mattyt36

Well somewhat germane to this sidetrack, the Kinder Institute announced yesterday a $20 million grant to fund a nonprofit news organization in Houston. Houston deserves a news ecosystem as big and bold as it is | The Kinder Institute for Urban Research (rice.edu)

Hey, a lesser man would've just said, "Whoa, sorry there, maybe that was a poor choice of words for an obviously sensitive issue" and "I can see how entirely reasonable people might find my "hilarious" idea to memorialize someone while presenting "both sides" to be entirely offensive. In fact, maybe members of the HPD and their families maybe wouldn't find it "hilarious" to build a monument to police violence adjacent to the HPD Memorial for the sake of "presenting both sides." In fact, maybe some of those families would say, "Wow, this is supposed to memorialize those police officers who were killed in duty and has nothing to do with police violence . . . in fact, by connecting the two, wouldn't you risk denigrating their memory, which is what memorials are all about?" But you, hey, you man--you take a step back, reflect, dig in your heels, say "what I said isn't even controversial" (when it has already clearly proven itself to be in this thread) and prove yourself to be even more cynical than even I by saying, at the end of the day it all about "buy[ing] votes" cuz voters who are concerned about police brutality obviously constitute some big block of swing voters. Well, I see you, buddy! You do you while we "clutch our pearls." Maybe you have a future in rewriting textbooks . . .we obviously have a lot to learn.

Nope, you said it would be “kind of hilarious” and that “both sides should be presented.” Cuz that’s the point of memorials, of course.

I guess Harris Health should just let the bodies pile up on the grass outside the ER instead of being “corrupt” and treating them as required by law. Even Ed Emmett frequently decried the Perry and Abbott administrations as outright fools for not accepting the additional federal funding under the ACA all in support of the noble goal of “sticking it to the libs.”

The Chicago MSA has over 30. I think back in the day people touted Houston as number 2 behind NYC due to HQs within city limits but obviously that doesn’t make much sense (and HPE and Exxon wouldn’t count).

Yeah, "kind of hilarious" is exactly how I would describe that. What a fine memorial, well done!

I wasn't paying too much attention to this race, but, after seeing this today, it's clear how far the Harris County GOP has fallen with this total nutter (opinion!) being endorsed by Mattress Mack. (There are other primary opponents to both this woman on the GOP side and Hidalgo on the Democratic side, but I must assume this is the "establishment" choice considering Mack is fully behind.) 'Mattress Mack' endorses Lina Hidalgo's GOP opponent for Harris County judge (houstonchronicle.com) Needless to say, she's full of positivity and exudes rationality, even-temperedness, and the most genuine of good intentions. It definitely sounds as if she has a good handle on reality. From her website, this totally "with it" Heights resident/energy finance executive/criminal justice expert (cuz . . . of course those go together) states: One of the primary motivations behind my decision to run for Harris County Judge was the state of utter lawlessness that continues to grip our entire county. Whether strolling along the bayou, picking up groceries or even attending an Astros game, residents are now rolling the dice on whether they will encounter a violent, repeat offender. While it is clear that our residents are not safe, we have now reached such a state of crisis that our law enforcement are being routinely murdered by violent, repeat offenders. (I must say when I first saw her photo, I was reminded of Clarence Thomas's wife Ginni, as they give off an equally, er, mannish vibe. Maybe someone can introduce the two so they can have a productive outlet for all this anger. I guess that's better than Mattress Mack looking like a 90-year-old Casper the Ghost.) Ed Emmett is one of two Republicans I have voted for in my life as he was a sensible and non-ideological administrator. (His "sour grapes" comments since then have changed my opinion.) However, I have been mostly pleasantly surprised by Lina Hidalgo. Recently though, she has "lost the plot" politically, thereby giving the GOP has a real chance to recapture the seat due to the idiotic, "lose-lose" political posturing around the NHHIP and, as of last week, even giving lip service to canceling the Rodeo if COVID cases don't fall. The GOP and local business community could focus its efforts on getting someone like Ed to run, but I guess that ship has sailed. OH WELL . . .

No, when newspapers with lower circulation 250 miles up the road are producing quality journalism today, it's like comparing HEB with a U-TOTEM. And here is where I completely embarrass myself by saying I had no idea there were 2 sites and I'm a paying subscriber. Why when I'm logged in do I not get redirected there? It's not like there's a dallasnews.com and a dallasmorningnews.com (DaMN.com?) site, or a nytimes.com and a newyorktimes.com. I use chron.com for vacation hold, etc. Another fine Hearst innovation, I see.

Yeah, well, if an announcement like that is made, one would expect the local newspaper of record to at least put a blurb out there saying "Exxon announced HQ move, more to come" (HBJ had absolutely no problem in this regard) but they can't even seem to do that. Took at least an hour just to put a banner up linking to someone else's story. But their homepage has plenty of links from months ago, so color me not surprised. Compare with the Dallas Morning News or any other major city newspaper not owned by Hearst (hell, the Star-Telegram is light years ahead). So, I respectfully disagree. I think it says they are a second-rate news organization.

Wow, what does it say when the Chronicle doesn’t even write an article on this and instead outsources to Bloomberg? https://www.chron.com/business/article/Exxon-Houston-headquarter-merger-oil-industry-16819683.php

I unearthed it Dated June 1990 "This confidential memorandum is being furnished in connection with the proposed formation of a partnership between The Woodlands Corporation and a potential investor that will acquire the Block 142 site in Houston, Texas." Called "Houston Tower" and renderings are of the Jahn design.

One can only hope . . .

FINALLY HAPPENING Long time coming. Exxon will move its headquarters to the Houston area by 2023 – Houston Public Media

For those having issues with the above link, you can try this Cite 6 | Rice Design Alliance (Note blurb about "Texpresso" high speed rail from Houston to Dallas.) I have a prospectus on the Bank of the Southwest Tower with the Jahn Design from The Woodlands Corp (I guess they were a potential developer . . . a Google search says they bid $24 million for the lot in the early 1980s) . . . I'm happy to scan it but have no idea how to post it on here.

It's my understanding that the development axis used to be more eastward (and south), with Buffalo Bayou, for example, having regular excursion cruises from downtown back in the day. So maybe the real question is what caused that to change . . . I don't know if it is more related to the new developments to the west or all the Ship Channel/petrochemical development to the east. @samagon thank you for the (indirect) acknowledgment of the critical importance of housing and land prices in location decisions

Reminds me of The Hamilton. (Isn’t it essentially the same idea?)

No, it's the definition of low land prices and very few geographical limitations. The Houston MSA has added essentially 100K+ new residents NET every year since 2000. I don't have a number for how this translates into households (and a large portion are children), but where, exactly, do you expect these people would have gone if the Katy Freeway weren't expanded? If you're a middle-class family with everyday budget constraints and a strong preference to locate near good schools, you have to understand that forcing them to live in a house with, say, a $200K budget between the Loop and the Beltway, where the housing stock is generally nothing to write home about because most of it was built during the last great population boom, is an absolute nonstarter--it's simply not going to happen. You are talking about options that are fantasies. And if the Katy Freeway weren't expanded it's not going to stop residential development. What it would do is to make the existing peripheral satellites (The Woodlands, Sugar Land, etc) larger and create new ones altogether and decrease the attractiveness of the Inner Loop commercial market. In other words, MORE SPRAWL. Or maybe you just want the region to get smaller. Perfectly valid, but I don't know of many people who would opt to live in a metro area with declining economic activity. There are plenty of Rust Belt examples out there.

And, for the record, I hate the Katy Freeway but that’s more about exiting the parking lots of the many retail centers around Mem City on to the feeder, a true death-defying experience. Almost as bad as the insult to us Inner Loopers on merging what seems 5 lanes to get to Ikea as a punishment for exiting the Loop.

What’s the prescription, doc?

It's confusing to me why people would expect an advanced design or detailed funding plan for the cap park to be announced before the NHHIP itself has even gotten final approval--especially in the current political environment. The City, the County, the Downtown District, the GHP, and other organizations have been working on this together for years and it is incorporated into each group's long-term plans. The park can be funded from a variety of sources, including the TIRZ, HOT taxes, and direct City and County contributions before we even get into contributions from the private sector. The ideas that some "big downtown machine" is pushing forward the NHHIP while not also working towards planning and funding the cap park are completely incongruous and entirely nonsensical. If you buy into the former, it shouldn't require much mental exertion for you to leap to the latter.

I am rereading this remembering Soundwaves very well, never knew it as a Walgreen’s, but now that you mention it the Walgreen’s where I grew up in The Woodlands (Galveston has Born on the Island, what do all of us approaching 50 year old originals who grew up in The Woodlands call ourselves?! Born in the Forest?) had the exact same metal cladding and paint. I remember that Soundwaves was so security intensive, always had to check your bag and exit through the metal detectors, which I guess was pretty standard at the time, even at the mall. I’m happy to hear the Walgreen’s story, makes the memories more meaningful. As a gay man, I’m very lucky to have been born when I was, even just 5 years prior I know I would’ve had a very different life.

I think Moxy is probably a much better fit, at least for north of 59. South of 59 a nice boutique to compete with the ZaZa and serve Rice would be good. In fact, it's surprising one hasn't been built. I realize there's a good deal of room capacity in the Medical Center, but who wants to celebrate, say, a wedding at the Marriott Medical Center? I'm sure the majority of people staying there are doing so not really out of choice. There is a Moxy in Minneapolis's Montrose-ish neighborhood: Hotel in Minneapolis | Moxy Minneapolis Uptown (marriott.com)

Put the Blossom Hotel - Montrose in the Chinese Consulate

I surprisingly can't find an article in the general press but the Bond Buyer is reporting the City of Glendale (which built the arena) kicked the Coyotes to the curb and a potential deal with Tempe is on the rocks. Glendale, Arizona, unties its future from professional hockey | Bond Buyer In August, the city announced that it would not renew the Coyotes’ lease after the current season, leaving the team without a home arena or even office space lined up for the 2022-2023 season. Coyotes ownership in September was the only respondent to a request for proposals the city of Tempe set out to develop a city owned 46-acre brownfield site. The team says it will build an arena and entertainment district there in time for the 2025-26 season. “While the submittal is evaluated, and the city engages in intensive due diligence, Tempe representatives cannot discuss the matter,” the city says on its website. According to a recent report by the website PHNX Sports, the proposal is in trouble at the Tempe City Council level. (Should this be a separate thread?)

If you have been closely following any of this, there is a near-zero chance the platform park on the other side of the Convention Center won't be built. Now if you want to call into question all the other potential platform parks (I-45N and through Midtown), fine. But let's stop pretending that this is seriously even in question, or imply that it is some shady, abnormal TxDOT "trick." Pure propaganda.