txn4art

Take the train to Austria. Plan to spend several days in Vienna.

Did anyone on this forum attend the meeting on August 5th? I wasn't able to be there.

Is this actually in the works or just a proposal?

The area around Meyerland Plaza is full of million dollar mansions so I would say it's well beyond redeveloped. This shopping center is the only thing lagging in this area.

Although the previous renovation job on Meyerland Plaza is outmoded, I don't think many of the stores there are suffering for lack of customers. Even people who live in million dollar mansions shop at places like Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, SteinMart, etc. Anyone who wants upper-end merchandise will find plenty of options just a short drive away in the Galleria, Highland Village and adjacent shopping districts.

Is this actually planned?

Wow, I can already tell you this is going to get a huge amount of backlash from that community. Looks like a project to divide neighborhoods even more. The only thing that makes sense is the York underpass. I know this isn't economically feasible but if they want to reduce train noise, help emergency vehicles, etc., then they should just bury the railroad. That way they could connect more of the area together.

It will be interesting to hear responses from people who actually live in neighborhoods adjacent to the proposed quiet zone. Apparently you do not.

Greater Eastwood's first quiet zone was implemented a couple of years ago and, according to residents, seems to work pretty well. There were a few protests about streets being closed, but access for emergency vehicles hasn't been a problem.

William Marsh Rice owned the land, willed it to Rice University. Sears has a 50 year lease. 

Sears has been there more than 50 years. When was the lease renewed?

Old Montrose is dying. All the fourplexes and tiny apartment complexes are being replaced with $800K townhomes. Spaces that used to be Blockbuster Video and a pawn shop are now both Mattress Firms.

True, but one still has interesting experiences at Disco Kroger, among other places in the area.

I shop there weekly, usually during the day. The clientele varies -- sometimes ordinary in appearance and behavior, sometimes not. These are incidents I observed during recent months:

• A middle-aged woman stopped in the cookie aisle, opened a package and stuffed her mouth full of sandwich cookies until her cheeks bulged out. She then carefully rolled up the package with the remaining cookies and hid it behind other items on the shelf. She looked at me and continued her shopping.

• A couple of 20-something men felt compelled to stop their cart and kiss lovingly in the middle of every aisle. They happened to be ahead of me at checkout and entered the debit card pin number with their hands clasped It took three tries with all those fingers getting in the way.

• While waiting in line at checkout, the guy ahead of me complained to the cashier (also male) that his feet still hurt from the heels he wore for a performance two days prior. The cashier agreed that heels were torture but necessary. I chimed in and suggested several things to make their shoes more comfortable. The guys hadn't thought of them and appreciated the information.

Yogurt is in two places at Disco Kroger. Premium Greek and organic yogurt is on the wall in the produce department; all other yogurt is in the dairy case between fruit juice and eggs..

If HEB can build two-story grocery stores over parking amongst housing in San Antonio and they are proposing the same along Bissonnett, surely one would think they would consider the same for Downtown.

Or if not Downtown, Eado.

Mr. Scott McClelland, if you build it, we WILL come...from miles around! My East End neighbors and I  don't like selection or quality at the Gulfgate store or the one on OST@Scott and are tired of the long trek to the one on W. Alabama.

Dare we hope that a grocery store (HEB or Kroger) is included in the retail mix?

I'm delighted to see a conservation center is part of the plan. MFAH once owned a handsome Carl Milles fountain that suffered internal damage due to corrosion and was no longer on view. According to a former museum staffer, "no one could be found to repair it. so they got rid of it". I've always wondered if this is true, or if it still languishes in a dusty storeroom corner somewhere.

The OP has posted the same questions on the Houston city data forum. If she has an aunt here, she and her child might plan on visiting Houston for a week or so to see what the city has to offer.

When I was teaching in HISD, a colleague told me that she once attended a social event event in a Riverside home and was astounded to see that it had an actual escalator installed between the first and second stories. She said wasn't the add-on chair type, but a moving stairway similar to those in commercial buildings. It sounds fanciful, but perhaps others have heard of this.

Now that Trevino has resigned, will his wife follow suit ?

He visited our National Night Out gathering and mentioned that his wife had retired.

That's a reasonable definition.  The key to that is what one considers "reasonable" for walking.  I have a high tolerance for walking so 20 to 30 minutes one way is reasonable to me.  I know people, though, who balk at the idea of walking from the far end of a parking lot (where there are lots of spaces) to a store and will circle around until they find something as close as possible so they don't have to walk far.

 

Able-bodied young males on this forum may laugh, but there are at least a couple of legitimate reasons people may circle around a parking lot to find a space close to the entrance of a business:

1.   They're alone and don't feel safe parking in a more distant location, especially if they'll return to the car with purchases or have small children in tow. If you doubt the truth of this, just ask a woman who has been the victim of a parking lot purse snatcher!

2.   They don't qualify for a handicap tag, but can't walk long distances due to a physical ailment or injury. 

As soon as the two delayed light rail lines are up and running and construction is underway on the Harrisburg overpass, Houston needs to do a clean sweep of all current decision makers at Metro.

L.A. also has a bustling farmers market that I keep reading about in Bon Appetit, of which there are several ethnic and very good eateries.

It always kind of bothered me that Houston didn't seem to have a real permanent farmer's market near the central city at all. Should that be the case, that could put affordable produce and other staples at downtown's reach.

Ah, but there actually was a real farmer's market near downtown Houston for many years. I don't know the street it was on, but it was demolished during the post-World War II building boom, probably in the early 1950's. When I was a child, my mother shopped there frequently.

As I recall, the place consisted of a couple of long concrete sheds with open stalls underneath where produce was displayed. Some stalls were wholesale only and catered to restaurants and small neighborhood grocers. Behind the sheds was an open area where trucks would park and unload produce from farms fairly close to Houston. Back then, food produced farther away was shipped across the country by rail in either regular or refrigerated freight cars.

Live poultry in wire cages was available, too. During Thanksgiving week and again during Christmas week, my mother would carefully select and buy a large tom turkey. It would then be taken home where it was quickly beheaded, dressed and refrigerated until time to prepare the holiday feast. As a small child, I was fascinated and learned much by observing. Years later, I was able to recall what to do when faced with live poultry and an empty cooking pot.

FMC does the "Big Ben" tune every hour

Wow...that must be a distraction during Sunday services, weddings, funerals, etc.!

I always thought that Westminster chime came from a church in downtown?

It's been decades since I've spent any time out-of-doors in downtown Houston and the sound of the chimes seem to float over high over the city. Back then, the only churches that were truly considered as being "downtown" were Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, Christ Church Cathedral, First Methodist Church and Annunciation Catholic Church. For a variety of reasons, church bells usually don't sound every hour.

Once upon a time, years ago, there was a small law firm on one of the way upper floors.  IDK who is there now.  

 

As for the speakers, IIRC they once played some simulated carillon music on the hour.  I think I even heard it recently, for the first time in forever.

I'm amazed that it still exists! If memory serves correctly, there was the famous Westminster chime on the hour, followed by a repeated bell note striking the hour.

As far as telephone poles in the middle of the sidewalks, that happen to be along Metros new rail lines when you only have so much right of way you are sometimes forced to deal with it the best way you can. Unfortunately Metros budget to build these rail lines didn't include putting all power lines underground. That would have been cost prohibitive.

You should look to the city  for answers to why so many sidewalks are blocked by power poles, fire hydrants, intersection stop light control boxes, and many other objects, or why they are so narrow two people can't pass one another on the same sidewalk. Houston never put any thought into the pedestrian and unfortunately not until recently with the new street design and consideration  of the public realm became the new mantra in the urbanism of Houston.

Most of the blocked sidewalks in question are not ADA-compliant. Both COH and Metro should have addressed this during the planning period.

Let us count the screw ups

..The over/under pass mess on the East line

...The rail car delivery mess

...multiple design flaws that were not found till well in the project

Add to this list: New, unwalkable sidewalks with utility poles in the middle of them.

UtterluUrban, I don't know where you're located, but have you actually talked with residents of Eado, the near East End or downtown about where they buy groceries? Many folks don't like the Randall's on Louisiana (high prices, limited selection) or the Fiesta on San Jacinto (homeless hangout, scary at night, vehicle vandalism). A good location for a major grocery store to serve both urban apartment dwellers and all the east side neighborhoods would be south of the BBVA stadium but within a block or so of the Green Line. Surely there are still a few underused parcels of land left around there.

UtterlyUrban, your questions require more extensive answers than I have time for on this forum.They would include hard facts and personal observations on urban design, anthropology, Houston history, food preparation and local customs.