Jeebus

One thing that a lot of people forget is just how much Houston grew and how quickly. The examples given pretty much pre date the mid sixties, right about the time the Dome opened - out in the middle of nowhere..

I recently met an older gentleman who built his home on jackwood and fondren in the mid 50's. We talked at length about all the changes that area has seen over the last 60 years. What surprised me most though was when I asked him why he built where he did, he told me that at the time that where his house stands was still the "country" as the neighborhood sat outside the city limits (and even proposed city limits), and Fondren was still a two-lane, ditch-lined gravel road.

I can only imagine similar scenarios played out along Braeswood, Beechnut, Bellaire, and Briar Forest, just to name a few. Most of the communities built on the southwest side between the 50's and 80's seem to have encountered this to some degree.

In a town that is built on oil, calling your new development "GreenHouse" may likely not be the best leasing strategy. They might even wish to change the name of the street.

No one with money will care what it's called.

As far as I can tell NRG has the largest parking lot in the world but doesn't get credit for it.

http://nrgpark.com/parking-specs

26,000 spaces is greater than Disney World's 23,000 spaces; Universal Studios 20,000 spaces and West Edmonton Mall's 20,000 spaces.

http://www.valetonly.com/blog/5-of-the-largest-parking-lots-on-the-planet/

http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/10/parking-automobiles-retail-biz-logistics-cx_ew_0410parking_slide_11.html

According to this Disney info site, it has 26,039 spaces, and I think they're only counting theme park parking, and not also resort parking. I would imagine that number will keep growing as well, as they further expand across its 40+ square mile property.

http://www.wdwmagic.com/facts!.htm

Has anyone actually seen this since it's gone up? I'm not sure how they got 6 stories in the article. It doesn't look much taller than their existing three story building right behind it. It's barely noticeable - at least compared to what Sagemont put up.

We ate there Friday night. Got there around 8, only took 10 minutes for a table to open up. The beer selection was nice. The food was good as well. We ordered about half of the menu between the four of us to share and sample. Everything tasted like it had been slowly and meticulously made with care, and not just grabbed from the freezer and nuked before plating. The gator fritters stole the show. We ended up having to order extra of those. The burger was advertised as ground fresh daily, and it certainly tasted that way.

No d-bags to be found. Mostly young couples doubled up (like us), a few bottom-end corporate parties (think cubicle farm crews), and hipsters. Lots and lots of hipsters!

not sure why I am deserving of sarcasm

I mean the original poster to which I had replied directly to.

Read Texas Transportation Code Section 552 section 5 or 6. That's a real law. I'm sure there's also a city ordinance that prohibits crossing a street outside a crosswalk.

I think my overt sarcasm to the o.p. eluded you.

And even when I got to the train, a Metro cop started yelilng at me. "You know I could give you a $100 ticket for jaywalking." I said "ok." He said, "Say sorry and you won't have to pay." I kind of wondered if he was serious. Then he said again "Say sorry!" So I said "sorry" and just went to the other end of the station. These guys were all roided up and on a serious power trip.

You have every right to jaywalk. It's not a real law and they can't arrest you. Tell them this next time and make them apologize to you for their insolence.

It's the one time of year that you can feel safe on the streets

Didn't a lady get curbed stomped by an HPD mounted patrol last year at the parade? Whatever happened to that?

And how in the hell is *** such a derogatory word that it must be censored? The most harsh way I've ever heard it said was on Anchorman when he accused his friend of "sound like a ***".

Texas has never stopped an execution due to the defendant being a foreign citizen, though several countries, including Mexico, have complained. This offense, however, is in no way a capital offense. There is a list of crimes that are capital offenses, all of which involve intentional murder. There is no intent in manslaughter. But, fear not. After this turd finishes serving his 5-99 year Texas prison sentence, he will then be turned over to the Feds, who will almost certainly max him out at 20 years in federal confinement, before finally shipping his butt back to Mexico, or El Salvador, as the case may be. Also, he will be required to serve at least half of his state prison sentence and roughly 83% of his federal one. He will likely serve close to 45 years before getting deported. He's done.

While my condolences go out to this officer's family, and all of HPD, it pains me to see that the punishment for a drunk hitting a police officer standing on a highway is 5-99 years, yet the drunk woman who launched her Camaro into the toll road worker...who also stands on a highway for a living...last week is only eligible for 2-20 years. I don't want this to be perceived as disparaging of the police, but a realization that all of those who serve the public should be protected.

Note to Marmer: This case is still Intoxication Manslaughter, but the punishment goes to 1st degree because a police officer is the victim. It did not become murder, only the punishment increased.

Thank you. I know that he couldn't get the death penalty for what he did. It was just frustrating to see a family man die over something so stupid. Something, that in my opinion, would have never even happened, had he been kept out of the country in the first place. I know there are good "hard working" illegals, but all I keep seeing are examples of the bad.

Fringe is right about the death penalty. For that matter, I have kind of a problem with the death penalty applying to any auto accident, regardless of the circumstances.

Would you have a problem with someone getting drunk then accidently shooting someone with a gun? Pretty much the same difference in my opinion. Someone intoxicated doing something they shouldn't be doing while intoxicated, affecting another party with death.

As for the illegal angle, I'm all for a program to convert what we've got here, but only after a wall, with a moat, and alligators, and sharpshooters, and whatever else that smart ass President so wisely suggested during his recent trip to Texas is built or installed so that we may finally take control of this epidemic. It's all a joke to people like him, he'll never understand death and tragedy - which is so painfully ironic given his elected position.

I guess no one wants to touch the illegal angle. Don't want to offend anyone, right?

Ziegler Cooper does some outstanding and high profile religious architecture, the new Cathedral being one example. I wonder which church this structure is being built for.

Not sure what you're asking. You did look at the link?

Pare de Sufrir

The Worship Place Studio of Ziegler Cooper Architects was recently hired to design a 46,000 square foot worship center with a stylistic design that is appealing from the busy southwest freeway as it crosses over Westpark just outside the 610 loop. The overall design image is modernist with a substantial glass entry and lobby that will provide a nice visual sign board for those passing by on the adjacent freeway. Strong lines and bold colors reflect not only the spirit of the design, but also attempt to reflect the spirit of the church.

The new church building will consist of a 1,100-seat main worship center, with a smaller 200-seat chapel and teaching room. Support areas include administrative staff offices, children´s classroom spaces, and an 11-bedroom apartment complex for ministers and ministers in training. A dormitory accommodating twenty is also included to house young men in training and under mentorship of established pastors. A unique design feature of the complex is the in-house television studio which will allow the opportunity for the church to be broadcast in the Houston Area.

I think the worry is that this ruling will allow more unscrupulous police officers to lie their way into homes, much the same way some have lied in the past by planting evidence.

I'm sorry, but it's damn hard for me to believe that just because someone bangs on a door and yells "police" 3x that the homeowner is going to believe the people knocking are police. It is very easy to see someone defending themselves and their home from invasion by shooting to kill once the door was knocked down. I can imagine that the person defending himself would not live much more than a few seconds after that, but that would be tragic.

I can agree with that, but when you play the IF game all day we're left with total law or no law. There has to be a gray muddy middle with some things that seem pro-citizen and some pro-law enforcement.

Red, I'm no lawyer, but I read the ruling to state that the court simply clarified that a person has no right to resist to an illegal entry of the police into their home. I thought the idea was that if the police did so, that it would just be thrown out in court, as protected in the 4th amendment.

Why would we want to empower the ignorant (and even the stupid) to think they have the right to shoot police on site, just because they thought they might have been infringed of their 4th amendment right? Allowing so would have only opened Pandora's box, and done nothing for the justice system.

Here's another example of a similar case, in the news:

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_ec169697-a19e-525f-a532-81b3df229697.html

I would argue there is a desire and need. Some of the main things Houstonians seem to complain about are traffic, parking in the city, and commute times (I was one of them). I moved to Midtown because of the mixed use and I no longer complain about any of those things. Just wait until Houston adds another million people... everyone will be complaining even more and wanting options to live near work and shopping. Plus, I'd love to see more ground retail so rental rates will come down on them. I keep trying to find a good storefront for my wife's business but everything is expensive. I say throw in more ground retail, let the rates drop, and then we could afford to rent out one of those places

I completely agree with you. I was using the word "want" simply to describe those who fancy mixed-use with no real need to use it. But yes, I think you can have both desire and need that function together.

From what I heard during a Metro Q&A time recently is that the city of Houston has barely grown at all over the past years. It's the suburbs that have grown. So I'm not real sure if mixed-use will be needed all that much if there are not more people actually living inside the city limits, much less the loop.

This is probably true, but it would be interesting to see if actual neighborhoods are growing in population (Midtown, Washington, etc).

Most importantly, for mixed use retail to LAST - it has to be organic. As in it has to be needed in the first place - and not just built to be built for the sake of urban development.

I know that seems an overly simple idea, but it's amazing how hard some will push for mixed use in this town when there's no need for it. (Not want or desire - but actual need).

I've always enjoyed when you two do all the leg work. Cheers!

Actually, while Niche's explanation is theoretically correct, the Texas version of the CBO studied the issue and found that the tax cap would reduce tax revenues rather than increase them. So, the correlation to teachers is that in spite of the prediction of lost revenue, the GOP controlled legislature passed the tax cap anyway, adding to the funding shortfall. This in turn assures that school districts will receive less funding for which to pay teachers.

Thank you this legitimate reply.

Does the city even care one way or the other about Greyhound being in Midtown ?

Just seems like to me, Midtown (the mgmt group and the residents) will get a lot more out of it if Greyhound decides to move than the City does.... and since the city is going to have to be the one to fork over the incentives..... does the city win?

I thought the Midtown TIRZ falls under the city, which is also who I thought we were talking about.

BUT.. since this game is already being played..... I think access to the rail network and a Metro TC is much more important than freeway access. If your typical Greyhound user had a car, he wouldn't be needing a bus in the first place. Freeways are mostly used for express busses to bypass the local streets, if you look at the system map, you have essentially one bus crossing 10 at almost every major exit and no local buses running parallel. For any given site on 10, you'd only have access to 1 bus line.

I-10 was intended to be more convenient to Greyhound, but I understand your point.

Also.. where's the incentive for the city here? Wherever Greyhound moves, there will still be increased crime. They'd just be moving responsibility for monitoring it from one police district to another. Midtown ( the mgmt group and the residents ) and the City are two different groups. Would it be financially worth it to the city to appease one group by moving a problem elsewhere ?

Is either group appeased now?

Mister X is right and his correlation is accurate. Texas is in financial distress and he's arguing that instead of providing tax incentives for people to buy yachts... we shouldn't be firing teachers.

I still don't see the correlation between the effort to retain sales of luxury boats in state, to that of laying off teachers. Perhaps if enough tax breaks and incentives are given to businesses then they will be more inclined to keep their business here in Texas, allowing Texas to have the funding to keep teachers from getting laid off?

What prerequisites are you trying to get for the station?

Perhaps a 200 yard buffer from the nearest neighborhood?

Not sure. Just throwing out ideas. It seems that the one common complaint from everyone when talking about Midtown is that bus station.

Overly zealous cops are at it again. Was that guy a danger to anyone? Not until the cops got involved. How many folks on a typical Houston street are carrying guns? Quite a few. We will all be in the most danger when the cops are the only ones with the guns.

So, apparently you didn't even bother to read the original post, in that the man was wanted for assault charges in a triple shooting in San Francisco, had no CHL, and was carrying a firearm in a bus station?