j_cuevas713

I think that if some more of our community leaders had similar "chaos" in their heads, this city would be beyond where we currently are.

It really is because of the oil crash back in the day. This city is now just barely getting back in the groove of where it left off. Says a lot about the resilience of Houston. Many other cities have a hard time recovering from what has been their brand. Look at cities in the Midwest as a prime example. The good thing is Houston is diversifying beyond just oil, with green energy. And the new ideas surfacing from the space program, or what's left of it. And our medical field is booming.

Anyone have pics of the concert pavilion?

Man talk about having an awesome vibe outside the stadium. We are easily going to have one of the best baseball environments for national media.

Any news on this?

So...? Any new info on when construction is going to start?

We don't need the Pierce, but some sort of narrow elevated path connecting Midtown to Buffalo Bayou would be cool.

http://www.wired.com/2014/08/copenhagens-new-bike-skyway-makes-commuting-look-fun/

I love this idea. We can tear it down and redesign an elevated path. You still get the great views of downtown.

An elevated line down Washington would be awesome!

Lets also remember that before all these apartments it was a completely foreign idea to most developers here to put residential in Downtown. In this case it was up to the city to sell the idea to developers and that sell was creating an incentive or a nudge to help lead developers to the idea that this was possible. The biggest question is once these res buildings are built what will the business client be then in terms of taking a greater risk to build in downtown. If these buildings are successful then you got the "build it and they will come" mentality and then we might see a rush into the downtown the likes we haven't seen. At that point you might not need another blanket incentive, but then you can start isolating areas of downtown with separate incentives or create other blanket incentives that help bring a greater variety of incomes into downtown.

Very well put point. I would like to see a couple more incentives in place, just until things begin to stabilize on their own. I completely agree though with your comment.

I wonder if they could do a similar incentive for retail - something like a sales tax break on all groceries or dry-goods sold. (Yes I realize the grocery basics don't have sales tax but prepared frozen food does, toilet paper, etc - things that Phoenicia doesn't have anyway)

I think that may be something they could be working towards. I expect for us to begin seeing new retail downtown once these residential projects are about halfway to 3/4 way done.

Actually, they built a temporary two lane road... I guess for the residents? I am not sure...

Thank goodness! My girlfriend goes to UHD, and we tried to get off at this stop to walk to her car a few weeks ago and there was no way through. 

I really believe this has a strong chance of happening. If Houston would embrace more of what it is and not what it isn't, people would begin to appreciate it more. I love how the article talks about all the doubters for Discovery Green. Like it isn't complicated, you can't go wrong with a park! And I would love for this city to continue embracing how green it is year round. 

This is such a huge project for this area. Very glad this is happening!

I have yet to see a Chrome vehicle. This is pretty trill

Slim Thug use to have a chrome Ferrari. I use to see him on 59 all the time. That thing has to be tough to keep clean.

It's all well and good that Hines gets it, but inspiring speeches and scaring people won't be enough.

 

It should already be obvious, and if it isn't now, it will be in 5 years. Density around the red line (where it's been for over 10 years now) is really starting to kick. There's people aquariums up and down main street, hugging the course of the light rail. These developers notice, and if they don't, they are going to notice soon. Mass transit opens up the land for more density. 

 

Yes, downtown had their tax write-off for housing in downtown, but if you look at where it's at? All within a block of light rail. That's not a coincidence. Look at where some of the bigger apartments in midtown are being built, look at where they are built between midtown and the museum district. They are built on the streets that carry the light rail.

 

Give it just a little more time, land owners and developers are going to start nudging, and eventually pushing for fixed guide-way mass transit, preferably on streets that are next to their property, of course, but it's going to happen, it's only a matter of when.

And this is the reason why I believe the push for light rail may come at just the right time, not too late and not as soon as we would want but right on time. Give it the next 3 to 5 yrs and I can almost guarantee the market will force more mass transit in Houston. The good thing is the bus system is revamping which will be the foundation for mass transit, as it should be. Secondly, the light rail is finally an actual network. Is it as intricate and built out as we want right now, of course not, but the foundation for rail is set and can only go forward. And what's better is it is built in the core of the city where most of our attractions are located. Now all the talk about reaching the burbs with heavy rail is great. IMO the focus needs to continue to be Loop 610. Those burbs will get a clue soon enough.

I wanted to add, that I was in dallas recently for the Rockets game. This is not a knock on dallas, because I will admit I am all about Houston, I love my city. The reality is, for all the light rail that dallas has, they did it so wrong. Convenience first and foremost is key when it comes to public transportation. It is so inconvenient to catch a train in dallas. The reason is because there isn't an incentive big enough to catch a train to outside areas. Second, the reason ridership is so bad is because it makes more sense to drive in dallas than catch 'light' rail from the burbs to downtown. If they had heavy rail to the cities core, much how we are planning, and light rail for more inner city dallas alone, I believe ridership would be better. There are no major destinations to catch in dallas on light rail, at least nothing in comparison to our Red Line. What make's it even worse is the fact the way the city is laid out, they built the light rail opposite of how it's built. I compare all the miles of dallas light rail and all the spending for the network to a person who get's a dollar and just has to spend it, with no afterthought of how it could affect anything. I see Houston doing a better job getting the job done right though the process may be a bit more grueling.

Idk I feel then entire vibe of Rice Village is fine. I mean the center is a bit suburban, but I feel the improvements will do enough for the area. I think The Village is a good combo of development that makes Houston what it is.

Wow! It's almost like people like the convenience of living right near where they shop, eat, and work rather than travel 5mins to the highway big box store, 5-15mins to whatever pad retail site, and 1hr to where they work! Genius! What an amazing concept

Lol... yeah I started to realize how each of these developments are usually behind a dry cleaners and a corner store/ gas station. Houston seems to fit this model perfect!

Man these renders are nice! I wonder what company did them.

I think Metro has a plan to fund more of the line themselves. I think the refocus on the bus routes is an attempt to not only establish a great bus system but to also bring in more money with more ridership. I'm almost positive they still have plans to fund the line in some sort of way, whether federally or through private funds of their own.

Highest ridership in the nation?  Not sure about that, but out of all the proposed lines, the University Line easily has the best ridership potential.  It's a shame that politics got in the way of this line. 

Based upon where each stop would be, it would be top 5 for sure. 

Parkway Ave?

Wow 300,000? Where did you find that figure?

Awesome! It's leaders like this that give me hope for Houston. Houston has always been the kind of city to respond when the time calls. That's one pattern I continue to notice.

Or maybe some sort of trolly line for the Heights that connects to the Red Line?

I think a city wide petition would help in regards to University Line getting funding. I know Metro takes a lot of crap, and some of it is well deserved, but I also don't find them completely incompetent. The plan in place would have great ridership and funding for the authority. I think the bew bus system is going to really be great.

I was checking out the route for the University Line and man it kills me how amazing this line would be! We would have some of the highest ridership in the nation! What can honestly be done to get this back on track? I am excited that our bus routes will be redone, which is great, because I believe every great city has a great bus system. These two rail lines would give Houston an awesome transportation system to build from. What about a new route in the Heights coming off of the Red Line? 

I like the chill music