Highway6

Good find on remembering the name Luna Park... I knew that photo wasn't showing the stated location of Oak or Electric Park. The roller coaster there was called the Skyrocket and apparently it was the biggest in the US at the time. After Luna Park was shut down, the roller coaster was moved to Playland Park. It can be seen clearly in the google earth historic imagery from 1944 and 1953 (above) at Main and Murworth, a few blocks west of current Reliant stadium. This might be a photo of the Skyrocket in its Playland location from 1943 http://www.loc.gov/p...i2001029931/PP/

I guess these are more akin to Showbiz Pizza rather than amusement parks.... but you left out Fame City and Fame City Waterworks. There was also Games People Play somewhere down in the Bellaire area as well. Also.. somewhere on LongPoint in the mid 80s there was a small kiddie amusement park ( a few permanent carnival size rides).. it was called Sunshine something. As far as photos... if you look up Houston: Then and Now, the cover clearly shows a roller coaster smack down in the middle. I don't know if this is either your Oak Park or Electric Park because it appears to be located just east of Houston ave and just south of the Bayou. I can't find the roller coaster in any of Google Earth's historic imagery. also found reference to a Coombs Park and Natorium in the Heights.. http://houstorian.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/coombs-park-and-heights-natatorium/

Drayton started this mess by firing Hunsicker. I know I can't blame him for the retirement of Bagz and Bidge.. But I can blame crap management for putting us in the situation which forced us to then trade away anyone else we fans might care about. Our senior statesmen (6 yrs) are Wandy, who will be traded soon and a fat poopy head, slow, overpaid outfielder ( 4 yrs ). The rest of our teams is a bunch of nobodies. Crane sold us out. And his BS response in the chronicle on saturday.. " I had no choice, I couldn't have purchased the team without the switch..." THEN don't buy the team poopy headhole !!! Crane doesn't own the Astros. Drayton didn't own the Astros. Houston owns the astros. We pay to see the show.. without the fans, there's be no revenue. I could care two about a forced rivalry with the Rangers. We belong with the Cubs and the Cardinals. Now we get to stay up to midnight to finish watching away games in Seattle, Oakland, and Anaheim.. teams I could care less about. The solution to evening out the leagues, based on geography and former affiliation, would be to move Milwaukee back to the AL. If the AL west is too far for them, put them in the central, and put KC in the west.. which is just as far west as us, and a a helluva lot closer to Seattle then us. I used to go to 15-20 games a season,but no more. Astros are dead to me.

Yes. The drought has taken its toll. I've heard lots of stories in the Spring Branch area about limbs falling and dangerous trees needing to come down. Not only has the lack of water taken its toll, but I've also heard stories of older trees are being ravaged by beetles the past few months. I don't know specifically what the orange X means, but I imagine you're right. I also heard that the Parks Dept considers it cheaper to preemptively remove a dead tree, then to let it fall on its own and potentially hurt a healthier tree on its way down or to let it lie there for weeks, until it's noticed, killing ground cover.

Not true. To some haifers.. a rendering is a solemn vow forged in steel.

Swamplot has details and pretty renderings. http://swamplot.com/...te+Landscape%29 Very ambitious plans include: 3 new pedestrian bridges (Shepherd, Jackson Hill, Police Memorial) A small Lake near Dunlavy and Allen Pkwy Detailed/Large map can be found here, courtesy of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership. EDIT: Ambitious.. but seems a lot more doable than their previous plan which included getting rid of the cloverleaf and adding numerous small lakes and boat launches there. They already have half the money raised for this project. Scheduled completion: 2015.

Swamplot posted a timelapse video of track being laid along Harrisburg. See above link for full size.

I last visited about a yr ago, but I remember thinking the boiler house would make for a unique residential renovation project. It seemed to be in fairly good shape.

You're the anti-Midas

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8394421 Meeting tonight and Thursday at De Pelchin Children's Center - Buffalo Bayou Partnership is showing off their latest plans for Shepherd to Sabine stretch of Buffalo Bayou. More info in the project can be found here - http://www.buffalobayou.org/shepherdsabine.html

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As you mentioned in the Parc Binz thread..... Binz(Bissonnet) on the other side of Main has 4 lanes. At Main (where it look like on google maps that they have 5 lanes), The ROW at that point is 72' Bissonnet transitions from 4 lanes to 2 lanes around Kelvin/ Morningside. The ROW on Bissonnet between Morningside and Montrose is mostly 63' but is actually 77' at Ashby. EXPAND Bissonnet NOW ! There is plenty of room for a dedicated turn lane or perhaps 4 full lanes. SouthHampton needs to stop treating their small segment of Bissonnet as a neighborhood street. It is not. All their streets that run parallel to or intersect Bissonnet are their neighborhood streets. Bissonnet is classified by the City of Houston GMIS as a Major Thoroughfare. The 1.5 mile stretch from Kirby to Montrose can and should be expanded. Why ? This location is on a major thoroughfare. It is located 1/2 to 3/4ths of a mile from 2 other major thoroughfares. It is located less than half a mile from a prestigious university and less than 1 mile from the 2nd largest employment center in the city. It is a great location. Lots of major thoroughfares have neighborhoods, even insanely pricey neighborhoods, right off them. The only reason this location is any different is that the neighborhood actually thinks they own this stretch of major thoroughfare and that the rest of the city has no right to it. Bissonnet is not a neighborhood street. It's a fine location for this kind of project and this segment of road is a perfect candidate for expansion. West Alabama has the exact same ROW - 63'.... Bissonnet could easily be made a 3 lane road with a similar lane changing setup probably without even losing any trees. PS... I didn't realize Buckhead had this all up on their webpage.. but they a good job explaining what Bissonnet is per the city guidelines. PS II... Metro doesn't run buses on neighborhood streets.. they run them on major thoroughfares, like Bissonnet. PS III... And it's not a hi-rise. It's a midrise. It will be close in height to these two residential midrises, which also happen to be on a major thoroughfare immediately surrounded by residential neighborhoods.

When you mention Bissonet to most Houstonians, they are are going to picture it as a major 5 lane thoroughfare. They are going to picture it with all it's commercial properties stretching from the West up to Morningside. They'll also picture it as one of the major streets that runs through the heart of our Musuem District. If they look it up on Google maps, they'll see that it is one of the yellow lines indicated a major street.. one of only 3 major E-W streets that run the majority of the distance between 610 and 288 between 59 and the South Loop. What they do not imagine is the 1 mile stretch, 2 lane residential stretch between that commercial and museum district that really has no bizness being there. Bissonet might be schizo.. but I laugh at the scale arguments... because it effin Bissonnet and a project such as this should be on such a street. The project is NOT being built on Wroxton or Albans a few blocks off Bissonnet.. it is on effin Bissonnet. You have commercial half a mile to your west. You have museums half a mile to your east, and you have, as you mentioned, the Rice Apartments and parking garage a few blocks away. Not only should this project be built here.. but this 1 mile stretch of Bissonnet should be expanded to 4 lane in order to fully wear its name proudly. Also I laugh because the opponents of this project have screwed themselves over. They HAD a retail component... maybe a wine bar, maybe a coffee shop, maybe a high-end dry cleaners. But thanks to their bitching and moaning.. all gone. They HAD high end condos.. They now have rented apartments. So not only do they have poorer new neighbors, but more of them, considering the condo units would have been larger and fewer in number. Their bitching and moaning has made the traffic problem worse. DISCLAIMER: I recently lived half a mile from this project and supported it fully even then. I now live a mile away but travel through the neighborhood multiple times a week on the way to the med center... so screw you Ashby haters that has cost me a coffee shop, wine bar or dry cleaners along my route. I hope you all get Vitamin D deficient from all that Ashby Hi-rise sun blockage.

Walmart.

Yeah.. Indie punk from Prague.. Go check em out.

He speaketh the truth. http://www.bing.com/...0TX&form=LMLTCC

I'll get working on the following mashup for your next vid... Ozzy - Crazy Train Megadeath - Train of Consequences O'Jays - Love train

It's not a subway.. it's an underpass.. Same thing we have all over the city. And reading chron comment after chron comment about flood potential.. that constant level of buffoonery makes me so furious i wanna go start punting kittens.

I initially had a longer response, but I slimmed it down till I could see who your examples would be. You hit the nail on the head - all the multi-millionaire philanthropists invest in Universities, Arts, Medical, Libraries, Humanities. You can add Ima Hogg and M.D. Anderson to your list. Nationally, it's the same - Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Gates - their return on investment is seeing growth in cultural, medical, or scholastic endeavors. I can't think of many example of philanthropists who's only goal is too invest in the architecture and aesthetics of a city for the sake of improving the city, especially when it involves commercial projects. The sort-of exception I can think of, though it isn't isolated from the above reasons, is T Boone Pickens. Rich alumni like himself who's main goal is to improve their alma mater, but in investing in academics of a small school in a small town, are also investing in the architecture, aesthetics and image of the college town.

Isn't any entity, whether an individual or corporation, who decides to build here instead of elsewhere deciding that Houston is the best place for them to build? So wouldn't all new projects in Houston be investments in Houston?

I can't find the thread for Discovery Green.. ( one would think the search terms "Discovery" & "Green" would get you there).. but I vaguely remember when seeing the initial site plan years ago being disappointed that it didn't take up this block too. Figured the farther the park stretched into the core, the better.... but what we got turned out well. BTW... Just press the HAIF Easy Button... BAM.

I don't understand this statement. With the advent of online banking, I'm not sure how many people go through the trouble of comparing receipts to monthly statements anymore. If you look at you banking app or hop online a few times a week, you can just ignore monthly statements. For the technophobes who rectify their checkbook register with their Quicken database and their monthly statement.. How does cash purchases make it easier or any difference at all ? Why would you not need to bother keeping a receipt if you pay with cash, but if you pay by check, debit or credit ( all of which you can track instantly online, or get record of purchase at the end of the month) you all of a sudden do need to hold on to the receipt for a month ? Imaginary -1s for all you cash using neanderthals.

If you are a lover of the PB&J, may I suggest adding BaconBits, and then garlic-onion croutons if you're feeling really adventurous. It works best with Raspberry preserves.... HEAVEN !!!!

Ahh.. You're too kind. Lockmat's opening post stated.. "or even conceptual ideas architects had for Houston." So I'm pretty sure my icon is qualified to be here. Plus... it's a helluva lot more realistic than the downtown dome.

My Lord, it would have been beautiful....