The Ozone Files

New Houston Chronicle article yesterday: Houston’s long-range transit plan could go to voters without some specifics

New article in the Houston Chronicle that I haven't seen posted yet: Massive I-45 rebuild has big opposition to overcome, from air quality to flooding to low-income housing displacements It is a $7 billion plan aimed at easing traffic by adding managed lanes and redesigning I-45, but worries of further displacement, flooding and air quality linger as the project moves ahead. EDIT: Try this link instead: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/transportation/article/Massive-I-45-project-will-remake-Houston-freeway-13999092.php?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HC_TexasTake&utm_term=news&utm_content=briefing

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-02-13/why-america-s-new-apartment-buildings-all-look-the-same?srnd=businessweek-v2 Details the history and reasons for the proliferation of apartment mid-rises with five stick-built floors over one concrete podium (five-over-one) and the apartment wrap known as the "Texas doughnut." And of course these buildings are a high fire risk before walls and sprinklers are installed, as we saw with the total loss of the unfinished mid-rise at W. Dallas and Montrose. Thought HAIF would appreciate the article.

While chatting with Bob at Imparali Tailor today, I learned that all tenants in his building were given a 6 month notice to vacate. He said the building would be torn down in order to build a 15 story office tower. This is basically just hearsay, but I thought HAIF would like to know. The building is across Richmond from Midway's Kirby Grove. I didn't find a previous thread for this address in a search. Apologies if this is old news.

Good find! Exciting news. I hope Khun Kay Thai finds a new home in those 2 stories of ground floor retail.

And finally the last building comes down... Taken earlier this evening.

There goes the next one... Sorry the photo isn't better.

Snapped this from Katy Freeway today.

They are now tearing down the buildings in the block described in my previous post. Phase 3 coming soon? I'll try to snag a pic.

I visited CityCentre yesterday early afternoon and noticed chain-link fencing surrounding the entire block of old office buildings just north of the development. The tenant signage had been mostly removed and the buildings looked vacant. It is the block identified as Phase III in the plan below. Anyone have news on this going forward?

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2016/05/09/exclusive-namesake-tenant-to-vacate-downtown.html

Yep. The budget "provides $175 million for the new Europa mission and an additional $25 million for 'icy satellites surface technology' development. It directs NASA to develop a lander for Europa." From the LA Times article linked above (#3):

Article: An Extraordinary Budget for NASA in 2016: Congressional omnibus would increase the space agency's budget by $1.3 billion Prompted by a discussion on the front page of Reddit this morning, I shared this link on /r/houston. Seems relevant to Houstonians in general. Perhaps some positive news amidst the energy industry downturn. And perhaps a step closer to the vision of Johnson Space Center seen in The Martian. Also, for those unaware, Houston-area Congressmen have significant influence over this budget: Ted Cruz (R-TX) is the chair of the science and space subcommittee within the Senate commerce committeeJohn Culberson (R-TX Houston) is the chair of the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS), and Related Agencies subcommittee within the Appropriations Committee in the U.S. House of RepresentativesBackground links on these two on space and science funding: [1] [2] [3]

Now if only we could have our elected officials do the same.

Just a thought: This campus has been advertised as a "research" campus. The qualifier indicates that the campus would not function as a traditional four-year university. It follows, then, that the campus would not compete for undergraduate admissions. It may plausibly attract some local graduate students or faculty who might otherwise choose UH. However, academic recruitment at the graduate and faculty level typically draws from a national or international pool of applicants, especially for highly-competitive, well-funded departments. Anyone familiar with the academic job market will know that there is a surplus of highly-qualified graduate students, post-docs, and faculty in the United States and abroad. The University of Texas System has access to tremendous resources (probably inequitable access, as some have noted) in the PUF, which has only grown larger thanks to the fracking boom. They are proposing to invest these otherwise untapped resources in Houston; recruit a national pool of talented, yet underutilized applicants to Houston; and presumably bring greater federal and private research grants to Houston. This is intellectual and financial capital that would simply go unused or go elsewhere. The end result should be more academic faculty, more highly-qualified students, more research dollars, and more capital investment in the Houston area, all in addition to the important growth occurring at the University of Houston. The centers of innovation in this country were preceded by a concentration of top-notch academic institutions and subsequent growth in the knowledge class: Silicon Valley and North Carolina's Research Triangle come to mind. Why can't we have this, too? And I say all this as an Aggie. Now, would it be more sensible to instead simply share the PUF more equally? Perhaps. But that's a separate, if germane, discussion.