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editor

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Posts posted by editor

  1. Post and Finn Hall are very different audiences.

    Finn Hall is for office workers and tourists.  And I'm surprised how many people go in there on Saturdays.  It's not "busy" by any stretch of the imagination, but my observation has been that there's a lot more foot traffic than I would have expected.

    The Post is for urban wannabes who want to cosplay cosmopolitan urbanity from the sanitized safety of a rooftop, across a moat, and a half-mile away from the downtown core.  It's for the people who pull their kids nearer to them when they walk past someone sleeping on the sidewalk.  A not-quite-Disneyfied version of what it's like to be downtown.

    That said, Post has the advantage over Finn Hall for a few reasons:

    - The Post's concert venue.  People who don't ordinarily go downtown won't make the trip just for a food court.  But they will go there for a concert.  Then once they've seen the place, know what to expect, and most importantly know how to get there, they will return for the food court.

    - Post's parking situation is a lot less scary for people used to parking at Target and Kohl's, instead of inside parking garages. Plus they don't have to deal with one-way streets, which make people from outside Beltway 8 fudge their Huggies.

    - The Post has a ton of programming.  There is something going on at least weekly, and sometimes it verges on daily.  The Post has done a great job with bringing in reasons to visit the Post beyond the food court.  

    - The Post seems to have a proper PR company, or a PR person on staff.  it gets lots of attention in print and TV, and seems to be media-friendly.  Finn Hall seems to think having an Instagram account is all that's needed for success.  It couldn't be more wrong.  Coca-Cola and McDonald's don't spend millions of dollars on advertising and PR because it doesn't work.  I like Finn Hall, but when it comes to self-promotion, it's seriously amateur hour over there.  I live a block away from Finn Hall, and the only way I find out that anything is happening there is when I see it mentioned in the Chronicle a few weeks later.  But I see what feels like 80% of what's happening at the Post.  

    Both could do better, but Finn Hall has a lot of catching up to do.  It looks like amateur hour over there.  Even some of the crappy bars down the street had big Taylor Swift events after the concert, enticing people to ride the train to after parties.  Finn Hall was dark.  There's no imagination over there.  And what's bad for Finn Hall is bad for Finn Hall's eateries, and bad for the neighborhood.

     

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  2. At the Four Seasons downtown:

    IMG_0123.jpegIMG_0124.jpegIMG_0126.gif

     

    At the Hilton Americas-Houston:

    IMG_0117.jpegIMG_0118.jpegIMG_0119.jpegIMG_0120.jpegIMG_0121.jpeg

     

    At Kofeteria in EaDo:

    image.jpeg

    At Table 7 Bistro downtown:

    image.jpeg

     

    At Methodist Hospital:

    IMG_0063.jpegIMG_0064.jpegIMG_0065.jpegIMG_0067.jpeg

     

    At Shake Shack downtown:

    image.jpeg

     

    At 811 Main:

    image.gif

     

    At Main Street Square:

    IMG_0051.jpegIMG_0054.gifIMG_0056.gifIMG_0057.jpegIMG_0059.gif

     

    At the Club Quarters hotel downtown:

    image.jpeg

     

    At the Kirby Lofts downtown:

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    At 1000 Main:

    IMG_0040.jpegIMG_0041.jpeg

     

    At The Star:

    IMG_0034.jpegIMG_0035.jpeg

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  3. image.png

     

    What's the fastest way to lose my vote?  Send me text message spam.

    It shows a fundamental lack of respect for me as a person and a voter; shows how out of touch the candidate is; and demonstrates that to him, his campaign is more important than anything else, including the voters.

    I keep a running list of politicians who have spammed me, and each election I make sure not to vote for any of them.

    I'm no fan of Sheila Jackson Lee, but at least she's not a filthy spammer.

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  4. 17 hours ago, mattyt36 said:

    I have zero idea why State politics continue to overcompensate to allow individuals with zero common sense, nevermind empathy, run the place.

    I do.  Money.

    Taking very public stands on moral issues that get you national attention is a way for politicians to attract in-state, out-of-state, and overseas donors for their next campaign so they don't have to get a real job.

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  5. On 11/18/2023 at 10:33 PM, Highrise Tower said:

    Has anyone also noticed that in some TMC parking garages, taking a parking ticket is no longer an option? You insert your credit card, to serve as your parking ticket.

    Kinda crazy but it makes sense! Why should TMC pay for parking ticket rolls when they're not needed? Paper is expensive.

    Paper is cheap.  Parking companies pitch these machines to companies like TMC so that the parking companies can collect data about who comes and goes, how often, and how long they stay.  

    Giving your credit card number to anyone for anything other than making a purchase is dumb.  Matching up a credit card number with the tracking profile of a human being is cheap and easy.  Google buys 90% of credit card transaction information to build its profiles on everyone, whether they use Google or not.  And most of the other big tech companies, advertising companies, and data brokers do the same.

    Moreover, requiring a credit card for anything is bad.  According to the FDIC, there are six million households in America that do not have a bank account.

    But it gets worse when you break it down by race.  40% of Black Americans do not have a credit card.  What are they supposed to do?  In certain cities, businesses have been using the "Sorry, no cash!" signs as a way to keep certain races out of their stores.  It's why more and more cities (most recently Los Angeles) are making it illegal for retailers to not accept cash.  

    Every time I go into a store in Houston and see a sign that says "No cash" I read it as "Go be poor or Black somewhere else."

    • Like 1
  6. On 11/20/2023 at 9:24 AM, 004n063 said:

    Off the top of my head, the following protected high-comfort bikeways are not visible on Google Maps:

    Cullen - continuously protected bikeway from MacGregor/Brays Bayou to Polk. Off-street pathways on both sides of the street from Brays to I-45, on-street armadillo-protected from 45 to Polk, with additional protection via parked cars on the northbound side. North of 45 can have debris. Total protected distance 2.2mi.

    Lawndale - concrete barriers from Forest Hill Blvd to the KIPP Explore/Intrepid/East End campus on the south (eastbound) side and to Telephone on the north (westbound) side. Lots of cutouts for driveways & look out for parked cars between Wayside and Brays Bayou. Total protected distance 1.6mi.

    Polk - concrete barriers on both sides extend protection from Cullen to Lockwood. Total protected distance (Emancipation to Lockwood) 1.6mi.

    Almeda - MUP on the west/southbound side from Hermann Drive to Holly Hall. Total protected distance 2.3mi.

    East 11th - curb-protected lanes continue from Heights to Micheaux. Total protected distance 1.5mi.

    Commonwealth - curb-protected one-way lane from Waugh to Yoakum. Total protected distance 1.1mi.

    Heights - combination of MUP and armadillos get you from Willia to I-10. Wide but unprotected lanes from I-10 to 20th. Terrible unprotected crossings at I-10 and Memorial. The gaps here are pretty inexcuseable in my opinion. Westheimer to 20th should be a seamless straight shot. Total protected distance irrelevant until those gaps are closed.

    Shepherd & Durham - curb-protected one-way lanes from Dickson to Washington. Total protected distance 0.4mi.

    Blodgett - wide, curb-protected lanes on both sides of the street from Scott to Ennis. Some nicely done intersections, especially with the Columbia Tap. Total protected distance 1.2mi.

    Wheeler - MUP continies (in increasingly unimpressive form, I'll admit) from Cullen to Tierweister and along MLK from Wheeler to the new Fertita College of Medicine building. Total protected distance (not including Bayou connection) 1.4mi.

    Please add any you can think of.

    Probably also worth mentioning that despite what Google Maps says, there are no bike facilities on Fannin or on Memorial between Crosswood and Shepherd.

    How does Apple Maps compare?  I remember a year or so ago there was a lot of chatter about Apple putting a lot of effort into bicycle routes in Apple Maps, but I don't know if Houston benefitted from that.  

  7. +1 for the Katy Prairie line.

    -1 for the ding against education.  Teachers are there to teach, not entertain.  Not everyone — especially smart people — is engaging.  It's incumbent upon the students to realize why they are where they are and to engage themselves appropriately.

    When I was in elementary school, our classrooms were right against the gravel lot that was used for gym class, and we managed to keep our eyes on the board, and not the flailing limbs and careering balls hurled by the students outside.

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  8. 3 hours ago, jhjones74 said:

    I always find it funny when people try to give Houston more street cred than it deserves. Unfortunately though I have to say, at least anecdotally I feel like downtown has regressed some the last 6 months. I'm still proud to call it home and have no plans to leave, but it's not the homeless I'm ever worried about. It's the seedier crowd that's making their way into downtown now, which is new to me having lived here for the last ~5 years. Not sure if it's a function of the turnover/newer bars, but either way the late night crowd downtown has a much higher desire for fighting and causing trouble than I've seen before. Case in point the guy shot and killed two weeks ago by Phoenicia. I don't walk around late downtown as much as I used to, but I had a situation a few weeks ago with two drunk guys looking to just fight randomly that could have gotten really ugly.

    Obviously this underbelly will be present in any city, particularly around bars/nightlife - I think though to entirely dismiss crime as an issue (particularly when it comes to public perception) in downtown or anywhere isn't fair

    You're right — downtown is worse today than it was six months ago.  But it's better than it was when I first moved downtown in 1999.  

    I think the problem is three-fold:

    1. There are fewer "normal" people downtown (see #2).  When there's lots of regular people around, the drug addicts and vagrants don't stand out as much.  But that's true in pretty much every city I've re-visited in the last five years.  Perhaps if there was more for regular people to do downtown, then people would come out of their apartments in the sky and give the neighborhood a more vibrant feel.  And there are more and more opportunities to do so, like the occasional Discovery Green night market, and the innumerable events at Market Square Park.  But it has to happen all over downtown, and not just in two locations.  
    2. There's a lot of street drugs available downtown, especially in the area of Rusk and Main.  When I first moved downtown again a few years ago, I was approached a couple of times by dealers who look exactly like the stereotype you'd expect from watching TV crime dramas.  But lately I've seen a pair of 20-something preppy-looking white kids dealing.  They walk the streets in a regular pattern.  One has a backpack, and the other approaches druggies one at a time asking if they need a refill, or a top-up, or whatever they called it.  They act very corporate.  It's weird.
    3. Metro seems to have reduced its policing of the trains.  There are often fare inspectors standing on the platforms, but they hardly ever get on the trains anymore, I suspect because so many of the fare machines are broken and they can't legitimately write a ticket to someone who got on at a stop with a broken machine.  Just yesterday I had a fare inspector stop me from scanning my Q card because the machine was broken, and he told me to just get on like everyone else.  And I don't think I've seen an actual Metro police officer on a train in over a year.   This past Friday a guy was having a seizure in the first car of the train, and someone pushed the emergency button.  When the train driver opened his door and asked what was going on, someone told him not to worry about it, the guy was just overdosing.  So the driver shrugged his shoulders and went back to driving the train.  The train shouldn't have moved until an ambulance arrived.  Maybe the driver called for one to meet him up ahead somewhere, but I stayed on the train for seven more stops, and no help arrived for the guy writhing on the floor just a dozen feet from the train driver.

     

     

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  9. 43 minutes ago, august948 said:

    I'll give the Tim Bits a try next time.  If nothing else, it's a place to get coffee and donuts at zero dark thirty, especially now that the Westheimer location is open. 

    Anything else worth checking out?

    It's been probably ten years since I was a semi-regular, so the menu has probably changed a lot.  Plus, a lot of the inventory is seasonal.  But if you like Dunkin', you'll like Tim's.  I'm not sure why people who have access to both bicker about which is better; I like them both.

    The nice thing about Tim Horton's is that it's open 24-hours.  I'm surprised how few places of any kind (doughnut shops, taco joints, pharmacies, supermarkets, bakeries, bowling alleys) are open 24 hours in Houston.  When I lived in Chicago, I'd sometimes get off of work at 11pm on a Sunday night, walk to the bowling alley, take a bus to a sandwich joint, then take the train to the pharmacy and then grab a newspaper on the way home.  If I can't sleep in Houston, pretty much all I can do is drive in circles around Beltway 8.

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  10. 21 hours ago, august948 said:

    Went to the one in Katy a few weeks ago.  The donuts and coffee were ok, not spectacular, but decent enough.  They keep their donuts cold and we discovered the next day that the frosting on the donuts left over melted at room temp.

    I wonder if that's a sign that the frosting is made with butter or lard or something else that's not stable at room temperature like artificial equivalents.

    I'm a fan of Tim Bits.  I'll have to check this out the next time I'm in Katy.  But to be honest, I'm more likely to end up at a Tim's in Toronto before Katy.

  11. I saw this posted on the front door of Fifth Vessel last week.  Interesting.

    image.jpeg

     

    I'm always surprised that people feel unsafe downtown.  Just because someone asks you for money doesn't mean it's not safe.  It means that there are poor people in the world.  When I see an item in the newspaper about a murder, it's usually  in Conroe or San Jacinto County.  It's almost never downtown.

    There was a guy on the train a couple of days ago ranting about "Man, downtown is hard. It's so hard. It'll eat you up.  It's just not safe without a gun."  I wanted to say to him, "Dude, calm down.  It's Houston.  It's not Atlanta.  It's not Chicago.  It's not that bad.  Get a grip."

     

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  12. That's sad.  I loved getting a chicken pita sandwich there on lunch hour and just watching the world go by.  

    I wonder if they couldn't make enough money, or if their lease wasn't renewed.  Ordinarily for places downtown, I assume that the foot traffic wasn't enough, but it's always seemed to have customers.   And I imagine it gets mobbed with all of the events that happen at Market Square these days.  Maybe it didn't have the surge capacity to capitalize on those rushes.  Sad, either way.

    On a related Market Square note, on Friday there was a half-dozen men working with concrete on the fountain next to Niko Niko's, so maybe that project is nearing completion.

  13. I think "wellness focused apartments" is just a rebranding of something that some developers have been doing for years, and it's also part of the amenities race.  It seems to happen when developers hire higher-end interior design groups to kit out their buildings, rather than doing it themselves.

    It's a big change from the "poor person's view of how rich people live" that many apartment buildings employ.  One example: Flat screens in the lobby and common areas.  When I come home from a hard day at work, I want my building to be welcoming, not cosplaying a sports bar.

  14. Silly branding that makes it seem like they're chasing trends, instead of focusing on their core business.

    At least they skipped the whole "My" fad, or we'd end up with MyDowntown Houston the way we're still saddles with MyNetworkTV. 

    Or maybe they should go retro and be "eDowntown Houston?"

    I think it was Apple that started this mess with Apple News+.  But now everyone is doing it.  Monkey see, monkey do.

    I even watch WGN-TV+ in the morning.

    Maybe I'll re-brand Ad-Free HAIF HAIF+.

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