JasonDFW

Most of the real tropical species were hit very hard by the December 5th freeze, so I don't see that much extra damage on this event. During the mid 20s of the December event, the plants and palms especially were still really in growth mode which is why that freeze was so hard on them. By now they've slowed down and hardened off a bit. I saw burned Royals, Majesty, Foxtails, Kings, and fishtails all over Houston after the December event. All of those palms should expect 100% defoliation unless you're real close to Galveston. I imagine a lot of the Royals for instance will die outright after this, but obviously you're pushing the limits with that stuff. In the more subtropical species, I doubt any Canary Island or True Date Palms will die from this event, even up to say the Woodlands. I wouldn't be surprised by some light burn on those though. They're slow to recover and have large canopies so this may be an eye sore for a bit. The northwestern suburbs will lose some Queens no doubt, but inside the loop I bet you'll get only light damage. Mexican Fan palms north of 59 will get some burn. California fan palms will be entirely unaffected. Hybrids will have intermediate damage. Texas or Florida Sabals will both sail through this event unaffected. There are some beautiful Bismarckias around town that are going to get a bit fried, but established ones should survive at least from Houston proper south. Pindos, Mediterranean Fan Palms, and Brahea Armatas should be fine. I'd try to protect bougainvillea anywhere around town with at least a blanket or frost cloth. North of town I'd put a blanket over Sagos too, otherwise it may be an ugly brown until late spring. Jason

The most commonly accepted USDA record length is 30 years. By those measures: Houston Intercontinental is a borderline 9a/9b Houston Hobby is a solid 9b Galveston is a 10a San Antonio is a 9a Conroe, College Station, and Dallas are 8b The funny thing, is temps during this event are forecast to be a mere 4 or 5 degrees below "normal" winter lows. The reason it seems so cold is the climatological norms are biased by the terrible 1980s. And there are thousands of micro-climates all over greater Houston. If you've got a canopy of pines over your yard for instance, the reduced radiational cooling on clear night will keep tender plants from frying nearly as fast. Too many more examples to note. The differences you see between the coastal areas of Cali and the valleys is just a plain climate change, not a micro-climate... not that they don't have gobs of them. Jason

The fountain jets were there before Victory Plaza was there. I really think they no longer serve a purpose. Jason

There was an estimate released this week by "Business First" that showed Houston was just a few thousand away from Philly as of this week and I would presume days away from passing them up. This was their estimate for this week:

I've tried 3 of the Dallas area restaurants over the past few years and they seem about the same as what I grew up with in CA. It's weird to think that they have so much overlap with Hardees now because when I came to Texas in the 90s Hardees was still the place you got burgers for around a quarter and they tasted like it too. I guess the Carl's Jr. parents made them use better meat after the purchase. Jason

It's funny you say that. I think there was a poll on here a while ago about whether people from Houston considered themselves Texans or Houstonians and I was surprised how many people didn't say Texans. Many times I've been asked from Europeans why everyone says they're from "Dallas Texas" instead of just Dallas. I guess there just is a huge Texas pride thing that rubs off on even non-natives. From the persepctive of U.S. citizens outside of Texas, I think they would definitely disagree about a desire to reject Texas, in fact they would state the opposite to the point of being excessive about it. Jason

I have a rich (top ~1.5%) friend in Houston that takes the bus. He enjoys being able to concentrate on something other than driving. He's in the oil business too, he's not trying to save the earth or anything. Jason

So, I have a stupid question. You pay for every ride? So there isn't anything like a day pass for rail? I'm asking because I'm coming down to the area for a wedding in February. Jason

I think Dallas was a better choice than Houston or Galveston for the exact opposite reason you imply. The ad is playing in the dead of winter and your target market is all of these people in the landlocked cities (this is a getaway vacation) that could more easily relate to Dallas. Also, in Dallas you need to fly somewhere to take a cruise, this promotion helped market Galveston as a place to go instead of the longer flight to say Florida. I bet there are a lot more people in the DFW metro that didn't realize Galveston was an option than in the Houston metro. To answer the previous poster's question, there was a festival downtown put on by Carnival with live music and free food that attracted all those people. jason P.S. For whatever reason the above link didn't work right for me but this one does:

The trachycarpus fortunei (aka Chinese Windmill Palm Tree) in your first photo will actually enjoy this snow much more than the typical summer heat you find in Texas. It's native to areas that get decent snow falls. Some subtropical plants may defoliate, but this snow will not be as hard on many plants as a 35/36F frost would be, because the temps on the leaves will go down into the 20s in that sort of event. Most years experience a freeze in Houston (all years in the north 'burbs) so the same plants that brown out then would be the culprits after this event. Jason

I've seen it done two ways on 2000' towers in the US. Helicopter and lower it down piece by piece (the latter is more common). When you lower it down piece by piece there are cables dedicated to holding it away from the tower. Jason

When you put 100kw-hr or so into the pool it is nice and toasty! Jason

It's funny how this information was released a week ago (see the first post) and it takes a week for somebody to do the 4th grade math to put out the metro numbers... then today there are thousands of articles across the nation with the news all simultaneously. Never understood why the data wasn't all released at the same time. Jason

Houston is about 200k behind Philly, but could catch them before the 2010 census and possibly break 6million just a bit after that. Jason

Atlanta grew by 151k. Of course, they seem to have the same effect as the Texas counties had, which was that the population estimates were lowered. So, that growth was only 140k over last year if you use last years estimates. Are you just repeating the Philly stuff off your site or did you look it up? Philly had been performing very well, for Houston to pass them up would have been insane growth in Houston or a real mess in Philly. EDIT Edit, I wasn't as mixed up as I thought. Philly is about 200k ahead of Houston but Houston is growing far faster. Jason

My data came from the Census. I haven't seen their PDF, but from their Excel spreadsheet I'm going to go out on a limb that you missed the fact that I was referring to the 2006 estimates. If that is true, the unfortunate part is to make that error you'd have to miss the whole point of the post which was that all the 2006 estimates seemed to have change between this year and last year (which couldn't happen to the estimate that didn't exist until this week). Jason

That's weird, the census bureau released all this info last year and has since (in the just released data) lowered it's estimates for many (all?) of the Houston metro counties for last year. I wonder if that sort of updating is normal... as you usually hear places only fighting the census for updates only when the figures are believed to be too low. If you took last year's figures the growth would have only been in the 90k range, which seems too low of course. Hmm, I just looked and they did the same thing for DFW. Very weird. They now say 162k growth this last year but if you take last years 2006 estimates the growth would be only 140k. Anybody know why/how they do this? Should we expect this year's population figures to all be lowered next year? Here's a sample of the type of change, which seems universal among all counties not just Harris: 2008 estimate of July 1st 2006 population of Harris County = 3,876,306 2007 estimate of July 1st 2006 population of Harris County = 3,886,207 Jason Edit - Added bold for clarity

I think you made a wise decision removing your original text/comment here. It was one of those posts that while looked witty at first glance, but falls apart quickly when you realize if it had substance it would have gone 180

I think we'll be seeing the cranes for the museum on time, and I would be kind of surprised if we didn't see an announcement for Two Victory Tower once One victory is complete. (no claims inside information on that, just opinion) But as far as residential cranes, I doubt any will show up, especially with the stuff in the works a few blocks to the north closer to the Azure. I guess at this point there isn't much space left except for surface lots. Frankly, just to the north is a more appealing place to live, and I'd let VP attempt to fill up with restaurants etc.. from demand from people at places like One Victory Tower instead of residents. Jason

Ice storm? I suppose I could see how you'd make this mistake given the media likes to hype things and they don't bother elaborating on the urban Dallas heat island because you likely know to factor it in if you live here. In any case, here's the 5:55pm report from WFAA, at which time the precip is gone: 5:55p D-FW has officially picked up one inch of snow. In Cooke County, there has been seven to nine inches of snow. The city of Dallas didn't see a flake. It's just been rain. I doubt you'll see that in the news. My wife enjoyed spending the afternoon with our son because of rain. Off topic... For what it's worth my wife and I counted 19 cranes not long ago along that stretch but that included the pile in the arts district and just to the southwest of the House near the courthouse. It appears the cranes are now migrating to uptown more than Victory. I'm sure it's more than a half mile, at 60mph you go that far in a blink. Jason P.S. Dallasscaper. I believe there are only 12 cranes in that shot, what you're seeing is Justin had a stitching error. I think there's another right next to the half-hidden one on the right though, but I haven't taken pics in a while to compare.

I see now that not only is the Victory thread not locked, but the Victory Tower thread is unlocked. Surely it was [unlocked] for some peachy news right? Nope, I guess not. The news was actually useful though, not just bickering. Jason edit: added word for Trae's clarity, also see my post above that says "The Victory Tower thread is locked."

You know it is funny. I've found among non-forumers the vast majority consider Victory part of downtown. I was watching part of the white rock marathon with friends and during the live coverage they referred to Victory Park as downtown perhaps 50 times during the ~2 hours of coverage. During toy or blood drives, you'll constantly hear it referred to as downtown as well. jason P.S. Sorry for 3 straight posts, usually the forum bundles them together for me.

I was just wondering if you traveled I30 westbound to see if that struck you as a more modern freeway or one that was better maintained. I guess I don't think about these things enough to even look at your photo and tell what is not well maintained. I can think of one thing further south on 35, TXDOT had left those stupid high mast poles all along the highway for years as I recall and they may still be there, I can't recall. Jason

The Victory thread is not locked, it is on page 2. The Victory Tower thread is locked. Seems logical to me, what purpose would there be to leave it open? Seems to me if you haven't gotten your point in yet you're just a monday morning quarterback. Redscare: I think you end up getting called out like that just because your handle and debating skills are more memorable than some others. All in all you're pretty fair on the any issue, but some people can't see past an occasional devil's advocate viewpoint. Had the person said Mister X, I'd have to agree with him, but even he is rational from time to time. Jason

I guess by this you mean there have been no building starts within the past year, because there are two buildings going up right now (although one may have just topped out). I personally have never believed that it would be the residents of VP that would support the retail there, but residents of uptown and elsewhere. Jason Lack of foresight in implementation. So if you were at Victory Park you were very near I30 westbound. 60s? 70s? 80s? Jason