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Hmmm that garage has great potential...I'll have to make a visit once it's done.

your update felt a lot like this...

I am a conservative but I support this rail project. Our major railroads were built by investors in the 1800s. This same concept is being used for this project which is better than a government built bureaucracy. California is showing the country how not to build a line by using taxpayer money in a massive boondoggle. The Texas high-speed rail line is closer to being built than the government funded one in California. I am fine with companies who are willing to invest and build high-speed rail lines in this country. There are places where high-speed rail can beneficial while not going with the crackpot ideas of that wackjob AOC in New York. No, we do not need to replace all of our rail lines with high-speed rail and especially at the taxpayer expense as the only source of transportation. The airline industry is still much needed. Rail should be used to compliment airline travel where it is financially feasible. Oh, and we still need that interstate highway system as well for both commerce and yes the military. Once this rail line in Texas gets built maybe other private companies will want to step up with privately built lines of their own. We will have a rail building boom as we had in our past history, and just like in the past we will let capitalism and investors fit the bill for the building boom.

huh huh huh huh it's on Bevis St.

So...we're looking at a 2035 completion date?

not that bad? Houston ranked 13th. In the nation. at what point do you think it is bad enough to consider commuting options other than bigger freeways? so by your estimation, if we remove public transportation from NYC, Chicago, Boston, and DC their traffic levels would do what? Houston compared to NYC is 95 hours in traffic compared with 133, from your own reference above. so 35 more hours. let's break that down to daily times, to give it more realistic context. based on a 5 day work week, and ignoring vacations, there's 260 weekdays in a year. so an individual in NYC spends 30.7 minutes in traffic a day. an individual in Houston spends 21.9 minutes in traffic a day. I ask these questions again, because it's important for you to understand that I really want you to answer them: at what point does Houston traffic become bad? what happens to freeway traffic in NYC, Chicago, Boston and DC if you remove rail (subway, elevated, etc) from the commuter options?

Actually, it looks like what they are saying is that TCR doesn't operate any track already, therefore it isn't a railroad. That would be more like forming a new oil company and the court denying they are an oil company until they have built a pipeline. At any rate, it should be an easy hurdle to overcome if they have to. But, there is plenty of history for railroads being formed and getting rights before they start building.

you could make the same slideshow called "Tales of Highway Hell" in Houston and have equivalent scenes and stats.

The color is off a bit. 😕

Additional renderings to add to the thread.

Any updated construction in the past few weeks by chance?

Did NRG Park give up on the idea of auto racing? I've always thought that they should build a grandstand and pits on the Astro World site then have the track go over the freeway and through NRG park circling the Astrodome.

Great angle for skyline shots. I can't wait to see the med center to Downtown shot, with that long range lens.

Dart is a good example of how NOT to build a rail system. They built it on a bunch of old right of way and now they have to deal with problems like gaps on the north and east side, stops avoiding neighborhoods and major activity centers, and the 4 lines going through downtown together. It’s kinda sad when the metrorail has about 10 million less riders than dart does (and dart is the biggest light rail system in the us by miles).

What else is M&A up to? I know they are doing the senior living with Hines off of Kirby, this is the second I've heard of.

The 18th/TC Jester intersection is a complete embarrassment pavement wise and definitely needs a stop light.

That would explain a lot. Midtown Management District is anything but efficient at project management. The Caroline St. re-do is moving along at a snail’s pace.

I got no sound on the video except for the commercials but I get the gist. So where is the detention area being built to compensate for all that impervious surface? Maybe the plan is to turn the dome into a big cistern. 😖

https://www.click2houston.com/news/new-paved-parking-lot-for-houston-rodeo-is-dancing-on-astroworlds-grave

From looking at the agendas the past few weeks I've come to understand that there is a substantially low bar when it comes to visuals when submitting to the committee. Pretty much what the committee cares about is if you are following code/variances/deed restrictions. My guess is that Munoz + Albin will release "marketing images" later. Speaking off M+A, they are really on a roll lately. My guess is the building will be a combination of these two images: this (double glazed glass paneling) plus this (contemporary use of concrete and metal panel) All from looking at the textures in these stills from the sketchup model they produced. If thats the case it could look really slick. I've come to trust Munoz+Albin at this point. They are quickly becoming the mainstay of solid Houston work. Not super amazing, but consistent and competent.

I have heard that they are going to make it a space for special events.

Drove past there a few days ago. They have made a lot of progress since switching to a different contractor. Looks like the only thing left is site work and interiors.

You think this is slow? 1916 West Gray is 6 years into construction. Still not done!

Also New York is the largest metro area in the world by size, in the country by population, by a good amount. 20 million people spread out over 4500 sq miles of urban land are going to have some long commute times no matter what. Just NYC by itself has 8.5 million people and covers 300 sq miles Houston is big and sprawling, but still is way smaller - only 6.5 million people across 1600 sq miles of urban land. The metro areas are closer (NYC at 13,000 sq mi, Houston at 10,000 sq mi), but that just illustrates how much larger New York is than Houston - 3.5x the people in not much more space. Of course they will have longer commute times

Right across from McIntyre's. The retirees can walk across the street and party it up with the youngins.😀

1. Houston commute times relative to other cities is not relative to my argument and I know we have to look at other models to compare, but what is important is Houston's commute times relative to 10 years ago and what to expect 10 years from now. 2. Chron article from 2018 states "Houston drivers traveled an average of 27.3 minutes to work" and from 2015 a Chron article states "Solo drivers take 25.8 minutes to reach the office". An almost 6% increase in 3 years. Of course I wouldn't count this as evidence, as they are two different studies and they likely use variables which could be altered to give you very different numbers, or they surveyed some ridiculous sample size like 100 people which is just as good as my "anecdotal evidence" which includes how all the real Houstonians I know that live and work around the city have been impacted by transportation and traffic. 3. If you have the actual source data from your visualcapitalist commute data that would be interesting, but I can't find anything. I don't think any facts have actually been presented in this discussion.

It’s for sale and will certainly be torn down for redevelopment.

posting a story about the most densely populated region in the country and their subway woes is misleading. And one graphic based on some census sample that's not defined is misleading too. My further discussion was what life is like getting around Houston and how congested and slow things have gotten in the last decade. LA is a better example, and I feel like that now - rush 'hour' has expanded and the reverse commute has faded. No matter where you are or what direction you're going between 3-8pm its crowded and slow and I would like more options.

From this weeks planning agenda: Site Plan Section Elevation Looks like they will have ground floor retail on both canal and Navigation.

I'd honestly rather read a book and do a little people-watching than deal with road rage and the risk of accidents.

I don't see the value of comparing Houston and NYC. we've been down that path many times on this forum and nothing really comes out of it. I know I did respond as such, i couldn't help it... But when i used to spend a lot of time in new york, i only took the subway to get to certain special destinations, day to day stuff everything i could possibly need was within a 10-15 minute walk. To your question on taking a private vehicle and the advantages - yes i do like having that option in Houston. But I would like other options as well. I used to live in Montrose and would bike everywhere. Being able to take the bayou downtown and feel safe doing so even with my toddlers in a trailer was amazing. Walking to the red line and taking it to Reliant and not having to worry about parking, being able to have a few beers, and get out with no traffic was amazing. Walking to Dallas St and taking a single bus to an Astros game with my kid who loves to ride was amazing. I only drove to work (Clear Lake, the park and ride would have taken 1+ hour to go against traffic and I would still have needed my bike when I got to Bay Area) and it was amazing. BTW when I did live by work and was taking grad school classes at UH I did take the park and ride and walked to campus twice a week, for that 4-5:30 class. Coming back was much nicer in a bus where i could read and not have to worry about the gulf freeway. now we moved to Bellaire, still inside the loop. To get downtown on a single bus to the med center, then the train would take an hour. To go 8 miles. And I picked a destination right on the rail line. 40 minutes to get to Reliant, 4.5 miles away. There are better ways to move around more efficiently, and it will take a combination of smart methods that should ideally relieve traffic and congestion, reduce emissions, and provide multiple options for residents.

I always love your unbridled enthusiasm and positive out look bobruss, never change my friend.

Those are boutique cities. We are competing with Dallas to be the capital of the region, and we have the densest urban core of any Texas city (population at 1, 3, and 5 mile radii). As downtown becomes pedestrian friendly, it will draw people for the same reason that downtown Chicago draws people - the excitement and scale of things, the feeling of being at the center of something. Right now our downtown is still struggling to overcome a concrete, glass, and metal environment that was not built to be walked in. We have spent 20 years undoing the damage of the previous 50 years and it will take a few decades more. The historic district and Discovery Green have made it, the rest of downtown still has work to do. The reshaping of the freeways presents a massive opportunity, and the whole area north of Buffalo Bayou carries enormous untapped potential. There is more inertia to overcome than those cities you mention, but our upside is higher.

If you put 26 lanes on every freeway there won't be any room left for people to live. I don't want Katy style freeways everywhere.The Katy is already reaching the saturation point where it was before Culbertson pushed for its widening. In ten years they'll want to make it wider. That's not a solution. We need 21st century solutions that include less concrete. I want commuter trains, bullet trains, light rail, BRT, more bike paths, and better sidewalks.

From the past few days... From 3300 Main

SubdivisionPlatPDF_Plat PDF - UPPER KIRBY SENIOR LIVING-54813-20190122.pdf

They’re hauling away the Arabella sales trailer today.

Beautiful building. The Art Store and I discussed the homeless and mentally ill today. Touchy subject, but enjoy the pics

I'm a fan of scooters for the last mile transit problem, in fact, I use one myself, though a human-powered Razor A5 Lux, not an e-scooter, to get me to and from the bus stop, so that I can leave my car at home on nice days. I don't think, however, we should so quickly pooh-pooh peoples' concerns about e-scooter apps. I was in San Francisco a while back, and I saw the problem with these scooters littering sidewalks, I saw how they caused congestion and slowdown on the sidewalks of both pedestrian and wheeled traffic. That's not increasing mobility, that's reducing it. And some of these scooters get up to nearly 30 miles an hour. That's way too fast to be safe on sidewalks, especially with an inexperienced rider who just downloaded an app, but these things aren't great sharing the road with cars, either, where they can't necessarily keep up with the flow of traffic so can slow it down, and are low visibility, easy for a motorist to miss. And the problem is the very nature of the app business model is going to lean away from encouraging people to be courteous in their use of these things. When riders have no more commitment to the piece of hardware they're riding than the few minutes they are on it, and don't really care what happens to it when they stop riding it, a significant portion are going to just leave them anywhere, without any concern for whether it inconveniences or even injures someone. Unfortunately, there are just a lot of inconsiderate a-holes in this world. And this model also encourages a lot more casual, occasional, unskilled riders than people owning their own scooters would, which is going to put them and the pedestrians around them at greater risk.

I don't think anyone has confirmed yet, but it almost certainly looks like a leasing office.

So this is confirmed a leasing office?

I keep on reading the title as "Latest Plot for Astroworld Redevelopment" instead of "Latest Astroworld Plot Redevelopment".

Can Astroworld just come back?

I think at one point there was supposed to be a high-end restaurant in this building, that would also offer room service to the Arabella. Not sure if that's (still) the case.

A "Notice of Termination of Protective Covenants" was recorded by Shell on this property with Harris County Clerk yesterday and signed by a Shell manager of deals & projects. Not sure what this means but hopefully something is imminent

What's that in the sky? It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's....the joke!