ToryGattis

Highways tend to be a bad cost benefit proposition but you advocate for those. You're ideologically against rail we get it.

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).

Bah perfect place for commuter rail.

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!

I envision a park that would attract locals and tourists of all ages for walking, people watching, exploring, exercise, thrill seeking, relaxing, birthday parties, weddings, festivals, etc. with the following features:

 

1. A great lawn for events, picnics, and kids playing.
2. A lake fed by waterfalls connected to a circular river with small rental boats.
3. Trees and plants throughout including butterfly gardens.
4. A Grand Promenade that circles the park and smaller winding trails.
5. A playground, splash park, and carousel for kids.
6. A large climbing wall on a “cliff” at the edge of the park.
7. A mini railroad loop.
8. A large amphitheater and smaller amphitheater.
9. Shelters/areas that can be reserved for weddings, birthday parties, meetings, etc.
10. Loads of unreserved picnic tables and benches.
11. “Buttes” rising from the floor of the park with tunnels within and “caves” overlooking the park.
12. Rope bridges and zip lines connecting the tops of the buttes to the cliffs at the edge of the park.
13. A main plaza area with commercial shops.
14. Food and drink shops (restaurants, ice cream, snacks, smoothies, bars, etc.).
15. A bike loop and separate running loop around upper level outer perimeter walkways.

 

General park admission (and parking) should be free.  Revenues for park upkeep would be partially generated by fees for reserved areas and fees from park businesses such as restaurants, shops, railroad rides, boat rentals, carousel, rock climbing, zip lines, amphitheater events, locker rooms, etc.

 

The park would be a great place to host large events and festivals up to once a month with music in the amphitheaters and booth areas located all around the Grand Promenade.

 

A fountain and light show could be developed with water spraying out of islands and buttes into the lake combined with colored lights and projectors for shows visible from many areas in the park.

 

AstrodomeParkColorDrawing3Labeled.png

 

AstrodomeParkSection.png

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.

Here's the schematics that show the lanes ending at the interchange with 59. They don't show the flyover at Holcombe, though.

http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/hou/sh288_toll_lanes/project_documents/schematic_plans/initial/sh288_initial_sheet_13.pdf

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 was also going to say that there's no use in trying to come up with fantastic plans for rail down the 288 median...that space is already spoken for with toll lanes.

 

I know that the construction plans are nearing completion for the Brazoria County portion of the toll lanes.  Construction could begin next year, I believe?

 

I do love the landscaping in the median of 288 north of Binz, but know that's it's days are numbered.  I only hope that TxDOT will use that area as a "nursery" and transplant some of those trees rather than simply clear cutting them.  There are great number of mature trees in that median now.  Those trees are nearly 10 years old.  I don't know for a fact, but I assume it's not cheap to buy 10-year old trees.

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.

I support this idea, but one great museum is better than many so-so ones. Technology/air & space museum seems like the ideal choice, since the dome is itself a technological landmark inspired by space, but please don't call it STEM! The word math does not attract people! If the National Air and Space Museum renamed itself the National Air Space and Math Museum I guarantee attendance would drop by half within a year.

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.

What about those places where you pay quarters and brush and wash yourself? Those seem to be the best deal.

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.

Dallas and Taft

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.

Never mind my edited response -- I was going to recommend CarSpa - but I think that is the same one you are talking about....hadn't been there in a year or so and didn't know they had raised prices so much...

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

I have heard rumors that the Uptown area is going to create a TIRZ (tax increment reinvestment zone) that includes Memorial Park, for the purposes of rehabilitiating it. If you are unfamilar with how a TIRZ works, basically once a TIRZ is established, instead of all the property tax revenues from the properties just going into the general coffers at the county tax office, a portion is earmarked for reinvestment within the TIRZ, for infrastructure improvement, beautification, etc. If this rumor is true, it is a very, very promising development.

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

Just happened upon this report. It only breaks down Harris county, but it shows the following based on 2010 census data:

Inside 610 loop - 469,051

Loop to Beltway - 1,597,326

Outside the Beltway - 2,026,082

If my math is correct, there's an additional 1,994,079 in the MSA that live outside of Harris County.

The report also shows the growth since the 2000 census as 12,402 inside the loop out of a population increase of 691,881 in Harris County. I've linked to the full report below.

http://www.allianceportregion.com/PressReleases/Harris_County_PopulationMarch2011final.pdf

I'd love to hear someone explain this data in the context of the common perception that people are moving out of the suburbs and into the urban core.

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... ;-)