Highway6

Passed there on the way home... Didn't see anything. And I would think 2 multi- story concrete structures would be hard to miss. You sure you were on Alabama?

DBig.. Won't you beee my neighbor?!?

Your marker reminds me...

[ Tangent ]

Went to Lil Bigs for the 1st time yesterday. Their fries are the bomb.

Went to lunch today at Pappa Genos... an awesome little philly cheessteak place up at Ella and 18th. Awesome.

Why was it named "TUAM" anyway?

Holy hell.. I finally get to use all that Latin i was forced to study in high school.

*clears throat*

Tuam: Is a form of the pronoun Tuus, meaning You. It is in the singular, feminine, and accusative form.

Woohoo.. education not wasted.

I would agree that the DA's office did screw up, mostly in their belief that they didn't believe she was a flight risk... but the rest of it sounds more like dotting i's and crossing ts to make sure they don't have a screw up that could cause her to get off.

The Fire Investigators don't get off blameless though... From - http://www.chron.com...an/7452300.html

They put all the blame on the DA, but if the above statement is true and they too had the power to hold her, then they are more at fault. They had already convinced themselves of the need to charge her. They didn't need DA Mom's permission to act and to hold her while the DA was formalizing the charges.

Cool.

Are you able to change the size parameters...

If you are.. I would think a horizontal layout would be better both for how most people are used to seeing an online map and for taking up less space per post.

Passed an interesting little place on the way to lunch today.

I'd never heard of it, but apparently it's made the rounds of Houston Press and Bayou History.

At the corner of LongPoint and Pech, There is a small (1300 SF) cemetery located in the corner of an auto repair parking lot.

Some history on it.

From Flickr user cadillaccrack -

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3132/2303146726_ba2820831a.jpg

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7445303.html

Metro will take delivery of 19 new rail cars for its Main Street line in late 2012 from an unlikely source — Utah.

Metro, along with San Diego's transit agency, has piggybacked on a contract the Utah Transit Authority negotiated with rail car manufacturer Siemens.

I couldn't tell which way the OP was taking things, which was why I found it surprising anyone could argue so strongly either way.

The irony didn't come across at all considering 3 people gave it a -1 and Kinkaid's blowup appeared to be directed against the OP ( least that's how I perceived it )

Houston is challenging the numbers.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7442563.html

Union Station at MMP is pretty much always open and has a pretty nice interior.

The wording of the original post was so bad, I couldn't tell if the OP was pissed that public money was being spent on public art, or if he was pissed that the money that was usually spent on public art was being eliminated. Regardless, Kinkaid's blow-up was hilarious and choke full o tolerance. Then Barracuda comes out of left field with the "TeaParty", because if we're talking Intolerance, that must obviously be what the conversation is about.

Nothing on HAIF seems to spark liberal vitriol better than a discussion of 'Tolerance'.

All the statues are facing South towards the vacant land that will eventually be built on by the Aga Khan Foundation Center. (Not an accident by the way, since the foundation gave a lot of money to make it so)... with the obvious artistic message being to "Show Tolerance towards those with different beliefs." Anyways, While I'm sure they'll eventually put up a lovely building, my hopes now are that they'll eventually be forced to sell, that the land gets scooped up by the Tea Party that chooses this location for their National HQ/"America is Awesome" Museum just so I can watch the heads of my haify liberal friends explode.

Tolerance's warm embrace never felt so good.

I'm just a semi-frequent passenger. Thanks for the clarification on the attainable speeds and distances.

It's not a matter of keeping out dollar stores, it's to make a "neighborhood" of goods and services that people will need on a day to day basis that is easily accessible to those that don't rely on a car to get there.

Not to a developer it isn't. They don't slap down mixed-use projects for the fun of it or out of the goodness of their hearts.

They do it to make money.

What you describe is important.. but it's not going in a brand new mixed-use development.

The population figures for cities in Texas were released today. We're now just short of 2.1 million people, still #1 in Texas. As the WSJ predicted in the Chicago article, we're still at #4 in the nation. San Antonio took the #2 spot from Dallas, and Ft. Worth posted the biggest state population gain with 38.6%.

http://www.texastrib...exas-released-/

Citiy Pops, not MSA

Houston : Up approx 145,820 (+7.5%) to 2,099,451

Chicago : Down approx 199,900 (- 6.9%) to 2,695,598

Still separated by nearly 600k

With those numbers, It sure makes the old "Houston to #3" debates seem rather silly.

With those rates.. We're not even passing Chicago by the 2020 Census.

And honestly, maybe I'm looking at the numbers wrong. But our 10 yr increase of 145k seems very low. Where did all our N.O. residents wander off to ?

At their July 2006 ( Half Decade? ) estimates, the census had us at 2,144,491, which means

a ) Houston has lost lost population the last 5 years.

b ) The Census' half decade estimates are way off.

c ) The Census really has no clue what they are doing and the numbers are all made up.

d ) I screwed up the numbers.

I thought we passed philadelphia and were now number 3?

You are confusing City populations with MSA rankings.

We might well have passed Phili in the MSA rankings, but that would make us #5

I have minimized it.

Ignoring and minimizing are both fine solutions ... but at the point which everyone does that ( and given the deluge of cr@p, They will).. what's the point of keeping that Sidebar there?

I'm guessing Mr. No-Name Haifer who has graced us with over a dozen twitter-fed status updates (including profanity) in his week long life as a Haifer probably has zero idea he has been sharing.

He feels it pollutes the stream, and diminishes its value.

Nobody swims in a polluted stream. Its value becomes zero.

I hate to tell you this, but it IS far out.

My only real problem with CC is the fact that is isn't really "CONNECTED" to the street system, but more along the lines of its own little enclave that people have to drive to a fairly idiotic route to get to.

Midtown is a bit more successful as far as accessibility for those that come from outside the area.

I used to feel the same way, until I stated working on the beltway, and now work on I-10 inside the beltway.

There are so many office buildings and office parks withing 3 miles of there, it is a good location. Look at all the new retail that has sprouted up along I-10 between Wirt and 8 since 10 has been rebuilt. There is plenty of demand for retail and commercial in this part of town.

Its not inconvenient to get to at all. I can understand why most urbanistas would frown at it, I used to be the same way. Lord, It's outside the Loop. But I've learned that even if you choose to live someplace innner loop in a walkable community, if you're lucky enough to have a job and its located outside the loop, it's all for naught.

Plus.. another thing I've come to realize, 610 isn't a magical line and "suburbia" is relative. The old suburbs in the 610 to 8 zone is where you're gonna find all the great ranch homes of houston. I have lots of family and friends in the western 610 to 8 zone, and lots of them love the new CC.

New mixed-use development isn't only for urbanistas on their bicycles.

Even though midtown would be the more ideal place for a mixed use development from a transit-connectivity standpoint, who is going to shop there? Middle-class shoppers with money. I don't see dollar stores and fiestas going up in a primo new developments. I don't see 3rd ward contributing to the development's viability. Neartown, the Musuem district and the couple of thousand DT residences.. Thats it.. Contrast that to CC, surrounded 360 degrees by Spring Branch, Memorial, the Villages, and the Kirkwood/Dairy Ashford area, all by residents not afraid to drive a few miles to shop. CC is a developer's wet dream compared to Midtown.

PS. "Far out" is relative if you're on a brand spanking new freeway. It takes me longer to get from my home near the Menil to I-10 than it takes me to get from Shepherd exit on 10 to the beltway. The new 1-10 is dreamy.

Yeah, 59 needs to be submerged. It would connect the East side of Downtown with all the new development much easier. It's too bad 59 is only submerged near the interchange with 45.

A submerged freeway is still a barrier unless its covered over with at least park land... ( and that would then be a tunnel, which so many houstonians think is impossible) Regardless, just look at 59. Montrose is no more connected and at one with University Place just because you now get from one to the other via an aesthetically pleasing bridge instead of an underpass.

Even if 59 were fully submerged, you'd still have the 6 block long GRB acting as a huge barrier for 1/3 of the way.

Downtown and Easton shall never be one.

I enter the front door when I'm on a desktop and I hate em.

They used to be good, The community bulletin board filled with the occasional Haif-centric message made by someone who made the conscious decision to post for all HAIF to see.

Now we get untargeted "Shaking & crying whenever there's a Chris Lilley post... " and random tiny urls from strangers.

That being said, if I have to choose between watching HAIF die because they no longer get crossover traffic from FB.. or putting up with a flood of nonsense.. I'll choose the latter.

I'm not sure why everyone keeps referring to it as sheet metal.

Its a railing/guardrail system made up of thin tubing and it looks just fine.

Chron article mentions a dedication ceremony today. Is the bridge now open? I know it wasn't on saturday.

This is an awesome article. Makes me really excited for the future of Houston. I hope it all works out exactly as it is layed out.

I agree. Awesome. I had no idea the funding was in place to realize that much in the near future.

3 more bridges plus rebuilding the entire trail system plus bringing the Sabine area blue/white lights along the entire stretch to Shepherd... Boom Boom Pow !!!!!

Concerning the sculptures:

From the artist's website - http://www.jaumeplensa.com/

This is another installation, but our half dozen statues are similar to this.

I think I first used "Easton" on 04/02/2009 (Post #32) of the East Downtown Web Site topic.

Can't figure out how to truncate the link.

http://www.houstonar...__1#entry315596

Dammit.

Something else will be thrown out that sounds better, and that will catch on. Perhaps 'Easton', or someting else similar. EaDo just sounds wretched, and therefore no one will use it unless they are forced.

Red.. if Easton ever takes off.. I'm taking full credit..... If it doesn't go anywhere; it's all yours.

oh yeah.. and i think the bridges look great...simple and beautiful... much much better than that twisty crap we were gonna be stuck with.