wilcal

City can't evict from TxDOT land which is where a ton of the encampments are (along highways). State won't evict because of fear from lawsuit.

I definitely understand how tight the margins are in grocery (grandfather was an exec for HEB for decades and made store managers keep a roll of pennies on their desk to remind them that every penny matters) and that cut-through traffic could make the difference between making it or not, but having unsafe streets in this area is a much larger hindrance to development than having access to groceries. Would Whole Foods not also receive a benefit from the Bagby entrance being closed to the spur and diverting all of the Bagby spur traffic onto Smith? You can go to their Google Maps listing and see how busy the store is on average by time and day of the week, and the 6-7pm slot is their busiest of the day on weekdays, but that's also the time that locals would be shopping. The weekends are still easily their busiest day. Their mid-day numbers, when there is zero cut-through traffic is 75% as good as their peak traffic between 6 and 7. Their 1-2pm traffic is about the same as their 5-6pm traffic. Might they get some people grabbing a juice or breakfast on the way in from Brazos? It's feasible but those people still have the option to do so and drive literally one extra minute to go there.

I guess if you don't live here? Pretty sure everyone that lives in Midtown or Montrose has driven down Westheimer/Elgin and seen the giant green Whole Foods lettering/branding on the side of their building. The letters that are also visible from the Bagby entrance to the spur. This is one of those situations where I could never prove that it's a fake number, but there is absolutely no way in hell that could be factual. They aren't even open when it is rush hour on Brazos. To me, their claim is basically saying that their business is off 20% because reverse commuters can't be bothered to go one street over, from Louisiana to Smith, and as a result are purchasing their alcohol from some other non-specs liquor store? I like Bourbon and I'm a frequent Spec's Smith St shopper, and have made friends with some of the staff and we were talking last month about how this location is number 1 in whiskey sales in the entire country, and likely the world. This one store sells as much whiskey as the state of Tennessee consumes. They do have the spec's key system for tracking purchases, and there may be an asterisk attached to the 20% number, as in their drive-by traffic sales from non-locals are down 20%, but there is not a chance that their business is off 20%. Sorry for being unclear, programming is the term that they use for any type of active participation from the Management District, and I was referencing their use of privately hired security from SEAL and one of the Constable's office. If the park could be under MMD's control, then they could enforce the rules themselves and prevent encampments like they do in their other parks. I would be surprised if they wouldn't jump at the opportunity for adding new park space for effectively only the cost of maintaining it.

Only solution I could think of is to have it "programmed" by Midtown MD like Midtown Park and Bagby Park. It's unclear if the land would be in MMD's territory. I also don't know how the mechanics would work or if this is even feasible.

I refuse to believe that the businesses on Bagby are relying on cut-through 45-59 traffic for approx 4-6pm Mon-Fri. Whole Foods business model in Midtown is not based upon those people. What business is currently benefiting from cut-through traffic? 1) CVS. Fine. 2) The Midtown Food Store? 3) Capital One Bank? 4) Subway? Spec's is not visible from Bagby.

Are there even 50 businesses on Bagby and Brazos combined? I count 7 non-bar/restaurant retailers on Bagby and 6 on Brazos, but I may be missing some. Homeless encampment is an understandable concern. Really not sure what the solution is with that. Definitely concerns about that at Randall's in Midtown. People not stopping at Whole Foods because of Brazos being closed is borderline laughable imho. Only reverse commuters would be shopping while driving from the spur and the current "detour" might be 1 minute? It's not like there are a lot of grocery stores in Midtown. I've actually been walking over once or twice a week for light shopping, but still do my main grocery shopping at HEB in Montrose because of the price difference. Yeah, pretty much. Making local roads move so quickly and dangerously that it pulls in cut-through traffic from the interstate is not a viable long-term strategy. Don't think I've seen any of the business owners in Midtown come out against NHHIP which would supposedly allow the downtown commuters to not drive through Midtown anymore and would certainly be shifting any cut-through from 45 -> 59 traffic away. If this was an HEB they wouldn't be having any issues right now. They may have underestimated how many people will pay extra for a premium grocery experience. Not sure why there is an extra distinction being generated for this being GFR versus all of the other businesses in the area that don't have customers living above them. Also, that corner is quickly becoming the densest in Midtown and will certainly be so if the high-rise across the street gets built. The spur is not closing down. One of 3 exits and half of one entrance is closing. Traffic is being 600 feet away. Yeah, I don't get it either. I did the count above. Less than 25 total retailers on Bagby/Brazos even including the bars and restaurants and all of those cars are still driving through Midtown. Then again, I don't understand why most of the local neighborhoods are against traffic calming measures when all of the roads in Midtown are designed to have non-locals speed through as quickly as possible. Locals are somehow worried about rush hour traffic, when they are all reverse commuters and they don't feel those affects. It's like, you live in the freaking neighborhood, you know it's not comfortable to walk or bike around because of the design of the streets, and yet you don't think that we should adjust these mini-highways? With the light cycles aligned for north/south traffic for commuters at rush hour, the locals (the people that actually live here) are actually INCREASING their commutes. I bet if the city put out a notice that they would make the north/south green lights twice as long so that commuters could get to the highway faster, locals would flip their shit yet that same logic doesn't apply to move the needle the other way in situations like this.

Houstonia published an article about the resto/expansion https://www.houstoniamag.com/arts-and-culture/2020/03/the-rothko-30-million-dollar-restoration

I don't think any type of formal presentation was happening. A person DM'd me on Nextdoor and said that they were "part of Avondale Civic" (so non-leadership?) and they were planning on discussing it as part of their regular meeting. This was a few days ago, so no reason to think it may be outdated.

Sorry, I misspoke. It's Avondale tonight. 7pm at the Womens Center.

Just as a brief (not) update, I believe a presentation is being made at the Midtown SNC meeting a week from today. Avondale is discussing it tonight as well. I would imagine that this is still going to be moving forward, but it's gotten a surprising (to me at least) amount of negative feedback from local citizens.

I think that the inventory is so low in Montrose that we got a few new complexes, like this one (and the Velvet Taco complex, etc) and the newly developed ones had a higher price per square foot that local chains are having a hard time of delivering. It's supply and demand, right? Prices were skewing higher and developers made a business case for building some new stuff. Might be that the market can't handle it, though. There's been some new housing growth in Montrose, but not that much. I talked with someone that 3-4 years ago was already in Montrose but looking for a different space and there just wasn't anything out there. The middle spot at Alabama Row may have made good sense for them. They ended up in the Heights at I'm sure a comparable price and are doing fine up there.

Is this Starbucks particularly busy? Might be that Starbucks would prefer to move across the street to a potential new development at JitB/Half Price/Specs/etc.

And they will definitely be linked as those businesses will now have their car-based consumers using the new central garage since the parking lot is being turned into the library structure.

Maybe incorporating the ash from burning the previous structures into the concrete? lol

So I agree with part of what you are saying. It's certainly the lowest quality section. It's brutal to ride in the 82 and get jostled around. I don't know if I 100% agree with that. It's highly effective in Downtown and Midtown for North/South commuters to get to 59, but that results in unsafe driving practices with people speeding considerably. That is definitely a bold plan. I always thought that you leave Westheimer as-is and go one-way on Richmond and W. Alabama, but W. Alabama doesn't get all of the way through to 610. The traffic on Westheimer really isn't that bad. It only backs up at rush hour and it's free-flowing for the most part even when it's reduce to 1 lane in each direction near Dunlavy. We shouldn't be building streets exclusively for rush hour levels of traffic.

Public Works is participating in BOOST improvements, so you would have to think that Lower Westheimer reconstruction would integrate the two together. I know that I should have that much faith in the system, but I'll keep yelling about it until it happens. Lower Westheimer still on CIP for 2023. I was saying that it is a shame that a far superior intersection for walkability and transit times to downtown will still have full parking requirements when a place down the street wouldn't because it has the wrong kind of bus service. However, I've heard hints that Lower Westheimer will be designated under the Walkable Places ordinance. WP will require a Special Parking Area (SPA) to adjust parking requirements, of which Lower Westheimer already has one from 2016, but it didn't actually lower parking requirements, it just added flexibility to centralize garage spaces, put parking lots down the street (like Aladdin), etc. The SPA process is a giant PITA, especially compared to unilateral designation via ordinance like TOD is doing. Yes. It's to provide a faster option to get to downtown from outside 610. Will be interesting to compare the speed of the Uptown BRT to NWTC to proposed elevated BRT/HOV line from 610 to Downtown to the proposed signature bus service. Yeah, it's a massive problem at rush hour. Bunching is a complicated problem that actually gets worse because of the knock-on effects of more people needing to board and get off as the lead bus is further delayed. Long lines are more susceptible as well. Maybe we'll get a 53 equivalent when BOOST is launched.

Was just reading the Walkable Places/Transit-Oriented Development updates after public comments, and they have decided to only include BRT/LRT towards the TOD standards, which is kind of a shame. There are building design standards, but a parking reduction with being on a Primary TOD street or a reduction on a secondary TOD street. Basically means that if there is a BRT station at Richmond @ Montrose then you'll have no parking requirements there, but you would still have full parking requirements for Westheimer @ Montrose. And taking the 82 might be twice as fast to get downtown versus taking the BRT into Midtown and then switching to the LRT? Would have been nice for whatever they do to the Half-priced books/spec's/Jack in the Box corner of Montrose/Westheimer to at least have some flexibility.

Changes/non changes released based on public comments: https://houstontx.gov/planning/docs_pdfs/walkable_places/draft_public_commment_matrix_02282020.pdf

Walked by Domino's last night, and it basically looked open except for needing employees.

First bond project announced? https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/transportation/article/metro-bus-red-light-upgrade-BOOST-houston-15093723.php Light priority along two bus lines

FWIW, I heard Pitch25 is doing "ok" at best. It's a huuuuge space and it's not filling enough.

This project is Dab-approved evidently.

Mandatory by the city. 14 spaces per 1000 sq ft. Please email your city councilperson and tell them to end this lunacy.

Article: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/retail/article/Japanese-retailer-Uniqlo-to-open-in-Galleria-mall-15086819.php?utm_campaign=CMS Sharing Tools (Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral

Different ownership.