ssullivan

It's not a goof, and the City of Houston street signs along the Spur said "Southwest Freeway" for decades before Midtown was called "Midtown." The original Southwest Freeway started where the Spur now ends, and it wasn't until the mid-1970s that the elevated section of 59 between the Spur and the 288 interchange was completed.

A lot of the backup is not just due to the spur splitting off, but also the fact that just a mile further down the road, the left lane splits off again to go to 45, which means only two lanes have to carry all of the 59 traffic. That, plus the fact that 59 also is slow heading north through the 45 interchange much of the time because the three lanes there just aren't enough to handle all of the traffic, is much of the reason why traffic is slow headed north through the depressed section. I just avoid that part of 59, or plan to allow extra time. Traffic is just part of living in a big city, and I don't know of any large city that doesn't have traffic problems. If you don't want to deal with traffic, move to a small town. But even if 59 had 10 lanes in each direction it would eventually get congested.

I was at IAH yesterday when the inaugural Emirates flight arrived. A friend from San Francisco was passing through so we met to watch it arrive, and have an early dinner at Pappadeaux before both flying out to our work destinations this week.

A little late posting to this thread, but I did Thanksgiving with my parents, sisters, and Dad's mentally unstable sister at my Mom and Dad's house. We always do Thanksgiving together as a family, but since 2003 had been at my sister's in League City. This year we went back to Mom and Dad's, and before the day was over, Mom was already saying that next year she wants to go out of town again, mainly because my aunt wouldn't be there. I high-tailed it back to Houston first thing Friday morning because my boyfriend was in town from Atlanta to visit me for the weekend. He got in Thursday night and spent the night at my apartment alone, and after several days with family, I couldn't wait to see him. Our weekend together was the highlight of my Thanksgiving holiday.

My boyfriend and I ate at Coco's yesterday for the first time and ordered three crepes -- I had a savory crepe with chicken, mushrooms, mozzarella, and spinach; he had a breakfast crepe with smoked salmon and caramelized onion, and we split a dessert crepe almondine filled with nutella and sliced almonds. All three were quite good, not undercooked, and not gummy. I'd rank them a little below what I've had in Paris but as good as some I've had in Montr

That's not what I was talking about in my post. Those are for detecting fire, police, and other emergency vehicles. The traffic sensing cameras look more like a camera, are larger, and are white in color. They are on many intersections in Houston, and are operational.

Actually many intersections in Houston have more than just a simple timer controlling traffic signals. Look up at the signals, and you'll see what looks like a small camera mounted on the pole or cross arm at many intersections on busier streets, especially inside 610 and along the freeway frontage roads. Those little cameras are sensing traffic and adjusting signal timing accordingly. Some older signal installations have sensors in the pavement instead. As for the lights in Midtown on Main St. turning red in all directions as a train approaches, you have the idiots who couldn't follow basic road signs and traffic lights and kept hitting the train to thank for that. When MetroRail first opened in January 2004, traffic moving in the same direction as the train got a green light too, but people kept ignoring the "no left turn" signs and hitting the train. Within six months Metro had to change the signals in Midtown so that traffic on Main St. has to stop as the train passes, even though the cars are going the same direction as the train.

True, and I agree with that. I'm not defending their actions. These guys were probably the scum of society. But I am saying that they have a right to a trial by jury, as opposed to trial by crazy next door neighbor with a riffle. Two wrongs don't make a right, and Joe Horn became just as much of a lawbreaker when he walked out the door with that gun and started firing it. I'm not so sure about that. Self defense doesn't involve going from a place of safety (inside the house behind a locked door) to a place of potential danger (confronting the perps in the yard/street), while telling a 911 dispatcher "I'm gonna go shoot them!" It sounds a lot more like murder to me than self defense, which is what Horn's attorney is claiming it was. When you listen to the entire tape of the call, it really sounds like he was very anxious to go out there and kill him some criminals. Even before he said he was going outside, he said to the dispatcher "I've got a shotgun. Want me to go stop them?" This guy was definitely somewhat of a loose cannon.

I've lived in Texas my entire life, as have my parents, and I just don't get it either.

Hmmm... I'm a "Gen-Xer" and I know right from wrong. My friends are of the same generation and know right from wrong. So are many of my co-workers. I think it's a bit short-sighted to place blame for all of society's ills on a generation that is mostly in its early 30s at this point, especially when much of the increase in violent crime rates happened when my generation was still in elementary school.

I don't consider this guy a hero. I think he's an idiot. Calling 911 to report a robbery in progress was the right thing to do. But he had no right to walk out there with a gun and turn himself into a self-appointed agent of law enforcement. These guys were not threatening his property or life. I'm not saying that the guys who broke into the house weren't scumbags that deserve to be punished, because I think they were. But that's why we have a legal system, and it's not up to citizens to engage in vigilante justice. The police were on their way and arrived a few minutes later. This neighbor would have been far more useful to call 911, look outside to get a description of the suspects and any vehicles, and stay on the phone with the dispatcher until authorities arrive. He had no more right to go outside and take justice into his own hands with a shotgun than the thieves had to break into the neighbor's house. Why would any sane, thinking, intelligent person go outside in this situation? Call me a bleeding-heart liberal if you want, but everyone deserves equal justice under the law, and that includes a trial by jury. Even the most conservative Americans shouldn't argue with that concept, as it's written into our very own Constitution's Bill of Rights. Tne Constitution says nothing about being shot by the next door neighbor who thinks he knows what's best. I'm not in favor of the state's death penalty, even in the worst criminal cases (I am a supporter of life in prison with no possibility of parole, and prison being true punishment), and I'm even less in favor of a death penalty being carried out by a crazy old man with a gun.

Many MetroRail riders either transferred from a bus (where they had to pay a fare and get a transfer, or use a pass), or they are regular Metro riders who have passes. I've seen Metro Police checking for fare evasion many times when I've ridden MetroRail and have rarely seen them catch someone without a valid fare item.

Yes, but everything changing at once was there a few years before Bill White was elected mayor. I remember when Louisiana was first rebuilt (I think it was the first street in the downtown streets project completed) around 2000-2001 and all of the lights were synchronized to change at the same time. This was before MetroRail too.

The vast majority of San Diego's light rail stations look just like the ones here in Houston. And let's not forget Portland either, where it rains more days a year than it does in Houston, yet the light rail stations have no more shelter than ours. Anyway, you want to talk about being out in the elements, with the exception of two stops on the Minneapolis system (MSP Airport, which is underground, and Mall of America, which is in the mall's parking garage), all of their system's stations are just as exposed to the elements as Houston's. That means when it's snowing and the temperature is well below 0

I've ridden the system in Minneapolis several times, and the cars don't really seem any larger than Houston's. One thing I hate about them is they have the most annoying alert that the doors are about to close.

There's actually a reason why those raised areas exist at each end of the car -- that's where the trucks, or powered wheels that drive the LRV, are located. This is simply a factor of having a low-floor LRV, and all low-floor light rail cars are going to have this. You don't see it in some cities because they use high floor cars, which require going up stairs as you board the car. Houston went with low-floor LRVs because boarding is faster and more convenient for disabled passengers, who would have to use a ramp or lift to access a high-floor LRV. The raised areas at the ends of the cars don't really reduce usable space that much

I'm glad we don't have advertisements all over the Metro trains and buses.

Same thing happened to me. Other kids seemed to know long before I really figured out what was up.

Well, if an employer is fair in its hiring and management practices, and makes employment decisions based on merit alone, there really isn't any need to worry about this legislation, or any other civil rights legislation. The ones who really need to "protect themselves" are the ones who are engaging in discriminatory practices to begin with. These laws aren't designed to make it impossible to terminate someone. They do make it necessary for the employer to document and justify the reason for an involuntary termination, but that's something that should be done anyway, regardless of the employee's race, gender, sexual orientation, or any other status. Where this becomes an issue is when there is harassment, termination, inequality in pay and/or promotion, or other issues, with no real basis related to the employee's performance.

I agree RedScare. I doubt there would be many cases of someone trying to fake being gay after being terminated in order to bring legal action under ENDA.

Well, yes, I could chose to hide my sexual orientation, and I did that for years when I was younger. It wasn't psychologically healthy then, and it's not conducive to my mental health now. I don't prance into my clients' offices carrying a rainbow flag and wearing a t-shirt that proclaims my orientation. However, I'm not going to lie and say I have a wife or kids when I don't, just because that might make someone else I work with more comfortable. If I'm asked, I'll answer honestly. The fact that I have a boyfriend is not something I try to hide, but it's also something that doesn't usually come up in the normal course of my business. However, should it come up, I should have every right to honestly say that I'm in a relationship with someone of the same sex, just as you might say you have a wife or girlfriend, without fearing that I'm going to lose my job as a result. And my employer should have no right to fire me just for that reason, just as they should have no right to fire someone for being in a relationship with, or married to, a member of the opposite sex. Now, if I chose to disclose my sexual orientation by bringing my boyfriend to work and stripping down and getting it on in the middle of the office in front of everyone else, I should be disciplined accordingly. Not for being gay, but for inappropriate behavior, just as someone who is heterosexual should be disciplined for engaging in the same behavior in the workplace.

Well, bisexual people may be attracted to both sexes, but the question is, did they chose to be attracted to both sexes? Probably not. They just are. Anyway, we make this into a far bigger deal than it needs to be. If people would just learn to accept the differences that naturally exist, and not judge others on them, we'd all be a lot better off, and laws like this wouldn't be necessary. Unfortunately, it's human nature to tend to judge and discriminate against those who are somehow different, and we're all guilty of that.

I'd like to know how I can decide to not be gay. I could decide to have heterosexual sex, but would that somehow magically make me heterosexual? No. It wouldn't change the feelings of attraction and intimacy that I experience when I'm with my boyfriend. You could chose to engage in homosexual sex, but I doubt it would change any feelings of attraction you have to the opposite sex. Sexual orientation is a deeper issue than simply the behavior of having sex. If that was the case, then a virgin who has never engaged in any kind of sexual activity would have no orientation. Yet I doubt any of us would argue that's the case.

Well, businesses are still private. And nobody's forcing anyone to hire anyone with this legislation.

Hmm... other than bringing my boyfriend up to the office and having sex with him on my desk, I'm curious how I would "practice my gay lifestyle in the workplace." The fact remains, that no matter how much I leave my personal life out of the office, my employer could legally call me tomorrow and say "We've decided to terminate you because we don't want homosexuals working here." And legally, they could get away with it. Fortunately I work for a pretty progressive employer that would probably never do something like that, but there are many cases where it happens, even to employees who left their personal lives at home far more than their heterosexual coworkers do. I don't know anyone, gay, straight, bi, or otherwise, who chose his or her sexual orientation.