JasonDFW

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

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

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

Which freeways specifically? They've doubled the HOV network in the past year and that has clearly shown some lack of foresight on some of those highways, but I bet they'll get that cleaned up in time. Hindsight is 20/20. Jason

In the Baylor hospital district in Dallas, all of the parking lots take these $1 vouchers that let you park as long as you want (multiple days in my experience) and they don't expire. Of course, you have to know they exist, but usually if you're there enough to have parking fees add up you'll have read the website or your doctor told you. I'm sure they still get lots of $ at the regular rate though, it's too easy to swipe a credit card. I wouldn't mind them jacking up the rates a bit like the TMC when rail comes in late 2009, hopefully enticing people to use that option. Jason WHOOPS, I see the vouchers are now $2. Still less than a Dart day pass though, which should change IMO.

Good catch, I missed that and that must be the answer. In the 1.5GB of photos I took, the only police presence was directing traffic outside parking lots for the game and the House of Blues, so I suppose it makes sense they were only seeing those people, as they were manning their posts. I didn't bother emailing the DMN when I first read it because most of the reporters there and much of the paper is beyond repair. Jason

I am the one who took those photos and I wonder if the person who wrote the article wasn't even there. The crowd didn't come from the hockey game. The hockey game fans were stuck in their cars on Houston street and the other side streets. The crowd came from downtown, as it was a solid flow sometimes 10 or 20 wide walking through the area between the west end and victory. Also, the House of Blue crowd joined that crowd walking through, but was a small part of the flow. Jason P.S. I forgot to mention a significant part of the downtown crowd walking over was the Missouri and Arkansas fans there for the Cottonbowl the next day, who were staying in the downtown hotels and seemed to selectively take over entire restaurants with their fight songs. Crazy bunch, and easy to spot with their school colors.

Not the weirdest thing I've ever seen, but perhaps the weirdest thing I was able to take a picture of; taken outside of my old apartment in Dallas:

I think that's what he said: "NYC is easily 3 times the size the of either Texas metro" 3 x 6.1Million = 18.3Million so I'd say easily 3x is pretty accurate description. Jason

Willy, I agree with a lot of what you have to say, but I think this is stretching it a bit. Fort Worth's recent population growth is due to the Collin county part 2 to the north, and is little to nothing of what is going to make Fort Worth great (such as the Trinity project). Now, if Fort Worth were doing that with 3 or 4k people per square mile, I might agree with you. As far as raw population alone, if San Jose can pass up San Francisco, Fort Worth could definitely pass Dallas. Jason

That place reminds me a little of Twin Peaks. Do they have those in Houston too? Jason

You have bold tags in the middle of your hyperlink which breaks it: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/09/us/09census.html

I saw this article a while back too on the Milwaukee BJ page. I don't have a subscription so I can't see anything more than anyone else but here's the one's I've run across and perhaps someone can fill in the blanks: Ranked by total: 1) LA metro - 184,156 2) Chicago metro - 122,218 3) San Francisco metro - 111,190 -.37% growth through 2011 ?) DFW metro - 69,710 +62.6% growth through 2011 ?) Atlanta metro - ~64,000 +62.2% growth through 2011 ?) Houston metro - 58,569 +61.6% growth through 2011 ?) Tampa metro - 58,310 +51.3% growth through 2011 Then have a list ranked by % growth, it is a bit more vague so here's all I can find on that: top 5: "Topping the list in predicted millionaire creation is Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix and Orlando." bottom 4: "In minting millionaires, San Francisco's nearest competition is shaping up to be Detroit, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, all four at the bottom of the list of 25 metro areas studied by Claritas. " random quote that you can't quite attach #s to: "Other cities with the largest projected millionaire growth figures included Dallas, Phoenix, Orlando, Fla., Sacramento, Calif., and Houston.

There are 17 cranes in that photo, which for Dallas is quite a bit. I imagine it hasn't looked like that since the 80s, which I missed entirely so it's all new to me. Jason

I'm a big fan of 7-11 after growing up in San Diego about a block from the slurpee machine... I mean 7-11. I went on Saturday and it was the busiest I've ever seen a convenience store. It was hard to walk around inside or outside the store without being in someone's photo. Even some Simpson-like clouds showed up for my visit:

364k as of 1/1/2007. It will be many years before 400k as they have one of the slowest growth rates of suburban metroplex cities. Jason

I read the threads backwards so I thought you were kidding, but I see not. Hopefully Fort Worth can work it to promote its defense industry. Jason

Maybe the thieves who stole all the wiring out of the area's highway masts were just visionaries ahead of their time? Jason