wilcal

Yup. My point is that in many places the only effective choice is to walk in the street.

Interesting! All sorts of different projects when housing demand is this high.

Pretty sure Downtown District pays for that service. They even have a small one that they use for bike lanes.

Oh hell yes. Put it into my veins. Nextdoor comments are going to be as spicy as Tierra Caliente's hot sauce. I have to think that the "open" portion of the building is going to face west and not into the neighborhood. I'm surprised the render doesn't include a banner that says "Trader Joe's one block away!".

So I literally 100' from where I rode just this weekend. I really need to start riding on more side streets!

Umm.... I love the cactus drinking fountain! I have absolutely no idea where it is. Can't wait to go visit it when someone finds it.

Also I'm glad you were able to check out the new portion of the Buffalo Bayou trail 👍

Here's the PDF from the 2018 call for projects where their Transportation Policy Council allocated $189million for it: https://www.h-gac.com/getmedia/dcfead07-147a-466e-8193-28d18780ae53/2018-call-for-project-tpc-rankings.pdf

My point is that it was funded before METRONext even happened. If the bond had failed they still would have done it.

They realllllly need to figure out an underpass here. I'm surprised it is even possible for them to do an overpass as there is only a few hundred feet between the tracks and Harrisburg.

Love to see a business get to choose the amount of parking that is right for them since they are in a market-based parking area.

Doesn't Texas have more than 200,000 miles of pipelines and large pieces of them were done with eminent domain? I don't see much grinding of teeth over those by rural landowners or conservative texas politicians.

Pretty sure Inner Katy is funded and METRO is hashing it out with TXDOT if they are going to go it alone or if TXDOT is going to add-on to their project and add a few lanes for HOV drivers to the deck. The irony that this mass transit project is going to be slowed for TXDOT to throw a few more lanes on it lol. Inner Katy BRT got funding from HGAC and wasn't a METRONext project originally, but it seems like METRO has thrown it onto the pile of projects.

Are you referencing Ryan Lutz who was killed on West 25th St? There were sidewalks there, but they are frequently blocked by cars in driveways. There are a few gaps because property owners are only required to put them in during a subdivision or major renovation (I do agree that this is a crap system) Funny how the car driver average speeds on 11th being 50% higher than the current speed limit doesn't seem to catch residents by surprise 🤔 and there hasn't been a concerted effort to improve safety along this strip. hrmmmm

Central is also close-by. These opportunities don't come up very often is my point.

Seems like the perfect place for another HCC parking facility. But honestly, you have to think HCC and Interfaith will have eyes on any adjoining property. This is unfortunately not the sexiest of corners as it is blocks from a light rail stop or the park, but with the Travis so close, maybe there's a chance!

I think it was brought up in a meeting I watched last year that all city streets are supposed to be swept twice per year.... riiiiight. lol. Also, evidently the city is getting bids for a mini sweeper for the bike lanes finally!

Isn't METRO waiting on federal funding for the University BRT? Four years is just so soon in transit timeline. Even if the federal government offered to pay for 100% of it, I don't think there's any way an LRT expansion to Hobby gets done. One thing that might be reasonable to get done would be building the BRT station at IAH and building out the platforms for BRT on the planned stops downtown. Honestly, they could start it tomorrow if they just operated it as express bus service using park & ride buses, so they've always got that in their pocket.

How do you keep a rail in place if you are tunneling underneath it at this width? Would they build a temporary bridge over the chasm to keep it going? I just don't understand how they would keep it open if the first thing is to start removing utilities and dirt and the last thing is the build the new track, you know?

Not only do I not think that Inner Katy BRT or green/purple line expansion (or University line) will be done by 2026, I'm pretty sure that if 45 expansion goes through with their current timeline, the light rail crossings will both be closed so there might only be bus replacement service. What a nightmare if that is true.

FWIW, a lot of core Houston's streets were laid out when people when people were pooping into buckets and throwing them into cess pools. The real problem with skybridges (and tunnels downtown) are that they aren't public and typically aren't accessible unless you are already in a building. They don't do much for people that are just walking through. The skybridge system in Minneapolis at least lets people walk through when the buildings are closed. They further promote auto-centric design of the public ROW as well. We don't need to simplify streets for car drivers so that they can drive faster without killing pedestrians when slowing them down slightly has the same effect and a negligible difference in trip time. "Three-dimensional thinking" is expensive. When people clamor for subways or elevated trains in Houston, they don't fully appreciate that subways cost about 10X as much and elevated cost about 5X as much as at-grade. So that might be feasible in the med center with the enormous capital investment or downtown with the high-rises and tunnels, but where does that leave lower density commercial districts like Rice Village or Highland Village? There is a reason why the newish River Oaks District was designed like it was. Still a heavy emphasis on auto accessibility (there's parking everywhere plus a central garage) but making the pedestrian experience significantly less painful. And that is why density X personal cars is never going to work and it doesn't make a lot of sense to make long-term investments exclusively on that basis. I'm not saying turn off the spigot, but we really need to start hedging.

Well, I guess people can't complain on Nextdoor about parking in that lot next to the dog park without paying and getting booted. There was some discussion happening here about these few pieces of land that were for sale including the backyard portion of 8th Wonder. I wonder if they sold, too. Edit: This project will also be good for the CVS, but it may cut off some downtown views of the space on top of the Houston Post building for that event space on the third floor.

I'm still worried about what they are going to have to do at the railroad track just south of Harrisburg. Pretty sure they are going to want to do an underpass 😶

11th street redesign officially moving forward

I think that the project is 95% dead, but if will be fully dead if they lose the TX Supreme Court case. If they win that then someone else can take the reigns.