control with the erosion and I submitted a 311 ticket for OCE to come out and inspect. I'm really worried about someone falling in or it collapsing.

Not following what some people want ≠ didn't hear/ignored I think it was very apparent that many people didn't like the potential changes. Not everyone can be appeased.

Another success of no parking minimums in the area. The entire complex only has 30 parking spaces. Even if only half of the 9,333 sq ft is area for patrons, they would be normally looking at about 50 parking spaces.

Yeah, I agree that they should have probably just killed the stub.

From my understand, they aren't calling meetings. They are just attending most others or working as a different POV. Fire is an enormous part of road design elements. They are involved with writing the rule book (the IBC) and many many many of the rules are designed specifically for them. For example, the shared driveway length for 16' shared driveway (think townhome communities) was dropped from 200' to 150' last fall. Fire trucks don't drive on shared driveways and have hoses that are 300' long. There is a 3' Emergency Access Easement that runs around the properties, and it allows them to get their fire hoses to every inch of all of their properties. Turning radii and reverse curves are also designed specifically for minimums for fire trucks to be able to navigate through. Again, part of our codes is that fire is a huge part of the process. As for HPD, I'm not sure why they would have any design input. They just drive normal SUVs. They complained because a motorcycle officer drove into the median after it was built because they didn't see that it had been created (?). I think that the HPD officer was just used to (illegally I might add) cut through the painted median to speed up the turn from Washington onto Houston. There's a reason why they leave traffic barrels and put up signage when road configurations change. A bunch of people just don't pay attention. I think that there was a thread here about Fairview/Tuam @ Genesee and people are still just blowing through the intersection. As for fire (and METRO) it is my understanding that the street design did meet the standards, but it was much tighter than usual and was passable by both fire and METRO buses, but it was uncomfortable to drive through. That was south of Lubbock by the court parking lot. It was really dangerous because of the elevation difference AND there is a bus stop right there. It is one of those things that you don't have many options when putting a band-aid on a dangerous spot. The current rules would never let it be constructed this way. They were trying to make it a true 90 degree turn instead of this lazy 30-degree slip lane thing. We don't allow intersections this close together anymore. I believe the minimum is 60' or 65' and this is like 40ish. So again, the result is going back to an overall less safe design to facilitate larger vehicles and their professional drivers. This is kind of the crux of the issue in terms of fire especially. We have to design streets so that they fit XXXXL vehicles like fire trucks and METRO buses, but that appears to result in big tradeoffs. Roads that people feel more comfortable speeding on, the reduction in the size of sidewalks (because lane widths need to be wider. yes this happens), and corners with radii that make it easier for large vehicles to turn... but smaller vehicles can turn faster in.

The city has a single planner whose job is to primarily make sure that all road users are accounted for in projects and is considered a vision zero coordinator. They are just part of the normal process. Yeah, most people don't realize how much carnage there actually is on the roads and that the design of the roads themselves are such a large component. Whitmire clearly doesn't get it either. I think it is mostly virtue-signaling/culture wars. 11th bike lanes get used quite a bit, but I'm sure that won't matter. There are a large contingent of people that think that slowing down their vehicles or making it harder or more uncomfortable to drive is an affront. I have heard directly from some people within HPW that the administration is basically against any type of slowing for any reason. Not Whitmire himself, but a designee. Will be interesting to see if he kills off a city project like Commerce St which is tied to several other projects by different entities (including the sorely needed railroad eliminator grant). It is only two massive lanes and the street itself is shit. It aligns with the existing Harrisburg Trail and there is plenty of room for bike lanes, so it will be interesting to see if he goes out of his way to not build bike lanes in such a no-brainer corridor.

Better than basically unused land!

I think you can get some type of a waiver if the church agrees. I wonder if they aren't interested.

I'm pretty sure that if it is rebuilt that they can keep the building as it sits a foot or two off of the public street, but I'm annoyed by our building setback rules. Navigation is a major thoroughfare and will require a 25' setback if a new structure is built. That is basically the width of the front face of the building right along the parking lot. So what does the city want built here instead? Surface parking?

Great news!

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