TGM

Golly jeepers, then done got themselves a performance artist at the Walmarts!

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/arts-theater/article/Walmart-s-Warhol-has-fans-in-the-shopping-lanes-4624518.php

Your move 19th street. (May I suggest a man juggling electric chain-saws)

I don't think that it is by any means a given that City Centre is an equal success if it was located at Yale and I-10.

The Elites would ridicule the national chains that would rent there, moaning that the average Pottery Barn shopper thinks that Yesteryear and Yore are design eras.

Blah,blah,blah, it's never ever going to be good enough for them.

In my opinion, the pro-Walmart people are acting entitled.

They don't care that sidewalks and trees were destroyed, as long as they got their Walmart.

They don't care that Parker lied on the radio about the 380 being interest-free, as long as they got their Walmart.

They don't care that the Request for Council Action was full of lies, as long as they got their Walmart.

They don't care that the City is going to reimburse Ainbinder $140K plus interest for paint and balusters on a bridge that is scheduled to be demolished, as long as they got their Walmart.

They don't care that the City either continues to lie about, or does not understand the interest rate - it's more than twice what they say it is, as long as they got their Walmart.

They don't care that Parker and Ainbinder said they would have built with or without the 380, as long as they got their Walmart.

I gots my Walmart!

Right now I'm taking my Walmart brand Cialis with my Walmart brand red cream soda, while I eat me a steak-um sandwich dusted with my Walmart-brand Cheeto-stained fingers. I better go cus my sister/wife has the NASCAR Blu-ray in the player and she is getting her dentures out of the Mr. Coffee maker. Yee-ha! Looken forward to seeing her in her Paula Deen lingerie!

ignorant = uninformed. You are uninformed about the 380 because you haven't read it.

How about doing us ignoramuses a favor by creating an Audible version of the document? Maybe you can get James Lipton to narrate it with full dramatic effect.

Well then, we just need to get them to relocate. It'd definitely give us a one-up on NYC for corporate headquarters. Rename one of the downtown buildings Beaver Tower. Maybe that's where we could put a downtown Treasure's as well.

Has anyone contacted the mayors office about this idea?

All these topics merge seamlessly...this thread has got to drive alot of traffic - its the one thread in all of the forums that I frequent that I keep coming back to....

Its a great topic its full of everything!

Well they said Walmart would increase traffic....most of it from the anti-Walmart folks. To think of all the pollution they caused by coal-powered data enter utilization.

I personally think the sidewalks on I10 are not wide enough. I should have enough room to pass while walking no matter if HPD is running traffic enforcement operations. The Heights got screwed again.

Wow, check out for a few days and things get interesting. You would think by all the drama that someone suggested that the Foodarama be moved to 19th street. You know that might be a good idea considering they're local.

If you are an objective hydrologist, then there has been a big increase in hardscape because dirt is far more permeable than concrete.

As a native Houstonian I can testify that some "dirt" is less permeable than concrete.

I hope this happens, but I am disappointed to not see the clock tower in the modernized building. I always pictured that as a focal point that should be played up.

I'm guessing there was not much as a peep from the new architects regarding the saving of the clock. While a cool feature it's not consistent with their "modernization" of the building. With cellphones no one really needs a giant device telling them the time and temperature.

Maybe they could place it on top of the Greyhound station to give out the number of parolees on each bus, or the current price of crack. ;-)

I've always considered taking photos of neighbors' homes in order to snitch them out to be the utmost in classy.

It takes a special kind of class to stick your nose in the lives of others.

I think much of the increase in lane widths over the past few decades is due to convenience for drivers in larger cars. Even if I'm wrong on that, larger vehicles still contribute more to congestion. A hundred SUVs and pickups trying to merge from 3 lanes to 2 cannot do so nearly as quickly as a hundred Fiat 500s.

Any chance you can refer to us to some traffic engineering studies showing any of those things to be true or even likely?

Probably not, because majority of traffic jams are the result of individual actions as concluded by a recent study.

http://gizmodo.com/5984934/most-traffic-jams-are-caused-by-just-a-handful-of-idiots

The argument that the Fiat would be better judges traffic as solely being caused by length of vehicle not number of variables per driver. However if the individual is the cause of traffic, then it's ever worse with a small car as now you have doubled the amount of drivers with the potential to make poor choices in the space that would hold one SUV or pick-up driver.

So what is viewed as efficiency by fitting more cars in the same space is actually detrimental as the number of drivers and variables has increased.

Cars allow too much freedom and autonomy which is why we overlords must find pet causes and issues to corral the masses into "options" that allow us greater control over their movements. Reliance on municipal services creates further dependance, and can be used to our advantage in games of carrot and stick. The challenge is identifying and staying on top of modern societies' versions of bread and circuses. As it currently stands Superbowl 2017 should provide enough justification for any increase in taxation, fees, and restrictions.

Recently (the past day), there have been several people that have called Council Member Cohen's office against me. I had not told anyone about my nomination, but apperently it leaked ONLY to people that are vocal against me. I'm not sure who they are, but it's unfortunate because they are saying things about me that are simply untrue.

I would take this is a sign that you're doing something right. Dysfunctional systems will do anything, through any means, to justify their ends.

Think of the contrast between a set of rules they want everyone to live up to, and the number of rules they are willing to break to retain their grip on power.

Yes, but toll roads necessarily have a price structure that doesn't differentiate between big and small passenger cars. And agreed on the weight difference being small, but the size difference as it impacts lane width and overall congestion is more significant.

Yes, Metro buses do tear up our streets, do cause congestion, and some how get their own lanes.

so every freeway and road should be tolled?

Every road the government builds is already a toll road. The difference is instead of an EZ tag you use a 1040EZ. (Or at the gas pump, or through property taxes, or, or, or...) Now there those that don't pay any of the above, and yet somehow they feel entitled to demand that those that do pony up even more dollars.

You shot nothing down. I quoted you directly and you obviously have no substantive response to your own words. That is fine because you and the few others in this anti-Heights echo chamber are the only people in the Heights that think that 19th street is something negative that should be demo-ed in favor of more retail from the burbs.

More like Anti-your-Luddite-vision-of-the-Heights. Your labeling of this forum an echo chamber makes sense given your previous statement that the debate was over. Typical tyrant action when views run opposite of ones own vision or belief system. The debate is never over because nothing in life is ever finished. The whole Heights Local movement is preposterous and laughable at best, given that the equally stupid, anti-global market Local movement defines "Local" as a journey of no more than 500 miles.

As the Heights grows your 19th street landlords will "turn evil" when they accept the more lucrative rent offers from evil corporate chains.

Yes. Time to have an alternative to the highways wholly funded and subsidized by taxpayers.

No. Pay your own way.

Because it will push Houston more towards the types of transit I like.

Let me guess, mass-transit projects largely funded and subsidized by taxpayers.

Good news!

..so? If another 40K move inside the Loop and make it more dense, I am glad. I want the urban core to get denser.

Why? What is so bloody magical about people having less space and living on top of one another?

Do you enjoy waiting in line? Do you reach the counter at the Breakfast Klub, and say "oh, that was not long enough, I'm getting back in line."?

If you have big city dreams why not explore NYC, Chicago, Boston, or Philadelphia? Houston will always let you down if this is your true desire.

19th street is one of the few places in Houston where you can find unique gifts, home decor, boutique and resale clothing and other interesting things all in one walkable area. Peolpe come in from the burbs to shop 19th street because it is so unique.

Besides Westheimer, West Gray, University bvld, Kirby, S. Shepherd, etc.

People from the burbs also come to Old Town Spring, which has kept the area alive in the face of declining methamphetamine prices.

I think 19th shop owners should be required to remain in character ala Rennesaince Festival workers while tending their shops.

They're not hipsters... they're "the kids". I bet the average record purcahser is over 35.

Like things are not already pedantic enough around here...

I guess that all depends on what you consider average. DJ's? Audiophiles? College Students?

Most of the 220 gram vinyl I see these days is the kids/hipster crowd as this is the demographic that has rediscovered vinyl.

The Audiophiles have moved on to SACD, DVD-Audio, Blu-spec CD's and whatever else evolves at that end of things.

DJ'S... I see cheap DJ-targeted CD players with pitch control, etc, but I've never come across a cheap Techniques 1200MK2.

Nothing is set in stone that states that mom & pops always fail and corporate franchises always succeed. Savy owners and operators know how to meet the needs of their customers or they learn by their costly failure. (Some don't learn, they just have big trust funds)

For example... Boomtown Coffee. Good coffee, passionate owner, but I don't go because the cigar smoke from the place next door is so bad that I cannot stand to be there more than 10 minutes. The cigar place has been there longer than Boomtown, and I'm all for people enjoying whatever makes them happy, but there is an impact to adjoining businesses. I'm not sure Boomtown's owners fully grasped what they would be dealing with when choosing that location. I hope they make it, but I won't be surprised if they don't. However, if Starbucks were to show up, and Boomtown inevitably closes 19th street lovers would be crying out that corporations killed the mom & pop. Adapt and change or fall by the wayside.

Look at the success of Menchi's if you are looking for an example of what the majority of the population of the Heights wants. Drive by Menchis at any open hour of the day and I bet 10:1 that it has three times more customers than any thrift or other heights store.

According to Mint.com Menchis received $450 of our targeted Heights expenditures. Can't seem to locate any money spent at the bohemian trinket shop. Penzy's took in around $300 for gifts and whatnot. Again, can't seem to locate any for musty antique stores. Rather odd... Then again these businesses do stay open later to accommodate demand, rather than shutting down at 420.