Nate99

Drove by this place last night a bit before 7:00, and it was jammed with people. 

That’s not you with the guitar is it? 

On 1/2/2024 at 12:53 PM, j_cuevas713 said:

Is that why the scaffolding is surrounding the old Sakowitz building as well? I drove by last night and was curious as to what was happening. I remember the DMD wanting to possibly convert the building to residential. 

FWIW, the last time I walked by, the Sakowitz garage looked to have only county vehicles in it. 

2 hours ago, Triton said:

Man this forum never ceases to amaze me how quick someone is able to notice and then post about a change. 

We aim to please. 

DG may get some flyover footage time during the broadcasts. It's a really visually appealing urban park. Amazing transformation. 

A fenced off vacant building we can all celebrate! Congrats Midtown, it's been a long time coming. 

The beige Dodge pickup truck that has been there forever is still parked in the garage, but he had a van friend today, so that's progress. 

These people trying to give sluts a bad name or something?

13 minutes ago, BigFootsSocks said:

Gonna ask a couple of dumb questions but here goes:

1. How do they make sure the roots don't break into the ceiling above?
2. How do they make sure the roots are strong enough that these plants won't get uprooted and blown off in a big storm/hurricane?

 Guessing - 

1. Reinforced and water sealed concrete boxes. Given enough time and cracks, the roots may find a way through, but presumably it would be going into dry concrete, so less likely than a root migrating trough a pipe or around a foundation on the ground. All of the water and soil is confined to the box. 

2. More anchors/tie downs? 

I can feel the vapors coming off those pics from the surrounding neighborhood... and they didn't even use the pile drill with the 2-cycle Detroit Diesel engine that sounds like an old bus from the 1960's without a muffler.  

Crayon painted lines notwithstanding, this just trades a useless blight for a semi-useful one. With the hotel going in across the street and development plans for the block bouncing around in the recent past, I tend to agree that it's not likely to stay this way for long. 

I'm thinking the giant prison fortress on the next block is a worse urban feature than a surface lot. 

If they're enlarging the convention space, would they take out The Rustic, or (more hopefully) use the big double block between the Marriott and Incarnate Word? 

15 hours ago, mkultra25 said:

I've known folks who claim that Starbucks has always tasted burnt, and typically refer to it as "Charbucks".  I'm fairly agnostic about their coffee - although I've never been on board with the cult that sprang up around them, there's certainly worse coffee to be had, and sometimes their convenience and ubiquity trumps all other considerations.  

Tend to agree, though for drip coffee these days, Dunkin or even McDonalds seem to do a better or at least more consistent job. To indulge off topic for a bit longer (though coffee is foundational to any downtown, I would say), I find the taste of Starbucks drip coffee to be all over the map, but I have had a bad run lately. Maybe the opening crew of the store I've been going to skipped some training or something. Their "dark roast" seems to be mercilessly overpowered by the roasting, it's the IPA of coffee.  I miss the old Yukon and Breakfast Blend.

Maybe my impression is unfair, but when I think of gas stations anywhere within walking distance of DT, I think of comparatively poorly kept properties and a persistent homeless presence. 

On 7/14/2023 at 11:14 AM, editor said:

I'm in mourning for the coffee shop with good fare and no seating.

Their drip coffee was the best downtown.

Starbucks seems either burnt or sour these days, Boomtown's tastes like they ground up Starbuck's used filters and dripped through them.  Covid shutdowns killed Dunkin, and I can't keep track of who else is downtown.  These people are going to make me a coffee thermos snob. 

On 6/26/2023 at 10:39 AM, bookey23 said:

Bayou Place is such an eye-sore. I pray that that's next on the development list for the Theater District

Replace it with something tall enough to provide substantial afternoon shade in the summer and you'll increase the value of the park.

The parking situation downtown is by no means difficult, but a lot of people get hung up on it.  They had a derelict building that they didn't know what to do with and a bunch of people complaining about finding a place to park. Whatever other use the block may have had, or might have eventually, I'm in the "don't begrudge" camp watching them spin this as a good thing and move on.

I doubt they care that much about real estate at this point, or at least (as a "dues paying member" of the diocese) I hope that they don't.  To the extent that there are laity within the diocese that would manage such things for them on a volunteer basis, perhaps they could offer to do so, but who knows if the bishop would be receptive or who gets to make that particular call in his office. 

If eastbound 99 to southbound 59 and westbound 99 to northbound 45 ramps gets built, this type stretch of 99 would feed into Spring/The Woodlands and Humble/Kingwood/IAH employment centers very quickly. 

On 5/18/2023 at 11:23 AM, Chi-Char-Hou-Dal said:

Nate, what about Woodland Hills bridge over the river into Humble? Would be a nice escape and alt to West Lake Houston Parkway or 59

 

Has this ever been considered?

I recall seeing a regional mobility plan that someone put together a while back. It was something of an "ignoring the cost, what would you build?" type of an analysis.  That plan imagined a bridge over the West Fork at Woodland Hills and a bridge over the East Fork at Kingwood Drive into Huffman.   The traffic in Kingwood keeps getting worse, and the Ford Road expansion will probably enable more development up toward Porter, but nothing has been done to open up another ingress/egress into the area since the West Lake Houston bridge was built over 20 years ago. 

Dave Martin and others have made runs at getting funding in place for road expansions only to be met with local opposition. The "oppose all new roads, that would just encourage more growth that we don't want" impulse seems strong in Kingwood. The new growth seems to come anyway though.  they have done about all that they could without adding lanes and nothing else seems to be under serious consideration after Northpark is expanded 10 years after it was needed. 

Here's a 2015 version - no mentions of bridges, but interestingly the #2 and #3 ranked projects wanted to widen Kingwood drive to 6 lanes. #1 was just intersection improvements. 

Microsoft Word - 150506-Draft Report Body.doc (lakehoustonra.com)

5 hours ago, mfastx said:

Can we confirm that this is still under active construction? It looks like it's been abandoned for awhile. 

I've joked about it plenty on this thread, but it has pretty much always looked abandoned.  There is a bank of empty electric meter housings (for some or all of the individual units) in the parking garage that you can see from Jackson St. after you come off of the 59 southbound exit ramp into DT.  If they ever get meters installed into them, I'll let y'all know. 

However someone managed to tie up as much money as they have in this thing and not find more to get it up and flowing cash sooner has to be an interesting story.  Add to that the original foundation build and abandonment, and there's something really odd going on here.