ToryGattis

I'm not an expert on intersection design, but it seems much improved to me and much safer for bikers and pedestrians.

Because I'm pretty sure that's about the last thing the Downtown Management District wants it to become. But also experiences in Chicago and elsewhere have shown that low-income towers are hard to keep secure and can become crime hotspots. Lower-rise options work much better and lead to healthier low and mixed-income communities. It needs to become student housing for Rice, UH, UH Downtown, or even Baylor Medical School (probably private serving all of the above). It's right on rail lines to all of those.

Chronicle story: Houston engineers designed a Spur 527 plan bicyclists loved. Commuters drove it into the ground. Dug Begley April 17, 2020 Updated: April 17, 2020 4:37 p.m. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/transportation/article/Houston-engineers-designed-a-Spur-527-plan-15208732.php?utm_campaign=CMS Sharing Tools (Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral#photo-19310860

Houston Public Works withdraws Brazos Street bridge revamp plans Houston Public Works has pulled proposals to permanently close the Brazos Street bridge and implement new pedestrian features around a corridor threaded between the Montrose area and Midtown. “Please be advised that the Houston Public Works Department along with Mayor Turner has made the decision to resume the project with the original design,” reads a Public Works notice sent to stakeholders on April 2. https://communityimpact.com/houston/heights-river-oaks-montrose/transportation/2020/04/02/houston-public-works-withdraws-brazos-street-bridge-revamp-plans/

It looks like the decision was made to fix the bridge and re-open it, although no official word yet. https://twitter.com/HOUstreets/status/1245726272367493123

Giant Midtown Park is literally 4 blocks from this corner 🙄

Update: Opposition seems to be mobilizing. New website has appeared as well as opposing signage. https://stopbagbyclosure.com/

@BeerNut after the Mayor's health emergency declaration today, can you confirm whether or not this event is still happening? The website doesn't look like it's regularly updated.

Definitely "hey I have an idea". The impact assessment and community feedback is what they're doing now. They've done the traffic study, but I don't think they have a real handle on the economic impact.

Jeff from the City said that Bill Fulton of the Kinder Institute at Rice reached out to get them to look at other options rather than just replace the bridge.

At the business owners meeting, Jeff from the City said they were specifically trying to avoid one or two giant public meetings because it's hard to make those productive. Most people never get a chance to speak. They wanted to do a series of smaller neighborhood meetings instead where more people could give their perspective. I suspect that also makes it easier to summarize and bring to the Mayor: he can just say which groups were pro or con. I'm curious what the tenor will be at the Midtown Super Neighborhood meeting tomorrow.

So how would you characterize the overall opinion of the crowd pro and con? Or the proportions of the split?

I've seen that first-hand in my Midtown neighborhood. When Oakmont opened at Baldwin and Pierce, a block back from the main drags of Bagby and West Gray, I thought it would boom. Very cool multi-story bar and patio that had a lot of money sunk into it - like a smaller Axelrad. But it's been dead, and the only reason I can see is because it's not along any of the main drags through Midtown. It's way cooler than Front Porch or Belle Station along West Gray, but those places are packed and it's dead, even though it's only a block away!

As a former McKinsey management consultant, I know enough to know that these types of companies have very sophisticated models to determine where they build new locations and what the forecast sales will be. It's way too big of an investment not to. And I do think they have tried to get the word out. I live a fair distance away, but they mailed me very substantial coupons when they opened. I suspect the local residential draw zone is small (Midtown + museum district + part of Neartown, third ward has small customer base, and go much further west and residents will go to the Waugh or Kirby locations), so they were counting on pass-through traffic stopping in, the same as Specs. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Specs was their inspiration for choosing that location.

Well, they have opened hundreds of stores and have a pretty sophisticated dataset to predict sales based on neighborhood, access, and competition. I don't think their projections are the issue here. They weren't counting on the freeway exit directly into their parking garage being closed.