mattyt36

Well, based on my analysis of the early voting totals, Lina may hold on. She underperformed Beto by 24K in early voting but still led. Beto’s gap in Election day voting was 6K to his favor. I can’t see many Beto-Mealer voters. But keep the faith in San Antonio. The wave never came but maybe it’ll start rolling out of the prairie somewhere around Seguin! WELL nevermind I think the early voting totals that I am looking at may not be totals but only for the precincts that reported. I will therefore stop blowing west so as to keep that wave to a trickle.

Well I bought shoes at the mall on the way to Corpus once, and they worked out well, so Victoria is fine by me!

Yay, now on same footing with Victoria and Vidor.

From what I can glean above, he bought Block 161 in 2016 where the Home Plate Bar and Grill was and then (maybe?) an additional 1.738 acres of land (which I think is equivalent a full city block) in 2019--maybe block 119? Or maybe he just bought a single block. Here's a block map I found: https://www.downtownhouston.org/media/uploads/attachments/2019-07-31/140627_Block_Map2.pdf What is with Avenida de las Americas running straight through blocks 119, 120, and 121 BTW? Were these blocks divided when the Convention Center was built? Sure would be nice to have MMP fully connected to the Convention Center area by something other than parking lots.

Well the Ballpark Village has to be a "go" now, and I hope this season made it easier to select the "Rolls Royce" option! Sounds like Crane can finance a good chunk of it with weekend t-shirt sales!

Agree 100%.

Well Mattress Mack won the World Series so I’d make it Lina -10 at this point … a true Faustian bargain! Oh well, at least the champagne vendors in San Antonio will have their best night since the Hemisfair!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ASTROS!!! No one can argue we are not a legacy team now! Best thing on earth to ever happen to Houston sports!

“If you can convince people who have power to let you do something, they’ll let you do something.” That is what we call a truism, @Ross. And it’s still a crazy take. Especially considering London two decades ago. It’s like your sequencing is reversed. London developing like Houston, well that’d be at least a mildly interesting and novel take.

@shasta, buddy, no need to be so sensitive. This began with you and your claim that Houston was "developing like London." There was no clarification that such a statement was "aspirational," or "perhaps a bit of an exaggeration," or you were "half-kidding." Quite the contrary, you dug in! After a lot of back and forth, I think it's accurate to say that the only reason you think that is because London has tall buildings in scattered places. I mean, OK . . . but, man. How absolutely vacuous of an observation. You might as well say Houston is like London because we have multiple airports, too. Seriously, brother, what major cities can you not make a similar observation about? I mean if you want to go on and on about loose land use restrictions, why not pick any major city in Latin America? London?! Let's talk some more . . . I've obviously got lots to learn. It may not have US-style zoning, per se, but if you don't think the permitting process is wayyyyyyyyyyy more complex than Houston, I'd say you and Shasta probably have a good deal in common.

So . . . you think London has no zoning, eh?

I never had any doubt 🤣 Let’s hear it for the Astros on this historical night

Ah, then, my mistake! Makes total sense now . . . how could I not see something so clear? Houston is indeed just like London, especially when it comes to areas outside of downtown. I have zero doubt that if you ask any of the nearly 20K native born Brits who live here now, they'll say, yep, they're developing so similarly, it's almost like they didn't leave home! Maybe we can get the AIA Houston Chapter to jointly sponsor an exhibition with the British Consulate exploring the vastly similar urban fabric of these twin cities. We can put aerial photos side by side and people will see, "Look, there's a tall building over there! And there's one over there! And another group over there! It's like they're the same! There certainly aren't any other cities in the world that can lay claim to this wildly unique development feature." (It's always fascinating to see what hills people will die on. I never would've guessed it would be claiming that Houston was developing like London, but this site never disappoints. At least I did learn GreenStreet was downtown and therefore was not like Piccadilly Circus, had been admittedly confused about that one.)

Must have been quite the, er, "trip" if you were walking around Piccadilly Circus and seeing, um, GreenStreet. That 17th century street design, no grid and all . . . WOWZA!!!!! I definitely DO eagerly await a trip report from Toronto!

OK buddy. Have you even been to LA? You're describing a lot of cities there, including LA. Name any city of size without multiple activity centers. If your only distinction is our buildings are taller as if that's the distinguishing development characteristic, I suppose that's possible, but I think even that's a stretch. Take a look at the urban infrastructure (the "inital design" you're referring to, if you will)--spoler alert--it's still LA! Large developments popping up in multiple locations within a 5-mile radius, in particular at the intersection of large arterials (it ain't "random"!!!!!), doesn't change that . . . in fact it makes it more like LA! Houston is just now getting these large-scale mixed-use development. We are probably a good 10 years behind other comparable cities in this regard. And thus far, the results seem decidedly, er, mixed (pun!) . . . take a look at the vacant commercial space in the Regent Square and Autry Park developments. To say Houston is developing like London is beyond absurd. What is Seattle developing like then? How about Atlanta? Austin? Maybe, maybe, maybe I will give you Houston is developing like Toronto, albeit probably 20 years behind.

😆 By London, surely you must be thinking LA. If by Asian city, you mean city with a lot of Asian neighborhoods, OK. LA yet again!

Well I was feeling super confident For a decent minute there I was sure JV would win his first WS game And the Astros would win their first ever WS game 1 #HOUbris always comes back to bite you! And you just end up getting #HOUmiliated But am as confident as a Houstonian that we get it tomorrow! And maybe JV can get the Lifetime Achievement Award for World Series Pitchers in the Hall of Fame. I guess Angela Lansbury never won an Emmy. Neither did Courtney Cox. Similar vibe.

But … there … were … charts … GO ASTROS!!!!

Is Violent Crime Increasing? | Department of Criminology (upenn.edu) Even though the increases in violent crime tend to be concentrated in neighborhoods that already had substantial crime problems, the violent crime increases appear to be quite common throughout the county. Some local district attorneys are progressive, and some are not. Some local mayors and governors are Republicans, and some are Democrats. Some state legislatures lean left, and some lean right. Political finger pointing at the state, county and city level will not likely be persuasive. Blaming individuals or institutions at the federal level probably will not work either because most crimes are not federal crimes, and federal actions can only have local effects at the margins. One is left with several conclusions. First, the recent violent crime increases, even if they are not just noise, are dwarfed by the amount of violent crime in the 1990s. We have not returned to the bad old days. Second, the speculative explanations commonly proposed must fit the timing of the recent violent crime increases. Conjectures revolving around the COVID-19 pandemic and pent-up frustrations, at least as usually formulated, do not seem to get it right. Third, explanations based on more passive police practices, real and imagined, coupled with the perceptions of reduced risk among individuals already predisposed toward violence, may have some merit, but the existing data range from weak to nonexistent. It is very difficult to bring facts to bear. Fourth, if one takes the solid black curves in the two graphs at face value, we have been on a time path that is bottoming out. Sadly, this may be about as good as it gets under the existing conditions that affect violent crime. Variation in violent crime over the past few years may be nothing more than a bit of bouncing off the bottom. Fifth, with the passage of time, and the accumulation of better data, we may understand more about what drives violent crime. But we have a long way to go.

Maybe or

And he quotes an image where all the signs literally say "Lina Hidalgo." (It's a hard knock life there in San Antonio, I'm sure.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this obsession with statistics (as opposed to experience) when they're presumably readily available for those interested makes little sense. Numbers are numbers. For someone so "in the know," I'm really surprised you haven't "gotten to the bottom of it," so to speak. Early on I asked if you were convinced that the data were false. I don't remember getting a straight answer back then, either. Batting numbers back and forth without any appreciation of the substance--and admittedly so--seems just so nonsensical to me. "I was scared yesterday when I saw this but now I saw this number and I'm really scared." Or "I don't know what to believe anymore, and I'm going to spend a good chunk of my life continuing to try to figure out something I've admittedly had 20 years to figure out without success." Forgive me for my directness, but it sounds like a lot of this is a personal issue. Here's my prediction: If the Repubs win the County back, the crime issue will miraculously disappear and the 1,000 officers will not be hired. Maybe they'll make an effort to cherry pick in the first months of their administration or come up with new metrics, but at the end of the day they will declare the issue to be "fixed." People who buy into this crap in the first place will also buy into this latest round. Meanwhile, at the end of the day, I predict little of substance will have changed. At least certainly not overnight. Crime will be continue to be concentrated in certain areas in what is likely an organized way, or amongst family and friends, and there will still be a not insignificant number of innocent people caught in the crossfire. Sad? Absolutely. Does it occur as often as these political predators imply with their extortionate campaign ads? Nope. At the end of the day, they're the ones who turn these feelings of panic off and on, and the country is all the worse for it because I guarantee you they have little interest in doing anything substantive or fixing the more systemic issues. They are entirely unserious people interested only in scaring a bunch of people every 2 years to obtain power. They won't even show up to the Commissioners Court to vote on the damned budget--it is blackmail and extortion, plain and simple, and counter to what they say they are politically interested in. And plenty of the law enforcement leadership is shamefully complicit. These people--a whole bunch of miserable people who are essentially "I'm not going to play unless I win, and I'm happy to take down the whole government with me in order to do so"--by definition have absolutely zero business in government. Still, sadly, their tactics have a great chance of working this year.

I thought you guys all hated war now?

So . . . what was your conclusion?

And the most important question … when/why/how was Main St realigned?