HoustonianInColorado

I seem to recall that Bissonnet was called "OLD Richmond Road" in the part that runs SW through Sharpstown. Most people just shortened it to Richmond Road.

Maybe a merger could produce Neiman-Walton's.

One thing this alignment does is connect downtown Denver to the Denver Tech Center, where many of the areas jobs are. In the rush hours, I-25 is pretty busy both directions. A Houston analog to this might be connecting Downtown to Greenway or Uptown. There is more to the light rail expansion here than the I-25 piece. If you Google up a map of Denver you can follow along. The current rail runs from north of Downtown, and along Santa Fe Drive (US 85) south to the town of Littleton. The new route connects to this downtown and follows I-25 to County Line Road (Park Meadows Mall / Douglas-Arapahoe County Line), with a branch that will go up I-225 from I-25 up to (I think) Parker Road (Colorado 83).

I don't know if it is still bad, but the Westpark curve on the SW Fwy used to be a notorious slowdown, and often for no good reason at all. As an aside, I used to to traffic reports on Houston radio stations, and that was an everyday occurrence.

I am wondering this as well. Another point to remember about getting a house foreclosed on . . . Not only do you ruin your credit, but if the foreclosure is not part of a bankruptcy, the IRS considers the value of your mortgage as forgiven debt, and taxes it as income. I disagree, since if it was truly forgiven, you would be able to keep the house. But thems the rules!

Tulsa, Oklahoma has returned its downtown pedestrian mall to vehicular traffic (although there isn't much of that there at present). Here in Denver we have a nice setup with the 16th Street Mall. No vehicles except for the free busses that run in one lane each direction to move people from one end of downtown to the other. The busses have no seats, and are just for people standing, and I believe run on natural gas. They run right past the Denver Pavillions shopping center, and the entire mall seems to be quite a nice and thriving place for an urban area. Light rail crosses the mall on Stout and California for people to catch the train, and there are main bus terminals at each end of the mall connnecting people to other routes than just the free mall busses. Works pretty well. Our light rail here is at grade level also, and there have been the occasional collission with a car or truck, but not as often as in Houston I don't believe. As for Houston's Main St. as a mall...I am not sure about that. The train takes up too much space, and could pose a hazard to pedestrians. As it is though, there is not enough room for cars. They should have elevated or buried the train, IMO.

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Wow, if this was taken near the same place as my late January photo, things have really bloomed out in Houston! My photo from E.T. Park . . . And your's from last weekend . . .

Let me add my thanks to Eric Slotboom for his fantastic book! I didn't get in on it during its published run, so I am glad it is at least downloadble. Nicely done, well researched, and the photos bring back floods of memories to me. I largely grew up in Houston (Bellaire and Sharpstown), and spent many adult years there as well, and have always been a bit of a road geek, so I really appreciate this book! Eric, how about considering a second print run?

Thanks for the kind comments. I only wish I could be there more often. Montrose 1100, I enjoy your great shots as well. I did make one mistake on the captions, but it won't let me fix it...it is Antioch Baptist Church, not Ebenezer, in the photo above.

Yeah, I believe the "Clear Channel Mothership" here in Denver is home to their eight Denver stations, a Boulder station, and I also think their Colorado Springs and Wyoming stations are housed there as well.

Is there still a station WACO in Waco, TX? Also, I seem to recall that Canada took over a few call signs that start with "V" when they acquired Labrador and Newfoundland, formerly separate from that nation.

During my January visit to Houston, I saw this car wash on Beechnut. Somehow it struck me as funny. Perhaps the owners have another establishment that is Extremely Good, or maybe Not So Good. Another funny one I saw around town I didn't take a photo of was "Hello To Rent This Sign".

No more redundant than 45 & 35 south of Dallas. Going to Tulsa and Kansas City is much shorter by not going to Oklahoma City first. It isn't bad going north out of Dallas on US 75 and catching the Indian Nation Turnpike, but that only gets you to Henrietta, OK at I-40. The US 75 from there to Tulsa is good 4-lane, but not Interstate standards. Then from Tulsa to KC, it is either Interstate 44 (Will Rogers Tpk) to Joplin, MO to US 71, or use 2-lane roads like US 69 or US 75.

When I was a kid, the Gulf Fwy came into downtown Houston from the south and split into four city streets, 2 inbound and 2 outbound. You could probably check this out on an old city map.

The "Enron Blue" is pretty much the sky reflected in the mirrored panels, I think.

Just grab a "Crappy Meal" in the drive thru! Seriously though, thanks for posting these.

Very nice pics! Keep up the great work. How 'bout adding some Greenway Plaza, Uptown and Greenspoint shots!!

I have long felt that I-45 should extend north from Dallas, through Tulsa and on to connect with I-35 in Kansas City. There needs to be a continuous interstate connecting Houston, Dallas, Tulsa and KC as a direct shot.

I cannot remember the name of the place, but years ago, there was a restaurant across the street from BookStop on Shepherd, actually on one of the side streets, where coworkers and I went to lunch. The owner was a middle eastern fellow, and when we ordered our lunches from the lunch special menu, he asked what we wanted to drink. One of my colleagues said he just wanted water. The owner said, "NO! You must order a drink. Soda. Tea. Something!" The coworker said, "No, I just want a glass of water." The owner then said, "Get out! Leave now! I cannot make a business on my lunch special prices unless you buy a drink. Get out now!" I wish I could remember the name of the place, but it was about 16 years ago. Probably the place is long out of business.

Gary, VERY nice photos! Thanks for posting them. How do you like the D70? Pros & Cons?

Thank you Jeebus!

Yeah, but it worked for the joke! That was actually either in Sugar Land or Stafford. I think it is SW Fwy at Airport or thereabouts. I was really impressed also with the West Loop redo in Bellaire, but didn't get any photos of that. Brick and all...very impressive...but I am sure, very expensive.

Yes, and I somewhat did this picture as a joke. I found it interesting that the graffiti artist in Tulsa actually made a pretty good shape of Oklahoma with a star where Tulsa goes. Of course, there are some pretty sad places in Houston too. While I was in Tulsa last, they were talking about rebuilding Skelly Drive (I-44) from the Arkansas River east, including....one way feeders, Texas-style.

I recently made a trip to Houston and then on to Tulsa before returning home. As much as I love both cities, Houston has the edge on freeway beauty. Photos ©2006, Randy L. Kendrick