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rechlin

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Everything posted by rechlin

  1. rechlin
    Wow, what a total transformation. I'm not sure how I feel about the clashing architectural styles between old and new, but this should be great for downtown. I like how they are taking away parts of the 4HC parking garage to improve street presence with GFR, and the addition of extra outdoor patios will be great. So many times I want to eat outside, only to find that all the tables on the existing 2HC rooftop deck are taken. I'm really liking how vast areas of useless concrete in the existing site plan are being replaced with greenery, buildings, or dining areas. Mobility appears to be vastly improved too, with better walkways and more stairs/escalators in ideal locations. Another small grocer is great for downtown, too; hopefully it can fill in gaps left by the existing Phoenicia across the street. The site plans show 8 rooms in the Entertainment area marked as "theaters". They are relatively small, though, with only a couple dozen seats per theater -- I wonder if this is going to be some kind of small upscale niche movie theater like iPic? My only real disappointment is the dominance of "concepts" and "laboratories" in the food hall. People downtown don't want "concepts" (which to me implies something that's not fully thought out and probably will close in a few months), they want consistent, reliable places to eat, especially where they can get something quick and cheap (there's no shortage of fancier places). Seems like there's no room for a place like Doozo anymore, which is far more than just a concept, and instead just a very popular place for affordable food.
  2. rechlin
    Actually that is used by all the buses that stop at the Wheeler Transit Center (5, 25 Westbound, 65, 152, 153) to get back onto Main to continue their routes. Without Blodgett they would have to drive all the way down to Arbor Place, adding additional lights and delays to all those routes (though 5 and 65 would be less affected). Most of those are heavily used routes; Metro would not be happy about that. With Blodgett being removed here, I wonder what Metro will do. From the renderings it seems the Wheeler Transit Center will be reconfigured, so maybe they will have the bus depot curve to the west to exit onto Main instead of Fannin? But that would be an awfully tight hairpin turn for the buses, consider the cap park doesn't extend all the way to Main. I really wonder if TxDOT thought this through. Here's the current bus routes (25 is red, 152/153 is green, 65 is blue): And here's what they would have to do if Blodgett is removed:
  3. rechlin
    Honestly, with just a good pressure washing it would probably look better than an unfortunate number of the hotels/apartments being built nowadays will look after the same 45 years.
  4. rechlin
    Could you please stop giving him attention? It will only encourage him if he sees this.
  5. rechlin
    If that's the "value-engineered" version of The Allen, I'm happy. Still looks unique and fairly interesting. While a partially cantilevered building would be even cooler, we all know Houston can't support anything too architecturally daunting, so I'm pleased if this is what we can get. Still wish they could have added the pedestrian bridge over Allen Parkway, though.
  6. rechlin
  7. rechlin
    Exterior is getting very close:
  8. rechlin
    No, not wrong. The Days Inn was originally a Holiday Inn.
  9. rechlin
    Yes, and I'd guess it was probably from October given that the Caydon tower still has the cranes up and isn't quite topped out yet.
  10. rechlin
    Seen on reddit, posted by /u/west1974 (older photo though):
  11. rechlin
    Seen on reddit, posted by /u/west1974:
  12. rechlin
    I've been very happy with the Amcrest 4 megapixel (halfway between full HD and 4K resolution) camera. I use it with Blue Iris software which supports YouTube live streaming; I haven't checked to see whether you can do live streaming with cheaper/free software. Best thing is they are designed in Houston (but built in China by Dahua); Amcrest is based out of the Energy Corridor. This is the model I've used but they have both cheaper and more expensive models too. It's currently $92.54 shipped including tax, after the 10% new customer discount: https://amcrest.com/amcrest-ultrahd-4mp-dual-band-wifi-video-security-ip-camera-pt-black-ip4m-1051b.html As an alternative, if you have an old cell phone you can set one up to stream to YouTube too. That won't cost you anything, but the picture quality will be significantly worse. Another alternative is what I did for my construction webcam. It's also an old cell phone, but it takes still 3-megapixel photos every 5 minutes and uploads them to my server. That has the added cost of needing to configure and maintain a server (or I suppose you could use your PC if you leave it on 24/7), and won't give you live video, but even cell phones as old as the 7-year-old Galaxy S2 that I use can take decent photos. You can see its results here: http://webcam.rechlin.net/811main/
  13. rechlin
    Looking at the area inside the loop, we already have new imagery (from February 2019) if you turn off "Globe" mode in Google Maps, to disable the 3D view. But yes, the 3D view is quite old, from about February 2015.
  14. rechlin
    I am perplexed that this is still showing the railroad going through the north edge of downtown under UHD and the northern railroad in the 6th ward (outlined in purple below). I was under the impression they were going to be tearing down the "Be Someone" bridge and realigning it to make the northern branch of the railroad go down to the southern branch (drawn in orange below), which would also make the northern canal to White Oak bayou possible. Has that been canceled? If not, has nobody told TxDOT?
  15. rechlin
    Thread and renderings here:
  16. rechlin
    Found on reddit, courtesy of /u/zhutch19 (look at the far right side):
  17. rechlin
    It's skinny but not quite as skinny as it looks from the concrete. It seems they will be flanking the sidewalk on both sides with brick, so that will probably add a good 8 inches to each side. Still, it will be narrower than downtown sidewalks, but it will be wider than those installed in residential areas.
  18. rechlin
    Amusing they are using 15-year-old cars in their renderings, but I suppose that's more realistic than the supercars seen in some others' renderings.
  19. rechlin
    The Chronicle and ABC13 are reporting that it started with a car fire, but from the photos of the damage it looks to me like that equipment next to the car (generator or electrical box) probably started on fire first, and then it may have spread to the cars, as KPRC2 reported. Strange that both seem equally certain about their contradictory reporting, though.
  20. rechlin
    Well, it looks like all the debate above about accessibility ended up being irrelevant, because they now have made it so all the pavers are flush:
  21. rechlin
    I agree this would be fantastic, if it goes down Center as @Avossos said, instead of Washington. There are no good east-west alternative roads to Washington, so if the rail went down that, it would slow down traffic (bicycle, automotive, etc) way too much. It's OK that rail went down Main because drivers and cyclists can always take roads like Travis and Fannin. But with Washington, there is no good alternative. And yes, it should ultimately go at least to Shepherd, and maybe all the way to Westcott, and then somehow eventually make it up to the Northwest Transit Center, perhaps via Old Katy Road.
  22. rechlin
    I'm pretty sure they did it that way on the Travis side right by the garage to slow pedestrians as they approach the garage exit/entrance, to minimize the chance of a pedestrian getting run over by a car. You don't want joggers going full speed by a blind exit (yes, motorists should drive slowly and pay attention to where they are going, but who are we kidding? This is Houston, where even the Chief of Police runs over a pedestrian in a crosswalk downtown...).
  23. rechlin
  24. rechlin
  25. rechlin
    It doesn't seem like anyone is suggesting the government should force anyone to develop something. The idea of property taxes being shifted to more land-based and less improvement-based is not a new concept, or an illiberal concept. Land is scarce and finite; improvement is not. Because taxes can be seen as a discouragement to do certain things, it makes sense that it's in the public interest to focus more on taxing the land than the improvement. The Economist newspaper has advocated for this, too, as I recall. To avoid vacant properties from increasing sprawl, which makes costs go up for everyone, some jurisdictions charge higher taxes for some vacant properties, too. This is all a system of encouragement; nobody is forcing anything. The Regent Square property has been a blight on central Houston for a long time now -- a giant fenced off field that is serving no use to anybody, aside from a small amount of vacant-land property taxes being paid. Perhaps it would make sense for Texas to charge higher property tax rates on vacant or unused urban properties (like Regent Square and the old Holiday Inn downtown) to minimize blight and encourage investment.
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