mattyt36

Hilarious.

Yeah, that's it exactly . . . 👍

Oh Loomy, bless your heart and those 12-inch stilettos you seem to be standing in. Emotional, eh? Lots of lecturing and, what, 4 posts, yet no substantive rationale given as to why decentralization is an answer for the permitting problem you're concerned with. By any reasonably objective standard, especially 4 posts in with plenty of ignored opportunities for expanding your ideas ("Oh, I mean as part of a comprehensive process redesign," or whatever it means, exactly), parroting and reparroting an empty turn of phrase as a rationale is trite and simplistic. Sports are all about quickness and agility, so maybe we should run your maxim by Jeff Luhnow, Brian Gaine, or Darryl Morey--why the need to fill out the roster? Maybe they should run split squads! (Or, am I wrong, "quicker and more agile when you are small" is a widely recognized maxim solely in the municipal permitting industry?) And no, sir, please do not deign to "dumb it down" for Li'l Ole Me--quite the contrary--I'm asking specifics as to how decentralization would help relieve workload issues caused by high demand attributable to Harvey reconstruction (an entirely believable problem another poster referred to) or "subjectivity" (another problem you have recently introduced). ("Only a fool believes they are the smartest in the room," eh? That sentiment jibes oh-so-well with naked condescension such as "Your line of thinking is not properly grounded for a discussion to even happen"; "are you willing to learn something today"; "or are you here to waste peoples time, and server space," doesn't it? It actually jibes pretty well with your screenname. Someone seems to have an inappropriately elevated opinion of himself. But I'll let you have this one, Loomy . . . it seems to be an issue near and dear to your heart . . . and emotionally so.)

Luminaire, instead of speaking in overly simplistic and trite generalities, why don't you start with explaining how your prescription moving the same people to different offices to perform the same job magically solves the problem simply because small is "quicker and more agile." Are you now saying the problem is with subjectivity? Decentralization seems like a fine solution to address that.

Great platitude that demonstrates no consideration of the specific work being done in this situation. We're talking about relatively rote, "check-the-box" processing of permit applications in accordance with City regulations. I'd say it's a safe bet that processing capacity is pretty close to a linear function of the number of staff.

Yes if workload is the apparent issue, decentralization would only make it worse.

Heres a 2000 WSJ article that I think was posted upthread https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB974263917263844039 Heres a 1990 article about where the acquisition came from https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/04/10/Taiwan-company-to-buy-Huffington-energy-land-assets/9871639720000/ Opicoil is the Taiwanese oil company name, Golconda Ventures is the real estate arm of the company that shows up on the tax rolls. Interestingly enough Huffington Energy is the same Huffington as Ariana Huffington and the Huffington Post.

$11.5 million doesn't seem like much.

Subsidence has historically been a big deal in Houston, with some areas losing 12 feet over the past 100 years. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/For-years-the-Houston-area-has-been-losing-ground-7951625.php

Looks like the hotel is about to reopen. The ground-level renovations look great. Sorry I don’t have a photo.

What project is that?

The most current publicly available update for the long-term capital plan is at https://www.fly2houston.com/biz/about/investor-relations/ Click the down arrow next to "Official Statements" Select "Series 2018AB Official Statement" Go to Appendix A, Report of the Airport Management Consultant

Ah, someone has discovered the ever-illuminating capital budget document! There's obviously a big difference between "re-life" and "replace" . . .

It's decent at what it does, if the alternative is nothing. It was actually built by the Walt Disney Corporation to replace the initial system, which didn't even last 5 years. https://stuckattheairport.com/tag/walt-disney-company/ DFW's original train system, airtrans, ended up being quite the bust as well.

I know this is 2 years old but I don't frequent this part of the forum . . . Major infrastructure projects such as the terminal are planned first. Any drawings that come with them are conceptual renderings only. The planning specifications/requirements are then handed over to the designer. In this case there's not much you can do with the footprint of the building given the constrained site and the geometry necessary to accommodate the taxilanes, but of course the design of the building itself could vary wildly. (That said, flashy design elements typically get eliminated during the value engineering process.) In any case, I wouldn't take the lack of news on this project to be a positive. The design team has had, what, 2 years at this point? I'd imagine there must be major budget concerns or airline support has waned. All of the drawings for the Spaceport, for example, are nothing other than conceptual renderings.

Extended to downtown, of course. It'd probably only take 15 minutes longer than at-grade light rail. (Kidding.) It has to be kept in operation, replaced with moving sidewalks, or replaced with an interterminal bus system--plenty of UA passengers park in one garage, only to arrive in another terminal. Last time I heard it was to be rebuilt--the problem being all of the parts for the existing train have to be handmade since the technology has been way superseded. There is no way that it will be replaced as the tunnel would have to be completely rebuilt and expanded between the hotel and A, and, however inefficient, a bus system may be, it'll always win out on a benefit-cost basis. Plenty more pressing projects at IAH and limited funds.

For those who have not stayed at an AC Hotel, they offer a really nice product. Much more my style than the Aloft (recognizing that’s personal opinion).

Any chance the 45/59 realignment will reduce the Midtown drive-through traffic?

In my opinion the width of the streets in Midtown really work against any neighborhood feeling—the narrower streets on the east side work so much better. If the main arterials could be reconfigured a la Bagby, it’d help a lot.

After driving by on Friday, I find it hard to believe that it really is open for residents. Leasing, sure. If it is move-in ready, I'm not sure I'd want to move in with the surrounding streets all ripped up. Meanwhile down the street, Dolce Living crawls along . . .

How much square footage is the food hall going to take up? And it’s all in the existing structure?

More like a forum for a self-published novel.

So, in short, yes?

Didn’t the building open as the Petroleum Building and later became Great Southwest? Not that I like the name ...

That article from 2000 quoted prices around $50/sq ft. Have prices grown by that much since then?