nonenadazilch

11 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

We just need to build a tourism industry. Downtown is drawing people from the suburbs for staycations, Astros games with an overnight stay, etc., but word has not gotten around the state yet. Actually I have met some couples here in Austin who like going to Houston for things; they are not originally from Texas and so haven't been infected with the anti-Houston mentality. We need to keep building up the local draw and then work our way outwards.

The perception of the strong association between Republican politics and the dominant industry in Houston is a bitter pill for younger, conscientious generations to swallow.  Though it's still a powerful economic driver, O&G saddles Houston with an image neither Austin (nor dallas) suffer from.  Conversely, those two towns benefit from the allure that people associate with the tech industry which - for the time being - is virtually absent along the Gulf Coast. 

3 hours ago, Triton said:

 

This article is so frustrating, I don't know where to even begin. Near the bottom of the article, it evens starts listing all the successful spots around town, though not all of them. So, first off, I was with CBRE for 5 years but I am now part of a startup myself as a software engineer. We have a pretty big idea about the rental car business so we've been looking around the city for space.... it's not easy. With that being said, let's start with the worst offender in that article... this paragraph:

 

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. All that economic development she is talking comes when major developments like this occur, not the other way around. Let's start off on WHERE a large portion of the start ups are flourishing in our city right now.... organically without the city's input... It's not the density of Uptown or Montrose, it's the East End. You have a major one like Headquarters in the East End:

 

Secondly, people who work in startups don't care about those things because most of us go to the local gyms and coffee shops WHERE WE LIVE... not where we work.

 

Look, startups are occurring already in Houston whether Ion is built or not. It's occurring naturally. I just went to a major event this weekend and spoke with many people in dozens of startups. Some are coming from local colleges like Univerisity of Houston but others are coming from places like San Francisco where rents are incredibly expensive. The startup I'm in is simply working out a townhouse right now that allows business operations... Now, we have a large car dealership that we own near the Galleria and we're currently renovating the property to make it the central hub and headquarters for Lyft in the Houston area. We may simply build some office space on the lot but eventually, we would like to have a coworking space with other startups.

 

Either way, my point is... It's here. It's happening. And whether the city and Rice capitalize on it, it's up to them. Private individuals are buying out old warehouses on the East side and converting them into to coworking places already and will continue to do so. There's more in the works and Headquarters is even looking to build a second major location in the Heights.

 

 

Just because you personally don't live in the same area where you work and play doesn't necessarily invalidate the perspective in the article.  High density areas where people do all three are more supportive of the culture for creative enterprise than areas where each exists separately.  People with artistic, sociopolitical, and intellectual tendencies evident in creative industries tend to congregate in such urban districts.  Portland's an example.  Tech companies dot the metro area, but the city's Pearl District and downtown are where startup & development activity thrive.  Developers seize on the notion that eliminating physical distance between live/work/play attractions retain creative people & their industries.  The tech startup scene, advertising, the arts all cluster centrally where infrastructure & amenities favor less car dependency and where workday collaborations can carryover into nearby restaurants & bars. 

Hopefully, Ion indeed becomes a successful node alongside EaDo, the Heights, Midtown, and downtown in helping propel Houston's tech scene.  But it'll be by force of beneficent capital and in spite of its initially spartan location.  

On 5/14/2019 at 6:19 PM, Timoric said:

In the 1980s Japan bought Real Estate in Los Angeles, they were considered the smartest guy in the room "American's think 5 minutes ahead, Japanese think 5 decades ahead."

 

I always hoped Chinese investors would build and buy in Houston, we had Yao Ming for one thing, but has anything happened and why not?

The lead developer and his wife are Taiwanese immigrants and Houstonians for decades.  In the 1980s they lived in Ponderosa Forest on FM1960W.

2 hours ago, Brooklyn173 said:

I walk by almost every day and on most days there are contractors. But nothing ever gets finished. It reminds me of the lousy painters I had a while back. The worst part is that the sidewalks are out of service forcing people to walk in the street. Also, the new tenants have taken to slipping under the light rail divider as they rush out of the building to catch a train. An accident waiting to happen.

Sounds like negligence on both the part of the developer for not ensuring pedestrians have an alternate right-of-way as well as the city for allowing this to continue.  

In the mid-1980's, the band "Genesis" used the blimp hangar as a staging area for rehearsals before their performances at the Summit.

33 minutes ago, lockmat said:

Anyone else not in love with this design?

Even if the architecture seems more pragmatic than a design flourish, the angles and street orientation seem certain to contribute to the drama of the skyline as a whole especially seen from the northside.  Other than peering out from car windows coming into town from I-45, it's too bad there's no substantial public space to view it from the northern edge like there is for the western view.

Does anyone know the ownership history for block 142?  It'd be interesting if someone like Nancy Sarnoff could find out what the owner's intentions are, if they've had any inquiries from developers, or if they simply see the future of such prime real estate as a parking lot.

I'd also recommend against Spring/Woodlands.  You might also consider the suburbs of Pearland and Clear Lake City.  There are many neighborhoods in these two areas that might suit what you're looking for and you'll sense far less insularity.  Best wishes to you and your family!

I just wish Houston had a Patagonia store like Austin. I'v never heard of any of those others. 

Patagonia closely guards their image even to the point of sacrificing profits.  Sustainability, social responsibility, and eco-friendly citizenship are among the business tenets they seem to practice.  Since Houston's economy depends on the vibrancy of an industry that's the antithesis of at least one of those attributes, I imagine opening in brick & mortar fashion would appear as a compromise to their fealties.

I imagine the chances for this happening grow in proportion to Texas Medical Ctr leveraging its 5700+ on-site researchers and $3.6B research budget to build its momentum as a biotech hub alongside the stalwart locations for the industry (SF, Boston, San Diego).  Some milestones toward this goal: establishment of a biotech incubator (along with the incubator's first array of startups) and, in particular, a business development agreement with Johnson & Johnson to locate a fourth JLabs (thus far, the only one outside the three biotech stronghold cities) at 2450 Holcombe to open early next year.  TMC is more than a year into its ambitious plans - perhaps these recent achievements inspire the glossy rendering.

more local coverage:

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2014/12/18/year-in-review-tmc-aims-to-translate-research-to.html?page=all

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/print-edition/2014/10/31/johnson-johnson-launch-in-houston-means-large.html

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/print-edition/2014/10/31/johnson-johnson-launch-in-houston-means-large.html

Take note BLVD Place Whole Foods. This is what and urban grocery store is supposed to look like.

density & activities in the neighborhood make its appeal.  here's an identical concept whole foods near the george washington univ. and the foggy bottom metro station.

Just to nitpick.... 

Nitpicking and advocating for the devil embody the air of Socratic dissent for which I have utmost respect.  Your many insights and thoughtful posts elsewhere on this site precede your willingness to engage here and such honorable intent makes me smile no matter how much we might disagree on particular subjects.

You're right in pointing out the error in my equating the Lusitania incident as a uniquely American false flag.  I stand corrected and my intent is to metaphorically describe the events surrounding the sinking as tantamount to pre-meditated actions governments take on its own people to manufacture policy initiatives otherwise unattainable.   The dubious Lusitania events include:

• the British Admiralty's de-categorization from 'non-military' of the Lusitania under Cruiser Rules
• deliberate creation of the ship's vulnerability to u-boat attack
• the prescient conversation between Churchill's foreign minister and Pres. Wilson's adviser Edward House (a native Houstonian, coincidentally)
• JP Morgan's monstrous profiteering as a result of US war participation, and
• clear attempts by the British after the sinking to destroy the remnants of the ship so as to hide the intact military arsenal from public knowledge.  

I agree - the logistics of such an operation seem unfathomable..  Based on the documentation and testimony of a highly credentialed body of technical professionals, I can only conjecture the source of such precision, discipline, planning, and execution as something in the realm of a military special ops capability.  As I previously mention, just as damning against official findings is what the government itself leaves out or obfuscates in interviews and press conferences.  Video captures of these abound.

It's called a false flag operation, something that all governments of the world do.

I imagine introducing that concept elsewhere in this forum likely sets off furious & incredulous reaction among members of such a mainstream site.  Nonetheless, I stand with you in seeing US military history and foreign policy for what it is rather than what many prefer to idealize.  From the egregious conveyance to the Germans of the Lusitania's alleged cargo to Sec. McNamara's 40 year ex post facto admission that the Tonkin Gulf incident was, in fact, a manufactured scenario no amount of mainstream ridicule can extinguish the historical record.  If people can arm themselves with intellectual curiosity and objectivity, they might be able to match concept with proof.  Anybody can study how empires throughout civilization cultivate power and, in American fashion, anyone can observe the impacts of economic anxiety and indoctrination of the citizen body as it relegates itself into passive, obedient consumerism.  You might notice how someone on here actively fulfills his consigning role and happily invokes brand names in deference to the efficacy & nuances of the advertising industry.  Even as a tired cliche, the validity in 'ignorance is bliss' loses no meaning.  Life is happier within a fortifying prison of obedience & ignorance as it welcomes & comforts more folks.  As the self-assurance of the community grows so too does the natural reaction to cast aspersions on those who don't fall in line.   

Ah, Easter bunnies and time with friends & family ...happy holiday to any & all.

I have as much actual knowledge of the course of events on that day as any layperson has.  However, there are clear and glaring omissions from the 9/11 commission and its technical investigation (through NIST) regarding the three buildings totally destroyed as well as the events outside the NYC periphery that day and leading up to 9/11.  From my vantage point (merely as a citizen who shares in the grief and outrage against the perpetrators), the most notable is the absolute exclusion of Building 7 from the commission report and the technically incompetent and haphazardly constructed explanation for its symmetric, free-fall collapse in NIST's official report. 

After Sept. 11, a vacuum of coverage about this particular event come across the major networks as the natural diversion is to coverage of the mourning, rhetoric of the Bush Administration, and its upcoming policy responses.  Reflexively, the public accepts without pause the conclusions of the commission and NIST while the media provides absolutely no coverage of the growing body of well-credentialed scholarly & technical people whose analyses - at a minimum - call out the extraordinary items left out of these details.  This naturally leads any citizen, willing and able to think with a clear mind, to question how could the federal government leave out such important details and the media be so compliant in response. 

From an engineering failure perspective, the destruction of WTC 1,2, & 7 has no precedence.  This reason alone makes for an inextricably deserving case to investigate in far more painstaking detail:

• the statics, dynamics, and material engineering aspects of the impact effects on the core structure
• the impossibility of heat from fires - jet fuel or other - to weaken metal enough for absolute and total failure of the entire structure within a single hour for both towers 1 & 2
• the improbable phenomenon of the lower, unaffected steel structure to offer any resistance to the crumbling of the upper floors
• the multitude of video evidence and first responder testimony of secondary explosions at the base of the south tower
• the ridiculous explanation by NIST for tower 7's destruction and the zero mention of this event in the commission report

Flag waving is a compelling social dynamic.  I'm as susceptible to such evocation as anyone (my friends can attest to this again as we're about to watch the Rockets enter the playoffs).  But if the layperson to the events of 14 years ago can rest the patriotism enough to ask questions that any novice crime scene investigator would start with, an even deeper and chilling string of questions arises that won't vacate with the passing of time.  These questions have legitimate basis in both engineering and political perspectives.  I don't assert knowledge about 9/11 I don't have - nor can other citizens rightfully defend the official reports in light of such obvious absence of thoroughness and due diligence. 

It's not improbable you nincompoop. The buildings pancaked didn't they? And not necessarily neatly either I might add. Did you not see planes fly into the buildings at over 400 mph? Survivors inside those builds commented on how violantly those buildings swayed--some saying they thought the building was going to topple upon impact. I'm not a structural engineer but I assume that structure was compromised beyond repair at the point of impact, even if the towers had remained standing due to bent beams and twisting of the towers.

 

Did you not see the collapse of the buildings? They did exactly what you said was improbable. If those planes, which  by the way were wide body 767's, no small jet, had hit only the top 2 or 3 floors, I would agree that it would be more improbable to cause a complete collapse of said structure. But those planes compromised the structural integrity (fire proofing) around floor 76 (nor sure of the exact floors). Using floor 76 as the example, there was still a 34 story building above impact. That's 34 stories of steel, glass, furnture ect. Once those support columns, the ones that remained in tact, gave way, there was no way to stop the cascade with that kind of weight above it.

 

Look at the link:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_64RigP1Fk

 

The clips at 40 seconds, 1:10, 1:35, 3:06 among others make it clear that this was not a "neat, unform" pancake collapse. The top of the building was nearly decaptitated. Look how the top of the building appears to fall off the rest of the tower, leans over if you will, before subsequently collapsing. So I'm not really sure what your point is.

 

Using the word ''improbable'' makes you seem like a conspiracy theory wack job who is certain the building were brought down by dynomite verses packed jetliners. Let me guess, you also think Elvis is alive because you saw him in Vegas?

Name calling, ad hominems, appeals to emotion, non sequiturs aren't a good way to introduce your intellectual breadth but then neither is your spelling or self-defeating assumptions.  For entertainment I continue nonetheless.  The very evidence you supply demonstrates, at a minimum, the portion of the structure away from the tipping action of the south towers upper floors should have delayed the fall of material above it - if not held up altogether.  For the scenario to play out as it did, some other destructive power must be imparted on the lower floors for them to offer zero resistance.   Pulverization of the entire south tower due to the structural failure of the floors above the impact has no merit in reality nor a force diagram minus concurrently destructive forces inflicted upon the pristine levels below impact.  Frame this improbable engineering failure in the timespan of less than an hour and then again - identically - for the north tower and only the easiest of lemmings believe the "findings" of the Kean Commission and NIST.  Same is true for Building 7 of which the commission report excludes any mention whatsoever.  More glaring, however, is the symmetric free-fall of that building after suffering nothing except sporadic mid-level interior fires and superficial damage from falling tower debris.  Yet, NIST claims specifically the free-fall collapse initiates due to the failure of "column 79" causing the subsequent cascading failure of the building's remaining core structure.  A more ridiculously suspect conclusion I cannot imagine.

The guy simply can not accept the realities of what happened.

LOL

Deep Breath.

 

/Sigh

 

 

Nonenadalize clearly never took a Highschool physics.

 

W=∫Fdx

W = ΔE

KE=1/2 mv^2

ΔKE=∫Fdx

Where F=Impact force, W equals Work, E equals Energy in a system, KE is Kinetic Energy. Your homework, tonight is to estimate the mass of 10 floors. Moving, 12 feet due to gravity, and determine how much force is applied.  When you do that: Find me a construction material on this planet that can resist that kind of energy and force. 

Such a gaudy attempt at condescension.  Perhaps your vain attempt to impress non-technical folks is a rare occasion lest you undermine the reputation your more attributive posts create.  For study, consider boosting your credibility by seeking out & understanding the analyses of a multitude of structural engineers, materials scientists, actual WTC architects, etc. who offer far more detailed study and rational investigation than what the Kean Commission, NIST, or your sophomoric showing here provide. 

Thank you for your response, very informative.  NIST also agrees that jet fuel does not melt steel, and they adamantly deny that melted steel was found at ground zero, yet we have eyewitnesses who said they saw it, and there is video and photo evidence of it too.

Without rational explanation is WTC 7's improbable free-fall into its footprint.

All that needed to happen btw was that one to two floors completely failing and the rest was a domino effect as each floor staked like pancakes all the way down to ground zero.

Also improbable.  The steel structure below the impact zones were unaffected by any heat and therefore - minus any other destructive force upon it - present an imposing upward resistance to the falling of the failed structure above it.  Yet as history shows they offered no resistance whatsoever to the downward force of the upper floors.  At a minimum, the rational outcome for each tower would be a non-symmetric collapse whereby, instead of falling relatively 'neatly' into its footprint, chunks of the building would be strewn over a much wider swath at ground-level with a lower segment of the tower still standing.  For this scenario to play out in the second tower in virtually mirror fashion is quite a feat indeed.  The weakness and general acceptance of NIST's presentation survives due to our collective servility in the midst of national grief, uber-patriotism and its accompanying jingoism.

sounds like a 2016 start.

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/blog/drilling-down/2015/03/chevron-gives-new-details-on-downtown-houston.html

It's certainly not the greatest, or even as good as it once was, but it's still the best way I've found to scan local headlines so far.  Anyone have other recommendations?

Through its no-frills website, on-air broadcasts, and freely open podcast subscriptions, Houston Public Media excels in offering local coverage.  Culturemap, though entertainment & leisure pieces are prominent, is at least equal to chron.com with an occasional thoughtful writeup on public interest subjects similar in quality to what one finds behind the Chronicle's pay-wall.  Once upon a time, readers of the Houston Press could anticipate an occasional excellent dive into a public interest topic.  Sadly, they too appear to succumb to the trend toward the sensational & pacifying scene-sters.  Websites of the local network tv affiliates are similar to one another and offer at least as much crime & punishment headlines and sensational local blurbs as chron.com.

While the vastness of the internet offers a myriad of venues for people to get information, the public website of any city's main newspaper remains the logical and dominant source of comprehensive news coverage for locals.  How shamefully, then, does the Houston Chronicle's primary website operate in its current state. 

On a daily basis, Chron.com elevates superfluous drivel as "news" and offers nary a significant focus story or thought-evoking investigation.  Remember their slogan, "Houston's leading information source"?  Recalling that would be laughable, if not for heeding the level of abrogation of duty for the town's major news outlet.

In the country's nascent times, Thomas Jefferson invokes the notion that the health of a democracy depends on an informed citizenry.  One glance at Chron.com on no particular day would have him turning in his grave.  Need examples?  Take yesterday's iteration.  Yesterday's OPEC announcement crashed the oil market, for example.  Not a single, even cursory writeup or perspective on the impact to the local economy - in lieu, a link to a lonely Bloomberg article.  How's that for informing the public.  In an in-state comparison, the content & aesthetics of the website for that large north Texas city demonstrates how magnificently Chron.com portrays its inferiority.  What do editors consider important?  The main photo & story when the website opens is a picture of Hooter's girls in alluring pose accompanied by the all-important story of where fans of the NFL Texans can watch Sunday's game.  On the sidebar and formatted below the Hooter's girls: links to no less than a dozen stories that fawn over celebrities, multi-million dollar home listings, miscellaneous crime, new Netflix releases, and wistfully one or two current event pieces drawn from wire services. 

Celebrity worship, money worship, local & national entertainment and pastime pieces dominate.  Want to learn about or read up on substantive local, national, & world issues & current events?  "Don't bother," say the editors at 801 Texas Ave.  Informed citizenry be damned.  Your page clicks and the ad revenue generation are all that matter.  I understand the economics might require the pay-wall to their actual attempts at journalism.  But how is it that news websites for other towns with far less stature than Houston can manage to effectively, optimally accommodate the business demands of their corporate overlord with at least reasonable levels of journalistic standards and site aesthetics?

Shameless, greedy, irresponsible are just a few deserving mantras that the Hearst Corp. and Houston Chronicle earn.  As the frontispiece for local journalism on full display in the World Wide Web, I can imagine no greater embarrassment.

Interesting that Houston Chron now has this labeled as under construction. It was posted just 4 hours ago.

 

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/slideshow/Highrises-under-construction-in-the-Houston-area-96439/photo-6201255.php

Hearst ownership and chron.com management seems intent on driving what minimal semblance of journalism that goes on there fully into the ground.  I can't imagine a quality journalist still there who can ameliorate feelings of shame and embarrassment over the daily rounds of celebrity & wealth worship and astounding focus on high-end real estate.  As chron.com increasingly panders content around its evening celebrity gossip show audience and rightwing idealogue commenters, ad profit and page clicks take obvious precedence over high quality media practice. 

I grew up in an atheist household but consider myself agnostic (not ruling anything out). My wife is atheist. We attend a UU church in the Woodlands and have also attended the UU church that's in the Museum district. Short for "Unitarian Universalists", think of it as a spinoff from the "Trinitarian" Protestant tradition but has evolved to include atheists, agnostics, humanists, pagan, heck pretty much anything! Very church-like but without creeds. Very family-friendly environment while at the same time open to all types of people, especially the LGBT community. I would be happy to answer any questions about UU or the specific churches in question.

How does the UU church view atheists?  Any particular tenets or guiding principles defining the church?  How do they rationalize the space between atheism and the realm of mainstream Christian beliefs?

Sorry if I'm a bit late to this game, but here's the rail and bus plan I've been working on for the past couple of weeks. Orange is commuter/heavy rail, blue is light rail, yellow is BRT:

 

...

I'll probably be expanding on/rethinking this plan as time goes on. It's always a work in progress!

Nice to see such an example of thought & foresight concerning rail implementation.  Perhaps someone knowledgeable could augment your excellent post with even rough cost or funding scenarios. 

Since there seems to be momentum from the private sector for high-speed rail linking Houston-Dallas, perhaps local officials in Harris County could persuade Texas Central Railway to steer the bullet train from its College Station stop as it enters the Houston metro area and terminate in downtown instead of the Galleria.  State official Todd Houghton suggests the current plan has CS as the bullet train's single stop and the Galleria be the Houston terminus.  Why not steer the bullet train from CS to the Woodlands, into IAH, and continue into downtown instead?  Doing so would serve as the de facto Woodlands-IAH-downtown commuter line.  Imagine the cost savings impact to the entire regional rail plan if TCR offers more consideration of Houston's needs. 

Though the outlays to build appear to be 100% private, Houghton's comments appear to indicate that the state advocates it but it seems only fair that the state ought to consider the Houston region once the fast train enters the northern suburbs.  As it currently stands, TCR's scenario excludes this enormous opportunity.  Perhaps a Metro or federal funding component could simultaneously help offset TCR's costs while addressing north Houston rail demand. 

Hopefully, local or state officials have sway and insist TCR's plan gives due consideration to Houston as it does for DFW.

My biggest gripe is the loss of character in the near downtown neighborhoods. Wish there was someway to balance progress and history

Either deed restricted boundaries or a proactive and responsive local gov't entity (such as a particular arm of the City of Portland, OR) seem to be the only methods to grant neighborhoods the wherewithal to guide their own destiny.  Otherwise, citizens are at the mercy of private interests.  The stigma of government bloat and/or intrusion is palpable until the lack of gov't advocacy personally impacts the individual who previously accepts that tenet. 

waxing nostalgic ..once last time.

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/24/us/82-story-tower-to-fill-gap-in-houston-skyline.html