ToryGattis

It is an impressive margin, but it's a city-limits game. Note LA+SF=13, but there are 51 in CA, almost all of whom are in those two metro areas. Houston+Dallas=41 out of 64 Texas, and most of those missing 23 are in the Metroplex, including #1 Exxon (although I think Houston metro still comes out ahead overall).

But Houston does deserve a lot of kudos for managing to keep almost all of its metro F500s inside the city limits and contributing to the tax base. I think that can be chalked up to aggressive annexation, no zoning (allowing multiple skyscraper job centers, inc. dt, uptown, TMC, Westchase, Energy Corridor, Greenspoint, etc.), and strong freeway construction/expansion allowing employees in the far suburbs to have reasonable commutes to the core.

See http://wwgc.org/

How did Candelari's not make the short list?

Long live King Mike's!

http://www.candelaris.com/

While we're on the topic, can anyone confirm/deny the urban legend that the wall is part of the Williams Tower's HVAC system? My suspicions are that it's not, but every once in a while I hear someone say this.

I'm almost certain it's not: they turn it off much of the time, esp. during droughts.

I would guess homeless tend to congregate where the panhandling opportunities are good. In Houston, that's at major street intersections - especially along freeway frontage roads - and not so much downtown where workers often stay in the tunnels.

Are you talking about the new flood control drainage park by the westbound 610 loop feeder, across from the Metro park and ride?

Well, I went to the TXDoT public meeting on this, but I don't have any links other than my own blog post on it. They had comprehensive drawings, including some innovative entrances and exits near the Medical Center. The 4 lanes will be a congestion priced toll road. Current plan is construction start by 2010, with completion in stages between 2012 and 2014

I once heard they had a goal of 10,000, but were quite a long way from it.

OK, here we go. 4,600. See here.

I usually pick the best coupon deal I can find here

http://www.airportdiscountparking.com/

or here

http://www.longtermparking.com/texas.htm

or here

http://www.airportparkingreservations.com

The shuttles all seem to be pretty prompt.

These guys were great with the coupon last time - very affordable and fast shuttle service:

http://www.fastparkandrelax.com/fprelax/houston.aspx

I think the new collaborative research center building with Rice - at the corner of University and Main - is supposed to have a large first-floor food court.

This press release says "10,000 square feet of retail space for a restaurant and shops".

OK, here's more.

You know, I think I remember reading something once about a mega-food-court in the works for the TMC, with a more upscale sit-down restaurant on top. Can't remember where I saw it though.

Here is the AP story on it:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5321166.html

There is more construction going on at the medical center than the rest of Houston combined, with about 60 percent of the construction cranes in the city at the world-renown facility.

It ranks 17th on a list of major downtown business districts nationally, just below Los Angeles, and would shoot up to seventh with all the planned construction, said Richard Wainerdi, the president and chief executive of the medical center.

Ahh, I get it now. I think they're ranking based on square footage - not jobs. And, of course, with all the space for patients, medical facilities will tend to have a higher ratio of sq.ft per job than a typical cluster of office buildings.

Here's the Fox News version of the story.

7 years

30,000 new jobs on top of the 73,000 already there

Doubling the land area

$7 billion investment

Unfortunately, if you check out this ranking of CBDs on p.11, with 103,000, it looks like it would ranked around #13 - similar to Minneapolis or Cleveland. And that's without considering non-central business districts, like Uptown/Galleria, which is still larger.

Still very impressive. Hope the LRT picks up a lot of that, because I'm pretty sure the street grid can't handle it.

Here's a post I did a while back, showing the combined job growth forecast for our core triangle - downtown + uptown + Greenway + TMC - would put us just behind NYC and Chicago if it were considered a single CBD.

Actually, I believe the translucent roof will let in real light. The question is whether they will clear the roof panels or not. I think they will have to if they want the plants to grow. The panels originally allowed for natural grass for the baseball field, but the sun blinded outfielders, so they darkened the panels. That killed the grass, and Astroturf was invented...