Houston Central Park

[crunchtastic]

Well, this is easily fixed. We should compare this to the tuileries, not that it's anything the same but mainly because it would be fun to say. The H-Tuileries! And most people around here would not have preconceived notions.

The plans look quite nice.

[Fringe]

I don't disagree, but that won't change the title of this thread or that there have been 29 posts thus far, primarily debating a comparison to Central Park. It was an inane comment, but it was evidently a powerful one too.

I don't disagree, but that won't change the title of this thread or that there have been 29 posts thus far, primarily debating a comparison to Central Park. It was an inane comment, but it was evidently a powerful one too.

LOL. I knew the title alone would generate a lot of controversy. Just don't shoot the messenger.

Comparisons aside it does sound nice. I remember talk years ago about turning Buffalo Bayou into kind of a river walk like San Antonio to generate more tourist. Maybe this is the first step.

[JJxvi]

LOL. I knew the title alone would generate a lot of controversy. Just don't shoot the messenger.

Comparisons aside it does sound nice. I remember talk years ago about turning Buffalo Bayou into kind of a river walk like San Antonio to generate more tourist. Maybe this is the first step.

Phase 1 of their pipe dream is the West end, Shepherd to Sabine. Phase 2 is downtown, which is close to "riverwalkification" and addition of a canal through northeast downtown between UH Downtown and the Minute Maid Park area.

http://www.buffalobayou.org/pdf/Downtown.pdf

[Mister X]

I can't wait to walk around and start enjoying HOUSTON CENTRAL PARK. HOUSTON CENTRAL PARK will be fantastic. HOUSTON CENTRAL PARK will probably have many cool towers built around it. Everyone will love HOUSTON CENTRAL PARK. HOUSTON CENTRAL PARK will make New York's Central Park look like a pile of puke. I love HOUSTON CENTRAL PARK.

[Geoff8201]

LOL. I knew the title alone would generate a lot of controversy. Just don't shoot the messenger.

Comparisons aside it does sound nice. I remember talk years ago about turning Buffalo Bayou into kind of a river walk like San Antonio to generate more tourist. Maybe this is the first step.

You know, I was going to mention something like this talking about a Riverwalk type of setup, but it would have made my brief rant on labeling these things twice as long. Aside from imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, having a nice restaurant setup along the Bayou has potential. It may be a Bayou, not a river, but don't sell a bayou short... House of Pies had/has the Bayou Goo pie and that thing is delicious.

I can't wait to walk around and start enjoying HOUSTON CENTRAL PARK. HOUSTON CENTRAL PARK will be fantastic. HOUSTON CENTRAL PARK will probably have many cool towers built around it. Everyone will love HOUSTON CENTRAL PARK. HOUSTON CENTRAL PARK will make New York's Central Park look like a pile of puke. I love HOUSTON CENTRAL PARK.

Ahh, make it stop... Nah, do what you want... 30 posts later and I had to get used to it.

[samagon]

Sweet, the Houston riverwalk will be awesome!

Hrm. We need a navy pier now too, and maybe we'd benefit from a Venice beach too!

[20thStDad]

Why not go for a name not already known for another place? We could totally be famous for our own "Ditch-strict" or some other clever name. They need a bigger filter on that bayou before riverwalk style restaurants and patrons are eating right by the water.

[ChrisPHous]

It just uses central park as a comparison, never say it is the name

[20thStDad]

Right, the danger is that now that the reference is out there it will stick. And it happens to be the thread title. I don't really care, I'm just waiting for the inevitable hot wings place right on Buffalo Bayou. So hot the rats won't even touch them!

[Texasota]

Let's change the subject.

Allen Parkway will still pose a significant boundary between the bayou and Montrose. There are already multiple bridges that cross Memorial, but every intersection at Allen is somewhat...questionable.

I would love to see Dunlavy somehow connect to the bayou, particularly once that new pedestrian bridge is installed. I would ride up Dunlavy and cross up to Washington (avoiding Waugh) multiple times a week if that happened.

Discuss.

[Mister X]

So when are they going to actually start building Houston's Central Park?

[TheNiche]

Editor, can we PLEASE get back the ability to give negative reputation to Mister X?

[TheNiche]

Let's change the subject.

Allen Parkway will still pose a significant boundary between the bayou and Montrose. There are already multiple bridges that cross Memorial, but every intersection at Allen is somewhat...questionable.

I would love to see Dunlavy somehow connect to the bayou, particularly once that new pedestrian bridge is installed. I would ride up Dunlavy and cross up to Washington (avoiding Waugh) multiple times a week if that happened.

Discuss.

Dunlavy would have to go over, under, or around an existing cemetery to cross the bayou; any selected path would make for another funky Allen Parkway intersection. There also does not exist any appropriate right of way on the north bank to connect to. Jackson Hill just couldn't handle that kind of volume of traffic, IMO.

I think that it would've been preferable to turn Allen Parkway and Memorial Drive into side streets (like Memorial Way in Old Sixth Ward) and to tunnel a single thoroughfare, a freeway, under the park and below the bayou. This would allow for additional connections to secondary thoroughfares (like Dunlavy), increase allowable vehicular speeds, increase the amount of park area, and provide the ability to prevent flooding of the roadway during minor floods or to allow them to be flooded so as to provide additional stormwater retention during major floods.

If we wanted to get real ambitious, we could extend and connect that project as a toll road buried underneath the Union Pacific tracks that parallel the West Loop, providing direct connections to toll lanes on the Hempstead, I-10, Westpark, and Fort Bend Parkway corridors. Build it to Autobahn specifications, allowing for higher speed limits (or no speed limits). Then charge congestion pricing and allow for some contributions by HCTRA for flood control and METRO for improved Park & Ride service, and I'm pretty sure that the project could be funded. The only trick would be getting Union Pacific to sign off on it, I think.

[JJxvi]

Sounds good.

[samagon]

Dunlavy would have to go over, under, or around an existing cemetery to cross the bayou; any selected path would make for another funky Allen Parkway intersection. There also does not exist any appropriate right of way on the north bank to connect to. Jackson Hill just couldn't handle that kind of volume of traffic, IMO.

I think that it would've been preferable to turn Allen Parkway and Memorial Drive into side streets (like Memorial Way in Old Sixth Ward) and to tunnel a single thoroughfare, a freeway, under the park and below the bayou. This would allow for additional connections to secondary thoroughfares (like Dunlavy), increase allowable vehicular speeds, increase the amount of park area, and provide the ability to prevent flooding of the roadway during minor floods or to allow them to be flooded so as to provide additional stormwater retention during major floods.

If we wanted to get real ambitious, we could extend and connect that project as a toll road buried underneath the Union Pacific tracks that parallel the West Loop, providing direct connections to toll lanes on the Hempstead, I-10, Westpark, and Fort Bend Parkway corridors. Build it to Autobahn specifications, allowing for higher speed limits (or no speed limits). Then charge congestion pricing and allow for some contributions by HCTRA for flood control and METRO for improved Park & Ride service, and I'm pretty sure that the project could be funded. The only trick would be getting Union Pacific to sign off on it, I think.

Like our very own Holland Tunnel?

Sorry Niche, it's hard to resist now.

[Texasota]

Volume of traffic? Sorry, I mean pedestrian/cycling access to the bayou. As a cyclist I would love to ride up Dunlavy, somehow magically bypass Allen Parkway, ride past the little Jewish cemetary, then take the future bridge over the bayou and the existing bridge over Memorial to Jackson Hill. The cheapest way to make that safe would be to add a light and crosswalk at that intersection.

[Mister X]

Editor, can we PLEASE get back the ability to give negative reputation to Mister X?

I'm already "excellent" and can only get better from here on out. The sky's the limit now and I live for being liked on the internet. There is nothing more important than what anonymous strangers think! And no one is stranger than Niche! :P

Buffalo Bayou will be just exactly like Central Park in every conceivable way - so we just might as well get used to calling it Central Park right now.

[KinkaidAlum]

Central Park? This will be more like Boston's Emerald Necklace...

Just kidding.

I dig Guy and all that he's done for Houston. He was a central park, I mean part, of getting Discovery Green rolling. This will be a + for Houston.

[gene]

omg referencing Central Park?! how could they do that!!!????!!! i too am now confused and feel this will end houston's reputation as we know it and i will never be able to enjoy it, no matter how cool it is, because of that comparison....OMG!!!

in other news this new development is exciting and just what that area needs

[fatesdisastr]

I always thought that unused underground reservoir property was prime real estate. Glad to see that the land will go to something like this.

[largeTEXAS]

I love everything about the plans except that Allen Parkway nor Memorial are really addressed. 2-3 times a week I run that stretch from Shepherd to Sabine and am always annoyed by the car noise. Often it feels as though the whole bayou park is just a giant median between 2 highways.

In the visionary spirit of TheNiche, my ambitious proposal would be to tunnel Memorial from Shepherd to Sabine. That would allow the park to open up that much more to the baseball field just north and west of Memorial and Waugh, the park in front of the old YWCA, and Glenwood Cemetery, not to mention the neighborhoods to the north of Memorial.

Allen Parkway is, in many ways, our signature roadway. I would add stop lights and nice wide crosswalks at Dunlavy and Elenor Tinsley Park. That would help slow the traffic a little and, maybe, make it feel less like a highway. Other than that, I would leave it as is.

And, while I'm dreaming, the reconstruction of I-45 is nearing and I would LOVE to somehow force TXDoT to seriously consider tunneling the highway from the interchange with 59 to the I-10. Then, from West Dallas to Washington Ave, I would keep the old I-45 spaghetti bowl of overpasses and repurpose them as part of the Buffalo Bayou Park somehow, a la THE HIGH LINE (had to). I think it would be awesome to go biking on that stretch of the freeway, haha.