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mollusk

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Everything posted by mollusk

  1. mollusk
    I'm perfectly happy to shoot that particular messenger. Still, when the West Loop was rebuilt they kept the same capacity and it didn't kill us.
  2. mollusk
    So, friendly architect - why is stucco so danged popular? It's difficult to apply correctly on modern structures, it's hard to maintain, shadow lines from imperfectly done repairs look terrible even from six floors down, and cracks can be a highway for water infiltration.
  3. mollusk
    Barbary Coast... Bonaparte's Retreat... It's a very good thing that there are no photos of skinny, long haired me in my disco era finery pounding down tequila sunrises at those places. 🕺
  4. mollusk
    Having a rail line on the other side of the Southwest Freeway from the middle of Greenway Plaza west (a design accommodation that was made ages ago) won't affect access to Afton Oaks in any realistic way, shape, or form. Judging by how full the park and ride buses are here, as is the commuter rail elsewhere, it's likely that if a rail alternative were there people in Katy, The Woodlands, etc., etc. would use it.
  5. mollusk
    Not that that ever happens...
  6. mollusk
    Induced demand is a thing, and it affects more than just the part of a given highway that was expanded. Everyone points to how the Katy is now even more sclerotic outside the loop than it was before; what gets overlooked is that portions inside the loop that were previously generally free flowing except for at the height of rush hour are now a hot mess for most of the day. Sure, one lane of highway takes up about the same amount of space as one track - but it has nowhere near the carrying capacity, nor anywhere near the bang for the buck in energy consumption. For the minimum of $7 billion that the I45 expansion is projected to cost, you could build more than 50 miles of light rail (using the Green/Purple lines as a benchmark); and 30+ miles of commuter heavy rail (using BART's San Jose extension as the benchmark).
  7. mollusk
  8. mollusk
    "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." - Yogi Berra
  9. mollusk
    I do so enjoy my neutrality in what used to be known as the Southwest Conference.
  10. mollusk
    Everyone needs a little lebensraum every now and then.
  11. mollusk
    Between flooding issues with the old building, not to mention it just being generally pretty grim (even when Brutalist was fashionable), this is a positive development.
  12. mollusk
    Which you could put in this:
  13. mollusk
    That's looking better. Originally the wall signage (at least what could be seen on the passage from Pennzoil to Esperson) was stick on cutouts. Some of it didn't even make it to the first day of the soft opening.
  14. mollusk
    I'm glad we've got Understory to fall back on. According to their web site, they'll be back open during normal hours tomorrow.
  15. mollusk
    For those unfamiliar with H-GAC, it "is the regional organization through which local governments consider issues and cooperate in solving area wide problems." It covers thirteen counties. It is the home of the Transportation Policy Council; one of its programs for the last 25 years is Commute Solutions; another is the mobility studies BeerNut linked to and discussed above. So one more time: Most (if not all) major US metro areas have more than one transit agency. Sometimes they even overlap (as BART does with Muni / AC Transit / VTA / Caltrain / the ferries / etc., etc.), or CTA and Metra in Chicagoland, MTA, PATH, et al in NYC, etc., etc. And we already have a regional authority to coordinate transit policy, so blowing up Metro serves no purpose whatsoever.
  16. mollusk
    That is not a reason to blow up Metro. For one thing, there were practically no suburbs outside of Harris County when Metro was formed, and those that were there were much smaller. Like most major US metropolitan areas there is more than one transit agency in greater Houston - of varying quality of course, as happens when you have more than one of just about anything. In reality, Brazos Valley Transit (which actually extends as far as Nacogdoches) and Woodlands Express coordinate with Metro pretty decently. To the west and northwest Metro extends to Katy and dang near Prairie View. The parts of Galveston County that are within commuting distance to Houston are also pretty close to the Clear Lake Park & Ride. As the political center of gravity moves in Fort Bend and Brazoria their transit options will likely improve as well.
  17. mollusk
    Does anyone know if they've had the opportunity to vote on it again? The original no vote was 40 years ago... a thing or two might have changed since then.
  18. mollusk
    Because a complete transit system that is fully self supporting and fully integrated with the surrounding infrastructure has not suddenly burst forth from a lotus blossom. Also, Chicago > Houston.
  19. mollusk
    We were in Baton Rouge, and barely got a sprinkle... not that we weren't scared spitless about the prospect of getting hit. We regained our senses and moved back here two weeks later.
  20. mollusk
    BRT is a bus. To be blunt, that's what the "B" stands for. The main distinctions are a dedicated lane, branding, and sometimes priority at traffic lights. Judging by the renderings, we'll also probably have snazzy wheel spats and a different paint job to make it easier to pretend it's rail. It would be nice if they were electric (quieter, and one less thing to do to upgrade to rail), but that horse is out of the barn already.
  21. mollusk
    Heyyyyyy... everyone knows that the DH is a Commie plot. * *(loyal Astros fan since they were the Colt 45s, who still thinks $elig should have put his daughter's Brewers in the AL if he really wanted to "balance" things)
  22. mollusk
    Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good. BRT can be upgraded to rail fairly easily.
  23. mollusk
    Tenure is what gives academics the freedom to rock the boat. If you've got someone who's really bad, or likes to grope, or some such, they can still be fired for cause, tenure or none. Adjuncts have their place - such as people who have day jobs teaching a class at a professional school in their discipline. I learned a lot from such adjuncts. But filling the faculty with them at the cost of tenure to "hold down costs" is just short sighted.
  24. mollusk
    Maybe rebuild the Continental Astroneedle... that'll get two bygone names with one stroke.
  25. mollusk
    To clarify, what got filed was a suit asking to foreclose the mechanic's lien. The filing looks very routine. These projects are frequently structured using single purpose entities. What often happens when they go underwater is that the single purpose entity files for bankruptcy.
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