wilcal

The "Mystic Forest Maze" hahahahaha May also be referred to as "that time I got drunk and got lost in a porta potty"

Was curious so had to look it up. HCAD just has 5 years of values... but OUCH. 2019 is almost $4,000/day in property taxes. So how much property tax has been "squandered" since 2007? $10 million?

No Alamo Drafthouse anymore: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Regent-Square-moving-forward-but-with-no-Alamo-13851493.php?utm_campaign=CMS Sharing Tools (Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral The owner of a 24-acre parcel across Allen Parkway from Buffalo Bayou Park announced plans Thursday to build a 600-unit apartment complex and 50,000 square feet of retail space on the site, the latest development phase within a larger project known as Regent Square. Boston-based GID Development Group said it intends to start construction this fall on the buildings, which will occupy eight acres at West Dallas and Dunlavy streets. GID announced plans to develop Regent Square in 2007. At that time, the property housed the Allen House Apartments, which GID had owned for decades. Most of the apartments were demolished, but the project stalled until a 21-story apartment tower was developed on part of the site at 3233 W. Dallas. That building, called the Sovereign, was completed in 2015. "Our goal for Regent Square is the creation of an exemplary, urban mixed-use district in the heart of Houston. Phase 2, the core of the masterplan, is poised to establish the project as a dynamic, walkable place as it weaves high quality restaurants, retail and residential into the fabric of the surrounding neighborhoods," James Linsley, GID Development Group's president. Several years ago, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, an entertainment concept that combines a movie theater and dining, said it was planning a location in Regent Square. A GID spokesperson said those plans were off. Boston architecture firm CBT is designing the new buildings. Apartment floorplans will range from studios with separate sleeping alcoves to large two-bedroom units. The shops will ring a central plaza designed by Houston-based OJB Landscape Architecture. JLL has been tapped to oversee retail leasing for the entire mixed-use district, which will eventually span 24 acres along West Dallas Street between College Memorial Park Cemetery and Waugh Drive, GID said.

Is "mixed-use" tenants not residential+commercial?

A second CityCentre right next door? Who tf would want to live at the mall? "Hun, pick me up a cinnabon on your way up from the parking lot"

No idea, but I would assume we are heading that direction. I'll bet some info is out by the end of the week. Hahaha. Fortunately, I think plan is to limit rentals to 16+ Also, I actually already asked the BBP Twitter account if they are planning on changing their ban on all scooters (motorized or not) and they replied and said that they were aware scooters were possibly coming and they had talked about it, then deleted that tweet, and replied again and said that the city would be implementing rules for the scooters. No reply to followup question about them currently having stricter rules than the city.

Of course, but that's not practical for grocery stores, unfortunately. In my research just now to find an article that talked about the grocery stores saying it's a necessity, I came across an article about the reduction of the zones in 2014. It was my recollection that they dropped it to 500' from schools in some zones, but this article seems to think that grocery stores have been completely exempted now: https://www.citylab.com/equity/2014/01/why-houston-changing-its-alcohol-sales-law-help-food-deserts/8065/ I don't have insider knowledge, but I bet there's a reason why grocery stores avoided the dry Heights until the law was passed (and HEB backed the passing of the ordinance IIRC)

Lime making a presentation at the bike summit this weekend as well...

EDIT: According to an article I linked to below, grocery stores > 10,000 sq ft are exempted from these rules now. Large number of churches is an issue. Y'all are probably familiar, but city prevents alcohol sales within 1000' of a school or 300' of a church. City has control of the school number and can set it between 300' and 1000'. I don't think anybody is going to Here's that quadrant of the third. This is not exhaustive and a result of me doing some quick google map scrolling: Also, it's 300' or 1000' from the property line, so instead of circles, these should be squares and they should be larger (these circles are from a midpoint of the address, not the edge of the property). The TLDR: good freakin luck. The city can reduce the big circles to those of the small ones, but I think the pilot program the city was playing with would reduce them to 500' Also of note, is that there is a food co-op at the corner of Elgin/Emancipation http://nuwaters.org/, but they only sell produce from 8-12 on Sat/Sun. It's certainly not a Wheatsville Coop like in Austin.

Added it: Also, I'm in complete awe at the lack of grocery stores in the Denver Harbor/Kashmere Gardens area. You know what there are a lot of up there 😕:

Hopefully there is going to be space to retain a Shipleys somewhere 😢

Is that even a thing still? I thought if your improvement was damaged >50% of the value, even over multiple events, then you have to elevate it/etc.

That is almost assuredly a mistake on the map. That is going to be BRT. The light rail would be extended on the north side to Acres Homes stop on the highway. That map also shows red line extending to meet with purple to continue on to Hobby, and that plan was scrapped as well I thought.

Oh man, that would be so much better. I first assumed something like this would be inside the hold where the bike sticker is.

I don't see a pic that you are referencing. There's no bin on the Metro ones. This is basically an identical setup: The passenger uses the handle and it's just an open area that you slide your bike in. There is a designated bike storage cubicle with a sticker on it usually.

It's a Park and Ride bus, so it's the larger coach style ones. Just like the ones that are on the 102 occasionally, so people do put luggage/other stuff underneath. The driver does not assist, you just raise the handle and it swings open.

It's BRT. Zero plans for LRT. Yeah, and it's not the greatest setup. I do it for fun occasionally for my commute from Montrose to Humble and you just have to throw it under there. Would be nice if there was a pull out drawer kind of system.

Interesting that they are including the two-way HOV cost on I-45 in the BRT from Downtown to Hobby in the capital costs, I'm guessing. I think the clear winner is running a combined green/purple to Hobby. 38 minutes from Hobby to GRB is great. Also interesting: that they think that 1,500 airport users will use an LRT extension.

That is totally right. I forgot that it does stick several blocks into East Downtown!

For now. They are trying to extend the no parking minimum district from downtown into east downtown and further south into Midtown, but it hasn't happened yet.

Interesting that the one you linked has the Leeland side stretch all of the way to Louisiana. It's hard to tell where their priorities really lay though. Polk should be getting revised lanes this summer, but no idea about leeland east of 59.

That would be news to me, as I haven't heard any of the planners talk about that being an upcoming project, but if park opening is 2 years away, then they could certainly make that happen (certainly if Downtown District is paying). Here is the park location on the "updated" (it's not really) bike plan map. Blue = dedicated on-street. Fuschia = shared on-street (sharrows/signage only) The two blue north/south lines just to the east of the park are Caroline and Austin, and they've decided to run a bi-directional lane only on Austin due to construction on Caroline in Midtown that is going to last another 1.5 years. I think that's the timing for the Bagby redesign in the Theater District, so maybe they could time that portion to wrap from Bagby down and around?

Renders released: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/What-Downtown-Houston-s-next-park-will-look-like-13808234.php * rotating gateway art isntallation * seating, bike racks, and bike repair station * 2,400 sq ft fast casual restaurant * dog run * operated/maintained by downtown district

Do they still have to pay to ride? No trying to ask a leading question, just honestly don't know if they have a special deal worked out. Also, Smith Lands is only 13.4% if you count those passengers both ways. It's a lot, but not insane. I think it's crazier that we have NRG's lots sitting empty so much of the time and the med center built their own. At least it could be converted to more office space/hospital space eventually and they could go garage.

So much potential ridership lost. Blah. Also, I'll bet another bridge is in the future to go over those tracks. Gotta cross it somewhere though. They did have concerns about environment stuff, just like in the East End. I mean, the current rental car centers are kind of clustered right there. Maybe they just mean a stop that is accessible? I think the central rental car center at IAH has been pretty successful, but there are way more people to pay the high rental car taxes.