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Auto-embed seems to be working on my end. I just pasted a link from your Flickr account, and I can see it fine. Can you see the image above? The amount of time allowed to edit a comment has been reduced from ∞ to 30 minutes. The reason for this is that spammers have learned to take over dormant accounts, then go in and alter previously posted comments to fill them with spam.

The lunch crowd is pretty solid. I've been there at least a dozen times, usually after 1pm, and it's good for that hour. It's not Pennzoil Plaza basement, but it's respectable for post-lunch. But you're right — even if you're one of the few people who know it exists, you probably don't know it's open after lunch. I like Understory, and I appreciate that some of the stalls are open on the weekends. The burger joint is good, if you're into that sort of thing. The burgers aren't to my taste, but I seem to recall that the fries were excellent. I go to the coffee shop down there every couple of weeks. I know that it feels corporate and antiseptic, but I'm OK with that. Post-COVID, I'll pick a clean looking food court over a faux "urban" food court every time. Whoever runs it does seem to make an effort to do events. There are often seasonal photo pop-up thingies for the twee crowd, and the occasional craft market. What it needs most is to let people know it's there. From the street, it looks like "Understory" is the name of the one street-level restaurant, and there's nothing else there. Some signage is needed. Also, as far as I can tell, it doesn't do any promotion outside of the building. The only place I've ever seen it mentioned was in the Downtown District newsletter.

"FirstGroup" is correct. It's a Scottish company that runs a lot of trains in the UK's privatized passenger rail system. It also owns a bunch of bus companies around the world, and used to own Greyhound.

Interesting that these are being called "Dutch" design. I've seen these for half a century in other cities. They were called "Crossing tables." All the benefits of a speed bump, but less jarring, and handy for pedestrians. What we used to call a "Dutch crossing" was the one where the center refuge isn't straight through. Pedestrians have to turn left or right a bit, which helps make pedestrians more aware of the traffic coming at them because they had to turn their heads/bodies in the direction of approaching traffic. Here's an illustration of something similar from New Zealand, but the ones I'm familiar with have 90° turns for the pedestrians: It's similar to rubber pedestrian islands, where the middle is a different width, forcing people to look up from their phones. The idea is like the Dutch reach, which makes drivers turn their heads to notice oncoming bicycles. This is actually the law in some places.

I saw this last night. The crosswalk needs help. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I think a small part of it is that the lights aren't very visible. Maybe they're too small. Maybe they're positioned so that you can't see them from the curb lanes because of the trees. But the only reason I noticed them was because the traffic was stopped. There also seems to be a lot of confusion about who should go and when. People in cars were stopping and waiting for people to cross, then going because the office workers on the sidewalk were just standing there. The rest of us were stopped farther back, and could see when the lights were on and when they were not. But most of the drivers didn't stop at the stop line (the one that crosses the lanes perpendicularly), but instead at the zebra lines. This is something I see a lot of in suburban tourists downtown. They don't know where they're supposed to stop at a red light with a crosswalk, and then they end up not being able to see the light and have to crane their necks. The immediate solution is to put an off-duty cop in the middle of the crosswalk to give some hand signals to the drivers. The short-term solution is to upgrade the pedestrian crossing from flashing lights to a red/green light, like on Fannin at the Hermann Park Red Line station. The long-term solution is to put buildings where those surface parking lots are, so that all of these young, healthy people will walk the extra 50 feet to the crosswalk at the corner. But my guess is that if buildings do go up on those lots, they will have parking at the bottom, and will be equipped with a pedestrian bridge, which is not great for the neighborhood.

That's good news. Living in downtown Chicago, my wife and I always looked forward to the farmers markets. I get food from several Houston-area farmers (Nando's Honey, Gina's Acres, and others), but because of the price of fuel, some of them have stopped delivering to individual buildings, and you have to meet them at a farmer's market to pick up your food. This will give me a chance to start supporting more local farmers directly again.

If you're looking for the discussion about luxury hotels in Houston, I split those comments off into their own thread:

While tourism can be a driver, I don't think that tourists necessarily cause luxury hotels. There are plenty of luxury hotels in non-touristy places. Business happens everywhere. Some businessmen are door-to-door salesman who are fine with an EconoLodge. Some businessmen are C.F.O.'s, or company owners from other parts of the country or the world, who are used to something a little better than the basics.

Wait… Are there people who really believe that five stars on a social media platform is the same thing as a real five star rating? Guilty!

I do. Different people have different needs and expectations.

I didn't say there were none. I said there aren't many considering the size of Houston. Since you brought it up, no, the Hilton isn't a luxury hotel. I stayed there for a week, and can tell you that it's just an ordinary business hotel. There is nothing special or luxurious about it. I have not stayed at the Marriott, so I offer no opinion on that.

You know how you know that you're an Alpha city? When you don't notice or care if someone ranks you or not.

Good to hear. Houston is a little short on luxury hotel options, considering the city's size. Especially near downtown.

I'll take black and white over the beige/greyish tan/latte/unbleached silk/Tuscan/buff/desert sand/ecru/khaki/French beige/light French beige/mode beige monotony that is most American homes these days. I was so glad to move back to Houston and see houses with color, blacks, and whites, and people who actually put art on their walls, instead of leaving an entire house full of blank beige walls because they believe some internet rumor that decorating one's home with anything other than driftwood signs from Pier One Imports reminding themselves to be thankful will crater their home's resale value. Wow. That was one heck of an old man rant.

https://www.bdcnetwork.com/top-10-cities-downtown-living-2023 Reasons cited: Rent-to-income ratio Apartment space per person Apartments with access to fitness centers Having visited the downtowns of every city on the list, and lived in four of the ten, I think the list is a little squirrely. Plus, New York isn't on the list. That makes it instantly suspect.

Thank you for the super-informative response. What about insurance? I seem to recall that at some point in time, some place I lived, certain factors like building codes and the number of fire stations and such had an impact on a city's insurance rating. Is that still a thing? Or was it just a quirk of some small town I lived in at the time?

Back in my cross-country cycling days we used to lay our bikes down across the loop cuts in order to trigger the signal. That probably wouldn't work these days since bicycles aren't made with much metal anymore.

Again, you imagine me as the person you want me to be, not the person I am. I'm no longer going to engage with you on this topic. Considering that every time someone refutes one of your assertions with logic or facts you pivot to a new line of attack — and for some reason you choose to make your responses about me, rather than the topic at hand — it is clear that you are not interested in discussion or knowledge, just in arguing for the sake of argument. It's OK. It's not your fault. Sociologists have noticed for the last few years that some people just like to bicker in public as a way of reminding themselves and others that they exist. Around 2015, the Pope called it "a coming epidemic of loneliness." As I told you in another thread back in July, "If you want low-brow, low-quality arguing, you are welcome to join any one of the 50,000 newspaper web sites, or other social fora that cater to that sort of thing… Whether it's chron.com, or Facebook, or Twitter, or Trump Social, I expect that you will find no shortage of people happy to engage you at the level you require. I hope you find what you're looking for on those platforms."

One strike against it: No cash accepted. That will probably reduce the number of times I visit. I don't use cash too often, but I like the option. Sometimes I don't feel like being tracked, tabulated, sold, or otherwise watched. I just want coffee.

I went to Fifth Vessel Coffee at the foot of Main Street today. It replaced another coffee shop named Third Somethingorother. It was packed. No room to sit outside, and barely any room to stand inside. In a good way, especially for a downtown joint on a weekend. I'm not sure what changed. When I was here under the old flag, it was empty. Decor has changed, but I can't say how. Seems less cozy. More wannabe rustic IKEA. Beans are on offer. But $28 for what appears to be 8 ounces, no thanks. Lots of marathon tourists, and they like to complain about the service and exaggerate about how long they've waited. The wait was about the same as a Starbucks, which means half the time of a cafe in Italy. Some people just enjoy hearing themselves complain. Seems well staffed for such a small place. I saw four people, and there may be more. Chocolate chip cookies are excellent. A bit sugary, but still quite tasty. Menu is far more extensive than the old place, both beverages and food. A good move.

So, where's the lie again? You seem to be backing their assertion that commuting times have increased, not decreased. Or is the point of contention that their data doesn't include pre-construction numbers? Wikipedia seems to indicate that the last major expansion was completed in 2008. In order for the delay numbers to be meaningless, you'd have to believe that spending billions to expand a freeway is only intended to relieve congestion for a short period of time — Four years, in this case. I don't think this was sold to the voters as "We'll ease traffic at a cost of x billion dollars a year for four years, and then it ends." Perhaps when these massive freeway projects are proposed, they need some kind of freshness label. "Will reduce congestion by x% for y years." It seems possible to model that sort of thing. I think that kind of transparency would be helpful to voters.

You pretend as if these numbers didn't exist. Transtar was measuring numbers long before the numbers I included in the spreadsheet. I didn't include the numbers before 2012 because they are not currently available on Transtar's web site. That doesn't mean they don't exist. It's entirely possible that they used to be online, but aren't anymore because the original link to the Transtar numbers was 404, and I had to search for the new page. That doesn't mean that the Times, or City Observatory didn't look them up, request them, or otherwise find them. It's trivial for a Times reporter to call the Transtar flack and have the numbers in hand in a matter of hours. Do you have evidence that the earlier numbers were not part of the reporting or the analysis? If you think people haven't expressed what they want, you haven't been listening. As for the anti-I-45 people, that wasn't a transit issue. It was people who didn't want to be bulldozed into oblivion without having a say in the matter. They're tired of being marginalized and ignored.

Correlation is not causation. Tigers are frequently found in jungles. Jungles do not cause tigers. I don't think anyone believes that transit is a cure for all traffic for everyone. But many people believe it should be an option for those who choose it, and would rather see a portion of the billions spent on widening freeways spent on improving transit. Perhaps if Metro met some minimum standard for transit service, then pro-transit people would feel a little less aggrieved with the situation. But as the city grows, it is no longer sufficient for TxDOT to throw crumbs at transit, and steak at concrete companies.

DENVER (AP) — Exxon Mobil’s scientists were remarkably accurate in their predictions about global warming, even as the company made public statements that contradicted its own scientists’ conclusions, a new study says. https://apnews.com/article/science-exxon-mobil-corp-new-jersey-business-climate-and-environment-e9594dc9adb504a81ec82f4ac2b72ef9 This page is a few years old, but it provides some good background around what Exxon knew, and when.

It looks right to me. The Times cites City Observatory, which cites Transtar's Historical Freeway Travel Times statistics. I put them into a spreadsheet, and here's what it looks like: I-10 from Beltway 8 to Downtown - Percent of time the freeway is "congested," by Transtar's definition: Sure looks like the numbers got worse, not better. And here's the congestion expressed in amount of time, again according to Transtar: Which part of Transtar's numbers do you think are "lies?" Do you have any theories about why Transtar might put false numbers into its statistics?