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1 hour ago, Amlaham said:

The sidewalks are legit soo narrow, you have to walk in a single file instead of side by side if you're walking with someone...... I cannot stand this roach mayor. Are we not paying thousands of dollars in taxes for these services? Our infrastructure is legit crumbling.... we can't seem to fix the traffic problem because we're told we just need more roads, the actual roads are pothole infested and falling apart, the side walks are abysmal, we have 3 nice parks in the entire city. Now the mayor wants to budget cut on an extra foot or 2 on wider side walks???? 

The mayor's been legit in office for a legit few months.  I legit don't believe he's had enough time to legit replace all the roach sidewalks. 

How about we legit stick to the topic at hand, and leave the roach politics for the politics section.

3 hours ago, 004n063 said:

Likewise, we could work making it easier to open food stalls in parks. Mexico City has an amazing park food culture that feels like something we could emulate in places like Discovery Green, Hermann Park, Buffalo Bayou / Eleanor Tinsley Park, Emancipation Park, Elizabeth Baldwin Park, and even Autry Park. 

I'm OK with some limited number of food carts in parks, but not a full-blown park food culture.  

Houston already has a huge problem with trash, and the bayous are already full of garbage.  Go to Moody Park and there's a tree along the bayou with its bottom half almost completely covered in plastic bags and other trash.

It's been a long time since the days of "Don't mess with Texas."  People have little pride of place, or civic pride these days.  A couple of food carts in the parks are probably manageable.  But a bunch of them will likely get out of hand.

I'd like to see the city set up designated food truck parking spaces downtown and maybe in the parking lots of some parks.  I've seen it in other cities, but I don't know if they've been successful long-term.  I do know that the food truck operators were happy to have them, as the spots are assigned and rotated so that it's not like a Mad Max situation, like it is with Houston's tow trucks.

I received this message from Cityliving this morning, and asked me to share it:

Quote

My photographs are copyrighted and anyone who copies them or posts them without my permission will be fined, my lawyers will be notifying anyone who does so, I work with construction companies who have projects on this site who asked me not to post my drone photographs on this site because they pay me to do work for them and that is why I removed my photographs.

11 minutes ago, trymahjong said:

I wonder what % of HPD officers engage in non beat cop/ patrol cop duties? 

It's an interesting question.  I can't speak for the specific roles you mention, but I do know that HPD does have a number of civilian employees who work behind the scenes.  I'm friends with one of them, and while we don't talk about his work as much as we used to, my impression is that there are quite a few non-officers who do the administrative work.

20 minutes ago, urbanize713 said:

Can his posts also just be banned moing forward to save us all the trouble? Seeking unbridled adulation is not the same as other members that are trying to add to the site with pictures, information, and even heated deates at times. 

Been on HAIF for over a decade and can't recall another member acting in such a childish manner. 

There's no need to ban him from posting, as he hasn't posted anything since February.  He's self-censoring.

I saw tags on it a couple of weeks ago about nobody being available for a city inspection.  

The stop work order seems much more serious.

A few points:

• Cityliving is within his rights to delete his images.  They're his.  Yes, it harms the community, but the law doesn't recognize harm to HAIF.  It does recognize copyright infringement.
• Yes, it is possible for a photographer to get money out of an organization for infringement.  I've paid the rent a number of times that way.  You just have to know how to do it.  Complaining on social media is no different than going into your closet and shouting at your shoes.
• Cityliving doesn't have "constant" deletions.  He  hasn't posted anything since February.  His black boxes will be memories soon enough, as the threads move on.
• I'll let the moderators know they can remove the images if they come across them.  But there's over half-a-million posts on HAIF, so a dragnet is not reasonable.

13 hours ago, Ross said:

Usually a better deal on rent. On the cynical side, another reason is proximity to the CEO's home. But, the Noble CEO lives in River Oaks, and I doubt that CityWest is easier to get to than Sugar Land.

I once worked for a company that relocated its office so that the owner could walk to work.  The memo stated it was "greener" that way.  Sure, for him.  He moved the office from a location which was two blocks from a passenger rail line that most of the other 30-something employees used.

Just one way that was a shitty company.

19 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

Just imagine if the mayor would quit BSing about Montrose Boulevard and make it a designated gateway for Montrose with nice wide sidewalks

Does the city have an ordinance and/or design rules for official neighborhood gateways?

I'd like to see Montrose Boulevard look more like Heights Boulevard.  The problem is that it's a major traffic corridor.  

20 hours ago, __nevii said:

I know the perfect way reframe TMC³:

"Bringing new volumes to the life sciences" 😉

Very nerdy.  I approve.

I guess using TMC³ on a sign is cheaper than using "TMC TMC TMC."

21 hours ago, IntheKnowHouston said:

the topping out of Rone Residences

I'm always curious about how buildings are named.  Nothing came up in my dictionaries for "Rone," so I tried the Wikimopedia:

Rone is the nom de plume of Tyrone Wright, a street artist.
Rone may also refer to:
Rone (musician), French music producer and artist, born Erwan Castex
Rone, Gotland, a settlement in Sweden
8680 Rone, a main-belt asteroid
Rone, a Scottish word for a gutter downpipe

Since we're Space City, let's go with the asteroid.

I guess Houston gets Bunslut, while the west coast (+Tokyo, London, etc…) has Eggslut .

I wonder what the next slutty restaurant will be.

Dibs on Pickleslut!

I noticed a couple of weeks ago that this is open.  Seems to have a very Texas theme, with oil wells in red neon.

I haven't tried it yet, but hope to soon.  I've got to stop going to Tout Suite.  It charges full-service restaruant prices, even though it's just a self-serve cafe.  

I just walked past, and the retail space to the left of the main entrance is being kitted out for something called OTG Coffee.

Always happy to have another coffee option.  Hopefully it notices that there are lots of potential customers in the park at night, and stays open.

Even the Starbucks in the Hilton sees that, and serves booze after office hours like the one I used to frequent in Seattle.

This is the second large company to leave Sugar Land recently.  At least that I can remember.  I wonder if there's been more.  And why.

Now it's paid parking. 

I've walked past Spicy Girl a dozen times, but this weekend was the first time I've walked by on the opposite side of the street, and been able to see its sign.

It was nice to see Pucca on the sign.  For what appears to be a local, non-chain restaurant, it must have cost them big money to license that cartoon.  When my wife and I used to travel in Asia a lot, we'd see her all over the place.  But I don't entirely understand why a Chinese restaurant would use a Korean cartoon character as its logo.  Though, I guess it's less strange than when Pucca toys were being given away at Burger King.

For those of you not into Korean cartoons, this is Pucca:

Also, according to Google Translate, the sign actually reads "Chuan Chuan Girl."  Chuan Chuan is like hotpot-on-a-stick, where you skewer your food, then cook it in a pot of broth bubbling on your table.  So the word "spicy" is not in the Chinese title, as far as I can tell.  

2 hours ago, Ross said:

An LVT would force land owners to build buildings that are not needed and that would not produce enough income to cover the costs of the development. If buildings were economic to build, land owners would build them.

I'm not sure how it would force anyone to do anything.  A landowner can still choose not to build something.  Or they can choose to build something and recoup the cost of the property tax, just like with any other building.  

As for new buildings not being needed, if that was true, we wouldn't have a nationwide housing shortage.

The part about "If buildings were economic to build, land owners would build them" is demonstrably false.  Even demonstrated in downtown Houston where a foreign government and a major oil company sit on undeveloped land just because they can afford to.  And the reason they can afford to is because it's not being taxed at its value. 

The good part is that with these nice wide one-way streets, curb lanes can be easily turned into pocket parks, outdoor dining, cycleways, or any of the other things that innovative cities are doing with their streets now that we live in an age of hybrid and full time work-from-home.  
 

Lots of cities are realizing that those lanes are no longer needed, and are giving that public space back to the public. 
 

3 minutes ago, Ross said:

It looks like it's actually both a detention basin and athletic fields

 

Yeah, sorry for not being clear.  That's the point I was trying to make.

18 hours ago, Highrise Tower said:

I see these two companies all of over the Texas Medical Center.  Airgas and Praxair are industrial gas companies.

https://www.airgas.com/

https://www.lindeus.com/

Praxair outside of MD Anderson north campus.

Those specific tanks are labeled 0 3 0 OX

The red 0 means "Will not burn"

The blue 3 means "Extreme danger"

The yellow 0 means "Stable"

The white OX means "Oxidizer."

My guess is it's liquid oxygen.  Hospitals use lots of oxygen.  And liquid oxygen is "extreme danger" because it is colder than −297.33 °F.   Stick your finger in that, and you can watch your arm shatter on the ground.

15 hours ago, 004n063 said:

Those poor Southamptonites. Such a downtrodden bunch.

According to Fannie Mae, the average per capita income in that area is $94,100.

The average per capita income in Houston is $39,521.

Who are these "rich" people they're worried about that aren't themselves?

Is it so awful to have a building full of wealthy people as neighbors?  I once lived in a building with a bunch of state supreme court justices, Jerry Springer, and the ghost of Chris Farley (he died nine floors above me).  They were all perfectly nice, quiet people.  Jerry Springer would even strike up civilized light conversation with my wife in the elevator, and he once handed me an orange in the supermarket when I couldn't decide which one to choose.  (We had a private supermarket on the 42nd floor.)

People just complain to hear themselves make noise.  Unfortunately, on the internet, everyone else gets to listen to their crazy, too.

On 4/6/2024 at 12:44 AM, IntheKnowHouston said:

Protest the Chaucer Building! Go in person to the sales office (they're having Open houses through this Sunday) or come sign a petition starting at 12pm this Sunday, April 7 outside the sales office.

We cannot let this happen. This will take two years with huge cranes shutting down traffic and hurting small businesses and restaurants. This isn't even for bringing life to the community, it's for wealthy people that want "pied a terre".  In addition, this art deco style building looks like Gringott's Bank (Harry Potter) with a gigantic GOLD front door! Not the look of Rice Village. A building this size (and style) does not belong in our small charming Rice Village. 

https://nextdoor.com/p/psjWpGqNYSRL

Translation: "I got mine. Screw everyone else."  Trés Houston.  

5 hours ago, Buy-U-City said:

After the terrible destruction of a 4000 ac. solar farm by a massive hail storm in Needville Tx, hopefully it's DEAD. Nothing environmentally friendly about that incident. The toxins leeching into the ground water from all the busted panels is a horrible nightmare.

Oh, wow.  "Toxins leeching into the ground water."  It would be scary, if true.

The most toxic thing about a solar panel is its protective coating, which is the same thing used to coat your car's windshield.

The whole "toxic solar panels" thing ranks right up there with "5G cell towers gave me measles" and "my brother's ex-wife's cousin's sister-in-law's mechanic got a COVID shot and grew a third head."

A little light reading: https://nccleantech.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Health-and-Safety-Impacts-of-Solar-Photovoltaics-PV.pdf

Man, look at all them toxins leaching out of them damaged solar panels.   

On 3/25/2024 at 1:11 PM, Houston19514 said:

It's perhaps even more common here in Houston.

https://www.willowwaterhole.org/

https://www.explorationgreen.org/

https://www.engagehouston.org/inwood-forest-regional-detention

And there are more...

I just noticed today that UH/D did it next to its new building:

The Apple Maps image makes it look like a detention basin, but going by on the train today I could see that it's athletic fields.