jt16

I can't match your engineering expertise, as I'm not an engineer. But back at you. Context. My premise is not based strictly on other cities, but California and Texas (including Houston) moving to diamond lanes as originally stated. These were my main examples in the earlier post, and both are experienced in traffic management. I'm sure like all discussions, there are civil engineers that can make good arguments in favor of both approaches. People that attended one of the major universities in Texas generally have a great deal of respect for each other and their universities. It's usually the lesser known schools that have some sort of inferiority complex in regards to schools. I attended Texas A&M and have lots of friends that attended UT, Tech, Rice, TCU, etc. There's good natured ribbing, but not one of them actually believe the baseless drivel that some of these posters truly believe.

The Doubletree in the Allen Center seems to do just fine. I have a business partner in Dallas, and he can never get a room there when he comes in town.

Worked well in 1970, but why have one lane where two or three will easily fit? Texas, California and other states are clearly moving toward HOT lanes (to make money) and diamond lanes (to move more people). Back to the original topic, I know lots of people that drive in to downtown along 290. I can't say statistically what the numbers would look like, but I think we'd be surprised how many people actually work downtown and live along the 290 corridor. The problem is how many people would even use the commuter rail? We have a deeply entrenched car culture here in Houston that won't change over night.

Where is your schooling? Because you certainly are not on top of the issues. In fact you write freely and continually show your ignorance. The diamond lanes have been implemented for years in other major metropolitan cities. Houston's single HOV walled lanes are routinely criticized by civil engineers as a massive waste of space. That's why Houston is finally moving to diamond lanes on new freeway construction (i.e. Katy Freeway). To state that Houston's HOV system is some sort of model would be laughable, if you really didn't believe it.

This was a dead give away. But it did get somebody to respond with "crane erections".

For some people it's not the choice between a Bentley and a Ford, it's the choice between being able to afford their job or not. It's a bit elitist to say "I don't care about the commuter, they made their bed now lie in it." I know several families that have two different jobs in two different locations. Naturally you have to choose a central location to set roots. Factor in schools, cost of living and out right quality of life, and this rules out everybody living next to their offices.

County commissioners are elected to 4 year terms. With this kind of outrage, there will be action eventually. Why do you see the commissioners scrambling to justify their actions less than 24 hours after a vote?

Off The Kuff "Harris County is casting its eye on five additional corridors to study for potential commuter rail lines. Commissioners Court is expected next Tuesday to tell the county's Public Infrastructure Department to begin negotiations with a consultant to conduct a preliminary study of existing freight lines along Texas 3, Mykawa Road, FM 521, Hardy Road and U.S. 59 North. The consultant, DMJM+Harris, already has performed a preliminary assessment of potential commuter rail corridors along U.S. 290, Texas 249 and U.S. 90A. That study, completed last December, concluded that by using existing freight lines, the county could get more than 80 miles of commuter rail in northwest Harris County at a cost of about $295 million, or about $3.5 million per mile. Since then, Eckels and Commissioners Court have said they wanted to look at other potential corridors. Eckels and Commissioner Steve Radack have championed the idea of commuter rail, arguing that it would be cheaper to implement than the Metropolitan Transit Authority's $5.8 billion rail plan. Eckels, who could not be reached for comment Friday, has said he believes the county could have as much as 100 miles of commuter rail within five years." This was originally printed in the Chronicle, but the article is no longer on the page. Commuter rail is most definitely a county inititiative. But I do agree, commuters do pay willfully for toll roads. And you obviously have more faith in your elected officials to do the proper thing with billions of dollars in cash than I do. I never implied anybody would embezzle money. You made that on your own. But there are other, more legal ways for politicos to squander taxpayer money.

I think we're making this a much more complicated issue than it really is. The Harris County Commissioners view toll roads as a business venture. They're positioning themselves for a big payday when they sellout a 50 year road monopoly to Goldman Sachs for $10B. The Commissioners have forgotten who they work for. They are supposed to represent the hardworking taxpayers in Harris County. When will we see commuter rail? Probably not for a long time. There's too much money in the business of forcing commuters on to a fee driven roadway.

It is a little bizarre. But it's well known as that kind of place. I'm not sure Jerry Hall is cozyed up to the bar, but the Mrs. Robinson profile actually fits the type I was referring to.

I know a lot of people who go to the Black Swan at the Omni looking for some lonely out of town guests. But other than that, it's like going to any other bar in Houston.

At the time it was cancelled, they blamed Enron and the subsequent collapse of the downtown market. Sounds a little bit of a cop out as we've seen other downtown projects since then. Somebody else with more inside knowledge might help out.

Good addition. I don't personally skate, but it's good to see Houston reach out to non-traditional sports and recreation. I have always thought it would be really cool if "they" could bring in some natural Central Texas boulders to create a real rock climbing experience on Buffalo Bayou. I love going to Austin and rock climbing on the Zilker Park trails and at Enchanted Rock. I'm not even sure it's feasible, but it's ok to dream.

Couldn't agree with you more. I went to the Hotel ZaZa bar last weekend. Very packed and trendy. But trendy in a bizarre kind of way. I left there wondering how long it would last. I guess I just prefer more of a classic trendy look and feel. I'm sure they spent a lot of money on black hardwood floors throughout and the maniquin (sp?) in cages above registration, but does that really appeal to that broad of a group?

This is way better than the Exxon building in my opinion. It's funny how people either love or hate the Exxon building. There doesn't seem to be any riding the fence.

You just lumped 45K people into one very tiny box.

916 Lester

Devon is in Two Allen currently, but is growing and looking for additional space.

That's correct. Brookfield is making a major push in Downtown Houston. They recently purchase 1201 Louisiana, and are supposedly making a run on the BofA Tower. The tenant interested in a new building is Devon. Supposedly they weren't too keen on the proposed building next to the Continental Tower and is pushing for the parking lot location instead.

I got out of a meeting with the leasing manager for Brookfield. She told me that they were in talks with a large tenant (Devon) to build another tower. It was listed on this site earlier that the greenspace in front of Continental Tower would be the location. She said they were now looking at building on the parking lot just east of 45 and North of the Met Parking Garage. She also confirmed that the Heritage Plaza is going ahead with their parking garage on the adjacent surface lot. They signed two large tenants and are now in a position to finally begin construction. Forgive me if this has been discussed before.

I wouldn't count on anything significant as far as styling goes. Maybe I'm too cynical, but none of the bridges currently over Brays would suggest anything different. I guess the "Reforestation" on MacGregor is all for nothing? What is the timing on moving the lanes away from the golf course? On another note. I live in the area, and Hermann Park Golf Course seems to be falling into a pretty pathetic state. In my opinion, the city should sell it off to somebody that will actually invest money in the maintenance of a public course, and concentrate their efforts on Memorial Park, like they seem to do now anyway.

Just read this thread. Some of you people should spend some time in third world countries before comparing Houston to them. There is opportunity here beyond what anyone in many South American and African countries could even dream of. To make this topic related, I wonder how 122 new units will affect home prices in the area.

I guess we just have different opinions on what makes a good corporate citizen. Simply doing the minimum to meet certain regulations doesn't make you a good corporate citizen in my opinion. The good corporate citizens go out of their way to make the neighborhoods that their customers and employees live in a much more desirable place.

They took out the railroad ties a few years ago. They do still maintain the ROW. It's the small piece of property behind Walgreens on Washington.

UP is not a good corporate citizen in my opinion. They still own a ROW for a short abandoned section of track near Memorial Heights. The Neighborhood Association has tried for years to buy this from UP for greenspace, but they refuse to let go of it. It's a tiny tract of land not connected to any other part of UP's system. I tried to contact UP locally, but got no response.