jt16

Houston led the country last year in new job creation.

The washing windows things is not what you have to worry about. At least these people are willing to do something for money rather than harass you for nothing. Ii's very common in Mexico where people who have no job,and no education to get one to wash windows,or watch your vehicle while you are eating or shopping. I know that it must be annoying sometimes though. But,be thankful they are not the ones that mean you harm. The people like that are just trying to bring home tortillas and beans to their kids. Check it out on the streets,you will not find that many MEXICAN kids compared to white and black kids. SAD but true

It seems that the Hispanic culture has a strong sense of family. Sadly, for whites and blacks, we tend to cast out our family members as soon as they become a burden.

The homeless would not be aggressive if it didn't pay off. Any person caught giving a homeless person money should be fined heftily. I never give out money to the homeless. It's not hard to see that a large percentage of them need alcohol and drug rehabilitation. A good idea that I got from a church organization is to keep bags of non-perishable food items (pretzels, etc.) in your car to hand out. It's hard to spend food on drugs and alcohol.

so much for the american dream

Yeah maybe that's it. Always more people standing around that corner than other ones. I didn't notice the sign until now.

There's a little corner store across the street that attracts a certain kind of "undesirable crowd". There's always a lot of panhandling going on that block.

Although the people in the picture posted look like honest people waiting for a bus.

I wonder how this building will impact the neighboring buildings.

There is no way he can possibly sue you, unless you have a signed contract with the realtor. Most realtors in Houston are good ethical people. I hope you don't let this experience tarnish your opinion.

You should report them.

Foley's was Montgomery Ward before they went bankrupt.

The story about Dillards is that one of them had the roof fall in during Rita and instead of rebuilding that one they decided to expand the other one and have it all under one roof. Then again, they were both at Parkdale anyway.

I grew up in Beaumont. If I recall correctly, Dillard's didn't exactly want two stores at Parkdale, but they bought somebody out and assumed the lease. I always thought it was odd to have a men's Dillards and a women's Dillards in one mall.

picture from globest.com

even though i am absolutely disgusted with the tenants, im impressed with the design.

link to article -> here

It just looks like Meyerland Plaza II to me. It could be worse, but it could be much better also, given its location.

I figured I would create a new topic. Does anybody know the history of the Wedge Tower? Clearly there was a garage attached at one time. When did it come down? For what reason?

Also, I've been told that the owner (builder) of the Wedge filed bankruptcy in the 80s with the real estate collapse, and made an apartment on the top floor where the restaurant now is. He tried to keep the building by claiming it as his homestead. He eventually lost that battle.

This is the old Sheraton-Lincoln, right?

(http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...?showtopic=4417)

if so, thank goodness! finally! (i hope it really happens!)

I'm hoping it's that one too. I pass this eyesore everyday on my way to work. Nice pool view. Does anybody know if the Wedge Group ever plans to add a garage to the half-block across the street. I've always wondered how they compete without any parking options.

I think that's right. Right next to 1201 Louisiana. I didn't know there was that much space there for that kind of project. Maybe they'll take a surface lot nearby also.

USC's main campus is in the West Adams neighbohood approximately 2 miles

southwest of downtown LA. WA was once one of LA's richest neighborhoods. In the 20's when whites began moving to other areas, affluent African Americans began moving into WA and for several decades WA was home to affluent AAs. Over time as affluent AA moved to other areas of the city, WA became home to large numbers of working class AA who were followed by the growing Latino population. The areas contains houses of varied architectural styles. Currently, various sections of WA are being gentrified with people purchasing and restoring the houses.

USC is known as the University of South Central. That doesn't come as a huge compliment in L.A.

If it were clean looking it might work a bit better but that still doesn't explain the smudges all over it, particularly the lower part. That really adds to the unfinished look. By the way the 3rd photo didn't work.

So to the connoisseur of architectural concrete, it looks fine, but to the layman, I still think the building looks strange and unfinished.

The overall design doesn't bother me too much. It actually reminds me a bit of the El Paso building (if you squint and pretend there are windows).

It's just the "architectural concrete" with smudges look that bothers me as seen in the Highway's photo above.

I just got busted at work squinting and staring at this screen.

It looks like this store is about to open across fron the Houston Pavillions. You can now find high-end sneakers/running shoes downtown if you need them.

What kind of success does anybody think this store will have? I've never been one to spend a lot of money on shoes, other than dress shoes. I honestly don't know how many people are willing to buy expensive running shoes, ets.

In my experience, realtor open houses are useless. You will get a TON of realtors showing up, they will eat their free lunch and then not give a second thought afterward.

To truly motivate realtors, the realtor specific open house isn't the key. Time based bonuses are. At least for homes in the 1.5mil+ market anyway.

My home isn't worth $1.5MM and the food was provided by ICON Mortgage. It really is a no lose situation.

yeah, the bank across the way is strictly parking now.

as far as the Savoy Apartments (the older building), i can't even be too hopeful - it is only a matter of time before it collapses...the structural supports aren't helping too much - it's the stuff lawsuits are made of

no roof over at least half of it:

huge cracks over windows:

walls falling apart:

Wow, I had no idea the Savoy looked that bad. I wonder what the city thinks of it.

We are having a realtor open house this Thursday July 12th, from 11:30AM until 1PM. Lunch will be provided by Pronto Italtian Cucina.

We are having a buyer open house this Sunday July 12th, from 2PM to 5PM. There will be snacks provided.

You are not going to get enough real snow in Houston for skiing. Besides, think how great this will be, people will no longer go to Colorado in the winter to ski, just stay home. Also, think of playing in the snow in the very long and hot summer, cool!

I'm not sure this is going to replace Colorado just yet. You can spend all the money in the world and still not recreate the true mountain experience. This needs to be affordable to work. Otherwise people will be spending their money on the real thing.

It pertains to Aggies. The question is, are A&M administrators Aggies? I think an Aggie though is anyone who has ever attended school at Texas A&M. So my hunch is, unless they were students there, no.

Why does it matter though? There's plenty in the Employee Handbook that this is in violation of. You even have to take an online course on ethics to be an employee now. And if they are bound to the Honor Code, it won't be the first time that someone has violated it.

The code of honor is "Aggies do not lie, cheat or steal." It never mentions cover ups.

HOT lanes are merely the next evolution of HOV lanes. Same setup, different rules is all.

Barrier separated lanes are more operationally efficient (operational efficiency being their raison d'etre) than diamond lanes. You premise that diamond lanes are better merely because other cities are building them ignores other factors that may be at work. Other cities have less experience with managed lanes, therefore the public reacts differently to them. Other cities have more costly ROW, so space is a bigger issue for them. Context. Don't ignore context.

There are plenty of us civil engineers who would disagree with you

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.

I agree with JT that HOT lanes and Diamond lanes are the way to go.

As for commuter rail, I believe there would be demand. A good comparison might be to look at rail ridership from the North Dallas suburbs. I agree that I don't think Cypress residents want buses running around here, but I do think they'd be receptive to commuter rail.

Me, I have degrees from UT and Tech. Love them both. Great schools.

Ethan what about you?

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.

I'm in the industry for one. I have a friend who is the catering director at the Lancaster. My other friend recently left his position as a manager at the Icon because he said its falling apart. Its empty and the managment is screwed up and now Whiskey is gone. Go check it out, there's no one there. I also know a girl who does marketing for the Alden, who also says numbers are down. I am on a committee of a networking group and all of these hotels are dieing to work with us for business. My friend came in town and stayed at the Magnolia last week in fact and it was also very quiet. They were already in trouble from the start from what I hear, that's why it took so long to open. The only thing at capacity and is doing well downtown is office building space. It's unfortunate. Hopefully they can wait it out like many of the establishments tried to do when they started tearing up the roads, street by street, starting with the rail on Main. So many places have closed and lots of the buildings down Main have For Lease signs on them. It was kind of eerie (sp?) when I walked down Main a few weeks ago. The old days were fun.

The Hilton and the 4 Seasons are obviously large chains with meeting space, etc, so naturally they are in a better position.

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.

I always thought I saw that you went to Tech... my mistake. I do have to say, most UT grads are very sharp and on top of issues. Like I said "most grads" - did you really use the word "nimrod"?

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.

Was I the only one who knew that was a joke?

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

Agreed, I have to say that the trade off of better schools & lower crime is worth the wait in traffic, not to mention worth the toll. Especially when you can take P&R or carpool. The $2.50 is justified by me just by saving my time. I want a Bentley also, but I can not afford it.

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.

Yeah, people get mad about a lot of things. [shrug] Actions speak louder than words.

Frankly, I think that you answered your own question:

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?