Amlaham

You know..... not everything is about the raw numbers today. Not about how many people are riding the rail today. Not about the percentage compared to other cities. By that logic, there would never be change ANYWHERE. When rail was first introduced, its not like everyone just dropped their cars and immediately switched, it took years and years for it make sense. We always use Europe as an example of proper rail infrastructure, as if its been there for thousands of years. There was a time when car transportation were dominant in Europe. A lot of European cities actually have good rail AND car infrastructure. However, the second we mention rail in some of these threads, its as if we're threatening to ban cars all together. This is about having well rounded transportation methods BESIDES car transportation. These questions about "funding" and "ridership compared to other cities" kill me. As if these question haven't been answered in ANY OTHER city with better transportation methods. Its such a "be grateful for what we have" and "change is impossible" type attitude. Lastly, I want to remind my fellow Haifers that neither you or I have all the answers, but thats not to say that there is no answer/ solution :)

At the state or county level. Isn't TXDOT is responsible for all transportation methods in Texas? But only focuses on Highways? Maybe they can branch out a bit? Harris county owns and operates the Harris County Toll Road Authority, which is funding this project on this forum which I commented on. Harris county also has Metro, but it's obvious which has priority. In conclusion, I think the state and county should be responsible for this kind of funding. My opinion only, and I know there will be opposition to my statement since my opinion isn't a fact or "logical" :)

Agree, our transit usage is pretty good compared to some of the other cities which kind of goes in hand with my point. There is a market for it here, so i feel like it should be more accessible to other parts of town. It would do well IMO. Little outdated info below but I'm a little too busy this week to do research Atlanta MARTA rail- 64 million riders per year in 2018 LA Light Rail- 51 million riders per year in 2019 San Diego Trolley/ Silver line- 38 million per year in 2019 Portland MAX Light Rail- 38 million per year in 2019 Dallas DART Light rail- 28 million per year in 2019 Minneapolis Light rail- 25 million per year in 2019 Miami Metrorail- 19 million riders per year in 2019 Houston Light rail- 18 million riders per year in 2019 Salt Lake TRAX- 17 million riders per year in 2019 Phoenix Valley Metro Rail- 15 million riders per year in 2020 Tampa Rail- 1 million riders per year in 2020 So yeah, not bad but a lot of room for improvement, we actually have one of the highest riders per mile transit out of all these cities. Again, apologizes I don't have enough time for the sources/ research.

So there's also a proposal to build a deck park on i45 and N Main? *chef kisses* Honestly, I only see pros with this project. They plan to expand biking/ trial access and beautify the adjacent areas of the highway! I may have missed this but I don't see this on the website or on the document. I wish they could get this thing rolling already!

Agree to disagree 😅 yes there is a lot "in the works" but not enough for a city our size. Our rail lines probably reach a fraction of neighborhoods in the loop, let a lone our city; they go down 3-4 streets max. Which in my opinion is another reason why a lot of people don't use it and have negative views of rail; its not very convenient since it doesn't reach most of Houstonians. Again, you made good points, but I stand my ground that theres always room for improvement, especially with a city our size.

I actually like this project, but don't quite understand why the district can't work together and solve the parking issue another way? It would be cool if the district/city bought a lot nearby and created a parking garage that would serve the area. Maybe even with retail on the bottom. Is that not common?

Completely agree. My favorite narrative is that "we're a sunbelt city that has and will always be car centric." Meanwhile, other sunbelt cities that have expanded their railway system Miami Atlanta LA San Diego Charlette Pheonix Tempe Salt Lake City Tampa Dallas (w/ silver line) Its kind of embarrassing, we're the 4th largest city in America with a veryyyy subpar transit system. On top of that, we keep making the same excuses that "it is what it is." Yet, here are other car centric cities trying their best to diversify their transit portfolio.....while we're still focusing on highways. https://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2022/01/24/openings-and-construction-starts-planned-for-2022/ Fun fact :) Houston and Kansas City are the ONLY World Cup US Host cities that do not have rail transit from/to the airport :)

Just to add on to everyone else, I think we're forgetting a certain demographic of people that would prefer to live in condos/ apartments vs a single family home in the suburbs; older people. I have a lot of patients that live in The River Oaks condos and most, if not all, have been very old. It makes sense when you think about it. They don't need a 3-4 bedroom house with a huge backyard and front yard. With these denser buildings, they can be closer to their family (if they live near the city), they have concierge/ assistance minutes away, the security is usually pretty good at these condos, its less isolating/ being closer to people (this is more important than we think). However, the main thing is, they don't have to do ANY maintenance work. It's a dream for a lot of older people.

Is this really needed though? Does there need to be another highway coming into downtown?

UH will merge 2 schools (technology and engineering) to boost college ranking into top 50 public universities (hopefully) https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2023/02/28/university-of-houston-merges-two-colleges.html

I know light pollution isn't good, butttt its better than sayyyy the pollution from the refineries on the east side of our city 😅

These buildings are up for demo. Im not sure what could go here but it could be something related to the owner of the site since there are other buildings that connect to this. Seems like a good opportunity for something UH related but idk

Once this is finished, we wont have any skyscrapers under construction in downtown 🥲 ....for now at least

Has anyone seen this building at night?? I know not everyone is a fan of this building, but wow this building has some really nice LED lighting. I would say probably say the nicest LED lighting in all of Houston, it has a dramatic presence in our skyline. I couldn't get a picture since I was on the highway.

Just my assumption since they are technically leaving part of the structure up. From my understanding, if they save a portion of the building, they could grandfather the older setback which is right up to the sidewalk (where its technically at right now). Again, I could be completely wrong, and if i am please correct me 😅

Nice, so this wont be a parking lot and they're saving the set back!

I get what you're saying from the owners/ business perspective. But @HirschWacoYork and myself were discussing it from an urban planning perspective, we aren't discussing the technicalities. The owners/ business intention of making money aside, it just seemed silly that single family homes were going up on this lot considering all the work thats being done in the area to improve walkability/ urbanization. No need to apologize, it gets a little confusing reading a tone from text. I apologize if I was being being a little too aggressive, was just trying to get my point across 😅

A WALMART???

I think he's suggesting more denser units instead of single family townhomes since its right off the rail line. Which I kind of agree with but this is still a plus considering what it was before. For example, it would have been nice if this was a multifamily building with 1 retail store on the Harrisburg. Don't say it can't be done because of the lot size because nothing is impossible. This all goes back to wanting a more dense/ walkable/ urban environment.

Well I beg to differ even more 😌 and you can see my response above as well which lists multiple properties within the immediate vicinity of 3505 Sage. Also, listed in my response is how the land value in and around Houston has only gone up (the property that your building sits on is included). Just because your unit or your neighbors unit is selling for less, it doesn't mean property value is going down (again I provided multiple sources above). The sell price of a condo unit has more to do with the unit/building itself vs the property. For example, if the building is falling apart and is outdated, its not going to sell at the same price it did when it was new, HOWEVER, its not going to be dirt cheap either because of the property value itself, thats that buffer. ANOTHER example, if I bought a lot for 100K, and I build a shed that costs me 50K, then I sold it for 150K, but now that shed is getting kind of wonky, and I only manage to sell it for 140K. Its not because the property lost value but rather the shed on the property itself lost value. Again, I listed multiple resources above, you suggest HCAD which only mentions the units and not the property itself. So once again, your unit isn't losing value because of the area, it losing value because of your unit/ building itself :) Also...saying the area looks worse than it did 15 years ago is hilarious considering a lot of those new nice buildings weren't there, there were a lot of empty lots, the streets were in worse quality, there was hardly any beatification efforts. So tired of the "times were much better back then" narrative

This is well underway, the lot is fenced off and there is a lot of activity around the building!

Completely agree, 18th is pretty impressive considering how unwalkable Houston to be! We've come soooooo far. We've built denser communities, rebuild streets to be more pedestrian friendly, built more bike lanes. I can't imagine how different the environment is going to be in the next 10-20 years!

Definitely has not declined in anyway 😂 I live in the area and they've been increasing every single year. I feel like people throw around "property values gone down" wayyyy to loosely. Every time something minor happens "yeah things not the same anymore, property values are going down" It takes 1 google search to invalidate this These lots/apartments are all within a 5 min walk from this site (Also, keep in mind, these aren't new builds) https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5336-Schumacher-Ln-Houston-TX-77056/28005937_zpid/ Home value went from 300K in 2014 to 480K in 2022 https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5422-Lincrest-Ln-Houston-TX-77056/28034232_zpid/ 294K in 2013 to 410K in 2022 https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5545-Judalon-Ln-Houston-TX-77056/28006020_zpid/ 266K in 2013 to 480K in 2022 https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5353-Richmond-Ave-12-Houston-TX-77056/28281187_zpid/ 52K in 2013 to 124K in 2023 https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3300-Yorktown-St-APT-30-Houston-TX-77056/28276314_zpid/ 93K in 2013 to 160K in 2022 Lastly, here is a map of Houston property value change over the last year. Also, it has the change of Houston property value average since 2000 (126K in 2000 to 313K in 2022) https://www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/real-estate/houston-home-price-tracker/ Not a single area in or around Houston had a decline in property value. You guys we don't live in a small random abandoned town. We live in one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. It doesn't matter how many crackheads are on the corner or how many gun shots you hear, property values will ALWAYS increase. Its the basics to the principle of "Supply and Demand"

Kind of sad, this project is much needed for this side of Uptown. There's so many empty lots on this side of Uptown

Idk where else to put this topic, or if there is already a topic 🤷‍♂️ Thought this 2023 walkability ranking was interesting. I know every source has a different mythology of how it ranks walkability, just thought it was interesting and wanted to share. This study uses foot traffic, office share, multifamily share, and retail share for its rankings Austin Metro 14/35 Houston Metro 18/35 DFW Metro 27/35 San Antonio Metro 34/35 https://smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Foot-Traffic-Ahead-2023.pdf Also, if there isn't already a topic on Houston walkability, maybe this can be it? Add any urban/walkability topics below?