TheNiche

Let the record show that on April 8, 2010 at 8:05AM you posted a response claiming not to pay attention to the person to whom you were replying. We can establish, then, that your claim is categorically false. Furthermore, I can point to a previous instance of claiming a categorical falsehood, establishing a pattern. According to the Marksmu version of argumentative form, I should label you a "perpetrator of implausible arguments" and claim that everything you post on this site (whether internally consistent or not) is forever tainted by your pathetic implausible arguments. Besides this...you are an ethnocentrist, not a racist. You get huffy in discussions pertaining to behavior patterns typical of particular American subcultures (and not others)...for instance, there's the one which happen to be predominantly comprised of black people and that has roots in African culture...but you never seem to crack jokes or speak down at a subculture best characterized by hippie liberal douchebagery because that's a subculture that you see as being more of an outgrowth of your own, even if you staunchly disagree with their politics. Hrmmm...I can see how you'd accidentally think that I thought that you were a racist.

Yeah, that part is futile. And right now in particular, damned near everything without a government commitment is futile...but that's what makes the promenade (by itself) so credible is that the political infrastructure is in place to actually pull it off.

I'd say so.

While we're at it, there ought to be a red light district as one component of the Reliant Park gambling district. Just like Amsterdam, but with prettier women...and men, because I need a job.

That's arithmetically false. A renovated apartment unit does not become multiple units. A removed apartment unit is subtracted from the total number of units. Renovating and demolishing housing in lieu of new construction results in a diminished supply of housing.

Nope, by pointing out the obvious I anticipate getting a lengthy, carefully crafted, politically correct response...a veritable admission of guilt. I count 907 keystrokes worth of credence.

True. The other part of the Foreign Tax Credit is that it only applies to countries that we've got a treaty with so that they're doing the same thing on their end. The way it works out, we don't just unilaterally sacrifice potential tax revenues.

Shoeshine Charley's Big Top Lounge http://www.bigtoplounge.com/ It doesn't seem douchey. That's good.

I'd agree with you that there are better ways to carry out policy than with the tax code. For example, I think that incentives to procreate and raise/educate kids should be carried out in a similar fashion to the social security system. Most people just aren't programmed to respond to incentives that modify their tax bills in ways that they have difficulty grasping as much as they are to seek out direct payment. Immediate and easily quantifiable gratification is more effective at cultivating the desired behaviors and are more fiscally transparent. But I do think that there's good reason for certain incentives to exist. How are we supposed to maintain our superpower status and global economic and cultural hegemony if we have declining fertility rates, accept fewer and fewer immigrants, are losing our edge with respect to the productivity of labor, and yet are transitioning to a service-based economy requiring relatively little investment into the capital stock. We must preserve and strengthen our factors of production or else risk diminished relevance.

Marksmu's dissatisfaction was never really about politics anyways.

...led by the rich (or those otherwise destined for riches if not a noose).

Yeah, I've got an uncle from Alabama that thinks the same way as you and feels that we're headed for revolution. He was all set to move to the Maldives and renounce his citizenship after Obama won the presidency, but then he concluded that it was too close to Africa, "the mother ship". So he called it off and is now planning to move to Tonga instead...if things don't go his way in November. "Geographically speaking, you can't get any further away from the ---- than you can by living in Tonga." Never mind that it's basically a hereditary monarchy; his dissatisfaction was never really about politics anyways. I suspect that you'd probably like it in Tonga, too.

It's a no man's land as it is, a string of muddy, overgrown, vacant lots and a few barely-engineered paved stretches that get basically no traffic...even from neighborhood residents. It needs to become a street, a park, a bike path, or something.

Very good, actually. Only three blocks out of eight along the Bastrop Street ROW between the stadium site and Leeland Street are paved...and the pavement that does exist is in horrible shape and gets minimal use.

A fair bit of thought and effort was expended on this wet dream...and it seems a whole lot more achievable than some of the stuff that the Midtown and Downtown Management Districts have come up with over the years. Does anybody have the inside scoop? Is there any momentum for this?

At some level I'm sure that the Mid- or South Campus has got to be in their long term plans. I just hope that their priorities are straight is all. I think that its the UTHSC-Houston doing most of the expansion south of OST, btw.

I didn't use the word "simple" to describe a renovation as office space. Obviously whatever repairs are necessary to maintain the structure's integrity would have to be taken into account. And I do acknowledge the plausibility that this building is beyond repair; I've underwritten a few such project proposals before and determined as much. My concern, really, is that MDACC (and certain other TMC institutions) are placing an irrational premium on land (in terms of Dollars and utility) north of the bayou whereas they might should be more actively exploring numerous options to the south.

1) Reputation is a developer's greatest asset, and there are plenty of reputable and competent developers that will swoop in on a good deal if a competitor can't pull it off. This isn't the kind of thing that you can patent/copyright/trademark. The only thing that a developer really has is a non-disclosure agreement, but those are incredibly difficult to enforce. 2) Amegy's involvement to date was limited to the mortgaging of land. Had land prices held steady or even dropped a little, they'd have still been covered in a foreclosure situation. So the land deal would've at least looked like a good one at the time...but it wouldn't have gotten anything built. 3) The Waterlight District never received construction financing even when cap rates were ludicrously low because the Waterlight District was never a good deal. It didn't matter which developer was pitching or which lender was underwriting; it sucked balls.

The thing I don't like about the MDACC rationale, though, is that their cost estimates are based upon repurposing the building for a medical use. I'd like to see the cost of renovating and leaving it as office space and having MDACC simply build their facilities in a different location. It's not as though there isn't land available in the Mid Campus or South Campus, and it's not as though other TMC institutions aren't willing to go there.

Yeah, that was pretty dumb...even for these guys. Lenders on projects this large do talk to one another. And waging a PR war against one is a pretty effective way to get blacklisted.

There's no way to reliably estimate the total number of offices in a highrise office building other than to order the interior buildout prints from the City for each and every single tenant. That'd be prohibitively expensive and time consuming. But...once you have done this for a fair number of buildings, you'll have empirical data to go on so that you can make multivariate regressions your b*tch. As for estimating the size of the floorplate, the easiest option is simply to call building management and ask. Remember that "gross" square footage includes all common areas, whereas "net" square footage only includes rentable space.

You're citing natural monopolies and oligopolies as examples. Do you not see a problem with that?

Well, if you count the guys selling cotton candy and other treats on their oversized trikes...yeah, I probably see one of them every couple of days or so. I did run into a Critical Mass ride once, I think somewhere along the Columbia Tap. But those weren't commuters and their riding patterns certainly weren't typical of what is experienced when I encounter a lone cyclist on the road. It'd be a lot more effective as a way of raising "awareness" if they swarmed a neighborhood and fanned out in ones and twos on every thoroughfare and side street at once as a sort of disorganized mob.

There are several million homes in the Houston area already. Leaving aside from the discussion that it doesn't seem like a deal that most developers would want to embrace in the very first place...it strikes me as impossible that consumers will ever find themselves lacking a choice in the matter. If and when this starts catching on, then your concern will at least be merited, whether a legislative response is or not.

They tried to sell off the structure by itself but were unsuccessful and have knocked it down. Hopefully that means that they've got a plan in mind for the land.