Pleak

I had stopped posting in this thread because it had become the same old boring, "people that were here before us but don't look (and smell) like us don't belong here and lower our property values even though we knew they were here when we bought our house" kind of threads but I saw this article today and couldn't pass it up. http://www.khou.com/news/local/Houstons-homeless-population-declines-164589156.html So we have the people that count the homeless (and would want to inflate the number to get more federal funding) saying there are less homeless, but we have indignant Mid-towners swearing they are being invaded by hoards of out-of-state indigent. (which if they are homeless and broke - how did they get the money to drive to Houston?)

Since it had all the exposed above-ground power lines, I thought it was the picture Dallas-ites always post of Westheimer to show the ugly sprawl side of Houston.

How about a huge fan on top blowing a giant thing like used to be in front of all the cell phone stores - that large inflatable sock-think with arms. I have no idea what they were called.

Does anybody have any current pics of what the final plans are? All the links are old and appear to be broken. (at least for me)

Unfortunately, I think the wealthy eccentric Texans are a dying breed. Wish we still had a bunch running around - they kept things interesting. Sure a lot of the stuff they built was gaudy, and financially unsound. But it's the sort of stuff you look back on later with fond remembrance. Instead - all of our wealtlhy Texans seem to now be very sober-minded and concerned about hanging onto their fortunes instead of blowing it on some crazy-a$$ed building or project. And the crazy ones we do have move elsewhere - so we don't even get any good scandals anymore. Like the Goodman heir in Florida that adopted his girlfriend. Or Ana Nicole Smith - they all went somewhere else to go bat-crazy. Houston needs a few rich nut-jobs.

Bush Sr.

Uh - no it's not. And I don't think the admin has to explain anything for my post. Or your user error.

Which has correspondingly driven tirade-posting on HAIF. Which can be entertaining after one frequents a liquor store.

Somewhat related question. The new HOT lanes on the Southwest and Gulf Freeways. Are they a Metro creation? Or a HCTRA creation?

Oops. Sorry. Scurries back to lurking now....

Yep. The full-body suits on males were ruled illegal in 2009. Just read an article in Popular Mechanics about the tech used in the Olympics. They also made them change the material in the body suits. So the companies responded by redesigning the swimmers goggles and head coverings to reduce drag. Here's the link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/technology/olympic-science-the-gear-of-the-2012-games-9989520?click=pp

Compared to what usually passes for political discourse here - yes. Obama sucks. No- Bush sucked more and longer. Romney won't even get the chance to suck is how is usually goes. There were actually a couple of mildly interesting comments made that I was hoping would take the thread in that direction.

I'm thinking if the Heights had more of them, there would be less worrying about Hardiplank and Wal-mart. But then HAIF would only have 47 posts.

Wow. A political post turning somewhat civil, reasonable and mildly interesting. Who would have thunk it? Keep going.....

Does HPD even investigate minor property crimes? I know 20 years ago, they weren't. My car was broken into and stripped at my apartment on Bissonnet up the street from where the Ashby is going in and they wouldn't do anything about it. Just take a report over the phone was all.

Is this based upon real numbers or just observation of the Midtown neighborhood? Because of the downturn in the economy in the last few years, homelessness has gone up nationwide. That doesn't equate to Houston being a santuary city for the homeless. If you want to see what a real homeless sanctuary city looks like - go to San Diego. Downtown, Gas Lamp District, whole place is full of homeless. Every corner has someone sleeping and you will trip over them if you are not paying attention. The reason is the climate. They will never freeze there.

But, but, but - isn't HPD the department that throws Hispanics into bayous? And arrests mouthy sign-holders for no reason? You're telling me they're afraid of a couple of homeless groups?

I never argued about where to put any charities. I do know that one of the prevailing themes of HAIF is that Houston should become a more walkable city, and that's why Midtown is so wonderful and all, with the rail and all it's new developments is because it's one of the more walkable hoods in Houston. Maybe that's one reason it's so "sticky" for the homeless. Seeing as it was mentioned above that they can't even afford mass transit - maybe they need a walkable neighborhood also. So by creating the desired perfect neighborhood for yourself - your also creating the perfect environment for them. It was mentioned shipping them out to Katy or somewhere - but it's pretty much universally agreed on here that the burbs are not especially walkable - I think they would end up eventually migrating back to your lovely pedestrian friendly area. Y'all have just made it too darn attractive for them. In all seriousness - I think the charities and accompanying homeless will over time be driven out as the $$ continue to come in.

I'm afraid we're aren't privy. Alas - the stigma of being terminally uncool.

I read it. And my point is you moved into a neighborhood with known problems and now want to foist those problems onto somebody else because they make you uncomfortable. But were you forced at gunpoint to move to Midtown?

Were you born in midtown? Were you raised in midtown? They were there in the 70's-early 90's when the place was dead and nobody wanted anything to do with it. Old abandoned (very cool-looking) houses. Broken streets. No cute train. Only thing around there was the Sears store, a Fiesta which I used to shop at when I went to college and fire-sale stores. Why do you think large parts of midtown in the 70's became Little Vietnam? Because it was cheap real estate and nobody cared when the Vietnamese refugees bought it. They could afford it, and stick together and be generally left alone. Everybody was happy because nobody else wanted the property back then (except the bums). It wasn't until much later that people figured out that the Vietnamese could cook pretty good and it became a cool to go get your bacon-flavored pho. Oops. Wrong thread.

Well, we have the bayous. And Culberson would back this plan. After all didn't he get funding for the "transit system" on the Woodlands ditch?

Here is an interesting read on DART's rail build out. http://www.dallasnews.com/news/transportation/20120610-as-rail-expansion-nears-end-dart-faces-challenge-how-to-add-riders.ece Appears the only way they have added more riders is to add more stations. Riders per staions have dropped generally across the board. But I thought they were one of the "shining stars" that Houston rail is always being compared against....

Facebook is just about ready to open a big one in Sweden that is cooled by ambient air - they have been talking it up a storm since it saves so much on a/c costs. http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/10/27/facebook-goes-global-with-data-center-in-sweden/

Now that we have the important information settled - they can proceed.