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Proguard Self Storage At 224 W. Gray St.


DrLan34

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What a waste of space...

Spent some time around downtown yesterday, and that's all there is. Space. Literally hundreds, maybe thousands of blocks of empty lots, wooded lots, lots with abandoned or decrepit homes or warehouses.

I don't know why we lament over a particular lot outside of downtown or midtown, the surrounding areas are pretty much untapped potential.

I dunno why we are hooked on creating city center type islands of wow on large lots such as Hardy, Post Office or KBR sites. I do understand the need for space for large projects in Downtown like a huge aquarium or something. But outside of downtown all there is is space. When developers need to they buy multiple blocks downtown and close down a street or two. I would imagine it would be less difficult outside downtown.

What we need to do is make it more attractive to want to build there. I know that landowners often seat on land for decades waiting for that golden offer, but come on, all there is is space. if the demand was there the land would be bought and developed.

Sorry for the rant, i just lament at the fact that there is so much empty lots or crumbling houses walking distance from one of the biggest job centers in the country.

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I wouldn't say thousands...

Well I did say maybe thousands. But you are right 1000s maybe exaggerating.

Midtown for example at its wide point is 23 blocks and at its longest is 24. That would be about 550 blocks. Most lots in Midtown are put to constructive use.

3rd ward though is about 50 blocks by 30 blocks. That is 1500 blocks. The universities take up about a 10th of that area. The rest is pretty rough apart from about a 5% gentrified areas.

East downtow & east end is about the same size as 3rd ward. But more industrial looking. Hard to tell how much is going on there.

That area north of Houston between 45 and wayside is an area 50 blocks long by 90 blocks wide. That is about 4500 block many of which are blighted.

The question is, how many of those 8000ish blocks that make up midtown, the 3rd, 5th wards and east side are ripe for development.

Note: I was just counting streets. All four areas have super blocks which would result in a far lower count if counted as one block. The UH area for example would account for more than 100 blocks.

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Yes. I'm sorry when I said around downtown I literally meant the neighborhoods around downtown. I should have said surrounding.

Point was we are lamenting over one not so great block when we have 8000 others.

Just fantasy here, but can you imagine just half of those blocks with an average sized residential building on it? Say a low rise building LIke block 334? I think that building has about 200 units. At 1.5 people per unit, a quarter of those blocks would house 600 000 people at full capacity.

Can you imagine how cheap cost of living would be? Midtown, 3rd ward, East End AND The north are all served by rail. All these units would result in lower rents and public transit is much cheaper than driving and parking costs.

Can you imagine the demand for retail such a huge increase in population would create?

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Yes. I'm sorry when I said around downtown I literally meant the neighborhoods around downtown. I should have said surrounding.

Point was we are lamenting over one not so great block when we have 8000 others.

Just fantasy here, but can you imagine just half of those blocks with an average sized residential building on it? Say a low rise building LIke block 334? I think that building has about 200 units. At 1.5 people per unit, a quarter of those blocks would house 600 000 people at full capacity.

Can you imagine how cheap cost of living would be? Midtown, 3rd ward, East End AND The north are all served by rail. All these units would result in lower rents and public transit is much cheaper than driving and parking costs.

Can you imagine the demand for retail such a huge increase in population would create?

 

Can you imagine what a horrifically bad place to live that would be? Why would I want another 600,000 people inside the Loop? If I want that sort of density, I'll move somewhere else if that happens, because it would not be Houston any longer, it would be some awful place that I don't want to be.

 

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600 0000 isn't that high density.

The loop had what now 400 000 people. That would bring it to 1M in 90 sq mile. That's a density of 11 000 people per sq mile. That's less than Miami.

For perspective, Manhattan had 1.6 million people in just over 20 square miles and a density of over 70 000 people per square mile. San Francisco has 850 000 people in 45 sq miles. The inner loop is still rather empty. Bringing the bulk of a cities population to the core does a world of good. It's easier to manage a city in 90 sq miles than in 400. Can you image the reduction in costs the city would incur by reducing the number of streets than needs to be surfaced, reduced cost of miles of public transportation. Reduced everything

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600 0000 isn't that high density.

The loop had what now 400 000 people. That would bring it to 1M in 90 sq mile. That's a density of 11 000 people per sq mile. That's less than Miami.

For perspective, Manhattan had 1.6 million people in just over 20 square miles and a density of over 70 000 people per square mile. San Francisco has 850 000 people in 45 sq miles. The inner loop is still rather empty. Bringing the bulk of a cities population to the core does a world of good. It's easier to manage a city in 90 sq miles than in 400. Can you image the reduction in costs the city would incur by reducing the number of streets than needs to be surfaced, reduced cost of miles of public transportation. Reduced everything

So what, you really think you can force everyone to move into a compressed area inside the Loop? And what is the basis for thinking that City costs go down with density?

 

We may see a million people inside the Loop some day, but I suspect I will be long dead before that happens. There's no drivers to force that to happen quickly.

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Who said anything about forcing anyone anywhere?

And it doesn't take much of a mental exercise to figure that a city of 1 million residents living in 100 square miles would pay less in road costs, transportation, schools and other public services than the same people living in 400 square miles.

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Sheeesh! This pro-guard self storage conversation turned into a full blown novel. I just hope it has GFR. Who say's mixed use exclusively means apartments over retail? Maybe they can throw in a donut shop and other goodies at the ground level and have the upper levels be storage.

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