Jump to content

ToryGattis

Full Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    646

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

 Content Type 

Everything posted by ToryGattis

  1. ToryGattis
    Don't know how I missed this thread, but I'm subscribed now. My Sunday Chronicle op-ed this week on the Astrodome: http://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/Gattis-Astrodome-should-showcase-area-s-4432364.php
  2. ToryGattis
    Isn't that pretty much the exact story of what happened with Fiesta, Texas in San Antonio?
  3. ToryGattis
    Does anybody have the data (and sources) for the Houston MSA's population growth over the last couple of decades broken down inside the loop, loop to BW8, and outside BW8? If not that exact breakdown, then I'm looking for something showing growth in the core vs. the suburbs, by whatever division you happen to have. If available, forecasts forward would be great too... (thanks in advance!)
  4. ToryGattis
    The Mayor mentioned that it hadn't been quite managed right over the last few decades, and not only had invasive species, but also had way too many trees planted at the same time and the same age, so they were all vulnerable simultaneously. Evidently they have a much smarter management plan in place now and it should do much better over the next few years.
  5. ToryGattis
    I generally don't have a lot of sympathy for NIMBYs, but I've been near the elevateds in Chicago, and it would have wrecked the neighborhood - not to mention the high costs of elevation plus ADA compliance on the stations. Richmond is a fair alternate routing which is better at catching UST and Greenway Plaza. Certainly it hits more than the original Westpark RoW proposal. The 59 feeder also runs parallel to it and can handle any displaced traffic from the lost lanes on Richmond. Alabama is 3 lanes, Richmond is 6. Where it gets tight is when Richmond becomes Wheeler in Midtown. I think METRO may be planning on taking RoW there from along the edges. Edit: I stand corrected. Looking at the Google satellite image, it looks like Richmond may be more like 4 or 5 plus a median, but that median makes all the difference.
  6. ToryGattis
    Most of Richmond is 6 lanes and a median, so I think it will be able to keep 2 lanes each direction for traffic. At least I certainly hope so.
  7. ToryGattis
    I don't know the answer to your second question, but Richmond is 5 or 6 lanes plus a median along the portions with the University line.
  8. ToryGattis
    I think it was simply a lack of right-of-way issue. At least one lane has to be kept each direction for access, and I think the rail needs the equivalent of 3 lanes in the middle (space for the stations). Look at the Main St. LRT. I believe that was a 5 lane road previously. Lower Westheimer is barely 4 lanes, and narrow ones at that. Some of the curves of lower Westheimer may also be problematic.
  9. ToryGattis
    The severe drought of 2011 was a major cause damage to roads over the entire metro as our clay soil dried up and shrank, creating potholes and heaving up asphalt all over. It will take a decade or two of maintenance to get them back in shape. We did pass the new water fee for drainage projects, which also goes to streets. More at http://www.rebuildhouston.org/ and http://www.haaonline.org/Display.aspx?id=1100
  10. ToryGattis
    Wouldn't three lanes combined with frequent METRO bus service cause pretty substantial backups? Or would the cars pass in the middle lane?
  11. ToryGattis
    CultureMap has the story now too. Claims that construction starts in May...
  12. ToryGattis
    Looks like the all-stars tweeted their locations at the Galleria, and waves of people came to see them. Just crazy that it reached its legal capacity. Has that ever happened before? http://www.click2houston.com/news/HPD-The-Galleria-closes-early-due-to-large-crowds/-/1735978/18580904/-/x823ou/-/index.html
  13. ToryGattis
    It took my girlfriend a *full hour* around 4pm today (a Saturday!) to get from just west of the Galleria area to Max's Wine Dive on Washington - a trip that would normally be 15-20 mins. Crazy traffic. Is this really all attributable to the All-Star game? Are that many people really here? The Toyota Center only holds around 20,000, right?
  14. ToryGattis
    You're right, but that's the problem: very few stores are unique enough that people will clearly pick them over a competitor with easier parking. And even if a store does have a loyal customer base, it may still lose the marginal/less-loyal customer, which can make all the difference. He didn't say.
  15. ToryGattis
    I agree with the parking in back, but think Houstonians need "teaser" parking in front, ideally diagonal street parking if the RoW is available. Think about University Blvd in the Rice Village for something similar. Ed Wulfe talked about this once. If you have the teaser parking in front, people will drive to that store thinking they will get it, and once they're there but it's full, they'll drive around back. When a place has no parking in front, or just one or two parallel spaces, people just pick a destination/competitor with easier parking.
  16. ToryGattis
    Street sidewalk/retail vibrancy requires people which requires parking (apartments on top are never enough people to fully support the street retail). Better to have vibrancy and parking than pretty but deserted landscaping.
  17. ToryGattis
    Joel Kotkin has described to me whole streets in LA with block after block of empty retail with absolutely packed apartments on top of them. The Post restaurants seem to do quite well, but the non-restaurant retail seems to be struggling, and the retail space next to Christian's Tailgate has been perpetually empty. I think these places would have more of a chance if there was diagonal street parking in front, which I sorta wish the Bagby St reconstruction had included instead of the somewhat overdone landscaping, IMHO.
  18. ToryGattis
    When you think about it, the competitive perspective doesn't really make sense. TAMU *is* going to expand and draw in 14,000 more engineering students from all over the state, country, and globe. They can be based in College Station, or based in Houston. I would argue it's better for Houston to have them based here. It should also help TAMU attract those students, since Houston is probably a more attractive city for students than College Station. Win for the city, and win for TAMU. Impact on Rice/UH/TSU would be minimal. In fact, it might be synergistic, with opportunities for collaboration, like what happens in the Medical Center. The tax reduction would be trivial compared to the economic development benefits of a major engineering campus in the city, and it would absolutely transform that east end neighborhood.
  19. ToryGattis
    Houston19514, this is the presentation I was talking about: "New IAH Master Plan Report to be complete by December 2013. Old master plan from 2006 to mirror ATL terminal setup has been "Thrown in the trash". Not feasible, estimated at 20 billion."
  20. ToryGattis
    "New IAH Master Plan Report to be complete by December 2013. Old master plan from 2006 to mirror ATL terminal setup has been "Thrown in the trash". Not feasible, estimated at 20 billion." In a previous thread there was some debate about this. This is the presentation I attended.
  21. ToryGattis
    Blanking on his name. A senior exec with HAS did a talk at H-GAC. Might have been Lance Lyttle. http://www.fly2houston.com/0/3917577/0/0/ If you click on the IAH Master Plan brochure here you'll see the reconfigured terminal plan to look like ATL. That's what they've scrapped. http://www.fly2houston.com/about-master-plans
  22. ToryGattis
    Pretty incredible vision, Niche. It would certainly more than rival Atlanta for flights and nonstop destinations. The tricky part is the cost of the tubes and riding them. If it's self-funding, I'm guessing it adds at least $100 per person round trip (and possibly much higher), which would more than wipe out the competition benefits. If it's subsidized, then the question is who's paying for it - the airport? (which will build it into ticket prices, see previous problem), the taxpayers? The cool part would be enabling intra-triangle high-speed travel at the same time as connecting the airport. Maybe the inter-city riders on that could cover the cost of making it cheap or free for fliers? The same competition effect might be possible with just very high-speed rail/tubes between IAH and DFW, allowing local fliers to pick flights at either and forcing AA and UA to compete on "nonstop" service (assuming the tube ride is so fast as to be irrelevant and not really the same hassle as a connecting flight). It would exclude Austin and SAT, but still hit ~75% of the triangle population.
  23. ToryGattis
    I asked them about that IAH terminal reorg at a recent HGAC event, and he said they've (wisely) scrapped that plan. Not only was it potentially astronomically expensive, unneeded, and would create massive parking jams with a single pickup and dropoff point (my main concern), but he said it would be almost impossible to do while keeping the airport actually running. They now see incremental terminal improvements and expansions for the foreseeable future. The Hobby plan is way out of date now (2003!), and does not include the new international terminal. http://www.fly2houston.com/about-master-plans
  24. ToryGattis
    12L and R look too close together for that, but I'm wondering if they could use 12R for landing and extend 17 south for southbound takeoffs, with the planes starting south of the 12R intersection so the routes don't cross? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cb/KHOU_airport_diagram.pdf
  25. ToryGattis
    I believe the westside plan was killed a while back. Houston is fine for capacity for the foreseeable future. IAH actually has room for more runways, and the terminals can always be expanded. Yes, they are adding another pier to Terminal D (intl). IAH is also a big enough hub with enough destinations that a lot of our capacity growth may just be up-gauging existing flights to larger planes rather than a lot of new flights/destinations - so it will be more about handling people and parking than flights. Consider that IAH has as many runways as Atlanta (5), the busiest airport in the world with 2x+ our annual passengers - so we can certainly grow IAH a long, long time within its existing footprint. Hobby is a little more gate constrained, but I think it should be able to handle any growth SWA or anybody else wants to throw at it for the next couple of decades, at least. Consider that San Diego is the 2nd-busiest single-runway airport in the world and handles 550 arrivals and departures/day. Hobby is about half that with 3 runways (albeit crossing ones, which is more limiting) - so it has room to grow capacity.
×
×
  • Create New...