mike1

Would love to live inside to loop but can't yet afford it. I still don't think that in densely-populated areas, there's anything wrong with preventing people from doing things on their property that creates a nuisance or grossly affects property values for others in the immediate area. Also, due diligence is not the same thing as prescience, and at least zoning gives the home buyer some idea of what type of development to expect in a given area over time. In a way, I guess you could say that zoning empowers the buyer's choice because it enables potential buyers to determine exactly what will be the nature of development in a given area over time before deciding to buy there. I also think there are certain properties worth preserving as part of our cultural and historical heritage even if the market response would be to demolish them. Sorry, I guess I just don't buy into the whole libertarian thing. People who do go in for that sort of thing ought to live out in the mountains somewhere where the effects of their actions won't impact anyone else. In such cases, by all means people should be free to do what they like!

On the one hand, I wouldn't want to go through zoning boards to have to pick my paint color, but on the other hand it would be nice to have assurances that a Walmart SuperCenter isn't about to locate next to my house or that I'm not going to have some tacky billboard built across the street from me. Also, it would be nice to have reasonable assurances that 100 year-old landmarks won't be destroyed with little or no public warning. I don't think most other cities lack for choices in living arrangements and a modicum of control wouldn

Yeah..I kind of like Gaveston!!

Again, I'm not a fan of the President, but I think it would be really sad to see the right totally melt down the same way the left has. You know, the framers of the Constitution were fearful that one party or faction would be able to gain control of the entire mechanism of government and thus form a tyranny. They developed a system divided government and of checks and balances in order to prevent this from happening, but checks and balances are not fail safe if there exists no effective opposition to the governing party. Ideally, it would be nice to see two strong parties debating opposing visions and working towards some kind of governing consensus. Unfortunately, we now seem to have party hacks who spout talking points, call each other names, and line their own pockets. As far as the two existing parties are concerned

I never said he did, but neither do the democrats either. Besides, if you're going to argue that Chavez has a right to rule because he was democratically elected, then so does Bush. Thanks for making my point.

They said oil would never drop in the '70's either. Markets always fluctuate as demand adjusts to the level of supply. Never say never. As for the truth--shrill-sounding rhetoric ala nmainguy hardly constitutes the truth. As a point in fact, I'm hardly a right-winger and I'm more likely to support democrats than republicans on many domestic issues. However, when it comes to foreign policy, the left wing in this country can hardly seem to tolerate any dissent without resorting to ad hominem attacks and the same retread rhetoric that they've been spouting since the 1960's. (I

I'm 34.

You don't actually think Chavez is giving away heating oil because he actually cares about the poor in this or any other country? In Maine, the deal was for heating oil in exchange for having the state governor meet with him for photo ops. Those photos were then used against the U.S. in leftist propaganda around the world ( http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?he...27-77f03bfdb521 ). This is all about maintaining his power as dictator by trying to embarrass the U.S. and by feeding bread and circuses to the mob at home. Just wait until oil prices come down and he becomes just another two-bit dictator, and then we'll see the real face of Hugo Chavez. Domestically, it amazes me that people on the left can take the side of every anti-U.S. dictator and thug from Hamas to Fidel Castro to Chavez, and then wonder with a straight face why most Americans don't trust them with foreign policy!

Hey dbigtx, I'm from Rochester too!! I actually grew up in Fairport. What part of town are you from? In line with what you are saying, Rochester now has (or at least used to have) some of the strongest preservation ordinances in the country. It came about in the '50's and '60s when the city destroyed an entire section of downtown that connected to Corn Hill in order to build the Inner Loop/490 interchange, the Civic Center, and the War Memorial. I wish Houston would take some of the same lessons from its own teardowns. One thing I miss about that area is the tight-knit sense of community that developed in city neighborhoods such as around Park Ave., and around the surrounding historic towns and village centers. Houston, on the other hand, can sometimes seem like one massive suburb with little character or distinction between the various communities. I mean Katy pretty much looks like Kingwood, which looks like Pearland etc... Houston needs to work harder at developing a sense of place and community, and cookie-cutter town homes and fakey "town center" developments just don't cut it.

Or maybe we could do some kind of Matrix thing and hook people up to a giant computer that makes them think they're moving around!!!

Wait a minute, Plastic...I thought you said in a previous post that you weren't talking about helicopters, and now you are. Which is it? You seem to switch back and forth as your ideas get picked off...

Amen to that!

I am still angry about this, but maybe Mr. Hildebrand does deserve the benefit of the doubt. He has at least made an effort to address everyone's concerns, which is more that can be said for those who destroyed the Cenikor Building last week. Perhaps he could have done a better job of communicating his issues with the property and his intentions to the community before going ahead with the demolition, but he wouldn't seem to have much to gain by stepping into the middle of the controversy after the deed has been done. Most of the time, it seems that developers will tear down a structure, refuse to comment, and then just wait for the controversy to blow over. I'm not saying that I agree with what he did, but only that he seems open to discussing the issue and that maybe people should hear him out before drawing any conclusions.

You have no idea what you are talking about. I don't think a glass retaining wall could contain a force of this magnitude: http://www.aviationexplorer.com/747_engine_blast.htm There are more gory examples of what jet blast can do if you care to seach the Internet, but I hope you get the idea from this.

To your first point, Herrier jets aren

You know...another problem with this idea (among many) is that helicopters create considerable ground vibration. If you ever been stuck in traffic next to somebody with their Hip-Hop music going "Thump

Take it from someone who served aboard aircraft carriers-- helicopters of the size needed for mass transit would be expensive to maintain, prone to mechanical breakdown, and extremely loud. Someone mentioned not wanting one of these things flying overhead; I would modify that to say that you wouldn't want one of these things within several miles of your house! Implement this plan, and we would start seeing stories in the Houston Chronicle about chronic hearing loss and migraine headache epidemics among Houston residents!

I sent a nastygram to Ryan Hildebrand's e-mail address and received the following reply: I would hope that you might check the Heights bulletin. Another Heights resident sent me a similar message. I sent her a reply explaining the situation. There has been a severe lack of information and I hope my response will clarify. Sincerely, Ryan Hildebrand I don't have access to the Heights Bulletin, so does anyone know what is being put out with regard to ths building? I assume it would be pretty much the same thing that's being discussed here but would like to see what it says.

How about The Houston Smog! No logo, just haze gray... ...thought of another one... how about The RoadRagers! It's got kind of an aggressive edge to it!

The only people upset are the "professional minorities" --those who make a living out of playing the racial/ethnic divide--and other sour-puss lefty types. Who cares what people like that think anyway? This will pass soon enough, especially if they end up being a winning team! Besides, in today's political climate, who could possibly come up with a name that woudn't be offensive to somebody?

Positive news for this project. According to the Houston Business Journal, the developer has secured financing and will begin consructing the first of the two proposed towers within the next three months. Here's the link to the story: http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/sto.../23/daily6.html ...also, I just noticed that the Chronicle picked up on this as well: Project near the park Last week, a development group got the go-ahead to start building a 28-story apartment tower on Almeda Road across from Hermann Park. Raleigh, N.C.-based Phillips Development & Realty and Wood Partners of Atlanta said they received $101 million in funding to start the first building of Mosaic, a twin tower high-rise rental and condominium project. The plans for the buildings call for 788 units and shops on the ground level. "Mosaic will be the first high-rise residence built in this area in two decades," said the general contractor on the project, Peter Doyle, chairman and chief executive of J.E. Dunn of Texas. Rents will average around $2 per square foot or roughly $1,100 for a small one-bedroom apartment. Located at 5925 Almeda Road near the Museum District and the Medical Center, the project should be completed by the end of next year, according to the developers. The second building, however, will take more time to get off the ground. That's because it's a condominium tower. Lenders often require developers to pre-sell half of the units before writing a check for construction. But so far, only five sales reservations have been made for the condos, and the group marketing the project is no longer involved. The developer said it pulled back on marketing the building because it's trying to get financing without pre-sales. When the project was announced last summer, the developer said the units would be less than 1,000 square feet on average. He said they would be on the smaller side to keep prices down and attract younger buyers that work in the area. He said units would start in the $180,000s. "This profile buyer generally doesn't have $25,000 to $50,000 to put down and sit on for two years," said Brad Minsley, a partner with Phillips Development & Realty. Minsley said lenders financed an Atlanta condo building for Wood Partners on a speculative basis, and he's hoping the Houston project can be financed the same way. But it will take convincing. "Houston has sort of an unproven past with condominiums, but people are very bullish on the medical center and its growth," he said.

Oh, but come on...it's so much fun!!! ...Wal-Mart is the cornerstone of any balanced social agenda!! Almost as socially balanced as sitting around at 9:00 on a Saturday night responding to blogs on an architecture forum. Oh! Wait....

OOPS! Read too quickly and missed the "was a bad idea" part of his statement. Must have read it with my heart instead of my eyes. For a moment, my pulse quickened...

....and lets not forget that no new development along any Houston freeway would be complete without adding the always-popular giant inflatable King Kong blow up on top: