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13 hours ago, Ross said:

Love her quote on Cottage Grove. It was definitely crappy.

That entire interview is great. Very insightful and should be required reading for Houstonians.

Wish we could get more elaboration on her quote: "People talk about needing more density to support transit use. Well, we've fixed it so a whole bunch of the city can never be in the next 40 years dense enough to support transit."

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17 hours ago, mkultra25 said:

Obituary:

Mary "Mary Lou" Louise Henry

And a link to 2017 Chron interview, from the VHA website:

Urban density in Houston? Not really  

Very interesting interview.  But the headline quote is kinda misleading.  She was asked if she thought we would ever be as dense as "say, Chicago", to which she responded: "I think we'll have spots that are pretty dense.  But as an overall city, I don't think so."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Q5 moving Houston office to Ion buulding.

https://www.consulting.us/news/amp/8969/q5-moves-houston-office-to-the-ion-district

Overall, tenant roster is looking decent. Microsoft still has their larger office in CityCentre; but they’re the largest tenant at the Ion building.

Considering HPE is the largest technology company with its top office in Houston, it would be cool if they could become an anchor. But they have a close relationship with UH, so this may not be possible since ION is a Rice University project (not sure there).

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Okay, I need to follow up with a quick rant. After I took the photo above, I rolled over to the plaza in front of the main Ion building. It's a beautiful day, and it was just after 10AM. Had there been a café or something open, I would have happily patronized. As it was, nothing was open, but no worries - it's a lovely day and a lovely place to sit down for a bit (I had a place to be at 11). 

Within minutes of my sitting down, a security guard came up to me and told me to vacate the premises. You're not allowed to sit there unless you're a tenant, apparently.

I can understand this if the site is under construction, but it isn't. If they're hoping for this to become a lively, pedestrian-oriented area, this policy has got to go. As it is, it's functionally just another downtown-office-tower "plaza" with a different building shape, and it'll remain as dead as all of those if they maintain anti-public policies like this. 

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56 minutes ago, 004n063 said:

Okay, I need to follow up with a quick rant. After I took the photo above, I rolled over to the plaza in front of the main Ion building. It's a beautiful day, and it was just after 10AM. Had there been a café or something open, I would have happily patronized. As it was, nothing was open, but no worries - it's a lovely day and a lovely place to sit down for a bit (I had a place to be at 11). 

Within minutes of my sitting down, a security guard came up to me and told me to vacate the premises. You're not allowed to sit there unless you're a tenant, apparently.

I can understand this if the site is under construction, but it isn't. If they're hoping for this to become a lively, pedestrian-oriented area, this policy has got to go. As it is, it's functionally just another downtown-office-tower "plaza" with a different building shape, and it'll remain as dead as all of those if they maintain anti-public policies like this. 

If they let you sit there, then they have to let the homeless sit there, which paying tenants won't like.

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47 minutes ago, Ross said:

If they let you sit there, then they have to let the homeless sit there, which paying tenants won't like.

When paying tenants are there, the policy is not in effect (I know, because I've sat in that plaza dozens of times during business hours). 

Moreover, I don't really buy the logic there. You can respond to antisocial behavior without enforcing an antisocial environment.

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22 hours ago, Ross said:

If they let you sit there, then they have to let the homeless sit there, which paying tenants won't like.

They are "gun shy" about people loitering in that location due to the drug addicts and drinkers which would then begin to congregate there. Most people do not like the smell of urine, vomit, and other bodily ejecta especially if they are paying for the area.  It was not too long ago in which that was happening. 

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4 hours ago, Twinsanity02 said:

They are "gun shy" about people loitering in that location due to the drug addicts and drinkers which would then begin to congregate there. Most people do not like the smell of urine, vomit, and other bodily ejecta especially if they are paying for the area.  It was not too long ago in which that was happening. 

I really do get it. But if the goal is a lively public-facing space, you're going to have to allow people to actually be there.

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  • 2 weeks later...
3 hours ago, CREguy13 said:

I'm in the Common Desk here and we received an email last week about switching all tenant parking over to the garage in May.  There's been more movement and chatter lately on the District... I'd put money on plans for Phase II being released in the coming months with a near-term timeline for construction to start.

This area can't truly take off until the next phase gets underway.  Berkadia's Q4 2022 report shows the visitor lot across from the plaza  as proposed MF. My guess is that would be the first out of the ground, it alone would really help catalyze the area.

That would be great news for the area. Infill MF construction has been near impossible to pencil, but I imagine Rice can do whatever they want given their grand plan.

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3 hours ago, ChannelTwoNews said:

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2023/04/24/the-ion-leasing-update.html

"The Ion District, Houston’s innovation hub at 4201 Main St. in Midtown, is quickly approaching 100% leased status. Ten new tenants have recently signed on to lease space in the Ion, accounting for a combined 35,000 square feet in the 266,000-square-foot building.

With the new leases, the Ion is now 86% leased.

Additionally, construction crews are currently working on building a new lab at the Ion. Rice University’s Nexus Lab will be designed for prototyping and scaling-up technologies, according to a news release."

 

Do we know who the new tenants are?

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I wonder if the Midtown TIRZ would be willing to consider a Fannin redesign à la Caroline or Bagby. The Ion vision for Eagle is great, and it was definitely wise of them to choose to focus on a side street, rather than a major street, but Fannin can be quite loud, and we've seen a lot businesses struggle to come to life because (or, rather, presumably partly because) of this.

 

Obviously, Fannin serves a key decongestive function for Downtown car commuters, but I think the Midtown section of Bagby has been a good demonstration of how efficient traffic flow can be on a (reasonably) well-designed two-lane one-way street. 

I have no expertise whatsoever, but think you could see similarly effective overall traffic flow while reducing the number of cars exceeding 40mph.

Edited by 004n063
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On 4/29/2023 at 9:09 AM, 004n063 said:

I wonder if the Midtown TIRZ would be willing to consider a Fannin redesign à la Caroline or Bagby. The Ion vision for Eagle is great, and it was definitely wise of them to choose to focus on a side street, rather than a major street, but Fannin can be quite loud, and we've seen a lot businesses struggle to come to life because (or, rather, presumably partly because) of this.

 

Obviously, Fannin serves a key decongestive function for Downtown car commuters, but I think the Midtown section of Bagby has been a good demonstration of how efficient traffic flow can be on a (reasonably) well-designed two-lane one-way street. 

I have no expertise whatsoever, but think you could see similarly effective overall traffic flow while reducing the number of cars exceeding 40mph.

If we need empirical evidence for improved traffic flow with a reduction in speed limits, I have a few cities skylines worlds to prove this

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