mollusk

Edited Wednesday at 01:07 AM by IntheKnowHouston

Let's see... two Bentleys, a Land Rover, three Porsches, something low and Italian, and no Audis.  Eado's long vacant building rehabs are getting pretty upscale. 🥷

Actually, the point I was trying to make with an intentionally silly example is that the absence of anyone using the bike lanes at the exact time whoever is complaining is in the act of driving past them is not proof that they're not being used at all.

Even in a car, getting in and out of most businesses on 11th is now easier and safer, since traffic no longer busts the 30 mph speed limit by 10 - 20 mph.  Beyond that, it's not at all unusual to drive down the length of one of the side streets without encountering another car.  Taking the logic of some to its conclusion, we therefore don't need those streets.

People eventually get used to the islands.  The middle of the street signs on White Oak at Michaux seem to last longer without getting run over lately.  🥷

There was not a giant sign at the top of the building, but there was monument signage at the street level.

On 2/15/2024 at 6:21 PM, Houston19514 said:

The last of Bush Airport's original banjos are being demolished as I type.

 

Those banjos worked really well when you were coming in on a Braniff 727...

Once every few years (10 times in the last 30 years, according to the Chron) the low parts of the Katy Freeway end up as de facto detention ponds, and are among the first places to drain out.  The pavement is not that old and is in good shape.  Traffic is still going to have to slow down for the interchanges at peak times.  It's crazy to spend a gazillion dollars cash plus who knows how much time wasted in tied up construction traffic to make this occur - not to mention the additional light, sound, and particulate pollution that will be spread all over the adjacent neighborhoods.  As it is we have to use blackout curtains and white noise machines in order to have a decent night's sleep - and we're a half mile away.  

Walking the dogs this frozen morning, we were struck by how quiet it was without the freeway rumble. 

Complex systems do break on their own from time to time, even if well maintained.  I'll hazard the guess that Bellagio has a full time worker (or two, or three, or more) assigned to their fountains and a storeroom fully stocked with plenty of anything that can conceivably break, as does Dubai.  Any municipal budget in Texas is spread much more thinly as a matter of course and thus doesn't have room for that, as evidenced by Houston still using Crown Victoria police cruisers (last manufactured in 2011) until very recently.

Animated fountains are pretty finicky (lots of pumps, valves, sensors, and software to run it all), the parts aren't always off the shelf items, and there aren't a whole lot of vendors who know how to diagnose and fix them.

At least Jetero never caught on (although trying to name something after a typo is certainly Classic Houston).

I've always preferred "Intergalactic" for IAH.  🥷

It's nice to see that sloppy reporting is a century old tradition in Houston.  Travis and Fannin have always been on opposite sides of Main Street. 🥷

How about some light abatement while they're at it?  I'm 1/2 mile from the Katy and even further from 45, but over the years it's gotten to where you can just about read at night in my back yard (which is opposite the house/garage from both).  We've had to put blackout curtains in the bedrooms, which weren't necessary before the giant light masts even when I lived closer.

1 hour ago, s3mh said:

I will see your SPCA and King Biscuit and raise you a Beer Island at the corner of Studewood and White Oak.  

I almost certainly have met some of y'all IRL. 

When Lonnie realized that Beer Island had just about the only working power and internet for blocks around after Ike (was it that long ago?) he ran extra plugs out to the deck and updated his wifi.  I still miss that place (and the Biscuit, where I likely paid the light bill), OTOH my liver is probably in better shape.

IAOKIYAR

(It's all OK if you're a Republican) 🥷

The restaurant plan will likely change - no kitchen, no server areas, no restrooms, no elevator probably won't fly with permitting. 

Needing a certificate of occupancy (or CO for short) for commercial use isn't linked to whether you need to replat AFAIK.  The point of the CO is to make sure that the facility buildout meets all the requirements for the proposed use - parking, fire suppression, ventilation, etc., etc.  What a restaurant needs to have in place is different from what a boutique would need, which in turn would be different from office. 

I'd get a design professional involved before dropping any serious bucks into anything beyond planning.

I'll wager that they feel the need for additional secure on site parking.

or the Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen... 🥷

Judging from my own experience with the joint, the interior shots were taken during a mealtime - including the absence of wait and bar staff.  Once we finally managed to get our food it was immediately apparent why it was so quiet.  We didn't even ask for a doggie bag for our actual dogs.

Clearly the HOA wasn't ready to start enforcing tidiness restrictions just yet. 🥷

11 minutes ago, editor said:

I know it's a fantasy in Houston, but this is a solved problem:  Tunnel.

You run surface BRT on the western part of Westheimer, and then run it in a tunnel when you get inside 610.

That's what they did in Seattle, and it works great.  I've used it hundreds of times.  It started with just city buses, but now city buses, commuter buses, and light rail use it.  It acts like one long intermodal transit hub.  One end even connects to the monorail, the street car, and the Greyhound station.

I know that every time anyone on HAIF uses the "T" word, someone pipes up about how it would never work in Houston.  Completely forgetting that Houston already has not only a pedestrian tunnel system, but also a vehicle tunnel that somehow work fine; and that there are cities with far worse water infiltration problems and a lot less stable earth that somehow make tunnels work fine.

Tunnels make sense in some places, like inside the loop Westheimer (and maybe the Washington corridor, too) where ROW acquisition would be really painful.

On 8/4/2023 at 4:59 PM, steve1363 said:

Shouldn’t a farmer’s market be a farmer’s market?  Pickle ball courts??

but they're artisan pickle balls... 🥷

Gotta protect those toddlers who are out late at night - tricycles are soooooo hard to see in the dark.  🥷

They have to have the pickiest punch list in creation - this place has been in stasis for months now.

"seamless flow between rooms and the great outdoors and creating an mold inviting allergenic atmosphere."

FIFY.