Jax Posted November 4, 2009 Author Share Posted November 4, 2009 I wish Music Man would stop commenting on my tread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Original Timmy Chan's Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Jax, in addition to bisecting the lands of the rich and powerful, being the centerpiece of Houston commerce for the 19th century, and being a focal point of downtown, Buffalo Bayou has another thing going for it -- Addicks and Barker Reservoirs, which control the flow of water down Buffalo Bayou, through Memorial, River Oaks, and downtown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arisegundo Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Did Buffalo get the reservoirs because it wasn't widened and straightened, or vice versa? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtticaFlinch Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Did Buffalo get the reservoirs because it wasn't widened and straightened, or vice versa?They're not resevoirs in the traditional sense. They're actually just low-lying flood plains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NenaE Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Jax, I believe someone did touch on the "Memorial" area being able to fight off the concrete...Buffalo Bayou at Memorial or River Oaks, it's all the same to me...money, money, money. Was my first thought when I read the posts, they fought it off. Think the biggest issue with the building of the reserviors was to stop the flooding of Downtown, so much. In the early 1900's-1930's it was pretty bad.There is something strangely sad, beautiful, intriguing & haunting about Riverside Terrace and it's blocks of well-maintained homes sitting next to decaying ones...it always draws me in. Even with it's concrete bayou. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLWM8609 Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 Jax, I believe someone did touch on the "Memorial" area being able to fight off the concrete...Buffalo Bayou at Memorial or River Oaks, it's all the same to me...money, money, money. Was my first thought when I read the posts, they fought it off. Riverside Terrace had it's share of well heeled residents in the 50s, but even they couldn't stop the HCFCD and the Army Corps of Engineers. A few homes were lost to the widening of Brays Bayou in the late 50s. They were located east of where 288 currently runs and were situated along N. MacGregor with their backyards on the north banks of the bayou.You can see it here.http://www.historicaerials.com/?poi=7964 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 I wonder if it would be possible to build a reservoir or retention pond anywhere along Braes to reduce the need for concrete... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLWM8609 Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 I wonder if it would be possible to build a reservoir or retention pond anywhere along Braes to reduce the need for concrete...They've built a few upstream. One is at 610 and Braeswood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 I wonder if it would be possible to build a reservoir or retention pond anywhere along Braes to reduce the need for concrete...Brays is undercapacity and hcfcd is working to add capacity where they can. texasspies posted a link that gives additional information about brays specifically that would answer the questions you keep asking. it might help to read it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NenaE Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 Riverside Terrace had it's share of well heeled residents in the 50s, but even they couldn't stop the HCFCD and the Army Corps of Engineers. A few homes were lost to the widening of Brays Bayou in the late 50s. They were located east of where 288 currently runs and were situated along N. MacGregor with their backyards on the north banks of the bayou.You can see it here.http://www.historica...s.com/?poi=7964Yeah, Weingarten, Taub & Hermann come to mind...Have seen pictures of some of the homes you speak of. I never saw Brays Bayou at Riverside without concrete banks, 1960's. I'd like to know more details, why the 2 major waterways were handled so differently. Houston would have had its share of extra land to build retaining ponds or reserviors, back then. And they were both winding waterways, with oxbows everywhere. http://www.buffaloba...rg/history.html Humm....this says Terry Hershey & George Bush had something to do with it...see topic about flooding & hero of the bayou...topics 6 & 7. "riparian" vegetation, never heard of that before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 I just realized that L.A. has a river which is even uglier than Braes! So I take back my comment about Braes being the ugliest waterway I'd seen in North American. It's now the 2nd ugliest waterway I've seen in North America. http://www.you-are-here.com/location/la_river.html At least they are talking about revitalizing it though. http://www.worldchanging.com/local/losangeles/archives/006116.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NenaE Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 I just realized that L.A. has a river which is even uglier than Braes! So I take back my comment about Braes being the ugliest waterway I'd seen in North American. It's now the 2nd ugliest waterway I've seen in North America. http://www.you-are-h...n/la_river.html At least they are talking about revitalizing it though. http://www.worldchan...ves/006116.html Hahaha...UGLYYYYY! Reminds me of the 1970's television cop shows, always a scene of a car chase down one of those empty "cement canals". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NenaE Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 http://www.hcfcd.org/buffalolowerwhiteoak/history.htmlhere's another good link...look under 1910-1929 Booming Business- click on "1912 Houston article" & "water damage photographs", good pictures and write-up on Houston. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Original Timmy Chan's Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 I wonder if it would be possible to build a reservoir or retention pond anywhere along Braes to reduce the need for concrete...No room to build something with as much potential impact as Addicks and Barker Reservoirs. Those two reservoirs cover 25,000 acres of government-owned land, and hold 200,000-300,000 ac-ft of water. In contrast, something like the detention ponds at Art Storey Park on BW-8 at Bellaire, cover about 200 acres and can hold somewhere around 3,500 ac-ft of water. I don't know the total costs of the project, but it's certainly in the 10's of millions of dollars, and has taken decades to complete (from planning to land acquisition to construction). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 Great link. Thanks NenaE.Here are some excerpts I found interesting:The photograph above of White Oak Bayou demonstrates the kind of flood damage reduction construction projects often associated with the 1950s and 60s. Effective and efficient, but environmentally cold, channelization work like this on White Oak and on Brays Bayous resulted from revision of the 1940 Project Plan. Convinced that population growth in Houston and Harris County had made the original plan obsolete, the District petitioned Congress for a new plan and additional financial help. To bolster the county’s case, the District prepared a 1951 revised version of Wild River describing the rapid growth of the Houston area and the struggle with floods throughout the 1940s.In 1954, Congress approved the new flood damage reduction plan, but by the 1960s, many residents along Buffalo Bayou objected to channelization plans for aesthetic and environmental reasons. After completion of the White Oak and Brays projects, work on the 1954 plan stopped. ...The map above shows the completion status of the work authorized in the 1954 Project Plan. The green-colored portion of Buffalo Bayou was not channelized because of concerns expressed by the Buffalo Bayou residents in the 1960s proved to be part of a national move toward environmental awareness on the part of Americans in general. Often called the "Era of Limits," the 1970s changed the way the District and the Corps of Engineers approached flood damage reduction projects. Working within the guidelines of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Projects began incorporating the public’s newfound environmental sensitivity into the county’s plans for channel improvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arisegundo Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 Oh, wow. White Oak was supposed to have its own reservoir, too. Also, you've got to love the early 20th century audacity of having two giant canals slice through the county. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Posted November 9, 2009 Author Share Posted November 9, 2009 Here's another photo of Buffalo Bayou that I took a while back. Check out the beautiful trees!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missjanel Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Honestly I used to ask the same question but after seeing how much the water had risen in the bayou during hurricane Ike I changed my mind. This pic was taken in Meyerland at about 10am on Saturday following hurricane Ike. The bridge in the background is the South Rice overpass. I can only imagine how high the water was during the height of the storm. I've been driving back and forth between my hood (the Museum District) and UH lately and I generally drive along McGregor as it follows Braes Bayou north. I have noticed the lack of natural foliage along this particular bayou and I was wondering why are there so few trees? Braes Bayou is quite different from Buffalo Bayou which looks to me like a natural waterway, at least as it approaches downtown. Buffalo Bayou might not be the most beautiful waterway, but at least it has trees along it and natural banks. Braes Bayou is incredibly ugly as it is, but it has so much potential. Does anybody have any plans to beautify Braes in the vicinity of Riverside Terrace? Attached is a photo from Google Street View showing the bayou along McGregor. Notice there are no trees on one side of the street, and on the other side there's just a grassy bank with some trees on the opposite side of the street. The lack of trees and the concrete banks really ruin the aesthetics of what could be a nice waterway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Posted November 25, 2009 Author Share Posted November 25, 2009 Well we know certain species of trees can survive a flooding event like that, such as the trees along Buffalo Bayou, so I don't think it's so much of an issue as long as the trees don't block the passage of the water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missjanel Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 I'm not talking about trees. I'm talking about why some bayous need to be channelized. Although I'm guessing tree debris during a storm could potentially inhibit water flow. I all for esthetics but the reality is that many of the homes along Braes Bayou have flooded more than once. I'm sure those homeowners asked the city to do something about it and they did do something about it. If the bayou was in it's natural state many homeowners could not bear the increased costs of flood insurance. Myself included.Well we know certain species of trees can survive a flooding event like that, such as the trees along Buffalo Bayou, so I don't think it's so much of an issue as long as the trees don't block the passage of the water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Posted November 26, 2009 Author Share Posted November 26, 2009 I biked it last weekend and I thought this was pretty disgusting. The people in this apartment complex had thrown bags of garbage from their apartment onto the banks of the bayou. Next time there is a flood, this will go right to the gulf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Posted November 26, 2009 Author Share Posted November 26, 2009 More photos from my ride: Yay trees! They are small but at least they are planting some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLWM8609 Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 Most of those pics were taken right near my place. I might have seen you, I walked a little bit of the trail on Sunday. As for the rubbish on the banks in front of the apartments, the trash makes wonderful confetti when the COH crews cut the grass without picking up the trash first. I'm hoping those apartments will be the next to be acquired, shut down and demolished. I'm surprised that they survived the widening AND Ike in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted November 27, 2009 Share Posted November 27, 2009 That's funny. That's the same bike trail I take every Saturday. I can tell you're in the UH/TSU/MacGregor vacinity. Yeah, I drive by those apartments every morning to go to UH and they are complete trash and the people that live there don't care at all. The trash isn't thaaaat bad along Brays but it does get caught up in the large branches and random shopping carts that are in Brays. Im surprised you didnt take any photos of the dozens upon dozens of homeless (or their "villages") under all the bridges, especially in the area you were in. Can they plant more trees? Of course they can, but they can't be any lower than those newly planted trees because the bayou needs to be able to flush out all of that water easily when an extreme weather event (hurricane) occurs and they need to get that water out before it becomes a major issue for TMC and the residental homes along Brays. Trees, even if they just plant a 100, can cause major flood problems along Brays banks. Trust me, you're not going to see anymore trees planted in the lower sections.On a random note, whoever thought building The Columbia Rail to Trail was a smart idea was A COMPLETE IDIOT! I occasionally take that trail but I'm harrassed everytime I take that trail. It pisses me off. Last time I was there, a girl yelled at me saying, "Why the **** are there so many white people here today?" I guess it's not really harrassment but it still pisses me off nonetheless... the racist comments are unneeded. I want to enjoy my ride in peace. Im still going to take it, but the first time I'm robbed or something will be the last time I ever take it. The only good thing about that trail is that it connects to downtown Houston, but then again, all I have to do is take Caroline from TMC/Zoo and I can easy travel to downtown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Posted November 27, 2009 Author Share Posted November 27, 2009 Yeah, those apartments look terrible...I noticed there is another apartment complex along the trail on the same side just east of there that is abandoned, with broken windows and stuff. Any idea what is going on with that one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted November 28, 2009 Share Posted November 28, 2009 Yeah, those apartments look terrible...I noticed there is another apartment complex along the trail on the same side just east of there that is abandoned, with broken windows and stuff. Any idea what is going on with that one?I don't think anything is happening to that one. It's been like that for a while. I've noticed on MacGregor though, right across the street from the white-looking apartments you posted, they are demolishing that whole abandoned complex. Wonder what they will place there.Oh, and btw, if you go to street view on Google and look across the bayou (across from the same apartments), you'll notice that there were once lush trees in front of the complex but they tore them down to make way for the concrete wall/bike trail that they built. I have no clue why they did that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLWM8609 Posted November 28, 2009 Share Posted November 28, 2009 Oh, and btw, if you go to street view on Google and look across the bayou (across from the same apartments), you'll notice that there were once lush trees in front of the complex but they tore them down to make way for the concrete wall/bike trail that they built. I have no clue why they did that!The bayou widening is responsible for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Posted November 28, 2009 Author Share Posted November 28, 2009 On a random note, whoever thought building The Columbia Rail to Trail was a smart idea was A COMPLETE IDIOT! I occasionally take that trail but I'm harrassed everytime I take that trail. It pisses me off. Last time I was there, a girl yelled at me saying, "Why the **** are there so many white people here today?" I guess it's not really harrassment but it still pisses me off nonetheless... the racist comments are unneeded. I want to enjoy my ride in peace. Im still going to take it, but the first time I'm robbed or something will be the last time I ever take it. The only good thing about that trail is that it connects to downtown Houston, but then again, all I have to do is take Caroline from TMC/Zoo and I can easy travel to downtown. The residents seemed nice enough when I rode by last weekend. A few people smiled and said hi when I rode past, others ignored me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 The residents seemed nice enough when I rode by last weekend. A few people smiled and said hi when I rode past, others ignored me.Well I figured I should just stop going on Saturdays. Ill try Sunday (tomorrow) instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLWM8609 Posted November 29, 2009 Share Posted November 29, 2009 Well I figured I should just stop going on Saturdays. Ill try Sunday (tomorrow) instead. If you see me out there, I'll say hi to you. I was on the trail that parallels the bayou on the south bank today and I encountered a new obstacle never encountered by me out there, horse turds. I later met the offending equine and its saddleless rider while nearing the Leopold St. cul-de-sac. C'mon folks, this is Riverside, not Acres Homes where folks still ride horses down W. Montgomery like it's 1880. At least have one of those poop bags on the horse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.