ToryGattis

Compare the taxpayer cost per person-mile moved - it's no contest. Recent Chronicle story said the new Tomball tollway is attracting twice the usage they predicted - freeways are popular, even tolled ones (which pay for themselves, unlike any rail project).

Rail?! Rail in general tends to be a bad cost-benefit proposition, but why would you ever consider building one when one *already exists* a mile to the west perfectly connecting the Med Center and Downtown? There *might* be a good argument for extending the existing line south (although I doubt it), but there's no universe where it makes sense to build a parallel line!

Thanks for this graphic - very interesting. Yes, I have also heard that the parallel terminals plan got scrapped, and I support that and even called for it. Not only would the construction have been extremely disruptive and expensive (raising landing fees and disadvantaging United's hub), it would have created a *single* pick-up and drop-off zone - one of the world's largest bottlenecks. My understanding is that has become a major problem at Atlanta. It's much more efficient for security - just one point instead of spread over multiple terminals - but I don't think the tradeoff is worth it. As it is even with the car traffic spread over multiple terminals there can be substantial backups and bottlenecks - I can't even imagine would it would be like if all of that traffic was combined into a single choke-point.

Just flew the Qantas A380 from LAX to Sydney and it was awesome. Highly recommended. Air New Zealand has some nice 787's too with the big windows. I saw a lot of 747s at the Sydney airport. If you want to fly one, foreign carriers (especially Asian) are probably better than domestic.

Yes, there are other domed stadiums, but there is something iconic about being the first (like the Coliseum in Rome) as well as the beautiful geometric design of that roof. I feel the same awe standing under it and looking up as I did when I was under the Eiffel Tower - they're both intricate designs of beauty as well as engineering marvels.

Love this! Sent it to Judge Emmett's office (everybody should), Lisa Gray at the Chronicle, and will be blogging about it at some point at Houston Strategies. This could really get the public excited about the concept and more supportive!

Rail is a debatable investment in general, but it certainly makes absolutely no sense for the 288 median - there is already a parallel Main Street line right to the west. They will eventually continue that south and possibly take it out to Sugar Land.

Thanks. I am disappointed they are doing 2 lanes each direction instead of 4 reversible lanes, but I'm guessing the simplicity outweighs the additional capacity utilization (I'm guessing the contraflow lanes will be nearly empty during rush hour - outbound in the morning and inbound in the evening, unless they make them free or close to it).

I may be wrong, but I *think* the plan is that the HOT express lanes will only go as far north as Macgregor, where there will be a flying ramp up towards the TMC, plus a merge back into the general lanes (I'm assuming) - so I don't think that landscaping north of Binz will get touched. There's really no reason to extend them farther north, because there's no place to put them once you get to 59...

TXDoT is already in the advanced planning stages of putting HOT lanes there (that's why they didn't bother extending the landscaping farther south), but I think they might be making a mistake making them two-way when one-way reversible makes more sense given that the flows are strongly inbound in the morning and outbound in the evening.

Piola, an actual chain out of Italy with a Midtown location here

They've got a very tall crane removing what I assume were two giant water tanks on the roof right now. Still, overall seems like the slowest... demo... ever...

Community survey if you'd like to influence what they do with the block park: http://superblockpark.metroquest.com/

Just had a thought: how amazingly valuable to Houston's reputation would it be to have Astrodome renovated as the National Museum of Technology and Innovation, and then every time there's a Texans home game next door the national media and the aerial blimp shots are talking about it and even doing interior shots of exhibits for their cutaway footage? (you know, the short local background videos when they return from commercials) Our national and global identity would get tied to technology and innovation (in addition to the existing identity around energy), and that would help draw talent and jobs.

The name we've talked about is "National Museum of Technology and Innovation" - and it would have more of an engineering focus than pure science.

Yeah, I'm looking for fast and automatic. I don't mind $5-8, but $13 seems absurd. I came across this map of gas prices, but it doesn't indicate car washes. It is interesting to skim. You can see how high the premiums are in certain nicer parts of town or at major intersections, but if you drive just a bit outside that you can save quite a bit, especially on premium. http://www.myfoxhouston.com/link/559838/gas-price-tracker I think I'm going to check out the gas stations with car washes at Kirby and Weslayan along 59. Too bad there's no competition in Midtown.

Thanks. That looks like a nice hand car wash without gas. I'm looking for a gas station with an automated car wash - no hand wash or interior work needed.

Yep, same one. Their gas prices have always been a little higher, but not this much. They haven't dropped down to $3 as others have, and the car wash got upped to $13. Yes, they do the $.25/gal a discount if you buy the wash, but it still comes out much more than other stations. It's not that big a deal in the bigger scheme of things, but nobody likes to feel like they're being ripped off, including me.

I live in Midtown and normally use the Citgo along Brazos, but noticed today that not only is their gas $0.80+/gallon more than other gas stations (!), their basic exterior car wash is absurdly priced at $13. Any recommendations for a good gas station + car wash with reasonable prices? (I know plenty of places with cheaper gas, but they don't have a car wash) Ideally convenient to Midtown, but I get around quite a bit inside the loop so I'm flexible. Suggestions appreciated.

I was a kid out in northwest Houston, and somehow the whole family ended up awake and in my 2nd floor bedroom in the middle of the night when we heard crazy loud winds and lawn furniture hitting the house. We weren't very smart about getting into a more secure lower floor space. The next morning we could clearly see where a tornado had touched down in the gas pipeline right-of-way behind the house, not more than 50 yards from our house. It had bounced around and destroyed a doughnut shop nearby. But we only lost a single roof shingle. Very, very lucky...

Long ago, this was how Continental competed with Southwest for customers in the southern part of the Houston metro, especially the NASA business. I think they ran a shuttle plane from Ellington to IAH too? Don't remember the one from Hobby, but I'm not surprised. Back when fuel was cheap and they had commuter prop planes that weren't being fully utilized, it was pretty marginal cost to send them as ferries down to the southern airports trying to pull in customers that might otherwise just hop on Southwest.

Just posted my thoughts on today's announcement on my blog here: http://houstonstrategies.blogspot.com/2013/06/county-moving-forward-with-my-2003.html

Technically, they are annexing Memorial Park into the existing Uptown TIRZ.

Thanks, livincinco. This is helpful. I knew most of the growth was in the suburbs, but had no idea it was that lopsided (less than 2% inside the loop!). It's also kind of amazing how cleanly it works out (approximately): 1/2 mil inside the loop, 1.5 mil to bw8, 2 mil outside bw8 but in the county, and 2m outside the county but in the MSA.

I second asubrt: there are plenty of airports that call themselves international because they have a flight or two to Canada or Mexico. Intercontinental is a step above - flights crossing the big oceans. I've even thought we should consider renaming it to "Intergalactic" as an homage to NASA... ;-)