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wilcal

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Posts posted by wilcal

    Ironworks Campus - 711 Milby St.

    in EaDo, the East End, and East Houston

    Posted

    They posted on Insta today that they are doing a meet and great and sampling with the owners this Saturday from 11-5 and will be doing pop-ups every Sat from 11-4 until they open. 

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CzcRAySJ-9o/?img_index=1

    Also, I'm trying to remember the exact layout, but there was a space this tall a little towards the NE corner of the building. Maybe it's there? Been a minute since I toured, so a little blurry in my mind. 

    • Like 1

    Ripping out the Abandoned Rail on Walker St.

    in Traffic and Transportation

    Posted

    On 11/1/2023 at 5:54 PM, 004n063 said:

    Why is this legal?

    It is a permitted street closure

    23 hours ago, cspwal said:

    I'm sure they're paying for it.  Street closures seem to happen a lot more in east downtown than other places - for a while 8th wonder was just casually closing down dallas every other week - usually when I was wanting to walk to get some coffee

    It is annoyingly cheap. I believe I have posted elsewhere but maybe $150? $200? Why pay for your own private property when you can monopolize public property for a fraction of the cost?

    • Thanks 1

    4107 McKinney St

    in EaDo, the East End, and East Houston

    Posted

    On 10/23/2023 at 3:00 PM, EastwoodEnvoy said:

    This property was part of the Eastwood Home Tour this past weekend. I wasn't able to check it out myself but my neighbor said a coffee shop will be going into the caboose, and a BBQ spot will be moving into the restaurant space in the market building. Just hearsay for now, hopefully we'll get more news soon.

    Incredibly exciting news! I also had to miss the home tour :(

    Hopefully the nearby neighbors aren't against some bbq smoke a la Turkey Leg Hut.

    110 Milby St

    in EaDo, the East End, and East Houston

    Posted

    I was driving by a few weeks ago and saw some activity on site. Some light clean up, nothing too major. Interesting mix of cars there (a Corvette, and some other luxury-aimed vehicles).

    The Instagram is interesting saying that is a contemporary art gallery with the hours of 2pm to midnight Wed to Sun.

    Have to think if it was an actual night club it would be open later.

    • Like 2

    Beaumont huge downtown plans

    in Other Texas Places

    Posted

    On 10/21/2023 at 12:43 PM, Houston19514 said:

    "Boone said the city plans to use as many economic development tools as possible to complete the project, with a large percentage of the funding made available by a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, commonly known as TIRZ, which the city expects to designate by the end of the year."

    So you'll tax the existing downtown businesses? 

    If the O&G businesses next to downtown are fine with effectively paying for the project, then by all means, but there isn't exactly a lot of commerce happening in downtown Beaumont. 

    • Popular Post
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    Midtown Retail Development

    in Midtown

    Posted

    12 hours ago, 004n063 said:

    How so? I ride it almost daily (or did, until the WF closure) and it's always felt pretty open to me. Certainly plenty of cars use it.

    So, this is a little on me. I was going on HCAD parcel data, but I misidentified the block because both blocks are labeled as High Fashion Home. That block isn't abandoned, it is the one we are talking about right now has already been complete.

    image.png.d8810cbdfd2a4f0debae1a58e60a2ecf.png

    Quote

    What?!!! That is absurdly wide for a minor side street. How can we bring back <20ft streets? They are the best.

    Street width is defined as the entire city ROW. That typically means sidewalk to sidewalk, not the paving width of the lanes. In reality, your complaints likely lie with the fire department who want wider streets and turning radii for their trucks.

    Quote

    Can somebody explain how the whole Walkable Places thing works to me? Because it increasingly sounds like a non-policy.

    Here is the user's guide: https://www.houstontx.gov/planning/docs_pdfs/User's Guide for WP and TOD report_2020-10-01.pdf

    Walkable Places has big impacts, but is limited in scope as in it only applies to a few areas. Midtown being one of them. Instead of having a traditional setback (which is from the edge of your property) there are minimum pedestrian realm standards that start from the back of the curb. If that goes into your property then that works as a setback. If there is already a large sidewalk, then you get a 0' setback. 

    Walkable Places regulates pedestrian realm, the size of unobstructed sidewalk, the safety buffer between the sidewalk and the road, types and size of trees, fence height, and restricts how and where cars can drive onto the property.

    These only kick in when some forms of heavy renovation or a new building is constructed. 

    Quote

    And again, I'm totally for pedestrian streets and not against this abandonment/privatization. I guess I just wonder why there are so few public pedestrian streets in the city. I feel like they tend to be more reliably successful (think Church St. in Burlington, VT or Pearl St. in Boulder, CO) than the private ones, which tend to feel a bit more mall-ish. 

    I think fire access concerns are a big one, but a lack of good targets is another. I've been pushing for Main to be closed to cars for forever. 

    We also have so much excess ROW that we have a lot of room for road diets to make a much better pedestrian experience. Like McKinney downtown.

    From this:

    image.png.1f2b6777c82f8c2031a73d1aeddd8329.png

    To this: 

     image.png.29538407a0bb93d977495df113e8db72.png

    A huge difference for changing one lane, and traffic is *fine*

    • Like 9
    • Thanks 1

    Midtown Retail Development

    in Midtown

    Posted · Edited by wilcal

    4 hours ago, 004n063 said:

    Anybody else weirded out by the fact that pedestrianizing a street appears to require its "abandoning" and privatization? Is it not possible to have a public pedestrian street in Houston?

    3 hours ago, Big E said:

    Honestly, I'm just trying to figure out why the street abandonment is even necessary. This appears to be a car centric, suburban development, not a large mixed use or office park style development. Why even have the ped street at all?

    First, it appears that the block of Rosalie along High Fashion Home is already abandoned. Rosalie also doesn't go through two blocks to the west at the former Whole Foods store. 

    So, a few reasons why you would want to abandon:

    * One: Rosalie street is only about 43', so when they replat this they would actually be required to contribute 7 more feet to the street.

    * Two: Streets trigger building setbacks (note: this is in a Walkable Place area, which makes things complicated, but still)

    * Three: they are showing some buildings on Rosalie. Can't do that without acquiring it.  

    • Like 1

    Contract Awarded for 160 Clean Diesel Buses for METRO Fleet

    in Transit

    Posted

    21 hours ago, Jay123 said:

    Whatever happened to the electric buses we where going to get? Have they been delivered or are they testing them?

    Yes, they are testing and have some on the road. They have been updating some of the stations with charging infrastructure as well. I know the Polk bus depot has some based there.

    I talked with a METRO rep during sustainability week or some street festival thing downtown and they said that it was going well, but it is actually the winters and not the summers that present logistical challenges. 

    18 hours ago, mkultra25 said:

    In this case they're not just blowing smoke (pun fully intended). Although nothing's going to beat an EV in terms of emissions, newer-generation diesel engines are far removed from the old-school, smoke-belching ones that everyone's been stuck behind at some point. 

    https://www.newflyer.com/bus/xcelsior-diesel/

    I get it, but the branding is pretty shitty. New healthy Big Mac with one fewer cheese slice! is basically what they are going for. 

    Emancipation Court: Townhomes On Emancipation Ave.

    in Third Ward and University of Houston

    Posted

    9 hours ago, thedistrict84 said:

    That’s against City ordinance and should be reported so it can be enforced. People who block sidewalks with their cars are the worst. 

    2 hours ago, editor said:

    I've seen people reporting blocked sidewalks in the city's 311 app.  I'm sometimes tempted to do the same since more often than not, when I walk past the night club on McGowen and Travis during the day, it has trucks and sometimes construction equipment parked all over the sidewalk.

    But considering how quickly the city responds to 911 calls, I imagine by the time a 311 complaint about a blocked sidewalk was addressed, the offender would be long gone.

     

    Please still make the effort! 311 reports are used by other departments and help empower changes like Livable Places pushing the minimum driveway length from 17' to 19' so the sidewalks are less likely to be blocked.

     

    In terms of this plat... both of the streets they front on are primary Walkable Places streets. They will have to submit a new plat design because front-loaders are not permitted. They'll probably do something with a second shared driveway. 

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
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