woolie

Went to Kenny & Ziggy's for dinner. They are making good progress on this tower.

Untitled by wools, on Flickr

New rendering posted on SW.

http://swamplot.com/the-numbers-on-that-35-story-tower-planned-for-weslayan-and-west-alabama/2012-05-18/

Untitled by wools, on Flickr

The Jackson/Bremond/Chenevert/McGowan block, showing the completed-after-abandonment houses being discussed above. Closer inspection reveals they are all in fact nominally free-standing.

Untitled by wools, on Flickr

Dennis at Jackson

Untitled by wools, on Flickr

Other side of that block on Drew. I quite like both of the existing house types on this block. Hopefully the new ones will be of similar style.

It's my understanding that most very high end cars are leases because many of them are corporate leases as perks for executives, or high net worth people who don't want to bother with selling or trading every 2 years.

Screen Shot 2012-05-16 at 1.46.31 PM by wools, on Flickr

Something is going on at McGowan at Jackson. I presume new townhomes -- the current batch on the back side of this block at Bremond sat half-complete for a couple years before someone bought the project and finished it off. Now they have fenced in the remainder of the lot and started pouring foundations.

Actually, there are several new townhome sections going up. I'll ride around collecting some more photos to post this afternoon. Looks like East Midtown is finally coming back with some new construction. See also: Milhaus Development.

You might find this interesting: http://www.sn22.org/...Pres_042710.pdf

railporn.... ahhh....

View from the west, Feb 9, 2012.

I really like this view. Almost un-Houston.

Actually, it makes me quite sad to think about how this country totally abandoned our cities for 50 years, mostly for incredibly stupid (racial and auto-utopian) reasons. That is a big thousand dollarsing opportunity cost. We're sure eating it now.

then there's really no practical circumstance whereby METRO will benefit them enough that they should pay taxes toward it.

I'm married, but I don't have children. I don't plan on ever having children. But I pay about $2,000 every year to HISD.

Just what is the shelf life of an opportunity to invest in public transit? Why is that opportunity perishable, in your eyes? And what is this risk, you speak of? Qualify the proximate cause of the risk and quantify its impact, please.

Uhm, you're just playing around here -- this opportunity cost is a standard infrastructure argument -- it applies equally to freeways, transit, water, electricity, etc. Houston is experiencing a period of dramatic growth -- including higher density developments inside the loop. There is huge value in making it explicitly clear where transit lines will be to shape development to maximize their use. Otherwise we'll be 30 years down the road (again) and trying to retrofit transit into an even more difficult to change landscape, which will fare even more poorly than the current efforts, and require even more compromises. Now, when we play Sim City or China, it's easy to make a modern metro system appear overnight by fiat. But in this world of property rights, (semi) accountable government agencies, and environmental impacts... it's a messy process. Compare Beijing Metro to 2nd Ave Subway.

...in Japan.

I fail to see the insight in your comment. It's self evident the Tokaido Shinkansen is in Japan. It is the busiest and most successful HSR line in the world. You're implying none of that experience is transferable to the US, but I'll disagree. The Acela carries 2% the passenger volume, even though the corridor population is 50m.

My friends went to the opening game.

Well, the main player is Japan Central Railway. They have as much experience as anyone in operating successful high speed region rail systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dkaid%C5%8D_Shinkansen

The Tōkaidō Shinkansen (東海道新幹線?) is a Japanese high-speed Shinkansen line, opened in 1964 between Tokyo and Shin-Ōsaka. It is operated by the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central), and formerly by Japanese National Railways (JNR). It is the most heavily travelled high-speed rail route in the world by far; its cumulative ridership of 4.9 billion passengers dwarfs all other systems and lines worldwide.[1]

The line was named a joint Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark and IEEE Milestone by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2000.[2][3]

Operating speed is 170mph, carrying 140m passengers annually -- that's 400,000 people per day.

http://english.jr-central.co.jp/company/ir/annualreport-backnumber/_pdf/report-2007.pdf

Since its inauguration in 1964, 4.5 billion people have used the Tokaido Shinkansen,

the transportation artery linking Japan’s three largest metropolitan areas, Tokyo,

Nagoya, and Osaka, which has supported Japan’s economic growth. The Tokaido

Shinkansen has maintained a flawless record of no derailment or collision accidents

of trains in commercial operation. And the average delay from schedule per

departure was a mere 0.3 minutes in FY2007.3. These statistics clearly illustrate the

impeccable safety and reliability demonstrated by the Tokaido Shinkansen.

Since I didn't get my dream house, part of me is getting a little bored and fed up with owning a house and wants to go back to renting -- preferably in a cool downtown loft.

The idea makes too much sense to actually happen

n/m, I should avoid making jokes that could be embarrassing to me in the future

The Vegas rail sucks.....you have to walk a mile to get to it and it doesn't hit all areas

And costs $5 per *ride*.

so when you argue that a proper transit system removes a practical limitation on density, don't you also have to propose where, how ,and why that densification will replace the lower density status quo?

Houston is very much a node and edge city. Some of these nodes are quite large, and some of the edges are already quite dense. This is where you start -- and indeed, we have started. The Red line was the best 1st line possible. The University line, when it is eventually built, will be the second element. Followed by the Uptown line. The East End and Southeast lines are nice to have, and might result in increased density down the road, but I don't really consider them integral to the system.

I've been drawing a map in my head recently of what I think Houston will look like in 2030 (at least, inner loop and uptown). In another thread we discussed that six stories is the new four stories. Soon, as the last empty and large parcels have been redeveloped, it will be ten stories. Prices will reach a point where alot of low-density single-story car-oriented commercial properties (aka strip malls) are the next frontier for redevelopment. It will still be a very long while before large blocks of single family neighborhoods are town down for larger buildings -- too expensive, too many owners to negotiate with. Unless your house is within a couple blocks of a planned LRT line, you won't see anything denser than townhomes for a while.

BUT, if light rail doesn't take cars off the road in any significant amount, how will it ever be able to reduce the demand for parking garages/lots in downtown or TMC in any significant amount?

Roads take up a certain amount of space and can support so many cars. Garages cost alot to build, and take time to get in-and-out. The higher the density gets, the more expensive parking becomes. Transit lets you bring many more people into an area without increasing road and parking requirements. And when there is enough good residential space on the transit system, all the incentives start to align. For instance, I can take the train from my house to my office in the TMC about as quickly and less expensively (20 mins, $2.50) than driving my car and parking in the garage (20 mins, $12).

Transit doesn't get rid of cars and parking. There are parking garages in Manhattan, but they are astronomically expensive. But it drives people to use the resource more sparingly. Through demand destruction, people can use more of the high density areas for productive uses instead of roads and parking.

Wait, you posted it in THREE THREADS?

Renderings get alot of attention when they're posted along with the announcement of a new project. This project has already broken ground, and site plans have been available for a long time. It looks pretty much how people expected.

I wrote this response to this, but just realized it was citykid who posted the video, and that the video is more than 2 years old. So, now I'm wondering why I bothered. Anyway...

Well, I disagree. Elevated rail avoids some issues with at-grade rail, but is more expensive, requires much larger and more complicated stations that break sight lines, and are harder to get on and off. I've been on the Las Vegas system, and it's awful and very expensive to use. I haven't been on the Miami or Detroit systems, but I am under the impression being elevated didn't make them successful. Vancouver and Seattle are elevated, but those are much denser cities to begin with. And just as relevant, at-grade light rail and tram systems are popular and successful all over the world.

So, if elevated rail is not an automatic guarantee of success, is being at-grade really a major disadvantage? I think most issues with at-grade rail can be ameliorated by dedicated lanes and traffic signal coordination. I think accidents are a non-issue after an adjustment period -- it just happens to make good local news. Good traffic signal coordination gives OK average speeds -- the stops only 1/2 mile apart. At-grade systems have some limitations on maximum car length and frequency, but light rail can't compete with a heavy rail subway system in those aspects (at 10x the cost.) Personally that kind of density would be a good problem for Houston to have -- it means everything worked!

Finally, I think all arguments about traffic, congestion, taking cars off the road, etc., aren't worth making. They aren't real arguments grounded in reality, just something politicians think people might believe. Light rail doesn't take cars off the road in any significant amount, and can easily increase traffic congestion (taking up ROW, elevated or not, and at-grade pre-empting stop lights.) I don't use these arguments at all. What I think matters is that a proper transit system removes a practical limitation on density. The infrastructure to service cars (roads, garages, driveways...) adds significant cost and takes up valuable space in your highest density areas. How much of DT Houston and the TMC are parking garages or parking lots? The more people use transit, the smaller this % can become. I say this all the time, but density is the reason for a city to exist -- the concentration of human capital, goods, services, ideas, etc. The city, at least the core, should be as dense as possible -- it represents billions of dollars of investment in high density buildings. And proper transit makes this goal much easier to achieve.

Please don't double post videos. You'll fork discussions. I put my reply in the other thread.

Also, don't post 2 year old videos and give people the impression they're new.

http://www.stmichaelcs.org/index.cfm?load=page&page=238 St. Michael is building a new two-story school building and ball field.

I looked at the plan; this will be on their existing land; the track will be where the baseball field is, it doesn't go all the way to S. Post Oak.

Why would anyone buy attached housing this far from the city core? Srsly? It's not like there is no land this far from DT.... what gives?

Probably cheaper construction. But yeah, this is WAY out there. And not even in a neighborhood! Just a field.

It's beautiful. Eight stories, built to the sidewalk line. Nothing more to ask. Build these up and down Kirby.

The second phase of the West Ave development in River Oaks is a 288,389 s.f. mid-rise apartment project with 305 housing units. The eight-story, concrete structure with attached garage will have 640 parking spaces, 157 of which will be for retail use from Phase 1.The project finish will consist of mostly brick with accents of Arriscraft and terra-cotta. The design will feature an interior courtyard with swimming pool, outdoor kitchen and living room, lounge, theater, fitness center, dining/wine room and is estimated to complete June 2013.

Quoted since my last comment put these pics on the previous page.