Pleak

This is the way I understand it works as well. Basically, if you can plan ahead - you can get the killer deal. Last minute fares are pretty much in line with everybody else.

Looks like it picks up at Eastwood Transit Center or Polk and Travis. Plus a stop out I-10 West or 290 depending on your route. 5 routes available at first - Austin, Dallas, Galveston, New Orleans, and San Antonio. Link: http://us.megabus.com/Megabus%20expands%20service%20tofrom%20Dallas%20Houston%20San%20Antonio%20and%20five%20cities.aspx

Not bad looking at all. I like it a lot better than Melcher Hall.

Well, I guess Editor could ban me.

By chance, is your favorite band in the whole world Rush?

That's because it is a cookie cutter freeway shopping center. What else would you do with an HEB, Chick-fil-A, Walgreens, bank and a Whataburger? Put them a 50-story tower there instead? And why all the obsession with the name of a shopping center? Do you actually believe the name of a project has anything to do with what the project is? Is technical accuracy the new requirement for naming a project? Just a quick scan down the going up forum....Where are the docks at Richmond Landing? It's just a cookie-cutter 5-6 story infill apartment. Same with the Lakes @610 being built. There is no lake around there. There is a widened drainage ditch attached, but I doubt there will be much fishing or water-skiing done there. Or the Houston Pavilions - just a 3-block long box with stores and restaurants. No outdoorsy-openness to speak of - thats the reason its failing according to everyone on here. They are all "aspirational" names developers slap on to give somebody a warm fuzzy feeling for choosing to move there. When I see the word Titan - I think of the progenitor of Zeus and the other Olympic gods. Boy would I be disappointed to see a 20-something story condo instead. But because this is a development in a far-suburb - which fits the surrounding demographic profile and is cost-effective, it is hated on - even though it will probably never be seen by the bulk of the haters - much less visited.

Correct. At you can make it to downtown Houston is 30 minutes more than 3:30 am. Only time not doable is rush hour. Middle of the day is fine. After evening rush is 30 minutes also. Southwest Freeway flows very well except for rush hour times - it is not a 24-hour backup.

Nah, the Spanish stole and sold it to the Anglos. And the Comanches stole it from the Indians who lived there before them as the Comanches migrated down from somewhere around Montana. And I'm sure the group that the Comanches stole it from had stolen it from the previous squatters. And so on, back to when the group wandering across the Bering Strait ruined the pristine wilderness by stealing it from the alligators and mosquitos.

Except that this wasn't pristine prairie land. It was mostly corn, cotton or rice fields. Or ones that had gone fallow - and turned into scrubland choked by tallow trees. There are a few areas around FM359 out there that are attractive - with some rollling hills and some actual semi-forested areas, but for the most part this is old farmers cashing out - which is fine. Their kids don't want to run cattle and drive a tractor anyway - it's too hard work for them, so it solves a problem for these old-timers and provides affordable housing for people with children and keeps them away from the uber-cool inner loop areas. Only problem I see is the proliferation of faux-stucco - but in the long run - not my problem as long as I don't accidently buy a house with that stuff gooped on.

Seriously - is this something to get upset about? I don't think we have the largest pecan either - and they grow pretty well around here. This reminds me last year when we were in Hong Kong. We took the nong ping cable car to the big buddha. In the tourist area there - there were giant signs advertising the "First and biggest cable car musuem in the world!!" which consisted of 6-8 old cable cars - a couple from the US, a couple for Europe. Thank goodness it was free. Also they were hysterically promoting their new entertainment - also the "First Time Ever Performed - Drumpoline Show!" We thought it might be some sort of acrobatic show using trampolines as drums - possibly entertaining. Boy were we wrong. It was a handful of 16-year olds lip-syncing and pretend-playing guitars to horrible Cantopop while jumping up and down on trampolines. It was actually quite terrifying. The takeaway is - being the biggest/first in something does not necessarily mean you won't be the lamest. And I doubt Austin will surpass Houston in any of our lifetimes. Theirs NIMBY's make the Ashby crowd look like amateurs, Austin's infrastructure sucks and has no plans for getting significantly better, their water woes make Houston's look insignificant, and too much of their land is unusable - either due to geography or restrictions - thus driving up the cost of the remaining land. Economy-wise people always say Houston is a one-dimensional economy (energy) - in fact Houston has the medical sector, the port, and a large manufacuring base all to cushion any future downturns. Austin truly is a two-dimensional economy (government/university and high-tech) which gives them a lot less slack in any kind of downturn in one of their economic bases.

Ok, thanks for the info.

Looks like our replica is on its way... www.myfoxhouston.com/story/18665159/2012/05/31/space-shuttle-on-water-on-its-way-to-houston

I noticed in the Houston Business Journal that the Intercontinental Hotel on the West Loop near Westheimer was going to change to a Royal Sonesta. I am not familiar with this brand. Is this an upgrade or a downgrade from the Intercontintal? http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2012/05/intercontinental-hotel-changes-brand.html Another hotel I have been meaning to ask about for a long time is the old Holiday Inn that was on the northbound West Loop between Richmond and Westheimer. It closed a while back and the branding went away to be replaced by small vinyl sign above the door reading Hotel 31. Is this hotel even open? And it seems like it's in a fairly decent location - literally minutes to the Galleria - why hasn't something better happened to this building considering all the other Galleria-area activity?

Actually the more I think about Southwest getting to offer international from Hobby and then Smisek throwing a temper tantrum and taking his toy planes (that's all that will be cut anyway - the Saab jump jets etc to places that arguably shouldn't even have air service) and going home, the more I like it. If United truly cuts routes that are needed and make sense financially (See Auckland route for the antithesis of this.) another carrier will come in and sieze the opportunity. Continental for years neglected IAH to build up their Newark hub - not saying this is a bad thing from the company's perspective - build up to become the largest carrier in the nation's biggest market vs. building up your existing fortress hub. Other carriers noticed that there was unserved demand and we ended up getting Qatar, Emirates, Singapore flights in the last few years. Continental could have stopped this and further cemented their dominance - but they were busy with Newark. So if United really wants to ignore the lucrative business travel that is present and growing in Houston because Southwest is allowed to compete for bargain-hunting beach vacationers, then I think that we might see more flights from better international carriers who are interested. I think Houston flyers win - more competition for international flights on carriers with better services (especially now that we are at United service levels).

About 10 years ago, I lived closer in and one of my good friend neighbors was a self-employed roofing contractor. He had stopped doing run-of-the-mill tear-offs and had started doing custom metal roofing with copper etc. He was an excellant craftsman, but his real bread and butter came from repairing all the new townhomes that had begun sprouting up in the late 90's - early 00's. He said that some of them leaked as soon as they were finished. And a lot of it was due to bad design - where the roofs would drain to the middle of the building instead of the edges or to dead-end valleys with too small drains and then in a heavy rain, people would basically have several hundred gallons backed up on their roof. The roofs were designed soley for aestetics and not for practical purposes. By the time he was called it - the builder was long gone and people were having ruined intereriors etc. I remember he would come home well after dark 6-7 days a week. He had more work than he could do. Doesn't sound like a lot has changed in the townhome construction area since then.

Nice infill.

Exactly. If they do follow through with this announcement, all it means is they were to make these cuts anyway for other reasons. The vote to allow HOU international flights just gives them a convenient excuse instead of having to come out with the real reasons for the changes. I.e, - the Auckland flight had no demand, or we've lost so many customers/accounts due to our lousy job with merger integration. If those flights from IAH are making money - they will stay. If not, the 10% reduction was coming anyway which is not a surprise. Most airline mergers reduce capacity despite all the promises made to get approval.

I actually thought the same thing. I was thinking - how much will home insurance rates go up now?

It looks like a much larger structure was originally there and all that is left standing is the exhaust vents.

Just want to be clear - I know nothing of Chevron coming. It just seems like one of the more logical outcomes considering all of their investment in downtown over the last 10 years or so, California's less than inviting business climate, Houston's energy status, etc.

I never said it was not more attractive. What I am arguing is there is no need to replace the P&R system with commuter rail. It would be a massive expense and have only a marginal increase in ridership if any. I am saying why replace a extremely well-run system for something just because it is "cooler"? The people that are pre-disposed to mass transit already use the P&R - it's convenient and easy. There are thousands of people that will not use mass transit for any reason - and a shiny new train would not sway them. I think they need to expand the P&R system if anything. The lots at West Belfort need garages as there isn't any more room to expand surface parking. Also expand the hours. If you have ever been at the P&R lot in the morning after the last bus leaves - there are probably 30 more people that come up and then drive away when the realize they missed the bus.

One thing I am hoping for is someday Chevron will be fed up with CA's taxes/work environment and move headquarters here. Since they have such a large presence downtown already and it being the energy capital - blah, blah. This might produce another downtown tower sooner than later.

Is that the parcel that there was some sort of scandal about the city using eminent domain? I remember a big ruckus a couple of years ago and wasn't the end result that most of the parcel was going to be left as a city park? Or am I thinking of the wrong development totally?

Why on earth would the demand be higher by switching to a train? Is there that many rail-fetishists lurking in the suburbs who are presently driving in that would be swayed by a different form of mass transit that what exists already? As I have already stated - you cannot get any more convenient that what exists at the existing Park-n -Ride. There is no waiting during peak hours - you park your car, stand in line, file on the bus, it fills and goes. To get any more convenient - they would have to offer personal service to the home. The Park n Ride system works well in Houston for all the reasons that rail wouldn't. It's flexible and you don't have a massive capital outlay of empty tracks sitting idle on weekends and off-peaks hours. What would help garner more riders for the Park-n-Ride locations (at least the 265) is more parking. The lot is packed every day - there is no room for ridership growth.