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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/m...politan/2915259

Nov. 23, 2004, 1:23AM

Uprooted tree severs MetroRail power line

By MIKE GLENN

Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Heavy rainstorms uprooted a tree at Hermann Park tonight, severing a MetroRail power line when the tree fell across the southbound tracks.

 

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Ha! I wondered what happened.

I was downtown, and they kept making these garbled announcements about "an incident" and how shuttle buses would ferry people from the Wheeler Street station. Thought for sure we'd succeeded in winning the Nat'l title for most light rail accidents this year.

Incidentally, wish they'd refine those announcements a bit - there were a bunch of people jabbering away in the background, and it really was difficult to make out what the announcer was saying.

Too bad about the tree; they add so much to that area of town.

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  • 2 months later...

Hey everyone---

Please excuse me if I am way off here:

I have heard that certain areas of towns can be 'redlined' by mortgage lenders, meaning that the property can be considered too high risk to loan money for. Is this true? If so, does this apply to any areas of the East End of Houston? Many of these neighborhoods have such obvious potential. Though, I wonder if I would have better luck getting a loan for a property in the Heights?

Anyone have a thought on this?

Thanks,

Danny

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Hey everyone---

Please excuse me if I am way off here:

I have heard that certain areas of towns can be 'redlined' by mortgage lenders, meaning that the property can be considered too high risk to loan money for.  Is this true?  If so, does this apply to any areas of the East End of Houston?  Many of these neighborhoods have such obvious potential.  Though, I wonder if I would have better luck getting a loan for a property in the Heights?

Anyone have a thought on this?

Thanks,

Danny

No, that is not true. The practice of "redlining" was outlawed years ago, I believe in 1968.

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In fact, in many parts of the east end, you can get BETTER mortgages because they are considered areas in need of investment. Even in my neighborhood of Idylwood, where some homes run into the upper 200's, Bank of America offers some sort of 0-down loan (they must get credit from the Fed gov't for this).

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In fact, in many parts of the east end, you can get BETTER mortgages because they are considered areas in need of investment.  Even in my neighborhood of Idylwood, where some homes run into the upper 200's, Bank of America offers some sort of 0-down loan (they must get credit from the Fed gov't for this).

There are tons of 0-down loans out there right now, for credit scores down to 570, which is not a real good score. The only issue you might have would be if you bought an old house and it needed some work to obvious things like roof, flooring, structural, that the appraiser would make note of, or if the house only had space heaters. In that case, the seller would probably have to install some kind of wall mounted whole-house heating system, at the least.

I work in the mortgage business and have had that happen a couple of times. I also live on the East End. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to help, just P.M. me.

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Thanks to everyone for your replies!

It is nice to see there is opportunity for a 1st time home buyer to live near downtown. I had started to lose hope after looking at prices for the Heights and Montrose areas... I am going to do a little exploring out in the car this Sunday. Any Eastside neighborhoods that are must-sees? I am definately checking out Idylwood, Forest Hill, and Pineview. Riverside Terrace had some amazing homes, but I haven't seen many for sale.

Danny

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Thanks to everyone for your replies!

It is nice to see there is opportunity for a 1st time home buyer to live near downtown.  I had started to lose hope after looking at prices for the Heights and Montrose areas...  I am going to do a little exploring out in the car this Sunday.  Any Eastside neighborhoods that are must-sees?  I am definately checking out Idylwood, Forest Hill, and Pineview.  Riverside Terrace had some amazing homes, but I haven't seen many for sale.

Danny

Riverside has some incredible homes, but the prices can get up there. Idylwood and Houston Country Club Estates are two must see, along with Glenbrook Valley & Eastwood.

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Thanks to everyone for your replies!

It is nice to see there is opportunity for a 1st time home buyer to live near downtown.  I had started to lose hope after looking at prices for the Heights and Montrose areas...  I am going to do a little exploring out in the car this Sunday.  Any Eastside neighborhoods that are must-sees?  I am definately checking out Idylwood, Forest Hill, and Pineview.  Riverside Terrace had some amazing homes, but I haven't seen many for sale.

Danny

Mason Park Terrace has some cute houses in it, but is kinda ghetto. Eastwood Supplement also has some cute houses, but again, is kinda ghetto, although less ghetto than MPT.

Anyways, welcome to the same boat I'm in. I want to live close in, but can't afford the west end unless I buy a condo, and that ain't gonna happen.

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Thanks to everyone for your replies!

It is nice to see there is opportunity for a 1st time home buyer to live near downtown.  I had started to lose hope after looking at prices for the Heights and Montrose areas...  I am going to do a little exploring out in the car this Sunday.  Any Eastside neighborhoods that are must-sees?  I am definately checking out Idylwood, Forest Hill, and Pineview.  Riverside Terrace had some amazing homes, but I haven't seen many for sale.

Danny

You also might want to check out the Broadmoor area, which is near Lawndale and Telephone. They're mostly brick bungalows from the 20s & 30s from the $80s to 130s, I believe. The man that sort of started the Eastwood rehabbing in the 80s, Bill England, supposedly has bought some houses over there. It still looks a little ragged though right now.

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You also might want to check out the Broadmoor area, which is near Lawndale and Telephone. They're mostly brick bungalows from the 20s & 30s from the $80s to 130s, I believe. The man that sort of started the Eastwood rehabbing in the 80s, Bill England, supposedly has bought some houses over there. It still looks a little ragged though right now.

I got an e-mail from him about the Glenbrook Valley web site. I saw one of the houses he redid in Eastwood received a good brick award from GHPA.

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I got an e-mail from him about the Glenbrook Valley web site.  I saw one of the houses he redid in Eastwood received a good brick award from GHPA.

Cool. There's potentially a great organization if all of the old house people could get together. I still haven't made it to the Eastwood Home tour yet but I've heard some first hand accounts of the beautiful work that he and his partner have done and inspired many others to do.

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There are some great bargains still in the East end. I know there are one or two in Idylwood that can be bought right now for under $150,000. There are two on North Dover( a good block) in Glenbrook that are 2500 sf range that can also be bought for under $150k.

Idylwood:

6621 Fairfield $149,900

6602 Meadowlawn $149,000

Houston Country Club Estates

1019 Villa De Matel $139,900

6503 Pinehurst $149,000

6402 Jefferson $155,000

Glenbrook Valley

8110 Dover $149,900

8224 Dover $149,900

7742 Morley $137,500

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  • 1 year later...

For anyone who says that there has been NO development on the Main St/Fannin line, then they obviously NEVER went in that vicinity before the rail. Here's a list of things, off of the top of my head, that have been built or are planned for the Redline area...

1) New UH Downtown classroom for Criminal Justice

2) Hotel Icon

3) Main St Square

4) Commerce Towers

5) Humble Tower Apartments

6) Kirby bldg condo conversion

7) Marriott Courtyard

8) Residence Inn by Marriott

9) McKinney Garage with ground floor retail

10) Catholic Diocese Hdqts

11) Metro Hdqts with transit center

12) Citiplace Apartments by farb

13) T'afia

14) Byrd's Lofts

15) Hotel ZaZa

15) 1000 Main/Reliant Energy Plaza

16) Laidback Manor

17) Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza

18) Texas Woman's University Health Science Center

19) TMC Transit Center development by Transwestern

20) Heart and Vascular Institute

21) Texas Children's Nureoscience Center

22) Texas Children's Maternity Care Tower

23) Museum Tower Apartments

24) American Apparel

25) Inman Gallery at Isabella Courts

26) Calais at Courtlandt Square Apartments

27) Ventanna Apartments by Farb

28) Toyota Center

29) Hilton Americas Hotel

Stop lying.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I tried looking for a thread to resurrect that was relavent, but couldn't find one.

On KTRK, I heard a report something about light rail construction is slated to start next year.

Is this a done deal? I was in the next room during the report so I didn't hear the whole thing and I can't find anything online about it.

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I've seen statements from Metro recently that indicated that the Southeast, North, and Uptown lines would begin construction in July, 2007. So it would be reasonable to assume that the short extension of the light rail to the planned intermodal transit facility north of downtown would begin around the same time.

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  • 11 months later...

I'm glad someone started this thread this morning, because I had a few questions concerning the current.

What is "stray current"? Does it affect buildings/foundations? Does it affect people (shocks, cause cancer, etc..)? Will all this "stray current" affect the progess of the future light-rail routes?

LAYMAN'S ANSWERS ONLY PLEASE! (That goes for you too Niche!)

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I'm glad someone started this thread this morning, because I had a few questions concerning the current.

What is "stray current"? Does it affect buildings/foundations? Does it affect people (shocks, cause cancer, etc..)? Will all this "stray current" affect the progess of the future light-rail routes?

LAYMAN'S ANSWERS ONLY PLEASE! (That goes for you too Niche!)

basically when you have a circuit, there is an intended path that the current should follow. it should go out he hot lead and come back the neutral one....basically it is going out the hot lead but it is not all returning and is seeping into other conductors. it can induce shocks in buildings

an explanation by METRO would help in this instance, but if it goes unexplained and gets bad publicity you never know how it could affect future routes.

disconnect the neutral at your house then suddenly your ground becomes hot. it will affect anything attached to the ground and can result in a shock.

In the hospital setting with sensitive equipment, the consequences could be major which is probably why TMC spent 100k on this study.

Edited by musicman
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I'm glad someone started this thread this morning, because I had a few questions concerning the current.

What is "stray current"? Does it affect buildings/foundations? Does it affect people (shocks, cause cancer, etc..)? Will all this "stray current" affect the progess of the future light-rail routes?

LAYMAN'S ANSWERS ONLY PLEASE! (That goes for you too Niche!)

Well, stray electricity is common for most electric powered rail systems. While New York has some of the worst of it in the nation (it's been documented that DOGS have been fried stepping on manhole covers), Houston's relatively minor, HOWEVER, depending on where the current is straying to, it CAN corrode metal (Rebar, plumbing) and cause some damage for extended periods of time. "extended periods of time" can mean several YEARS. Houston's (and the residents) aren't quite used to it, so they're not understanding completely what it's about and probably exaggerating the danger (which is what media has a tendency to do). But as long as they're on top of it, very little damage should occur.

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Guest Marty

Great thread, I heard about this the other day and it got me to thinking about the mistake of grounding things to your water pipe.

Edited by Marty
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Well, stray electricity is common for most electric powered rail systems. While New York has some of the worst of it in the nation (it's been documented that DOGS have been fried stepping on manhole covers), Houston's relatively minor, HOWEVER, depending on where the current is straying to, it CAN corrode metal (Rebar, plumbing) and cause some damage for extended periods of time. "extended periods of time" can mean several YEARS. Houston's (and the residents) aren't quite used to it, so they're not understanding completely what it's about and probably exaggerating the danger (which is what media has a tendency to do). But as long as they're on top of it, very little damage should occur.

It doesn't have to be rail systems leaking, either. There were some reports on TV a few months ago about dogs being zapped on wet manhole covers in Chicago's Grant Park by stray current from nearby light poles. I believe one dog died and several others were hurt. The city's response was something along the lines of shrugging its shoulders and telling people not to let their pets wee on the manhole covers.

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It doesn't have to be rail systems leaking, either. There were some reports on TV a few months ago about dogs being zapped on wet manhole covers in Chicago's Grant Park by stray current from nearby light poles. I believe one dog died and several others were hurt. The city's response was something along the lines of shrugging its shoulders and telling people not to let their pets wee on the manhole covers.

I heard about that several years ago,but forgot all about that.

The article in the chronicle mentions where it's not leaking and their conclusions as to why it's not. Seems that the ballast in the south station keeps water from pooling in those areas and they plan on using ballast on the U-Line.

My problem with this is that you can expect kids/vandals/morons to get the rocks and use them for other purposes, or have them wind up on the street proper. I'm just wondering why they can't do a slight design change that would get the water away? Personally, I think think the whole "blame it on the rain" thing is overblown. While we do get a fair amount of rain, it doesn't rain every bleedin' day. Just keep the current from straying into pipes and manhole covers to keep our structures and fido safe.

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It doesn't have to be rail systems leaking, either. There were some reports on TV a few months ago about dogs being zapped on wet manhole covers in Chicago's Grant Park by stray current from nearby light poles. I believe one dog died and several others were hurt. The city's response was something along the lines of shrugging its shoulders and telling people not to let their pets wee on the manhole covers.

This is the reason why junction box covers that you see in the sidewalk for traffic signals and street lighting are made from a non-metallic material. Of course, there are some older metal ones out there and while they are most likely safe, I wouldn't step on them! :o

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  • 1 year later...

Metro's been sending out alerts all night. Things are back to normal now, but here's what happened:

METRO CONTINUES METRORAIL REPAIRS

METRO is continuing to make repairs to METRORail overhead power lines knocked down by a trash hauler earlier today.

For the remainder of Friday

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