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barracuda

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Everything posted by barracuda

  1. No offense, but I think I prefer the empty lot to more generic, suburban development, especially in this location.
  2. Funny how they spin it as "one step closer to reduced traffic congestion." As if a massive development ring is going to reduce traffic congestion.
  3. This is besides your point, but their definition of 'food desert' is misleading. Zip code 77006 has access to plenty of supermarkets, including the remodeled Montrose Kroger and nearby H-E-B. Only the zips that have no supermarkets and are far removed from those in neighboring zip codes should really fall into that definition.
  4. I could post a point-by-point counter argument regarding breeders, but it wouldn't be fair to profile an entire group of people based upon this single attribute.
  5. Your claim about vacation was widely refuted back in August. After 31 months in office, Obama had taken 61 vacation days, compared to 180 days for Bush and 112 days for Reagan at the same point in their presidencies. http://www.cbsnews.c...n20093801.shtml I know facts won't change some people's opinions, but anyway, I'm not sure what attacking Michelle and the president have to do with the Heights Walmart...
  6. It seems like carmakers feel more of a need to create "brand identities" these days. In my opinion, Honda/Acura and Volkswagen have suffered as a result, because they've chosen identities that are ugly or bland compared to the vehicle designs they replaced. I personally don't see why I'd want a car that follows the same design cues as every other car in that automaker's lineup...some distinctiveness is a good thing IMO.
  7. Yes, the neighborhood is ideal for recreational walking. But it's 13 blocks to the nearest supermarket, 12-17 blocks to the Village, and 4+ miles to the CBD. The future residents are likely to drive for the vast majority of their trips. I will grant you that if I lived in the area, I would bicycle as much as possible.
  8. Just curious...do people favoring this project do so out of spite for the NIMBYs, or do you genuinely think it's ideal to errect high-rises in the middle of low-density neighborhoods consisting primarily of two-story homes and businesses? On one hand, maybe this is our best hope for residential densification in this city, since it's clearly not happening in the CBD. On the other hand, maybe such buildings will in fact degrade the surrounding neighborhood and diminish the desirability, as these are car-dependent developments that aren't going to make neighborhoods more walkable and livable for existing residents, at least with the revised plans. I have similar mixed feelings about 1111 Studewood.
  9. The other Sundance Cinema locations have bars with limited menu items (small pizzas, sandwiches, appetizers).
  10. If Walmart is taking sales from other retailers, is it possible that those retailers will cut jobs or shut down completely to account for the revenue loss? Or perhaps those workers would prefer one of the 200,000 jobs lost to China over just a 5 year period as a direct result of Walmart's trade deficit with the country, most of them manufacturing jobs that typically come with higher wages and benefits than the service jobs that replaced them. I'm glad you appreciate it, but I'm not disappointed in appraisal-based property taxes. I just find it strange that some would argue that Walmart subsidizes taxpayers, when they pay a lower property tax per square foot than a single family home even with exemption, and also rely heavily on government programs for their employees to get by.
  11. My house was considerably altered in the 30's or 40's with an addition, but most of the improvement value ratio increase is due to a large renovation a few years ago, combined with the smallish lot. Unfortunately, HCAD thinks the renovation added 23% to the value, even though the size only went up 200 sq. ft.
  12. I would argue that it's the consumers who pay sales taxes, with the retailer acting as the facilitator. And a new store in an established market like ours will primarily take revenue away from other retailers, so there is not much of a net increase in sales tax revenue. It takes things like population growth, rising salaries, and increased tourism to add real revenue to the area's retail base, not just adding more redundant retailers that borrow customers from one another. I think the reason the city likes to annex commercial areas is for simplicity and lower risk. The city gains a significant chunk of revenue by dealing with small number property owners who own large tracts of taxable real estate in adjacent areas. Residential, by comparison, is composed of many smaller plots, and of course as you said, noisy homeowners are much more of a hassle to work with, and worse yet, they are voters who could pose a threat to those in office if annexation is not desired. I do agree that this is more complicated than looking at property tax bills. More than anything, it doesn't account for the impact on public assistance from Walmart employees. Less than half of Walmart employees receive healthcare through their employer, and according to this source, Walmart employees cost taxpayer money for a variety of government programs, at an average cost of $420,750 to taxpayers per store. Those may be primarily federal programs, but regardless of the government entity they are drawing from, it is hard for me to believe that Walmart is subsidizing the public with the massive amount of evidence contradicting this claim.
  13. That's a subjective opinion. According to the city, it is historic. Regardless, I was mostly joking about getting additional tax abatement from the city. Mostly. You didn't read the comment. I didn't write that Walmart receives public assistance. But many of their employees do. And I'd rather not pay more taxes to compensate for companies like Walmart that don't pay closer to a living wage, all while they're raking in $16B in annual profits. Employees should not have to depend on public assistance programs like Medicaid and food stamps to survive. See my previous post and the above comment.
  14. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm not sure how one can accurately compare the overall impact to the tax system between a retail supercenter and a single family home. Each places different demands on infrastructure and services. But if we must, how about comparing the real taxes paid on square foot of property? By that method, I pay $1.34 per square foot for my 5000 square foot lot (with homestead exemption). For my rental property, I pay $2.98/sq. ft. The Dunvale Super Walmart pays $0.61 per square foot of land for their 889,593 sq. ft. property, and the S Post Oak regular Walmart pays even less, $0.40/sq. ft. So, I am paying as much as 7x the amount of property taxes relative to property size compared to an existing Walmart. And consider that appraisals for supercenters are heavily weighted towards the land value. For the Dunvale location, it's 83% for land vs. 17% for the improvements. In comparison, my Heights property appraisal value is weighted 37% for land and 63% for improvements. So, essentially a house on a 5000 square foot Heights lot is more valuable per square foot than a Walmart parking lot or even the store itself.
  15. Maybe owners of historic homes should get more tax exemptions beyond the standard homestead exemption. After all, we are now the stewards of homes that can only be modified with the City's HAHC approval, and we pay more to maintain and update our homes to adhere to these rules. As far as paying less proportionate tax than Walmart, how do you compare a 152,000 retailer to a single family home? The tax rate does not really take into account the return on investment each receives from city resources for things like infrastructure and public assistance. Walmart encourages employees to draw from public assistance to compensate for the low pay and meager benefits they receive. Their "low" prices are achieved through fancy management that offsets the cost by relying on others as much as possible. As taxpayers, s3mh and others have a right to complain about this and oppose this project. If anything, those living in historic homes in the Heights are subsidizing the property tax system. The houses are appraised higher per square foot than many other parts of town, even as they need more attention and cost to maintain. The majority of homeowners, at least in my neighborhood, do not have kids attending HISD. And most Heights homeowners are probably not relying on public assistance to make ends meet; otherwise those folks would be finding less expensive areas to live. And I'm not complaining about the unfairness of the tax system when it comes to citizens, but it does bother me when corporations or developments of a certain size suddenly become outliers of the tax system that the rest of us have to subsidize.
  16. According to the Chronicle, several tenants are already clearing out of the building even though Skanska has not confirmed anything. Latest renderings & info: http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2015/06/developer-to-pour-foundation-for-downtown-office-tower/#23198101=0 http://capitoltowerhouston.com/img/renderings/lobby-capitol.jpg
  17. I think losing the dedicated right turn lane onto the I10 W feeder was a mistake. I don't know how else they could have configured it, but the sudden lane change seems to confuse a lot of folks who suddenly find themselves in the left turn lane.
  18. More evidence that Exxon is going against the grain... Young professionals pulling offices back downtown
  19. I always thought that place had potential, but the food was so greasy there. Glad to see that something better is going in. Speaking of this intersection, I still haven't heard what will go in across the street in the old Houston Tamales Factory location. Anyone know?
  20. They seem to be most active after dark. I often go biking at night and i see them all the time. They make great neighbors, as they are quiet and love to eat cockroaches.
  21. If you look at the sun path for growing season in Houston, there is very little angle for much of the day. In addition, there is a spread of nearly 240 degrees, from about 60 degrees to 300 degrees across the horizon from sunrise to sunset. So, the building would need to be built nearly on top of the homes, and surround the homes by 240 degrees from northeast, south, and northwest to be block all the sun. Come winter, the sun sets much further to the south, so the homes affected by brief shadows in the summer won't be affected later in the year.
  22. Unfortunately I think you're right. Just look at Silicon Valley, which has a high-concentration of engineers but is primarily suburban and decentralized (with San Francisco being the exception). Plenty of engineering types are fine with spending most their free time on campus, enraptured with work, and many of them have no problem having work colleagues as their main social network. That is, unless they get married, in which case living in suburbia is almost a given.
  23. Not exactly a gem, but it seems inoffensive enough. I'm curious how the 2nd and 3rd parking levels will look from the street. From the computer graphic there appear to be dark gray windows.
  24. I'm guessing that the Heights proper isn't as attractive based on traffic count and historical demographic data (lower density and per capita income). Of course, the per capita income has been increasing, but then there's the proximity to so many great restaurants closer in the loop - close enough that it probably hurts restaurant opportunity in the Heights. And the area is out of the way for folks living south of I-10, who already have a great number of restaurant choices in Montrose, Midtown, the CBD and River Oaks. I suspect White Oak Dr. could turn eventually out to be the one exception due to spillover from Washington and proximity to the I-10 interchange. I would like to see at least one great restaurant in the neighborhood, or at least greater diversity.
  25. Nice time-lapse. Sorry about your change in view. I notice that the construction phase in the latest Google Maps satellite image almost matches your photo number 13. It looks like they were taken within days of each other.
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