editor
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Posts posted by editor
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4 minutes ago, astrohip said:
Welcome back!
New features?!? Inquiring minds and all...?
Some. I have to go through them all and want to make sure they work before I announce anything. A lot of it is on the back end, like more reliable delivery of e-mail notifications.
One is the ability to let people register with Microsoft e-mail addresses like outlook.com, hotmail.com, and a few others. Microsoft was blocking all e-mail from HAIF. There were also occasionally problems with Google's GMail service.
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Sorry to be offline for so long. HAIF has been moved.
There are new features, and probably a few rough spots to iron out. If you run across anything strange, let me know here or e-mail me at editor@houstonarchitecture.com.
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The retail space in The Star Parking Garage on the corner of Capitol and San Jacinto is being kitted out. (Door faces San Jacinto.)
Rumor is that it's going to be another scooter rental joint. Hopefully not.
There are three scooter storefronts downtown that I know of, plus two that operate from parking lots on the weekends. There's probably more.
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3 minutes ago, mattyt36 said:
The website I sent sure does. The peak was in the 20K range, from 2015-2019. Stats go back to 2005.
Does this mean you spoke with people who took it who described the ridership as "enthusiastic"? So your anecdotal sample was comprised of a set of only people who rode the train? What exactly is meant by "enthusiastic ridership"? Hobbyists?
Calm down, Festus. Yes, I saw the web site you linked to has numbers going back to 2005. That's the year Katrina hit. Having statistics for 2000 to 2004 would make for a more useful comparison, since the tracks were gone for four months of 2005.
The people I spoke with were on the train and spoke about how they, and people they knew, used Amtrak east of Houston.
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On 2/13/2024 at 3:03 PM, JClark54 said:
Just minutes ago, UP reps stated the company has ruled out granting the trackage rights needed for the so-called 90-A commuter rail from Houston to Fort Bend County. The study for that commuter rail project utilized UP Glidden Subdivision for a portion of the route.
I can see why trackage rights aren't an option, considering the massive demand for freight transport these days. A lot of these railroads seem to be operating at capacity, and some over capacity, which is causing all kinds of problems around the country.
Perhaps what has to be pursued in this case isn't track rights, but right-of-way augmentation. There are places where freight and passenger rail share the roadbed, but use different tracks.
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15 hours ago, mattyt36 said:
Pre-pandemic they were above 20K annually.
I wonder what it was before Katrina cut off service past New Orleans. Unfortunately, the Amtrak web site doesn't go back that far.
Speaking with people anecdotally, there was pretty enthusiastic ridership east from Houston to Jacksonville → Miami/Orlando/Tampa, and Jacksonville → Charlotte.
From what I read in newspapers, there's a smattering of politicians along the Gulf Coast who aren't happy the tracks haven't been rebuilt. And just yesterday, the Birmingham paper ran an article about the Surface Transportation Board getting titchy with Amtrak for perceived foot-dragging:
QuoteU.S. Surface Transportation Board members, during the hearing in Washington, D.C., repeatedly expressed disappointment over the inability to get Amtrak trains operating between Mobile and New Orleans more than 14 months after a confidential agreement was reached in a highly watched case with national implications over the future of passenger rail service.
Apparently there was a goal to connect New Orleans and Mobile by October of this year, but it doesn't sound like anyone believes that's going to happen.
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On 1/30/2024 at 10:32 AM, talltexan83 said:
I know this has been brought up before, but would it be that difficult to move the Amtrak station into the Post complex? It's only a few hundred meters away. With the potential hotel proposed, they could go for something similar to what Denver has accomplished with their downtown train station.
Saint Louis did something similar about 30 years ago.
The old Union Station is a Conrad Hilton today, and the old train sheds were converted into an aquarium, restaurants, Landry's, ferris wheel, event space, etc…
I went there for a convention, and it was pretty convenient. Except that the Amtrak actually dropped you off two blocks away, and then you had to walk over. I was told that the Amtrak trains used to back into the hotel and entertainment complex to let people off, but they don't anymore. That was back in the 90's, so I'm not sure what the situation is today.
When I lived in Chicago, it made for a great day trip. Take Amtrak down to Saint Louis, then hop on that city's light rail out to the big park where the museums are, rent a bike and ride around and visit the museums and have lunch, then back on the light rail, then Amtrak, and home.
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On 2/6/2024 at 6:08 PM, 004n063 said:
My understanding is that Westheimer is off-limits because it is a Farm-to-Market, so TXDoT controls the ROW. Would love to be wrong about that.
Nothing is truly off-limits. All it takes is political will. Enough people have to convince a state legislator to write an amendment to the prohibition. Far greater feats of political gymnastics are performed in Austin every day.
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On 2/8/2024 at 5:38 AM, 004n063 said:
Well, then! Sounds like we need us a Lower 82 LRT line! How bout Yellow?
(In these Whitmired times, I've decided to lean into a delusional optimism, so please just let me have this.)
Here's my delusional optimism: A rail line from Bush airport to downtown to Hobby airport to the Port of Galveston.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people spend millions of dollars on charter bus rides from Houston's airports to the cruise port. Or, in my case, $130 each way in a Lyft.
The fact that the cruise lines have had to bend over backwards to set up these bus services shows there is a demand, and then the locals can also benefit from the new routes.
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On 2/5/2024 at 9:33 AM, ChannelTwoNews said:
It's this thread.
Thanks. I saw the address, but in my mind the 1900 block is Midtown. I should look at a map.
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I've reduced the number of posts per page from 50 to 30. Try it out for a bit and let me know if that works better.
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On 2/7/2024 at 9:23 AM, steve1363 said:
You probably need to upgrade. I only have that problem where my internet connection is slow.
That's dismissive, and borders on victim blaming.
We have more people posting more pictures than ever, so requesting increased pagination is reasonable. Sometimes there are 50 or 60 images on a page, and even with lazy loading enabled, it's going to be a problem for people.
According to the U.S. Census, there are over 750,000 people in the Houston area who do not have broadband access. Not at home, not at school, and not on their phone. I'm not all that interested in telling three-quarters of a million people to pound sand.
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...and padlocked.
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I couldn't find an existing thread about this one, but if it exists, let me know and I'll smoosh them together.
Demolition began a couple of weeks ago on the abandoned parking garage on the block bounded by Main, Saint Joseph Parkway, Fannin, and Pierce.
I walk by this garage most weeks when I go to church, and it's been locked up for at least two years. The other half of the block is a surface parking lot for Metrocops.
This photo is from this past Saturday, February 3.
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1 minute ago, mfastx said:
The original Red Line was unquestionably a major success, but the lack of expansion westward to Houston's more dense communities 20 years and counting later is a failure.
Agreed. From what I've heard, the problem is mostly the neighborhood groups opposing trains down the main east-west streets. Is that true?
Maybe now that there are noises about Allen Parkway being pedestrianized, the train could go down there, then north and south along Shepherd. It's not much, but it would be a start.
Considering the perceived temperament of people in the Heights, I'm really surprised they haven't been clamoring for light rail.
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METRORail rolled into its 20th year in 2024, marking two decades of transforming the Houston landscape and connecting communities. Since its 2004 launch, the METRORail Red Line, followed by the Green and Purple lines in 2015, have collectively clocked over 257 million rides, weaving a transportation network across 23 miles of track.
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There's also a bit of graffiti starting.
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17 hours ago, mattyt36 said:
Seems like one would not want to associate a hotel with cobwebs!
Maybe it's to evoke fluffy, happy, jazzy clouds of relaxation, or something. Like Cole Porter wrote: "a trip to the moon on gossamer wings."
It seems like most of the recent hotel (and other) brands seem more about how the companies want you to feel about a product, and are substantially disconnected from the actual product.
I don't see a Moxy Hotel dressed up like Betty Boop giving a cop a kick and some lip after driving a bank robbery getaway car.
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On 1/18/2024 at 8:38 AM, mattyt36 said:
It's no secret--simply Google "Pappas Family Whitmire" and this is the first return. Much easier than accusing someone else of "rumor-mongering."
Awesome. Since it's so easy, you won't have any trouble including sources when you make similar statements.
23 hours ago, gene said:I recently had a friend come stay who has been living abroad and was so excited to see these things at Post haha...i had no idea what they were but apparently they were a big deal (to some anyway.. ;) )
My wife spent an hour in the rain plugging 100¥ coins into those machines. Thrill of the hunt, I expect.
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On 1/16/2024 at 5:04 PM, IntheKnowHouston said:
Gachapon are Japanese vending machines, found in Tokyo's iconic Akihabara district.
Calling them "vending machines" is using a broad definition of vending machine. They're more like the old gumball machines you used to see in the front of supermarkets. Those old enough to remember those also remember when they eventually started spitting out little toys in plastic bubbles instead of gumballs. This is exactly what a gashapon machine is.
Gashapon are not unique to Akihabara. They are very common all over Japan, and are positioned just like the way old gumball machines used to be — near the entrances or stores and by actual vending machines.
14 hours ago, mattyt36 said:Canceling the airport concession contract awards in favor of his political benefactors the Pappas family is probably next.
If you're going to make statements of fact like that, it would be helpful if you linked to a campaign finance report showing how much the Pappas family donated. Otherwise, it's just rumor-mongering.
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11 hours ago, IntheKnowHouston said:
There is so much wrong with this article from Chron.com.
First, the author acknowledges Maine-ly Sandwiches operated other restaurants, noting owner Buddy Charity, "attempted to expand to Greenspoint and Cy-Fair, but those closed as well." Maine-ly Sandwiches' original location on South Shepherd Dr is also mentioned. Still, Chron.com reports this as the restaurant's second location. It's not. There were other locations not mentioned that Maine-ly Sandwiches opened.
Second of all, the article is written in a way that makes it seems Maine-ly Sandwiches is now only opening its location at The Shops at Sawyer Yards. It's misleading. The restaurant has been open for months. Yet there is no mention of it in the article.So are there two locations now, or three? Your response doesn't add clarity. If there are currently two locations, then saying "second" location is correct. Just because it's not the second ever location does not mean it's not a second location. When McDonald's opens it's 100,000th location, it counts active locations, not every location that has ever opened and closed.
The second criticism is inconsequential. It's a feature article, not breaking news. They get written ahead of time, and are bumped or postponed — sometimes repeatedly — by more interesting content. Sometimes a features reporter will write a bunch of stories all at once and they get scheduled to run in the future to cover times when they're on vacation or otherwise unavailable. It's called "evergreen."
Overall, "so much" nitpicking about nothing.
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Beignets will become even harder to find in Houston, but King Cake will continue to expand in availability.
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The new Outlaw television network is now on KEHO-LD/Houston (on 32.7), and KUVM-CD/Missouri City (on 34.6).
it describes itself as "classic western movies and TV series." So far, "classic" seems to mean "old, but new enough to be in color."
Between Outlaw on 32.7 and 34.6; Grit on KPXB/Conroe (49.8), and KFTH-DT/Alvin (on 67.3); GetTV on KPRC-TV/Houston (on 2.5) and KFTH-DT/Alvin (on 67.2); regular weekend western movies on KTXH/Houston (20.2); and the regular western shows on the KYAZ/Katy-KPRC-TV/Houston MeTV/MeTV+ melange, no one with a television should ever want for cowboy shows in Houston.
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From Austin to Anchorage, U.S. cities opt to ditch their off-street parking minimums
https://www.npr.org/2024/01/02/1221366173/u-s-cities-drop-parking-space-minimums-development
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Texaco Building (now The Star) At 1111 Rusk Street
in Downtown
Posted
As a point of interest, while The Star (1111 Rusk) and The Star Parking Garage (703 Fannin) are marketed as being one building, they are actually physically two buildings that are adjacent. You even have to walk over a metal plate when passing between the two structures' basements.
Each building is also managed by different companies.