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Kirby is the one area of town that I'm pretty excited about. Still has its large surface parking lots and small tenant buildings, but it is certainly growing. Houston also did a smart thing early on (unlike westheimer) and repaved the whole thing and improved the walkability of it all. The only thing they need to do now is come up with some proper graphics, more street art, and large media type stuff that can really make this area stand out. Along with lots a denser buildings of course lol.

Edited by Luminare
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Go to the Upper Kirby District website. They are paying to bury the utilities, improve signage and sidewalks and they added the new sculpture on Kirby. In addition, the roads are being completely replaced section by section.

Edited by Dakota79
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Wow the entire district is going to be a nice big walkable area... Not to mention it damn near connects seamlessly to Montrose and all the way through Midtown. I'd like to see connectivity between Rice Village and Upper Kirby somehow... Like some sort of pedestrian bridge or something

Edited by j_cuevas713
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Wow the entire district is going to be a nice big walkable area... Not to mention it damn near connects seamlessly to Montrose and all the way through Midtown. I'd like to see connectivity between Rice Village and Upper Kirby somehow... Like some sort of pedestrian bridge or something

 

Wow the entire district is going to be a nice big walkable area... Not to mention it damn near connects seamlessly to Montrose and all the way through Midtown. I'd like to see connectivity between Rice Village and Upper Kirby somehow... Like some sort of pedestrian bridge or something

 

 

Wow I'm impressed with the initiative the people in this part of town are into making this place better overall. Now we just need the others to get in gear and help the city out!

 

 

Add the capital improvements with the new METRO bus plan, and we could get a true walkable neighborhood

 

http://tei-houston.maps.arcgis.com/apps/OnePane/basicviewer/index.html?appid=2832e4e9d2fb4ff1a01a4bac26078ac2

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  • 2 weeks later...

They can't be that bad. I mean, Metro didn't get rid of them in the East end and it ended looking just fine......

 

harrisburg-pole-06.jpg

 

That pisses me off so much -.- They obviously took the time to redo that entire street, but couldn't spend the extra money to bury the lines?! Now they will have to tear up the sidewalk again later....i hope they know that.

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I guess it's not THAT bad if the poles double as street lights.  

 

I'm pretty sure we're in the mess we're in w/ transportation and infrastructure because many of our officials' decisions were predicated by the statement "I guess it's not THAT bad if......".

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I'm pretty sure we're in the mess we're in w/ transportation and infrastructure because many of our officials' decisions were predicated by the statement "I guess it's not THAT bad if......".

 

Ah yes such a classic statement that destroys innovation or making any improvements. It goes hand in hand with the other great statement "Well because we have always done it this way...". Such amazing sources of inspiration -.- .....those lazy bums.

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"The request to replat the property from a commercial use to one that's unrestricted is expected to be taken up at the next Houston Planning Commission "

??!! Would it be too much to ask of the chronicle to mention in the article why this particular piece of land has land use restrictions??

Does anyone in this forum know how that came to be?

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I believe it has to do with the David Crocket subdivision behind it.  In that neighborhood they have strict guidelines.  Two stories on Virginia and Ferndale, and no town homes on Lake Street, which is why that still hasn't really developed.  Who wants a single family facing the car wash, Bed Bath/Beyond etc?

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I believe it has to do with the David Crocket subdivision behind it. In that neighborhood they have strict guidelines. Two stories on Virginia and Ferndale, and no town homes on Lake Street, which is why that still hasn't really developed. Who wants a single family facing the car wash, Bed Bath/Beyond etc?

Many neighborhoods have deed restrictions, like probably this one. However, changes to that are not voted by the Planning Commission, they need to be voted by the majority of residents. This land use restriction would seem to be imposed by the City, if they are the ones voting on it, but we all know there is no zoning in Houston. What's wrong with this picture?

--- THIS, is a a game-changer!

Edited by fernz
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That pisses me off so much -.- They obviously took the time to redo that entire street, but couldn't spend the extra money to bury the lines?! Now they will have to tear up the sidewalk again later....i hope they know that.

 

There actually don't appear to be any overhead wires in that picture.  It would appear these poles are street light poles serviced from buried wires.  I'm not an engineer, but I think it's pretty hard to bury street lights. 

 

If you want to be pissed off about something, be pissed off about the fact they left the poles in the middle of the frickin' sidewalk.

Edited by Houston19514
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Without a radical redesign, even with the Kirby Collection, Kirby will never be pedestrian friendly. I have taken walks down Kirby (I am usually the only pedestrian for several blocks), and have tried riding a bike down Kirby. Forget the bike, as traffic was too heavy to share the road, and I ended up riding on the sidewalk. (I have passed bicyclists on Alabama in my car, and they are very difficult to see or pass due to lane width and visibility). There are too many lanes of cars to comfortably walk or ride between 59 and Westheimer. The sidewalks feel too narrow and close to whizzing traffic and parking lots, plus there are many obstructions along the way. Dips and rises along the way due to driveways, and trees are in the path. On one Saturday I had to dodge at least 3 cars while walking on the sidewalk due to drivers pulling out from the lots straight into the sidewalk area without looking both ways. The presence of separate parking lots for each business discourages pedestrians since there is no need to walk, and there is really little to walk to as there is nothing between most lots. The setback of the businesses at Kirby and Alabama is also an issue as pedestrians must walk thru a sea of cars, on one side the parking lots' traffic, and the other side multiple lanes of vehicles on Kirby. Also the lack of street side storefront business entrances is an issue, since there is little to walk to other than walking around to a parking lot entrance. Kirby will not be a good pedestrian street unless there is traffic calming introduced by reducing the number of traffic lanes, providing better sidewalk design that is pedestrian friendly, lowering the speed limits, removing the driveways on Kirby, and increasing storefront and store entrance density on Kirby. I have heard Kirby called the new Post Oak, which his about right since that is not pedestrian friendly either. That said, I like the changes and new things on Kirby, but even with the hundreds of new apartments added few people actually walk at any given time of day.

Edited by RocketSci
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Without a radical redesign, even with the Kirby Collection, Kirby will never be pedestrian friendly. I have taken walks down Kirby (I am usually the only pedestrian for several blocks), and have tried riding a bike down Kirby. Forget the bike, as traffic was too heavy to share the road, and I ended up riding on the sidewalk. (I have passed bicyclists on Alabama in my car, and they are very difficult to see or pass due to lane width and visibility). There are too many lanes of cars to comfortably walk or ride between 59 and Westheimer. The sidewalks feel too narrow and close to whizzing traffic and parking lots, plus there are many obstructions along the way. Dips and rises along the way due to driveways, and trees are in the path. On one Saturday I had to dodge at least 3 cars while walking on the sidewalk due to drivers pulling out from the lots straight into the sidewalk area without looking both ways. The presence of separate parking lots for each business discourages pedestrians since there is no need to walk, and there is really little to walk to as there is nothing between most lots. The setback of the businesses at Kirby and Alabama is also an issue as pedestrians must walk thru a sea of cars, on one side the parking lots' traffic, and the other side multiple lanes of vehicles on Kirby. Also the lack of street side storefront business entrances is an issue, since there is little to walk to other than walking around to a parking lot entrance. Kirby will not be a good pedestrian street unless there is traffic calming introduced by reducing the number of traffic lanes, providing better sidewalk design that is pedestrian friendly, lowering the speed limits, removing the driveways on Kirby, and increasing storefront and store entrance density on Kirby. I have heard Kirby called the new Post Oak, which his about right since that is not pedestrian friendly either. That said, I like the changes and new things on Kirby, but even with the hundreds of new apartments added few people actually walk at any given time of day.

 

Lets hope all of those problems go away with new street redevelopments since the city has said that (I think) all new major thoroughfare redos will be redone as complete streets.

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Eh, I've never been convinced by that argument. For one thing, Houston is actually extremely pleasant for at least half of the year.

 

For another, there are cities with extreme (and extended) winters that are considered pedestrian-friendly, and I would say a bad winter is worse than our worst summer.

We don't have to deal with any of the safety issues like half-refrozen snow turning into ice covering sidewalks that winter entails. I would also take a 105 degree day over a -20 degree day for comfort.

 

I do think that not enough attention is paid to shade here though. If every sidewalk was covered it would make a *huge* difference in the summer. That's actually how downtown was originally built, but even most of the remaining buildings have had their balconies/awnings removed. Imagine if every block downtown were like the sidewalk around the Rice Hotel or the Texaco building.

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ugh, so many of the same excuses we have heard for years so nobody has to invest money into their own communities -.- Simply pathetic. If the only argument someone ever has is "Well it doesn't effect me so why should I help", "It's toO hot outside", "Well because its the way we have always done it", "Houston is not pedestrian friendly so why are we even trying to make it so", I suggest you take these counter productive arguments somewhere else because that's not how you improve a city or create a healthy dialogue and I will certainly debate any of that nonsense.

 

hmmm maybe here is a good idea, why don't we continue the dialogue with how we could actually "design" a streetscape for Houston that works with our climate. Maybe one that has both trees and man made solar shading devices separate from the buildings themselves? Are we going to be the generation of city dwellers that take the easy route from our cities own problems or will people actually take the opportunities in front of them and actually grab them by the balls and use as a wonderful opportunity to design something truly Houston.

 

Maybe we should create thread called "pessimists corner" where people can gripe and complain stuff. I don't know just an idea, because some of the comments simply don't belong here. 

Edited by Luminare
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