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HoustonIsHome

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Everything posted by HoustonIsHome

  1. I kind of figured, but it was still fun teasing. What is funny is that the traffic argument is hardly used for poor areas. What? Poor people don't mind traffic? The thing is that area is developing fast. Density increases are inevitable that close.
  2. What do you mean trust you? Kid I have forgotten more cities than you probably will ever visit. If you care to read what I wrote you will see that what you are trying to school me in is exactly the same thing that I wrote
  3. Does the traffic argument ever fly? I mean, we are a growing city. We are getting more dense by the second. Traffic is going to get worse if we are not proactive about it. Lol, im picturing an old folks stampede down the little Streets. The area is already dense for Houston Standards. It is going to get more dense. We just need to have a traffic in mind plan for the inner loop. Frankly for the bullseye of the 5th largest metropolitan area (actually 4th, cause #4 has two snake bullseyes) in the country, it is too easy to drive here. Traffic in Houstons core is really not that bad considering how big we are. Using the traffic argument for that area is weak
  4. Exactly my point. A new residential boosting the downtown population , and knocking off an empty lot is +++ in my book. A supertall on each lot would be nice, but since that isn't happening I will take an alternative
  5. This thing stinks. I totally hate it. Why couldn't they build some thing nicer and closer to downtown instead of this pile of boxes halfway to El Paso. Lol, just joking. I am surprised at the lack of negativity in this thread. Anyway, it is a very interesting building and its so uptown. It will fit in nicely. Uptown is definitely becoming a city within a city. The changes that have occurred since 2000 is astounding. Throw in a couple more of these mixed use structures like this building and a trolley looping around uptown and thus place will be marvelous. Cant wait to see this thing finished and look up and marvel at the uptown skyline yet again
  6. I agree. A dense midrise sea around downtown would be more feasible for the area for now than a string of towers surrounded by lots.
  7. I think he is confusing buildings with the mass-produced-outsourced-to-China-made-for America goods
  8. I have been to over 50 countries, I've been to hundreds of cities, Houston is the only place where residents act like homeless are some novel, alien creatures. I got drunk and lost in Seattle but some homeless people have me awesome directions to my hotel. I would have been wandering around in the rain if it wasn't for the neighborhood hobos. In Cork, Ireland one of the people buying rounds of beers to welcome us to the city was a homeless girl. Didn't know she was homeless till after. She was just a person who didn't have an indoor home. I think many people like to feel themselves victims and ashamed to say no. Many of these homeless people are really friendly. Yeah some do commit crimes, but most are harmless. People keep saying midtown won't improve because of the homeless, but hey I was asked for money right down the street from Buckingham Palace (well closer to Kensington). Homeless are everywhere people. Its not a Houston thing. They stay where they get fed.
  9. I'm with wxman too. This is sexy. Wish it was near George R Brown, but still sexy.
  10. Wow if I didn't know better I would say downtown had 6 tall buildings. The view is actually not that bad when you take in the whole area.
  11. Bobruss it is beyond smart, they are are not just making people drive more to downtown, they are driving more to everywhere. With an employment base of over 80,000 the Energy corridor is the 4th largest business center in Houston. Over 1/3 of the employees work outside the western catchment area. Didn't say that it should not be changed because of a parade. Just said it was a popular spot and people are going to miss it. Like I said in my first post on here, I like the tenants. Its not a big deal if they move, I just liked where they were. Then again, the area is such a prime spot I figure many things would be popular if placed in that spot. I used to ride my bike from UH all the way to half priced books (the quarter priced books on Shepard too). I admit I have patronized specs on a number of occasions. I've bought pizza from that location when I lived a few blocks east. I have gotten on and off metro countless times at that stop. Its just a very nostalgic block for me. Lol, if there was an underground running under westheimer, that parking lot was where I imagined the train stop to be. Just little heads popping up from underground.
  12. You get excellent views of the skyline driving north on 288 from as far back as the beltway. In some spots the gap between TMC and Downtown is small. I bet these Museum District towers will greatly help bridge the gap between the two skylines from THAT vantage spot.
  13. Look who built the city. Just in Houston city limits alone we have Greenspoint, Clear Lake, Kingswood, built by Friendswood development group which was a subsidiary of Exxon. Exxon stretched our limits to the extreme- wonder why? Even as we speak Exxon is stretching it. They are building on land that was planned by the developers of Springwood estates, who in turn are building another masterplanned community. They were lobbied strongly for the grand parkway which coincidentally runs right in their front yard. So you are right. It can sprawl for as long as people are willing to put up with these places I don't think Houston will ever fill in completely, but certain areas will get denser. For the topic at hand I just wish Montrose will be one that fulls out and fulls up in places. The residential put the situation with the empty lots at a much lower level than downtown/midtown, its the suburban businesses with huge parking garages that I wish would thin out.
  14. Everytime I walk by it I would wonder at how it survived in that location. How did they never get bought out. They are sandwich between a hospital to the east and a cathedral to the west, Catholic property to the north and that drive through pappas to the south. A ten storey building will tower over immediate neighbors. I think it will help greatly with the view from the southeast. The lack of height in that area of Downtown is crazy
  15. Not taking about sprawl. Talking about building out the core. My understanding is that you build up after there is no more room, but we have so much room downtown, midtown, and even Montrose. I do agree with him in that the corner of Montrose and Westheimer is prime real estate.
  16. Really? I always thought the time to build up was when you run out of empty land.
  17. Would have been nice if the shopping strip was at the front of the lot up against the side walk and the mix use development developed behind and over it in a sort of monster ashby hirise sort of way. I know a lot of people who observe the pride parade is going to miss that spot. Many people viewed it from stands built in that lot. I hope these developments cling to each other instead of encroaching on the charm of the Montrose neighborhood. Would suck if say the BJ Oldies building was replaced by these lookalike residential buildings. And can we make a pact to limit the use of the term "eyesore"????
  18. They can't do that... homeless people sleep around that building. Lol that BBQ place will be right across from it. It's funny how the area is getting all these urban building when just a few years ago they were building drive through restaurants across the street.
  19. I kinda like the tenants at that strip. I hope they work something out to return after construction
  20. We are not talking about the rest of the city, we are talking about downtown. I can't see these low rise residentials surviving long if land prices increase awhile availability shrinks. If availability of land doesn't shrink, well then thank God we got something over that darn parking lot.
  21. This looks like it could be in a quite spot in the woodlands, funny that it is a stones throw away from the busiest arterial road intersection in Texas
  22. Arche you and I think alike. I think a midget wooden apartment complex in our concrete jungle does sound silly. I would rather ever last one of those little squares have a 15 floor (or more) concrete building. On the other hand if I way my interests I would also like a hefty downtown population. Now waiting for park places and sky houses to develop we may get two each decade. I would rather fill up the lots with the cheaper apts and replace them as the area warrants more space than to sit there waiting years between new residential towers. I think a quickly growing residential population is priority one with me. I think there is more room for error with the towers. You build a bunch of expensive towers that serve one use and then find its costly to serve the growing population properly. If you build more cheaply and the population demands are observed more quickly then it is easier to adjust. Throw a couple more of these 200 and 300 unit low rises downtown and you will see more of an interest from retaillers looking to the area.
  23. I was thinking along the same lines as cloud. I think they are just going to throw something up, make a quick buck of of rents and in about 30 years sell the land for the inflated value. It's the same thing happening to all these garden apartments in the loop.
  24. Houston needs to make better use of street trolleys. We (the city) are almost the exact same size of the greater London area with just about a fifth of the population. Traditional rail would be tricky to implement here. I think we should look to the area as a collection of smaller cities (as is actually the case in London as the actual city of London is quite tiny) and grant some of these cities a stop and connect that stop with trolleys. The city is already divided into 88 superneighborhoods. We can grant about 40 of them a rail stop. For example we can have a university line running from the 3rd ward super neighborhood/ city to the uptown SN/ city. I guess the Highland Village would be in the Greenway Super Neighborhood. Once you get off at the greenway stop you can catch the trolley which should circulate around the points of interest. Of course certain SN/ cities will have more than one stop.
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