H-Town Man

People seem to think that because nothing has been done, all the previous ideas wouldn't have worked. But we have no idea if they would have worked or not, because none of them were done. It's very possible we could have had a working facility by now that would be a huge point of pride for the city and county and one of, if not the most notable historical landmark in Houston.

4 minutes ago, arche_757 said:

Not to continue arguing for the sake of arguing…

Your point (as I see it) is that any ballpark isn’t a decent catalyst for development because of traffic, noise etc.  I just posted a picture of a vibrant (looking) neighborhood next to a ballpark.  Now, San Diego had development prior to Petco Park, yet much of the neighborhood that grew around the ballpark there was vastly underdeveloped.  This is despite the great views, and no doubt strong zoning/planning ordinances to push the very type of development that had yet to occur around Petco.

That is all.

Why has it taken longer? I’d guess: adjacent land prices too high, too many other neighborhoods in town where that sort of development is easier, oil price recessions…etc.

No, my point was that Minute Maid Park hadn't been a good catalyst for development, because of a combination of those factors and the fact that there are better areas of downtown that lack some of those drawbacks. Petco has enviable development and shows that factors such as parking and dead days can be overcome, but Petco is not a good comparison because it offers great views to nearby highrises (almost as nice a visual amenity as Discovery Green) and doesn't have a roof that closes over it.

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2 hours ago, arche_757 said:

The Petco Park neighborhood before/after.

I feel that folks in virtually any city that do not live immediately adjacent to a ball park are likely not able to see the action very well if at all.

 

[edit: of course we do not have the San Diego harbor front for our downtown…unfortunately!  That said, 59/69 is nearly as effective in serving as a point of demarcation!]

I'm not sure what you're driving at. My point is that, right now, most people would probably rather live close to Main St./Market Square or Discovery Green and walk to Minute Maid than live next to Minute Maid. From the photo you post of Petco, the view into the park is gorgeous and has attracted highrises with that view as a selling point. With Minute Maid, views into the park aren't much of a factor for development outside because the roof is almost always closed. I'm not sure whether it is common for ballparks to offer views to outside buildings. Some ballparks do. But not Minute Maid.

Why do you think more development has happened in other parts of downtown than around Minute Maid? I've attempted to offer a few reasons. What do you think?

1 hour ago, arche_757 said:

I suppose one could look to Petco Park in San Diego as an example of the sort of neighborhood you could hope would build up around a MLB ballpark.  I think once you have enough critical mass that it would be a fun neighborhood, developments would have cafes and bars built in.  As for living there… I would think avoiding the traffic downtown wouldn’t be nearly as hard as avoiding it around NRG.  Night games aren’t every day during the season, and even day games on the weekends wouldn’t be too bad if there was enough parking available that it’s spread out away from the immediate couple of streets around the park.  I could also see the merit to building another city/sports authority owned garage with the possibility of another hotel and/or offices above nearby.

[edit: you could nitpick anyplace to pieces.  The theatre district doesn’t have any buildings with interior visibility from the outside. There is also traffic associated with that.  I think living in a downtown you just accept there is a near constant expectation of activity.]

 

Yes, traffic is better there than around NRG. But I am comparing living at MMP to other parts of downtown, which is the more pertinent decision if you are a developer or someone looking to live downtown. Right now if you could live near Main St./Market Square or Discovery Green and walk to MMP, this seems like the better deal. Petco is a little different since everything is full thanks to the waterfront so you're not living in an empty zone.

Also, the point about interior visibility is that the attraction to living next to a ballpark in some cities is getting to watch the game from your balcony, but it wouldn't work at MMP since the roof is usually closed and the site across the street from left field has been developed. But you are right, it is impossible to see inside the theatre buildings.

On 7/15/2021 at 10:06 PM, nate4l1f3 said:

Looking at this I’m actually disappointed in the development around MMP. 

Would you want to live next to MMP? Every other night for 6-7 months of the year you have dramatic spikes in traffic and crowds; the rest of the time you have a giant dead zone next to you. Tons of parking lots everywhere. You can't see into the park, and after a few weeks the whole "Wow! That's Minute Maid Park!" feeling wears off. It's not like there's a good bar district now that the only neighborhood sports bars next to MMP have been bulldozed. I don't see any advantage to living there, unless you're right on Texas Ave. or between it and Discovery Green. If you want to watch games, live somewhere near Main St. and walk to games.

On 7/15/2021 at 6:29 PM, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

I drove by this yesterday. I'm back on the 'it's estupid' train

I think the office landlords feel a pressure to do some kind of little renovation so that they can tout to potential tenants that it's been renovated. Just a little splash of newness in the common areas is what most office renovations amount to. In this case, it does not seem apparent why a plaza with a glass wedge sticking into it would be any more pedestrian-friendly than an open plaza. When you think of great office plazas like the Federal Center in Chicago, there are no glass wedges jutting out of the buildings, just crisp open plazas. I could just as easily see, if the wedge had been built originally, them saying "We are removing an obtrusive 1980's glass wedge in order to create more open space and enhance walkability for a new generation that desires these things."

.

On 7/14/2021 at 7:09 PM, dbigtex56 said:

That's the impression I've had of Altuve as well; he respects both himself and others.
So far as the different estimates of his height, according to the Chron: "Rollins is listed one inch taller than Altuve, who in at least one weak moment has admitted to being 5-6." 
(I dislike the tone of this remark. It implies that Altuve's stature is some shameful secret. I think he's inspiring.) 

I do wonder how many short hitters of the past had his power, and what sort of weight lifting/supplements regimen is necessary for that physique. In most eras of baseball history Altuve is either an infield hitter with wicked bunt skills or maybe decides to be a horse jockey instead of baseball. The fact that he is a power hitter with 20 home runs at mid-season is very unusual.

Note that I literally love Altuve and think he's the Astro GOAT.

I am kind of surprised that the concrete paving of the bayou channel has lasted so well. Considering that the concrete at the condo tower that collapsed in Florida was "rapidly deteriorating" because of standing pools of water, this must be a very different type of concrete if it can go 70+ years of constant water and debris and still look like it's ready for another 70.

Wow, thanks. Pretty much confirms that Discovery Green is the greatest idea anyone has had for downtown in the modern era. I am rather surprised that more has not been done in the Historic District, which is most likely because there are few sites large enough to build a large building with a parking garage. We need to learn how to do fine-grained development.

2 minutes ago, MexAmerican_Moose said:

Here in Texas, the "row of columns" are called bents, in some other places in the country/world, they're called piers. The first and last bents of a bridge are called abutments.

The number of bents is determined by superstructure type (CIP slab, slab beams, box beams, concrete i-girders or steel girders) and hydraulics of the stream. The bigger the beam, => the longer the span, => the less number of bents, => the deeper the bridge, => the less space under the bridge for water to flow.

The water flow through a bridge is calculated by hydraulic engineers who determine whether the bridge needs to be raised or extended to accommodate the water flow.

Less space for water to flow?

On 6/30/2021 at 6:56 AM, Subdude said:

There was briefly rail service from the downtown Amtrak station to Galveston in the 1990s. Unfortunately, it seems that demand wasn't there since it didn't last too long. 

 

 

Rode this as a kid. It was fun, meeting other people and talking to them. I remember stepping on gum somewhere and tracking it around the train. Funny how things like that stay in your mind.

Any train to Galveston would require additional bus usage getting around Galveston and will likely not be attractive to people who do not typically ride buses. Especially if you have kids and are carrying all the bags of swim articles. I love trains but driving the car to Galveston is just so easy.

59 is still being sunk through the Museum District, correct? Is the 59/288 extra-wide section still being rebuilt?

How long until you think TxDOT comes back with another (scaled-back) plan for I-45? I could see it being widened north of 610 but left at its current size inside 610, similar to the Katy Freeway.

29 minutes ago, mattyt36 said:

I have to tip my hat to you and your ability to go down new rhetorical rabbit holes without actually engaging with any substantive arguments.

You didn't provide proof of anything.  You reported out a vote count.  There's a perfectly logical explanation for how those people voted, which has been presented to you.  But you want to introduce another straw man (and bring up this Conroe to Galveston straw "king" yet again).

And local versus regional?  Give me a break.  It's just as local to the other board members as it is to the City of Houston and Harris County.   

Come on man, this HGAC vote is like the 2017 World Series for him. You're not going to take it away. It's going to be cherished forever.

5 hours ago, arche_757 said:

We have very similar rainfall compared to Atlanta.  What we have that they do not is a 💩-ton of heavy industry.  I believe that eastern Houston/greater Port of Houston is the largest continuous heavily industrialized area in the country.

The stretch from the Calumet River in Illinois to Burns Harbor, Indiana, is pretty big. We may have them beat, though.

19 minutes ago, mattyt36 said:

Well I put my money where my mouth was and answered my own question.

"How many residential units will be displaced in total"?

See page 5-2:

Single family residential: 160

Multi-family residential: 433

Public and low-income housing: 486

Total: 1,079 (on page 5-3, of the 1,079 displaced, 76 are owner-occupied units)

Also shown in this table  . . . other displacements:

Business: 344

Place of worship: 5

School: 2

Parking business: 11

Other: 11

The argument that this is about preventing displacement is simply nonsensical.  Yes, I realize it may suck for some (but probably not all!) of the people who live in the 1,079 units to have to move, but to me it is a straw man.

DRAFT_NHHIP_CIA_TR_Public_Comment_Version_2.pdf (ih45northandmore.com)

I wonder what the turnover of all those residents would have been anyway? Multi-family resident moves, on average, once every 18-24 months? Single-family resident in low-income neighborhood along a freeway moves, on average, once every 3 years? Public and low-income housing resident probably less time?

1 hour ago, samagon said:

right, but they are either voted into office by public opinion (or at least the opinion of those that can be bothered to vote), or they are appointed by the people who have been voted into office by public opinion (or at least the opinion of those that can be bothered to vote).

if the people felt strongly about Houston/Harris county changes being implemented they would have urged their representatives to vote with Houston/Harris (and we would have seen them do so) against the approval for the project as is.

I mean, this is how democracy works.

This is a very imperfect way of assessing public opinion. People typically have two choices on a politician to vote for and they may decide based on a totally different reason. When the current slate of city and county politicians was voted on, no one had any idea that they were going to sue to stop a freeway expansion. Most of the county commissioners we ended up with came from straight-ticket voting fueled by ire at Trump and people had no idea that voting Democrat meant that the city's largest road project would be halted as the politicians responded to small, vocal activist groups. One could argue that they *should* have known that given that it happens in cities all over the country, but we have never seen it happen like this in Houston.

I really don't think we have any reliable info on public opinion about this project, other than the historical rule of thumb that freeway expansions are opposed by people living next to the freeways as well as urban planning wonks, and supported by just about everyone else.

11 minutes ago, samagon said:

I'm not following you at all. please be more specific and direct in showing me how the HGAC vote doesn't paint this as a regional vs local transit issue. 

Because the HGAC members who oppose are appointed by the politicians who oppose the project. You are beholden to the person who appointed you. An HGAC vote is not the same as a public opinion poll.

18 hours ago, staresatmaps said:

It would probably make most skyscraper taxes downtown much lower. Compare the property tax of a skyscraper downtown to the property tax of a same sized area of houses in the burbs. Now compare the land value of a block downtown compared to the land value of a same sized area in the burbs.

The relevant comparison would be property taxes of office buildings downtown vs. property taxes of office buildings in the burbs. Right now, land value makes up about a third of the total assessed value of a typical  office building. So the property tax is only 1/3 affected by location. The rest of the tax is based on building value, and a building can be equally nice downtown or in the burbs. But if you base the whole tax on land value, and your downtown land is worth $300-400/SF whereas your suburban office area land value is $15-20/SF, your downtown taxes will now be twenty times the suburban taxes for the same building.

There are some factors that will diminish this. A suburban building probably takes up more land because land is cheaper; it has a sprawling garage and some gardens rather than all being stacked on a single block, 2-3 acres instead of 1 acre. And of course downtown land values would sink if such a law were enacted, so that will diminish the difference a bit more. But there would still be a much sharper difference in taxation for downtown vs. suburban offices, because you've based the whole tax on location.

Studies have shown that people who choose to live next to a freeway are more likely to be displaced by freeway expansions. This is a huge problem, because in no way should these people be more affected by freeway expansions than everybody else. Absolutely none.

On 7/2/2021 at 1:13 PM, arche_757 said:

I was half-kidding 😏.  That said, one would have hoped that in the 20+ years since opening there would be 8-10 new residential high rises within that view.  There are not.

I would never consider advertising within the ballpark to be a change to the city scape.

I'm glad that building didn't happen, it would have loomed over the field and blocked off the view of most of the skyline. Instead we got a midrise there that will protect the view of the historic district from the upper levels. True no highrises from that angle, but if you were sitting further down the right field line, you would see 4 new residential highrises in your view (Catalyst, Aris, Brava, Market Square Tower).

14 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

Is it just me or does downtown seem dead? A lot of the tenants at the Rice Hotel are all gone. Minuti Coffee seems to be the only place aside from the pub around the corner. A lot of the bars have been closing early. Local Foods is still closed. Finn Hall and Understory don’t seem to be running very well either. And just about all of Bayou Place is a desert now. Discovery Green is dead. Just feels like the pandemic sucked all the life out of everything. 

This is a bummer. Does not bode well for the post office redo.

On 7/3/2021 at 11:38 AM, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

the southern end of 130 is 45 miles from San Antonio.

45/610 S and 45/610 N intersections won't move.

SH 45 allows you to drive back to I-35 south of Austin, or you can stay on 130. They made it very easy to bypass just Austin or to bypass the whole congested I-35 corridor from Austin to San Antonio.

On 6/26/2021 at 2:38 PM, hindesky said:

The amount of glass and stone filling the sky towards Market Square is a little disheartening. I like these buildings but am a little sad for what might have been with a less officey feel in the historic district.

1 hour ago, kbates2 said:

Is this something that is unique to Houston?  I always feel like any buildings that we have with lighter colored stone turn black and I don't see it in other cities.

More rainfall here.

Someone should do a Monty Python-esque sketch about when the pioneers decided they were going to expand Montgomery Road back when it was a one-lane dirt wagon trail and some guy shows up with a sheaf of papers babbling on about how all the studies show that expanding any road just creates induced demand and leads to the same traffic congestion in the future, just look at what happened when they expanded the San Felipe Road to where two wagons could ride abreast, and now on market days you have a double row of wagons stretching all the way back to the Westheimer farm. All that expanding Montgomery Road is going to do is bring these same problems to North Houston and ruin neighborhoods and disadvantage minority groups such as the natives living up around Green's Point. Just stop building new roads. Because all it does is bring congestion.