Pleak

I saw that - but the article I read was confusing, and it sounded like Amsterdam only had it for a month or so, London for a month, and then Lagos permanently. So I didn't comment on it till I understood what they actually were doing.

Sweeeeeet.

Nail salon.

That's because there is none. And one whole block away is free covered parking. (It's this small little development called the Galleria.) And there was even a sidewalk connecting the two until construction started. But I guess the walkability geeks who are always complaining about Houston not being walkable actually mean they want to park at the curb of their destination and walk the 25-feet to the Waterwall. And then they wonder why Wal-mart has to have scooters.

This is a route the 787 makes perfect sense on. The 777 they were having to use (because of range) was too much plane. The 787 is a bit smaller and less seats in back. More up front % wise. It might enable this route to eventually go to 7 days a week.

Agreed. If we are going to spend that amount of money, I would hope it would be put into pure infrastructure - roads, rails(freight & passenger), airports, ports, parks, utilities. The results would do more to long-term transform Houston than any disused hulking sports facility. We already have one of those. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-18780003 http://www.businessinsider.com/2004-athens-olympics-venues-abandoned-today-photos-2012-8?op=1

I think this point is the elephant in the room that is totally ignored or not understood by the rail brigade. Say a no vote happens. So Metro gets to keep it all. In theory. All the other parties to Metro besides Houston (and part of Houston's power elite - since they will now have to VISIBLY raise city taxes to repair streets) will be pissed. They will say - " why should we pay sales tax for Houston to get a toy train?". And they are correct from their perspective. So they go to their state representative and senator and raise a little hetch - e- double hockey sticks. And since Metro has such a wonderful reputation of late for top-notch execution and following the rules, etc. - the 14 little guys actually have a pretty good chance of getting their way. Which means their is a strong possibility that the little guys get to pull out of Metro and keep their full 1% for themselves. Almost every outlying city or county that is not a part of Metro already has their own economic development type authority or something similar to utilize the 1% sales tax allowed by the state. And they all love it. Ft. Bend County funds it's own transit agency, I think SugarLand is building part of their new performance pavilion with it, etc. Metro realizes this. So they know they would still have to keep paying out GMP to keep all the members happy. I haven't run the numbers, and I'm not going to, but considering that most of the growth is projected to be in Harris County and not Houston proper (and especially not Inner Loop), Metro does not want to lose this future revenue. So a "no" vote might sound wonderful to the rail brigade, but the law of unintended consequences is a real b!+@h.

Yes. Of course. Because circa-1996 battery technology was light years ahead of where we are now. And two seats, no trunk/storage space to speak of and factory claimed (not real life) range of 100 miles are far better than what is on the market to day from Nissan, GM (yes, the evil GM), Tesla, soon to be Ford, and others. They only have a variety of options like four seats, real storage space, real acceleration, real-world range of a couple-hundred miles. Your point makes total sense.

Which goes back to Niche's point on one of these many insanely long threads on Metro. His point was to build out the rail in the future when it was actually needed and the arguement against it was it would cost so much more. But the counter-arguement was that revenues (sales tax) would also rise in the future to offset the cost increase. Yes, Metro may have had lower tax revenues than they initially projected (which if they had been implementing well - would have contingently planned for instead of being caught flat-footed), but the corresponding capital costs should have gone down as well during the same time as it has been a bad time for the construction industry the last few years. Another question - was it really a dip in sales tax revenue so much that caused Metro's problems? Was it counting on additional federal funds that were blocked by ornery politicians? I actually thought a large part of it was a gross miscalculation of how much the rail line were going to cost to construct. Which one is the main reason?

The art bar or the old folks home?

Yeah - something like the Adopt a Highway program is what I was thinking - but raise it a notch or two. Instead of just picking up the trash once a quarter, I was proposing an initial landscaping cost then weekly/biweekly? maintenance. Since it would only be for a limited area (not 2 miles like the Highway program) the costs shouldn't be too hard for Houston's major corporations to absorb.

I think I counted seven stories - but I couldn't get it to expand any larger. Is that what it shows? If so - that's a nice amount.

Or October.

Is an XD theater anything special over a normal theater?

Why not an observation tower that looks like an oil derrick? It would be our version of the Eiffel Tower.

Because the people in beat up old Crown Vics need somewhere to dump their ashtrays. In all seriousness - if the city took out the concrete paving or flat carpet grass that exists on a lot of medians, then the maintenance costs would go up. It's cheaper to do nothing (concrete) or mow once a month with a tractor. Witness the strip between the main lanes and the southbound feeder on the Southwest Freeway from 610 to say Chimney Rock - heavily planted with pines, oaks, etc. - but is also overgrown to about 3 feet high with weeds. Originally covered with mulch and looked nice - but that is long gone. Now a crew hits it with Roundup about once a year which results in 3-foot tall dead weeds for a while till the ones they miss take back over and its a jungle again. On the plus side, it does catch all the blowing trash and trap it and sort of conceal it. What would be interesting is what the Updown District does. Partner with local business to adopt an esplanade and they put all sorts of pretty flowers out and mow and they get a nice litte sign showing their corporate benevolence. I think Houston could do this on a much larger scale. Take the big interchange of 59S and 610. When you go through the HOV lane and take the exit under the interchange, you get to see all the trash that collects in the vortex of weeds there. Not terribly attractive. I say get one of the big, prominent, companies HQ'd in the Galleria area (Marathon, Hines, BHP Billiton) and get them to pay for a crew to landscape and maintain the whole interchange area. It would be a pittance for a company that size. In return, post several well-made large (not billboard, but maybe 3' x 5' ) signs showcasing what company is responsible for beautifying the area. It would be reasonbly cheap advertising and get good citizenship browinie points for the companies and it would cost the city next to nothing to administer if done properly.

How about the Emperor Hotel:

Not even with Jeff Bagwell and the space shuttle on it?

The economy screwing everything up is a completely false arguement. If anything, the economy tanking should have helped Metro implement the plan, not bungle it. Over the last several years, entities that had capital projects already approved and funds for them found out when they went bid them that the bids were all coming in significantly lower than was forecast. They had substantial funds left over for additional capital projects. Yes the cost of raw materials was up due to foreign demand, but labor is less fungible and contractors and suppliers domestically were dying for work and willing to destroy their margins to keep working. I know this first hand as I used to work for a fairly large domestic concrete producer. I now own some very expensive ESPP toilet paper in said producer once it went belly up. They were hurting for any job - commercial, government, etc and margins crashed. Even the worlds biggest concrete producer - US operations located here (CEMEX) narrowly avoided the same fate. If Metro could not take advantage of the bidding process in an environment such as this, I think this would be a textbook definition of "not implemented well".

I think that's Houston area in general. Witness the entertainment that is any thread on the Heights. But the flip side of that is I also lived quite a bit off and on in Bellaire and had to do my share of maintenance on poorly built houses. That housing stock was tired and worn-out. While I'm not enamoured with the new, what is being replaced is nothing special. It is/was obsolete.

I'm telling y'all - William Durant was the head of the Reptilians. It was his evil plot to destroy safe efficient, clean transportation for the masses and ruin the world by selling zillions of oil-guzzling cars. And his minions are still monitoring us today. They are presently casing the Heights in white Chevy vans(notice the connection) disguised as old long-haired hippies.

Thanks for the info. Well - so they AEG really couldn't lose during last year's Cup finals.

I bet that won't stop them from being advertised with "ballpark field views".

I saw that Bizjournal rendering. It's missing a few oak trees from the Waterwall Park. Like most of them.

They re-aligned Bellaire and Bissonnet about 20-25 years ago when they put in the transit center at South Rice. That's why to the south side of Bellaire St. there is some awkward parking infront of the what used to be a Bank of America buiding at Bellaire and Rice (not sure if it's still there or not) I think it's cafe's and what-not now. I believe the road went on the outside of the large oaks at the time and the island was larger before the realignment. It also affected the land around the old Weingarten store there which became a Randalls.