CaptainJilliams

Oof, little did I know posting such a simple video would've sparked such a debate. My bad!

Hey y’all, it’s been a while since I’ve posted on HAIF, and I’m not sure if this thread is the appropriate place for this video, but I thought it was an interesting discussion on transit/walkability that revolves around Houston (you can skip to 3:43 in the video if you want to get to the Houston stuff).

While I don’t agree with everything presented in the video, it literally hit home for me because of his area of study. Before I recently relocated to Chicago, I lived in Jersey Village for almost 2 years, and from what I can tell given his map and video footage, he looks to be near Willowbrook Mall (the In-and-Out gave it away for me). 
 

He does make several good points, granted his time is spent more in the suburbs I can see his criticism reverberate to other areas of the city, even within the loop. Most of his observations went over my head when I lived there, probably due to the fact that I have grown up in car culture. But I definitely recall the lack of sidewalks in many areas and the limited walkability that created in essence “islands” of walkability, stranding people.
 

Again, I think Houston is a complicated city to judge, so I think it’s open for discussion on how the city can make strides to improve walkability and other forms of transit that don’t revolve around the car. He does note that Houston has made improvements as of recent, so it’s not all negative. Definitely would love to hear people’s thoughts, Houston will always be a 2nd home for me and I miss it!

Well guys, some exciting stuff! Via Postoffice District on Instagram, it appears the trolleys are going through tests, an encouraging sign for sure!

https://www.instagram.com/p/COLiZ0aBXCz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

^ Those signs are ancient. I lived at the Camden Plaza down the road 2 years ago and they were there since 2018. I do hope something happens with the space!

On 3/22/2021 at 11:56 AM, Response said:

Who are you complaining to? God?

Saw crews moving the old house from the elevated highway this weekend. Pretty incredible, wish I had snapped a picture!

Biked past the MKT last weekend, loved the connectivity with the Heights Trail. There was some event going on there, looks like a fantastic place to hang out.

Wow, even though the total number of towers looks like it has dropped from 3 to 2, I love this design over the original.

Fingers crossed that height doesn't get slashed down the road.

7 hours ago, Urbannizer said:

Website updated to reflect current plans.

https://www.medistarcorp.com/in-development/

Crazy to think this was a massive parking lot just a couple years ago. Great infill. Used to walk by it all the time when I lived at Camden!

Fantastic! Really love what they've done, I honestly think the almost finished product looks better than the renderings.

Good to hear, the eastern trails definitely could use some love.

^ It looks like the tall tower in the first pic and the last pic have have different designs. Which render is the most recent version?

Happy to see this one is getting near completion. When I was walking around downtown a few weeks ago, I got to see the progress at the street level, and it's looking good.

Well, some good news on this topic! Looks like they are testing the trolleys once again and getting ready to roll them out sometime in the future.

https://www.galveston.com/trolley-rolls-out-of-barn-for-testing/

Saw this on Facebook. Nothing really new from the renderings, but it looks like a completion date of 2021 is included. This may be old news, but I thought I’d share anyways.

EDIT:

Found construction pics from August 7th:

This project has become very prominent, and the main tower hasn't even reached ground level! Whenever I'm on Memorial Drive headed to Buffalo Bayou Park, you can see 3-4 story building already going up very easily. It'll be a sight for sure once the main tower goes up, it will significantly alter the view looking towards downtown.

I can also confirm what @Triton has seen. They've also placed a fence around the perimeter that has renderings of the land bridges all over it.

24 minutes ago, Triton said:

UPDATE ON PARK: They have cleared most of the trees south of Memorial where the land bridge will be.

 

Can anyone find the original master plan PDF that had a lot more detail? I clicked on the link here in this thread but it's apparently dead now. I'm trying to figure out if they are going to be moving Memorial further south for the tunnel.

 

 

I don't have a PDF, but I found this link to the Memorial Park Conservancy that has some FAQs and a detailed description of the plan: https://www.memorialparkconservancy.org/discover/master-plan/land-bridge-prairie-restoration-project/

Not sure if this helps!