mollusk

I have seen those renderings... and there is no need to make the streets dark and gloomy.  HC as built has lots of (cheerful, airy) gerbil tubes but only a couple ('70s era) caves.*  Another example is the ring connecting the Enron Chevron complex over Smith Street at Bell/Ruthven.

* as if we really need anything more to mock the '70s...

I just tried Southwest for December 10 -12.  It was all within a buck or two regardless of where the round trip started, though it was a bit cheaper in/out of Oakland.  

I fly between Houston and the Bay Area with some regularity.  Southwest and Continental used to be pretty much in lockstep on stated fares, with Continental getting more expensive once various fees were added in.  United never seems to match Southwest, not that it really matters that much - I'd much rather use Hobby anyway since it's a lot more convenient for me here.  On the other end, travel time on BART from SFO or OAK to the Financial District is pretty much a wash, and if you're going anywhere not on the peninsula OAK pulls ahead.

As a side note, not only does United have a fortress at IAH, it has nearly as big a chokehold on SFO. 

Annnd... the one access they have also has a very steep driveway ramp, which means that some of us have to come in slowly and at an angle.

It will be interesting to see if DP maintains the tradition of the blocker bill.  The first Senate bill put on the calendar is usually something along the lines of calling for erecting a giant limestone mockingbird statue at all highway rest areas or some similar nonsense that never actually gets taken up.  Under Texas Senate rules as I've understood them, it then takes a 2/3 majority to suspend the rule and allow another particular item to be taken up "out of order."  It has quietly drowned soooo many bad ideas over the years.

Dunno - for me, headphones always seem to work better than spirits at distancing myself from adjacent pax I'd like to ignore... and if they are imbibing in spirits it often makes them get worse...    

It's going to be interesting to see all these guys who actually held office joining the ranks of the perennial losers like Grif Griffin or Harold Stassen.

I'm not as familiar with San Antonio politics, but I can certainly see how if Sen. Van de Putte was getting frustrated with forcing the Dew to acknowledge her, she would have no interest whatsoever in what is likely to be the Dan Patrick Clown Car Show.  Likewise, graduating from minority party state rep to a larger constituency and more responsibility would be a step up, and a natural way to broaden one's base.

Doesn't Bridgeview Crossing sound like a Cypress area neighborhood?

Or perhaps a n overly dramatic soap opera serial drama on the Burning Bed Channel Lifetime.

Maybe I'm wrong, but if you've got a stack of dedicated, "use it or lose it" cash and this is the best place to spend it within the time constraints... why not?

Yeah, I saw that.  No big surprise that he's taking another shot at it, even though running against Parker last year was a fool's errand.  Who knows - maybe he'll get a bit more traction this time. 

pfffft... such low ambitions, borne out by the absence of Audis.  An A class Mercedes, a Smart, and assorted Chrysler products just don't cut it.

HOK is the architect and engineer of record on this project...  

HOK used to be really big in the stadium business, until they spun that group off.

'Twas the Opry House.  I lived around the corner from it during my student days in the late '70s - we considered it to be quite the neighborhood amenity (older, closer neighbors perhaps not so much).

Good to know they built sidewalks.  The only ones I remember from when I was a kid were right around Memorial Jr. High.

Nothing really against rice pudding, Tige... I've been known to have some myself.  It's just not in the same full flavored category as a nice Italian cream cake or a fresh peach pie or perhaps some Napoleons.

I am dating myself, but Heaven > South Beach!

I am dating myself, but I was trying to remember WTF it was called before South Beach... 

A friend once lived in the house on Grant with the balcony overlooking Pacific - now THAT was a show.

Edit:  To be clear, we were not the show; instead, it was laid out before us.  On the balcony, we were pretty much invisible to those below.

yep so much history in that parking lot! We truly lost something wonderful...

I have no doubt that there was plenty of personal history made in South Beach's parking lot Back In The Day...

One other thing that both cuts into the walkability and mitigates against any grade separation of Post Oak and/or Westheimer is the sheer number of driveways.  IMHO, an elevated rail with shaded High Line style pedestrian promenades makes a lot of sense... shoot, they could even go above the surface parking lots rather than in the street ROW.  The idea isn't all that original - it's what Texas Eastern had in mind for Houston Center 40 years ago.

Yes, there were a lot of people working in that building while the reconstruction was going on.  The amazing thing is that, at least whenever I was in there, there was less disruption due to construction mayhem than I've experienced during the buildout of adjacent office suites at work.

It's also interesting that the linked document is from a time before the proposals were submitted, but it had a planned substantial completion date of May 2014.  I've seen a lot more schedule slippage on private projects that weren't as big.

Perhaps there's a reason why it's an either - or, but it seems like using the BNSF routing until it crosses the utility ROW in Grimes County could also be an option.

Allright... slowly put the talking points down and back away...

I'm not going to address cost because I have no idea.  However, I'm pretty sure that any and all change orders took longer than they would on a similarly sized (not that big) private project precisely because they had to go through a few layers of review, specifically to make sure money wasn't wasted.

Ideologues, kindly choose one meme or the other.

Doesn't look like they've got room for a pink hotel, but I'll bet a boutique and a swingin' hot spot are in the plans - though in truth, Camp Strake was hardly Paradise.

(For those who didn't catch the reference)

To our knowledge, who are the interests that are behind Culberson's staunch opposition to this line?

From the Center for Responsive Politics:

https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cycle=Career&cid=N00009738&type=I

Drilling down a bit, lots of oil and gas, lots of real estate, lots of transportation (i.e., cars and airplanes).  Lots of bidniss donors, practically none on the labor side.  And of course the Koch brothers.

No surprises here.

Red Light districts like Germany and Netherlands

With cameras? 

well, it's not quite as tacky as some of his other projects...

I didn't say the French look was necessarily the best (I'd go for the Dutch look, but that requires a canal. ) 

Oh, we could do canals if we wanted to - just reconfigure those giant toilet cleaner blue retention ponds in the burbs (or clog up the storm sewers).