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HeightsGuy

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Posts posted by HeightsGuy

  1. I'm not sure White Oak is the best example of historical integrity.

    Bingo! I'll even go so far as to say White Oak (at least that part) is more business than residential, and if your going to put this somewhere better here than most other places in the area. Exhibit A should be Heights House. Yes, ugly as sin if you're not into that sort of thing, but a 10 story apartment complex that has been a part of the neighborhood for decades with standard housing next to and behind it.

    Also, think of this. Maybe, just maybe going higher density here saves a house or two deeper in the neighborhood.

  2. I can drive down any street in the Heights, close my eyes, hit the gas, and have a pretty good shot at crashing into a Mexican restaurant before hitting anything else. The last thing we need is another Mexican restaurant. If it's "Pappasito's-style" you're looking for, there's the El Tiempo on Washington or even Berryhill on 19th.

  3. "Bouncer fired on the spot"

    What a crock. Bouncers aren't allowed to make decisions whether to allow underaged patrons in or not, they are told whether to let them in or not.

    "We have been watching this club and have witnessed violations and offenses every time we have been here," Allen said. "Underage drinking is a very common problem with these bars downtown."

    Well, I thought downtown "scene" had reached a zenith, but by the looks of that statement it reached it's zenith farther back than I thought. Here comes the death spiral. Just in time for Houston Pavilions to come in and reshape the entertainment scene downtown from a trendy frat party to an upward mobile oasis.

  4. This could have been predicted 4 years ago. This is the twilight of the Downtown "scene". Faster than you can say Richmond Strip and Shepherd Plaza, the next wave of 21-25 year olds will have found a new home in Houston. Right now savvy club owners are trying to figure out where this will be so they can stake their claim, but it will not be Main Street.

    This by the way is a good thing. 50 trendy nightclubs won't bring new residents to Downtown, but 50 stores like Walgreens sure will. So, while there will always be a place for a number of bars downtown and it will in time become a destination point for people with a little more money to spend that will be attracted to places like Houston pavilions, we have likely seen the zenith of the club scene downtown.

  5. Never understood why people are so ga-ga about the Pig-Stand on Washington maybe just the fact that it's an icon of the area and because Ms McClaine did her short scene inside for The Evening Star. It may as well close prices are outrageous, service is slooooowwwww and the idea of having the restroom outside (yes it is) always disgusting. The mens RR was designed for children or dwarfs and it is beyond description. Ugh.. People only go because of the reputation. Best thing to do is tear down and build a brand spanking new CLEAN coffee shop that has that 1940-50's appearance. When it was new it was the place to be, inexpensive convenient and great fast food so my relatives say, ahh the good ole days. Baileys Studios has great photos of most eateries on Washington. Wait till rail comes in and really crams the street, bet that's waiting in the wings. Whole nother thread for sure.

    There's a shiny new 59 diner with your name on it a few miles down the road on I10. In the meantime, the Pig Stand takes up all of about 3000 sq feet of space on Washington. Leave it be.

  6. what would you guys say if washington offered you clinton portis for the 8th pick of the draft?

    I'd say heck no. Overall team depth is the biggest hole for the Texans and we need all the draft picks we have. What the Texans need to do, and I believe Kubiak will, is take the best player on the board at that time with every pick they have regardless of position and try to fill the remaining holes with free agents. I'd love for us to pick Kolb, but I don't think he will be there by the 7th pick of the second round. Even if he was, I don't think he would be the best athlete on the board. Texans picked up the rookie of the year in the second round behind 5 other LB's, I'd like to see them pull out a few more gems like that in the upcoming draft. Overall depth of a team is as important as having a full stable of skills position players. Just ask the Colts next week after they lose another first round playoff game because they can score 35 points but can't stop the run.

  7. Jim, it's good to see you bringing it back. I'll have to stop by and say hi, and maybe pay my tab now that I have a real job. BTW, is my rhodes piano still upstairs? If not, no biggie, I forgot about it long ago.

  8. I won't call you a treehugger. Less consumption of GM foods means that more land comes under cultivation and more trees get knocked down. That was my point.

    That's a myth perpetuated by big-agrobusiness PR. The World has far more agricultural land per person than is needed. People aren't starving because there is no food, people are starving because they don't have access to the food.

    Forests are being cut down to sell wood, not to plant crops for poor starving people.

  9. Don't even get me started on the GM vs. organic debate. There will always be toxins in your food. If not by traditional pesticides, then by the unsupressed toxins that plants synthesize as a defense mechanism. GM foods actually allow for the least amount of toxins in foods and permit higher crop yeilds per acre. The only difference as far as you or I are concerned is that there is a slightly different amino acid sequence. Meanwhile, the fact that crop yields per acre can be so significantly increased means that less land has to be brought under cultivation to feed the world. Environmentalists should absolutely love GM foods...they literally help save the rainforest.

    Go ahead, call me a treehugger if you wish, but I think it's bassackwards that we feed our kids food grown from seed that won't sprout UNTIL it is sprayed with Roundup.

  10. Truth be told, Walmart is becoming my new friend. I have now come to embrace that Walmart is no more the enemy to us than robots were to the assembly line. People eventually adapt.

    Walmart is doing things in two areas that will have a profound effect on all of us. First is their push into the organic food market. Walmart is in a better position than any entity in existence to stop the overuse of pesticides, genetically modified produce and hormone/antibiotic-laden livestock. It's a no-brianer that given the choice almost everyone would rather feed their families organic food, and cost has always been the factor. Only Walmart has the might to stand up to Monsanto and the rest of the Agro-Giants and make them change their ways. Second is the Pharma Industry. Walmart is going to give more relief to US healthcare costs than any politician would ever dare legislate.

  11. VERY interesting. I had never noticed that. Within those pockets (e.g., The Heights), the same rules apply. For example, East of Heights Blvd, 9th Street is E. 9th Street. West of Heights Blvd, 9th Street is W 9th Street, but it's all 9th Street.

    I've been searching, so far in vain, for a source that explains where the dividing lines are... and how the numberings work :-(

    That's easy, Heights was a different city than Houston when the streets were named, same goes for a lot of the other n/s/e/w street designations for what are now suburbs but were then separate entities from Houston.

  12. OK, I'll take the city's contribution. Now, explain to me how the city gets into the business of school uniforms.

    Red, not talking about school uniforms, was talking about sports uniforms and also using it as a metaphor for everything that goes with organized activity like equipment, bats, balls, soccer goals, etc. We complain about being the fattest country in the world, and the schools are cutting activity programs, someone needs to pick up the slack. Why not the city? I know the need is there, at the Y I am a memeber of, there is no shortage of underprivledged kids using the facility every afternoon. I wonder about the kids who aren't close to YMCAs getting left out. Half of our population is hispanic, and you can almost count the number of soccer fields inside the loop with your fingers. That's a shame.

  13. Oops, my bad, 12 acres, but I'll stick by the 90 million (actually, 93 million). Land value that the city donated was worth 41 million. I still think it's a glorified carnival, just my opinion of course, and one of the few times I agree with MidtownCoog on something.

    And yeah, we might lose the possible 11th street park due to this.

  14. I don't know if replying to my own reply is against the rules, but I had another thought occur to me on this subject. It seems ironic that in posting after posting on this site, everyone complains about the lack of urban-style development and growth in the center city, but when something does happen everyone complains about the type of development that is taking place.. It seems that we can't have it both ways; either we leave lots of open green space and put up with the resulting sprawl or we go dense with urban walking environments by building vertical and digging underground to conserve space.

    Some of us aren't complaining about getting a new park, we applaude it. Some of us just wonder if 90 million dollars on a 5 acre pocket park is the best use of the money when other city parks are in disrepair because of budget and personnel cuts. 90 million could put a lot of kids into uniforms and off the streets.

  15. My European History teacher told me that many Riverside Terrace residents are elitist and do not want anything to do with their poor neighbors.

    The residents, according to my teacher, do not send their kids to the local public schools.

    Not trying to defend what I don't know about the residents, but if I could afford to live in Riverside Terrace, I doubt my children would be going to HISD either.

  16. uncertaintraveler, you are absolutely right. It's all about rights. For instance, it is my right to never shop at a Weingarten-owned property ever again if they tear down the River Oaks theater. It is my right to work to convince thousands of others to do the same. It is my right to maybe let Weingartens know what I plan to do, but it is also my right to definitely let the owners/managers of the businesses in the RO shopping center know that I will no longer be shopping or eating at their establishment, some of whom know me by name the amount of money I fork out. Now might be just the time to let Christophers know that I will be going to Specs for my wine from here on out if their landlord tears down the theater, Luke's Locker that I will no longer buy the Mizunos from them that I get every other month, and so on.

    See, it's all about rights. Viva la Bellaire Theater and Mars Bar!

    lgg, thanks, and keep it up!

  17. If there's enough support and organization, it's possible to run a theater like this as a non-profit.

    Here's an example from Ann Arbor, MI. Check out the history page if you want to see how close it came to being destroyed. I think most of the current revenue comes from memberships and sposorships, as well as ticket sales.

    It's a stunning place, and it took years to restore it to its former glory, but it's the best place in town to see a movie. It anchors the "State Street" area of Ann Arbor - the Border's #1 store is across the street, and an American Apparel opened up next to it last year.

    The running of the theater is not the issue. Landmark is doing fine, the issue is that the landlord may kick them out.

    <Sigh> I hope this doesn't happen. If it does part of me hopes they take it completely down so I don't have to remember every time I drive past like I do when I drive by the old Bellaire theater.

  18. ut and a&m offer business degrees? I thought they just offered drinking contests. ohhh snap!

    ...yea that is going to suck, but I'll just show them up with a masters.

    in your face...world!

    I foresee a job in your near future that involves wearing your best sock tie and delivering inter-office mail in a fancy high-rise building downtown, and maybe picking up lunch from time-to-time where you get to keep the change........

  19. the question was colbert-esque. yes I do attend st thomas (senior). I have been there just before the start of the new construction when the mall used to be an ugly parking lot and mt vernon was a drivable street. now that they have used it as a campus mall and a pedestrian walkway, it looks great. they are also planning to shut down w main and turn it into a pedestrian walkway so that there is less congestion next to the new athletic center.

    the medical program there is ranked at on of the best in the country (seeing how theres around a 99% acceptance rating from st thomas into medical school)

    the only thing they need to do is make the school more of an exclusive university and not allow every D student from a private high school into its academia.

    my opinion...greatest school (1st best in Houston, who the heck cares about those Rice morons)

    Wow, I bet it's gonna hurt when you get out into the real world and notice you are saying a lot of yes sirs and yes ma'ams to all your Aggie, Longhorn, and Cougar bosses that got business degrees while you were off getting your prestigious liberal arts degree..... but you'll get used to it B)

    I agree though that the campus is gorgeous, Johnson's greatest accomplishment.

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