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5 hours ago, august948 said:

 

Shipley's has great kolaches, but Krispy Kreme is the place for donuts.

I respectfully disagree. Krispy Kreme are gas station grade donuts 😉

 

If you like ultra sweet donuts hit up a shipleys in a historically Hispanic neighborhood. My experience is that those Shipleys glaze EVERY donut, similar to Krispy Kreme. 

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6 hours ago, Timoric said:

Ultimate GFR places to have

1. 7-Eleven

2. Dunkin Donuts

3. Einstein Bagel

4. Potbelly

5. Chipotle or local place

6. Local Sushi place

7. Five Guys

8. CVS

9. McDonalds

10. Local Pizza place (Ledo's for me)

These are GFR fits for a high foot traffic place like downtown. I'd be surprised if the bulk of them had any success at Lower Heights in the next 10 yrs. But man would it be awesome if development created enough walkable density here for them to work. 

 

Especially considering most of them are already within a .5 mile radius.

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9 minutes ago, Visitor said:

I respectfully disagree. Krispy Kreme are gas station grade donuts 😉

 

If you like ultra sweet donuts hit up a shipleys in a historically Hispanic neighborhood. My experience is that those Shipleys glaze EVERY donut, similar to Krispy Kreme. 

 

b07fb3fccfebfbb6c292b444c6ae4d22f2adce17

 

Perhaps we can agree that Shipley's kolaches are top notch?  And that both Shipley's and Krispy Kreme are better than River Oaks Donuts?

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I

55 minutes ago, august948 said:

 

b07fb3fccfebfbb6c292b444c6ae4d22f2adce17

 

Perhaps we can agree that Shipley's kolaches are top notch?  And that both Shipley's and Krispy Kreme are better than River Oaks Donuts?

Agreeing to disagree is my favorite. 😀 But, yes, both are better than River Oaks Donuts lol

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2 hours ago, Visitor said:

These are GFR fits for a high foot traffic place like downtown. I'd be surprised if the bulk of them had any success at Lower Heights in the next 10 yrs. But man would it be awesome if development created enough walkable density here for them to work. 

 

Especially considering most of them are already within a .5 mile radius.

I feel like all of these would be successful in LHD. If people will travel to City Center then they will come to LHD. 

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2 hours ago, Visitor said:

These are GFR fits for a high foot traffic place like downtown. I'd be surprised if the bulk of them had any success at Lower Heights in the next 10 yrs. But man would it be awesome if development created enough walkable density here for them to work. 

 

Especially considering most of them are already within a .5 mile radius.

I feel like all of these would be successful in LHD. If people will travel to City Center then they will come to LHD. 

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1 hour ago, j_cuevas713 said:

I feel like all of these would be successful in LHD. If people will travel to City Center then they will come to LHD. 

Maybe you're right but I have a hard time believing that 7/11 and the fast casual food spots would garner the type of traffic needed.  If Lower Heights ends up having the type of office and retail that city centre does? Then it's a different story. 

 

Walgreens is at Studemont and Washington, Mcdonalds is in front of kroger, chipotle is at heights/10, five guys is on Washington near Yale.  

 

Now the area is lacking an Einstein...

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1 hour ago, Visitor said:

Maybe you're right but I have a hard time believing that 7/11 and the fast casual food spots would garner the type of traffic needed.  If Lower Heights ends up having the type of office and retail that city centre does? Then it's a different story. 

 

Walgreens is at Studemont and Washington, Mcdonalds is in front of kroger, chipotle is at heights/10, five guys is on Washington near Yale.  

 

Now the area is lacking an Einstein...

City Center is next to a massive freeway and lots of empty spread out land. Lower Heights has roughly 12k people within a mile of one another. I’m not really sure how much more evidence we need as Houstonians to realize people want to walk and take other more healthier forms of transit in this city. I get the hesitation in believing that maybe finally we’re seeing Houston become what we’ve always wanted but the reality is that this is a rare opportunity to be alive in this city and see it literally change right in front of us. I think we’ve just been let down so much as Houstonians that when we finally start to see things take off we have a hard time believing it’s actually happening. 

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1 hour ago, Visitor said:

Maybe you're right but I have a hard time believing that 7/11 and the fast casual food spots would garner the type of traffic needed.  If Lower Heights ends up having the type of office and retail that city centre does? Then it's a different story. 

 

Walgreens is at Studemont and Washington, Mcdonalds is in front of kroger, chipotle is at heights/10, five guys is on Washington near Yale.  

 

Now the area is lacking an Einstein...

City Center is next to a massive freeway and lots of empty spread out land. Lower Heights has roughly 12k people within a mile of one another. I’m not really sure how much more evidence we need as Houstonians to realize people want to walk and take other more healthier forms of transit in this city. I get the hesitation in believing that maybe finally we’re seeing Houston become what we’ve always wanted but the reality is that this is a rare opportunity to be alive in this city and see it literally change right in front of us. I think we’ve just been let down so much as Houstonians that when we finally start to see things take off we have a hard time believing it’s actually happening. 

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10 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

City Center is next to a massive freeway and lots of empty spread out land. Lower Heights has roughly 12k people within a mile of one another. I’m not really sure how much more evidence we need as Houstonians to realize people want to walk and take other more healthier forms of transit in this city. I get the hesitation in believing that maybe finally we’re seeing Houston become what we’ve always wanted but the reality is that this is a rare opportunity to be alive in this city and see it literally change right in front of us. I think we’ve just been let down so much as Houstonians that when we finally start to see things take off we have a hard time believing it’s actually happening. 

I'd love for Houston to actually realize its potential.  I just dont think the accessibility of Lower Heights is conducive to non-vehicle traffic. If it were somehow connected to downtown via rail (not bus) or ends up having a fair amount of office space then it is a different story.  

 

My personal opinion is that the surrounding area of Lower Heights basically makes it an island.

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Kinda seems like an island at this moment due to the street grid...but there are nearly 2,000 multi-family units under construction within about 1 mile and even more planned---the opportunity exists for many thousands more in the area. 

 

               UC     planned         demo  
Buffalo Heights* 232 1,000 -436  
Northbank   269    
Lower Heights 375 375    
Broadstone Studemont 375      
Crest at Taylor 381      
Broadstone Arts District 327      
former Detering Site*   300    
Standard 301      
  1,991 1,944 -436 3,499
*estimated        
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Other than Sawyer Lofts and the on-site MF, I just don't see the accessibility from a walking perspective. 

 

I believe that you get high volume pedestrian activity when there is a mix of work, live, and entertainment. Without significant "work" or even hotel traffic, it's just not going to get there. 

 

I personally live 1.2 miles from here and I'd only consider biking or driving. Especially in the summer.  I actually will have a pretty good route along the bike trail, so I guess that is a win.

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1 hour ago, Visitor said:

I'd love for Houston to actually realize its potential.  I just dont think the accessibility of Lower Heights is conducive to non-vehicle traffic. If it were somehow connected to downtown via rail (not bus) or ends up having a fair amount of office space then it is a different story.  

 

My personal opinion is that the surrounding area of Lower Heights basically makes it an island.

 

That's really very similar to City Centre.  Most people drive there and then walk around.  I think that is where we are in the development trends right now.  Malls are out and drive-to and walk around developments are in.

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Right, but City Centre has a large office footprint, hotels, and multiple retail locations. Lower heights doesn't have the space to accomplish something like City Centre. Buffalo Heights has a better chance. 

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1 hour ago, Visitor said:

Right, but City Centre has a large office footprint, hotels, and multiple retail locations. Lower heights doesn't have the space to accomplish something like City Centre. Buffalo Heights has a better chance. 

 

Both have just as equal a chance and opportunity, each have their own set of issues to confront, and each look to develop in their own unique way. Might not be perfect, but its better than nothing. It wasn't easy for City Centre as well, but they stuck with it even when many many people said they were stupid and it would be a failure because it wasn't "walkable" in the immediate sense. This is by the way no shot against you, but is something that I generally see with other people, but once its put under pressure it just doesn't work as an idea. Many seem to get this idea that a city is a just a continuous progression of growth ever outward and its not always the case. Many cities grow with small cores that develop and then weave into one another. We are seeing it with all the different districts in town and soon we will see it happen with all these urban cores that are developing. What might not look "accessibly" or "walkable" now could easily snowball to something interesting given time. Now if you just don't like the development or you don't think its worth it to build something there...well thats your opinion, but I don't see how this development can't be as successful as others.

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1 hour ago, Visitor said:

My contention was that the aforementioned list of GFR tenants was probably not conducive to this development as planned. That's all. 

 

Did you mean this list?

 

Quote

Ultimate GFR places to have

1. 7-Eleven

2. Dunkin Donuts

3. Einstein Bagel

4. Potbelly

5. Chipotle or local place

6. Local Sushi place

7. Five Guys

8. CVS

9. McDonalds

10. Local Pizza place (Ledo's for me)

 

If thats what you mean then fare enough. I actually agree with you. Any list with a Dunkin Donuts is immediately invalid haha

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5 hours ago, Visitor said:

Right, but City Centre has a large office footprint, hotels, and multiple retail locations. Lower heights doesn't have the space to accomplish something like City Centre. Buffalo Heights has a better chance. 

 

Lower Heights might not need the space on-site since the area around it is developing a bit denser than the City Centre area.  I'll have to go walk the area myself, but I've walked around City Centre and the adjoining Town & Country center and it's not a bad walk.  Looking at the map, it looks like the distance as the crow files is similar.  I'd expect you could do a lot of walking around there if you are inclined.  It's just that most Houstonians aren't so inclined.

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On 3/9/2019 at 1:16 PM, skooljunkie said:

Kinda seems like an island at this moment due to the street grid...but there are nearly 2,000 multi-family units under construction within about 1 mile and even more planned---the opportunity exists for many thousands more in the area. 

 

               UC     planned         demo  
Buffalo Heights* 232 1,000 -436  
Northbank   269    
Lower Heights 375 375    
Broadstone Studemont 375      
Crest at Taylor 381      
Broadstone Arts District 327      
former Detering Site*   300    
Standard 301      
  1,991 1,944 -436 3,499
*estimated        

 

On 3/9/2019 at 1:31 PM, Visitor said:

Other than Sawyer Lofts and the on-site MF, I just don't see the accessibility from a walking perspective. 

 

I believe that you get high volume pedestrian activity when there is a mix of work, live, and entertainment. Without significant "work" or even hotel traffic, it's just not going to get there. 

 

I personally live 1.2 miles from here and I'd only consider biking or driving. Especially in the summer.  I actually will have a pretty good route along the bike trail, so I guess that is a win.

 

This is the big problem with all the development in the area. You're basically trying to build urban density on a suburban chassis. You have a bunch of very large tracts, not connected to each other or to a surrounding street grid. When you do high-intensity infill on this pattern, you get all the density of an urban center, but none of the mode shift. Which is to say, people still drive to and between (and frequently within) these developments. Density is a necessary but not sufficient condition for walkability. Density without urbanism is basically just vertical sprawl.

 

I'm a lot more optimistic about high-density infill in places with a connected street grid (Heights, Midtown, EaDo, etc.). Since we don't do use-segregation in Houston, developers can locate retail, commercial and residential in close proximity, and since no tract is bigger than a city block, people can flow between them without cars. 

 

In this area, though, the only real solution is to nuke everything between I-10 and the RR tracks from Yale to Sawyer and replat with a proper street grid. (BTW, East River is an example of how to do this right: break up a large tract into smaller blocks, preferably with narrow rights of way between them, develop those blocks with a mix of uses within and between them, and integrate the whole thing with the surrounding grid.)

 

 

 

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On 3/8/2019 at 1:01 PM, august948 said:

 

Shipley's has great kolaches, but Krispy Kreme is the place for donuts.

Krispy Kreme is awful. I would like to see an Einsteins Bagels closer to the Greater Heights than Kirby and Bissonet or Montrose and Hawthorne.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We live in the immediate area and we did not flood during Harvey. The Studemont underpass does but quickly drains within a couple of hours. We have been told a movie theater is going in, but we’ll see with time. I do know Total Wine & Spirits has already placed a sign on the property of their new store. We’re pretty excited. This area is booming. With the all the new walking distance restaurants in the area including the new Killen’s restaurant, Truth BBQ, HEB, Shell Shack the traffic is the only thing we are not looking forward to... New floodplain is already being considered in all new construction, it won’t be a problem.

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