mollusk

They also cheap taken care of their planes.  Customer safety is the main issue which they do not care.   

Huh?  They've been flying for over 40 years with one, count 'em, one fatality, and that was someone on the ground in the Midway runway overrun accident nearly a decade ago, that occurred in conditions on the edge of calling for diversion.

I will grant that Southwest does not offer first class seating to Melbourne, Australia (well, actually, none at all..), nor do they fly 787s or A380s.

Jacquie Baly on Fox 26, said she thinks Abbott wins Harris County.

Do we really expect an R to say anything else?

There's also a Panera Bread in the Park Shops.   So Subdude, you're covered. 

IIRC, the Houston premier of The Exorcist was at the Village, December, 1973.

Yep.  

Smoking was still allowed in theaters at the time (and airplanes, and elevators, and often the automobiles of non smokers).  Every time something particularly eeky happened, the light level would go up from all the lighters going off together.

I think you mean El Meson.  It's still there, and still good.

Not to pick nits, but El Meson is Cuban.  It is good.

The old building clear out will be quicker than Foley's/Macy's.  It's a smaller pile to begin with, and less dense.  Foley's/Macy's was built like the proverbial brick... privy.

One of the homeowners that showed up to the meeting said he "wouldn't like it but might have to file a lawsuit because his property is already next to a rail line and doesn't want a train running by every 30 minutes"

As Lt. Worf would say, "he will fail."

I understand how it could cut in half by the use of the Utility line, though if no more property is taken how much claim do they have (not sure exactly how the property works with the utility line ie do the land owners just lease the use or is that actually owned by the utility operator)?  This concern was particularly brought up by multilpile people concerning the BANSF line, thus my confusion.

It's about access.  

From a farmer or rancher's standpoint, a power line or gas line ROW might as well be invisible.  A regular railroad track will likely be in the way, since they're generally fenced, but they also have at grade crossings for minor roads and driveways, often protected only by an unlit crossbuck.  That, and most of them have been in place for upwards of 100 years.  However, the high speed rail ROW needs to be isolated for safety reasons, and that means no more grade crossings thrown about with abandon.  The fear is that it's going to be in effect the Great Wall of China East Texas, even though (as others point out) there are accommodations that can be and are made.  But even with accommodations, there's going to be what the law calls a "taking." Those whose property rights are taken (including the right of access) should be and are compensated.

Similar arguments get made whenever a highway is built from scratch or rerouted.

Responding to the question about how the HSR cuts off access when it's in an existing ROW - 

The infrastructure in utility rights of way is up in the air and/or underground, unless it's a canal.  At most, you might have to go through a couple gates to cross it - and many utility ROWs aren't even separately fenced out in the boonies.  A high speed rail line will have to be isolated from the adjacent property so that livestock doesn't come wandering onto it; my understanding is that there aren't even at grade crossings in the high speed area for safety reasons.

Ahhh, Neartown.  Another one of those marketing names that never caught on, like Jetero airport (IAH) or The Magic Circle.  With any amount of luck, "EaDo" will join them in the dustbin of obscurity.

Why trenched? I would think elevating the lines into downtown would be cheaper, faster to construct, and easier to operate. Could even build over existing tracks or another right of way.

Elevated trains can be a tad noisy.

I think the Chronic is a lil late as usual. 609's website and that video have been out for a few months.

They're still trying to sort out what to use as their new slogan.  It's down to:

"Yesterday's news... tomorrow!"

or

"If it's news, it's news to us!"

M.e.h.  - I still miss El Jaliciense (aka Jollyscience).  Tiempo 1308 never was divey enough for me.

Oh, and they painted over the grafitti skull lady on the wall by Frank's/El Big Bad.

Awwww, fiddlesticks... 

- It looks like they have valet parking set up in the International Tower lot/block, I would presume for the displaced JPM/Chase folks since their garage took some damage from the demo of Houston Club.

That garage, for The Privileged Few With The Amazing Undying Parking Deal, is valet only (as was the Houston Club parking).  IIRC the remaining side of the building only has an elevator between the ground floor and the tunnel - Heaven forfend that TPFWTAUPD actually be required to use (gasp!!!) stairs.

During drive times it's amusing to watch the golf carts with car porters going so smoothly up and down the outside ramps - it almost looks like some sort of motorized display from the old Foley's Christmas time windows.

Ah, BFS, we're not far off from one another.  I was talking about bonding for infrastructure.  I fully agree that routine maintenance and overhead need to be funded from farebox revenues or (perhaps) an operating subsidy - floating a bond for ongoing operations is like taking out a home equity loan to pay the grocery bill.

Don't get me wrong - Northwest Mall is a realistic proposal and can even be the ground zero for a major transit hub, linking park and ride, light rail, commuter rail for the whole northwest quadrant (eventually), and I dunno, flying cars or whatever.

The SP UP main line is double tracked from at least where it joins the 290 ROW all the way in.  I'm not a surveyor, and I don't play one on TV, but for much of the way through there it looks like there's room for at least one more track (if not two) without taking out much in the way of buildings - a lot of it is adjacent to small surface streets, and much that isn't is bordered by light industrial that's already on its way out.  I'm not sure that the cost delta is as big as you fear.

I'd love to see the whole UP mainline shootin' match trenched, too, but I don't foresee that happening.  BTW, the other underpass is Houston Avenue.

But, METRO still needs to bring in profit to pay for these expenses and to build future lines. We can't always rely on bonds to build our infrastructure.

Can't say that I fully agree.  Trying to pay for infrastructure out of cash flow (and doing nothing to allow that cash flow to even keep up with inflation) is one of the reasons why our roads are in such awful shape, and why we're getting hit with different scams such as private toll roads (an idea that went out of favor about the same time Rutherford B. Hayes left office, and only lately resurrected with less than stellar results).

Bonds are how large infrastructure projects are typically funded.  As a concept it's pretty close to taking out a mortgage to buy a house, and is one of those things that allows investment to be considered separately from just spending.

Subsidizing projects like METRO isn't fundamentally different than the subsidies for other forms of transportation that occur by governments building roads, bridges, airports, and seaports.  

I was over there somewhere thought it was Walnut Creek, but evidently not, trying to get back to SFO and ended up having to get a cab either 30 minutes to the nearest BART station to then route back through the city or an stay in the cab an hour to SFO. That was expensive.  Some places in the bay area don't work well with their mass transit options, by design I would imagine.

True enough for visitors - however, the suburban BART stations generally have parking garages for the local population, and pick up/drop off lanes.

I'll agree that Northwest Mall makes tons more sense than the south Dallas locations put out as alternatives for up there.  It could even work as an interchange terminal, if Amtrak and METRO would play nicely.  And yes, it would be less of a nuisance to get from there to downtown and the Galleria area even by cab than it is getting to any business centers from Love or Hobby.

However, the incremental ROW into downtown from there isn't that difficult - the SP (now UP) tracks go directly there, as does the old MKT ROW that is now a bicycle trail once you wye off at the now only partially used Eureka Yard.  

I'm just saying don't write off either option out of hand  - both deserve a good, hard look.

AT&T Park in San Francisco has massive surface lot parking. 

Yeah, right - a whole 4,000 spaces.  And regardless of whether it's Official Giants Parking or other options, it costs the freakin' earth.

In comparison, NRG park has 26,000+ on site.  I don't think I've seen anything much higher than $20 or so at MMP, even back when the Lastros weren't awful. 

But Bubba and Sally Farhome are different critters here than in the Bay Area.  I've had Suburbans full of suburbanites gape at me as if I'd turned green and sprouted antennae as I've pulled into an open street spot and gotten out of my car, while they waited in line to pay to park in an adjacent lot.  In contrast, AT&T is super easy to get to via BART and/or MUNI - and trust me, the MUNI Metro and BART were packed for the games I've gone to there.  Oh, and BART does go to Walnut Creek, and makes it into the city in about 35 minutes.  Perhaps you could match that time driving to a weekend game, but likely not.  First you get the joy that is the Caldecott Tunnel, then the ever exciting MacArthur Maze, and then this:

The Battelstein's building has a chunk of tunnel running under it already, hooking up with the Marriott on one end and the Walker @ Main Garage on the other.  IDK how accessible it is from inside its host building, though it's prolly nothing that can't be fixed with the help of our friend Mr. Jackhammer.  

As someone who's followed a similar path, I've long held that the litmus test for like-minded souls is whether one views "career" as a verb as opposed to a noun. 

Who sez it can't be both? 

There's a staircase and IIRC a short run elevator in what used to be the entry hall facing Capitol, now probably not far inside where the temporary CMU wall is.  I suspect it's still open so that the Privileged Ones at Chase can still enter the garage without having to muck about with the plebes on the street.

I wonder if, when the parking structure opens ahead of the rest of the building being built, the tunnel system connections to Pennzoil and Esperson (and the southern tunnel to 712 Main) will also then be resurrected.  Judging by the plans they have out there, I don't  see why not.

It looks like they're just going to leave the dangly bits on the roof of the remaining structure until it comes down - or maybe reposition them out of the way once a tower crane's in place.

 A discreet street appearance does fit with the pun in the name.