All Activity

Yeah...that happens a lot in legal circles. Remember all the hubbub around "Russian collusion" a few years back that turned out to be nothing?

Not an unfounded concern...

From what I understand, in an agreement with the city, he was given 4 years to get something out of the ground. It's already been 2 years since that agreement and he said about 4 months ago something would happen in roughly a year. So based off all of that, I'm expecting a groundbreaking some time in Fall on some part of the plan.

Thanks Matty, but it’s not like I’m new to airline travel I’ve been all over the world, been in jobs where I flew multiple times a month, flew frequently enough to have elite status on two airlines at a time, I know what’s normal, and what’s not. Four out of six flights since the beginning of February is not normal. Yeah, reservations are getting changed three months before departure, but reservations are also getting changed the week of departure, which I think you’ll agree is a hell of a lot less than 60 days out. Reservations are being changed a few weeks to a month after booking, reservations are being changed the week after booking. And the reservations that get changed the week after booking, they didn’t know they were going to have to change a flight the previous week, but they know now? That happens once, okay, but it happens twice less than a month apart, and you hear it’s happening to a lot of other people too, you begin to wonder why they are allowing people to book so many flights that they almost immediately know they aren’t going to fly. Again, going from having this happen almost never in over 20 years of being a frequent business flyer, to having it happen four times in three and a half months, this is different.

Anybody know why they're milling the months old asphalt on Washington between Heights and Studemont?

Then they wouldn’t have learned. They would have bitched about having their cones stolen, probably would have blamed it on one of the brown people they usually use NextDoor to warn everyone they saw walking in the neighborhood. They needed to know that being affluent doesn’t give them license to do whatever the hell they want, to get called on their behavior by their neighbors, and have some authority they couldn’t dispute back that up.

Architect - https://schaumshieh.com

Any estimate on start of construction for the next high rise within this development? Also, and this may be a “dumb” question, but is there any idea on whether the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas would sell that land in the next 10-15 years? I wonder if the developers know something we don’t? (Probably not, but just asking anyway.) *edit for clarity

Confirming reports of a downjacking just west of downtown.

Saw this while in Galveston for a day trip. Looks to be a major catalyst for this side of the island. http://blockcompanies.com/projects/the-oleanders-at-broadway https://cw39.com/news/texas/new-photos-more-affordable-housing-coming-to-galveston-in-2023/

Airline schedules aren’t fleeted and finalized until 60 days out (was 30 earlier during the pandemic). And the airlines (WN among them) have been adjusting summer schedules to mitigate operational disruptions from staff shortages. If you make your reservation more than 30 days out, there’s a not insignificant chance it’ll change, most of the time minor, but sometimes more dramatic. If you make it 90 days out, you’re almost guaranteed to have some change. Southwest will continue to be among the hardest hit due not only to the industry-wide staffing shortages but also the delays in 737 MAX deliveries … they had to rejigger their entire delivery schedule last quarter due to ongoing delays in the certification of the MAX 7. Your assumption that crew or fleet issues can be resolved months in advance is wrong, BTW. That’s exactly what they’re accomplishing with these changes. There’s nothing random about it. Note also that you don’t have to accept the automated rebooking changes … you can try to rebook on a more convenient itinerary … if the website doesn’t let you do it, call Reservations. But if your reservation is for, say, October, I can almost guarantee you’ll end up going through that multiple times.

Mayra Moreno Ch13 ABC confirms the tower crane is coming down.

They are reaching. The judge told them to work it out, since he still has to do his job, and part of that is sitting on committees.

I would have just taken the cones. Left in the street like that, they are trash, and free to take.

This is one of the most drastic improvements brought about by covering a dingy yellow paint job since the University of Houston - Downtown (formerly the Merchants and Manufacturers) Building renovation a few years ago.

And that's what Harris County voters were told would happen back in the early 80s when the bond election to fund the initial building of Hardy and the West Belt took place. I remember very well the TV ads that promised the roads would be free once they were paid off. Now a lot of HCTRA and other county officials (including Ed Emmett) like to gaslight anyone who tries to remind them of that promise, claiming that's an urban myth and they're misremembering, that they were never promised to be free, but in 2012 ABC 13 showed a brochure published by the HCTRA back then that said "When both roads combined have covered their costs, the roads will become free public highways." Hardy cost $287 million, that was made in tolls by 2004, by 2012 it had made $617 million in tolls. A section of the West Belt cost $72 million, had earned $865 million by 2012. Another nine mile stretch of the west belt that cost $135 million had made more than $1 billion by 2012. And instead of at least going down, tolls keep going up, by 25 cents every few years. I was shocked when I moved to Dallas for school in the mid 90s with how much cheaper tolls were on the Dallas tollways than on SH. And they're still much cheaper, many aren't that much more expensive now than the were back then. The modal toll at any plaza or on/off ramp on SH is $1.50 with toll tag. Up in Dallas, there are many, many tolls under 50 cents. Ditto, especially the latter.h Yes, but once you've paid off the initial capital investment, which HCTRA did years ago, you should at least be able to lower toll costs, have fewer tolls, and still pay for maintenance. As I said above, look how low most of Dallas's tolls are. But instead, HCTRA consistently raised tolls every few years during the first 30 years of its existence, and usually by 25 cents every time. I disagree with it being appropriate, Harris County Toll Road Authority's mandate is pretty clearly and narrowly defined it's about area vehicular transit. In a city as spread out as Houston, with weather as sweltering as ours as long as it is, pedestrian and biking/scootering trails are never going to be a significant part of our transit plant. Revenue raised on toll roads should be used to pay for maintenance of toll roads. If there is a significant surplus, that tells me that tolls should be lower. There are other agencies responsible for hike and bike trails and outdoor recreation in this county. A big problem in this county is too much mission creep in too many public agencies resulting in a lot of overlap and redundancy and poor planning. Law enforcement is one example, especially, for instance, traffic enforcement. On any freeway in Houston you might find yourself pulled over by a Houston police officer, a Harris County sheriff's deputy, a Harris County constable's deputy, a METRO police officer, or TXDPS. Be careful what you wish for. The revenue toll roads draw puts dollar signs into politicians eyes and encourages not only the building of more new toll roads, but the conversion of free highways into tollways, reducing the number of alternatives for people who don't want to pay. Try driving between Orlando and Miami without using toll roads. A lot of highways on the outskirts of Austin have been converted to toll roads. 249 in the Willowbrook/Champions area almost became a toll road a few years ago, it took locals fighting tooth and nail to keep it from happening. This wasn't just a highway people used once or twice a day to get to and from work, it is a road a local person might get on several times a day to run chores like taking kids to school and soccer practice, and go to the grocery store. Look too at the Katy managed lanes bringing revenue to HCTRA, on an Interstate no less. 20 years ago, there was a real opportunity to alleviate congestion and use mass transit solutions to reduce air pollution and climate change. There was an existing rail ROW that could have been used for commuter rail, or used as space for expansion to allow room for commuter rail in the center of I-10. Instead, what did TxDOT do? build over the ROW with wider freeway, and let HCTRA turn the center of the freeway into a revenue generator. And letting single people pay tolls along with those who drive 2+ for free in the HOV lane bastardizes the purpose of an HOV lane, which is to reduce vehicle traffic in Clean Air Act Nonattainment Zones like Harris County. All this plan is, is just PR for HCTRA, an attempt to justify the surplus revenue it draws from too high and too many tolls, with feel-good "look what we're doing for the community" along with greenwashing of the climate change problem toll roads exacerbate. Toll roads exacerbate climate change by short-circuiting feedbacks that encourage cities and regions to seek real options to reduce single vehicle transit. Build more toll roads to reduce congestion, then congestion becomes less pressing a reason to work towards viable mass transit options.

Uh huh. This is the guy who goes on and on and on about substance. 🙄 Oh the irony. Regardless, glad we could finally put this to rest.

Looks like a bootleg Dallas 👀

Over in the Minute Maid Mixed Use thread, there was a report of Crane talking big on developing a "district" around the park like Wrigleyville. The old lots that used to have the BUS bar, the private jail off Crawford and now this are all his, I think. Sound like a ton of property to work with, hope he gets after it soon.

Out of the last six flight reservations I have made with Southwest, four of them were changed by Southwest, so that I would be flying on a different flight either several hours earlier or several hours later than the time I had picked. These changes have been made as early as the same week I made the reservation, to a few weeks later, and usually weeks, even months before actual departure, so the changes have nothing to do with weather or sudden crew issues they don't have time to work out. These changes are announced through an innocuous "There have been changes to your reservation" email. And while all my experiences have been on Southwest, on one trip that was changed, I was meeting some other people, one of whom was on United and had his flight time changed on him. I don't understand what's going on or why the airlines think it's okay to being doing this. A lot of people, especially business travelers, are on tight schedules while traveling, and pick flight times to accomodate. If the airline moves a person to a new flight two hours earlier, he might not have time to get to the flight from a meeting he has scheduled before the flight; if they move it two hours later, he might not get to the meeting he has in the next city. I've also been moved from nonstop flights to flights with stops that add a few hours to my travel time. It's so annoying.

Astute and piercing as always, @Blue Dogs!

Metro posted the PDF for the May 4th virtual meeting.

I agree with editor that the 311 app sucks, I always just call. They really need to fix that. But beyond that, I've had universally good experiences with 311, they are timely in their response, and get the job done. The last time I called 311 was a year and a half ago. Some parents with a huge sense of entitlement who live on the main east-west street through my neighborhood decided they didn't like other people using "their" street as a "cut through", and put two big orange traffic cones in the street next to each other, one in the middle of the eastbound lane, one in the middle of the westbound lane, so eastbound and westbound traffic had to take turns straddling the center line of the street to get past them. One call to 311, and within three days someone from the city had knocked on the door of the cones' owner and told them they were illegally obstructing a public right-of-way, warned them that if the cones went out again, they would be cited, and that he would return to ensure compliance. Very satisfying.

I made the mistake of clicking the options button, and then reading the post. hahaha. can't resist just piling on the ad hominem attacks. love you buddy, keep being who you are and every now and then, I'll make the mistake of clicking the options button, and reading your post to remind myself that I made the right decision in ignoring you. maybe one of these days, I'll make the mistake of reading one of your posts and be pleasantly surprised by something insightful. so far though, you keep hitting expectations by posting something inciteful.