Pleak

When you have to tell everyone in the world how weird and cool you are. You aren't.

Didn't see this posted anywhere else. To be used for hike and bike trails, sidewalks, bikeways, etc. http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2012/06/houston-to-receive-15-million-from-department-of-transportation-for-eco-friendly-infrastructure/ I thought the below quote was interesting: "Houston has the largest number of bike commuters in Texas, according to a joint press release from the representatives. " I would have assumed it was Austin with their eco-hippy reputation. Maybe it's just sheer size that puts Houston over the top. Dunno.

Eh - I know, I know. I was embellishing a wee bit to add to the "historical" part of our very own Colosseum ruins. Wish there was some sort of sarcasm smiley to add to posts.

See - we should leave it alone just as it is. In a few years people will come from all over to gawk in amazement at the colossal ruins. Have tour guides on hand to show the damage done from the marauding Katrina-ites. Maybe pipe in some water from Brays Bayou to spew into a fountain from a oil derrick and we can have our very own version of the Trevi Fountain

These two reasons simultaneously scared me and made me laugh. I instantly got this mental image but hopped up on crystal and pissed off. Scareeeeee...... And then anything with Dog in it is both frightening and fascinating in a car-wreck fashion.

From the title, I was hoping we were talking about a new brewery.

I was one of the early repliers to this thread to - so I guess I am one of those big mean bullies also. So we have yet another thread about how to "fix" downtown. I have been reading HAIF for many years before I actually joined and that is definately one of the top 5 topics. And I still maintain - what is wrong with downtown? It does exactly what it is designed to do. It is a powerhouse workplace. Even though Houston is spread out and has several other massive employment centers, downtown is still the economic focus of 6 million people. We just passed through the worst economic mess that most of the people posting here have been alive for. And Houston's downtown is actually in fairly good shape compared to most of the other large cities in the U.S. We had a few canceled projects - but I don't recall any buildings stopped halfway through construction like Chicago had. Aside from the Days Inn which is a hopeless case, there are few abandoned buildings downtown. Even some of the really old ones are being redevoped - see the threads on this forum. Over the last few years, there have been many of the parking lots on the east side of downtown developed. But none of this is enough because Houston does not have hip little sidewalk cafes or funky little hostels for backpackers to throw their rucksacks in. Or the clusters of Miami-Vice condo towers. Or a subway. Yes it tends to shut down after hours and on weekends. But that is what it has been designed to do. Downtown has been designed to make money - not entertain the SimCity fetishes of wannabe architects. Not once in any of these threads bitching and moaning about downtown have I seen anybody say, "Hey! I'm going to put up my own money and build a 60-story hotel-condo tower with cool nightclubs and restaurants that will attract everybody downtown". In Houston of all places (no zoning) - there is nothing holding a developer back. If a 60-story hotel-condo tower would be financially sucessful - we would have a dozen. But we don't. That should tell people something. But as long as they can spend someone else's money and whine about it, I guess HAIF will have plenty of new threads.

Thanks Simbha. When I drive by it I always wonder if its even open. I can't tell as I'm usually on the southbound feeder so I can't see if anyone is in the parking lot. It looks abandoned - but not the same as the old Days Inn downtown.

Put kiosks on every other corner of downtown selling t-shirts with Mayor Parker's picture on it saying "My (fill-in-the-blank-with-relative-not-close-enough-to-buy-you-anything-nice) went to Houston and all they bought me was this lousy shirt" That should be sufficiently touristy.

Double post..........

It almost sounds like that analysis was written by United's P.R. department. In addition to what 19514 said, the article's whole basic premise is wrong. If this is true: "United's Houston hub is also the third most profitable major airline operation in the country in terms of profit margin, according to Scott Kirby, president of US Airways (LCC_). The golden egg is the vast benefit it brings to Houston's economy." Then United's shareholders should be suing United for gross mismanagement for pulling down operations at IAH when they have such a stranglehold over the hub. In reality, these cuts are nothing but the trimming and re-arranging of routes as the merger progresses. They are moving planes all over the system now that they have a much bigger variety in their fleet in order to maximize usage. Nothing wrong with that. But this was planned anyway. And what non-stop international flights are we losing? One to Auckland which dubiously made sense when Continental launched it as they had no western hub, but now that United has hubs on the west coast - makes no sense and a flight to Morelia, Mexico. And we are gaining non-stop internationals (or competition) to Cancun and a couple of other cities in Mexico and the Caribbean. Doesn't sound like a net loss there.

Are the apartments empty? Or do they have to wait for leases to expire?

But really - would that be a bad thing? I mean if nobody saw it.

What do you think drove the decision? Cost? Privacy of a closed campus? The current wave of corporate thinking?

It wasn't completely rebuilt. The connectors were partially rebuilt/added on to. And they added the flyover lanes on the from the southbound West Loop frontage road to the southbound West Loop. And tunnelled the West Loop frontage roads under 59. But - before and after results was like night and day. That's why I am so surprised that they are revisiting it so soon. It is nowhere near the problem it used to be. Not that I am complaining - if they can improve flow, I'm all for it. Is it a cascade effect from running the Uptown line off Westpark under 59 to Post Oak? Or maybe the sections they did not replace last time are obsolete/unsafe and since they have to rebuild - they might as well make improvements?

What is interesting, is that they are considering this so soon after the last rebuild. I wonder if it is being driven by congestion on the West Loop vs. 59. Because coming in 59 is SO much better than it used to be. Yes it backs up in the morning, but it really is not bad till the Hillcroft curve which is not a great distance. (unless there is a wreck - then all bets are off). Now outbound in the evening is far worse. And the interchange that actually needs work is the Beltway 8 - 59S interchange. It backs all the way up to the Hillcroft curve the other way outbound. As soon as you pass Beltway 8 - the freeway opens up. Hopefully with them adding a lane on the Southbound Tollway - that will decrease the backup on the connectors to 59.

And hopefully they will be completely ignored. Or better yet, a cloverleaf put through Afton Oaks.

And why are you so involved in policing what other people read? I just made a comment to the effect that it can't be seen by certain people (I'm sure I'm not the only one whose work blocks videos). The original poster might not have known that he was posting information that was not visible to everyone. If he takes the time to post something, I would imagine he would want it to be viewed. But for some reason, that got your knickers all bunched up.

Depending upon what type of destination you are looking for - I know there are a lot of tech companies up around the intersection of I-35 and Highway 183 in the north part of Austin. It's kind of like our Energy Corridor except for Austin's tech group. I think out towards the west side there is a fairly large area of office buildings - Bee Cave Road, Highway 360 etc. But Austin has a lot of hills and aquafer recharge zones where no building can take place. That helps to concentrate downtown and I think is helping them to go vertical quickly. Wasn't there an rule or gentleman's agreement that no building downtown could be taller than the capitol? I think that once that was broken also - there has been a rush of pent-up demand. That is a nice-looking hotel.

How is it hating if I'm basically asking to see what he posted??? Just in a format that is visible to everyone would be nice.

Or whose work blocks videos. Completely blank posts are pretty boring.

What is it with these French cafes? The French bakery on Chimney Rock just north of Richmond Ave. has been building a new building on the site of the old El Arroyo about a block away. They have been working on it for what seems like over a year. I think the soccer stadium took less time to build than this 1-story building. I'm wondering if the long build out is actually due to the French work ethic.

I like the heavily wooded lot! I bet some of those trees were planted back in 1925. Man that really does look like it's original in a historic neighborhood!

Might be a few years late replying to this one, but since things are waking back up from the dead - maybe not. Guy I used to work for about 15-20 years ago was a Sugar Land council member. Back then the projection was that Sugar Land was going to top out around 200-250,000. It was already hemmed in by Richmond, Rosenberg, Houston and Missouri City. And since it's a low-density city - they had a pretty good estimate even back then how many people they could squeeze in and what land they could use (i.e. - prison lands being sold off, etc). He always said the big one was going to be Rosenberg. It went ape$4!t with it's ETJ annexation. It's annexed completely around Beasely down 59 and Pleak down 36. It will reach to Needville and Kendleton eventually. Down Highway 90 - there is nothing till you hit East Bernard. I think Richmond will run into Katy on the north end - and Fulshear out west - so it won't get as big. Pleak will be just a pimple on Rosenberg's butt - like a Southside Place or West U to Houston. And pretty much it's all developable land - just a bunch of cotton/corn fields - no wetlands, etc. Nothing to stop it.

Now that the minor-league stadium is up and running - things seem to finally be moving again on this project. All the ancillary buildings are gone - but they did leave quite a few of the older sugar factory buildings and cleaned them up. Which is really nice to see. The developer is talking of a boutique hotel, brew pub, trying to get a branch of the Children's Museum. We'll see what actually happens. Couple of cool pics here at CultureMap: http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/06-09-12-sugar-land-big-transformation-is-only-beginning-imperial-sugar-land-developers-reveal-more/ Right now the biggest news is still the hissy fit being thrown about the apartments that have been approved. Which is pretty freakin' hilarious considering that this is all right next to the Quarters. Which is where my wife's parents would drive her through back in the 70's when she was complaining about not getting something that all the other kids had. You know the drive to see how good you really have it. And these goobers that bought new houses around there are complaining about how a few apartments will ruin their property values.