TheNiche

Yes, it creates some problems with proper oxygenation and salinity levels of parts of the bay. Its justification was to provide a safe harbor for the Port of Texas City.

It sounds to me as though it is you who are confusing craftsmanship with art. Someone's willingness and ability to devote excessive time and physical resources into a peice adds nothing to its effect. I am not impressed by obsessive compulsion or wastefulness. I am impressed by the concept and the efficient execution thereof.

Not happening, but I value your comments.

I'd created a thread many months back which was based upon a personal experience (in that case, an embarrassing moment at work) and turned out to be pretty well received, this one is similar and asks for folks to contribute their weirdest dreams. Like before, I'll go first to break the ice: I was at the office last night too late at night and spontaneously dozed off for well over an hour while sitting in front of my computer. In my dream, I got up to go to the restroom, walked into a stall, and sat down on the toilet, pants around my ankles. In my dream, it was also late at night and I was also the only one in the building. ...and no, this isn't going where you think its going. Spontaneously, my right arm reached over to the wall on the left side of me and slowly drew out an line, first stright down and then straight to the right, in an 'L' shape. Ink appeared where my finger had traced along the wall. Strangely, that ink was coming out of my fingertip did not alarm me, but what was alarming was that I did not think for my arm to do that. It just did it, as if on its own. I was jolted, but finished my business and got out of there, not thinking too much of it. Dreams have a tendency to be disjointed, so I didn't dream anything about the moment between when I left the bathroom stall and when I came back for another deposit to the Citizens' Bank of Porcalin. This pattern would repeat several times, except that each time, I'd get continuously more freaked out as my arm and hand would trace out various bits and peices of a pattern on the wall before I regained control and jolted from the stall. Some of it was boxy and other bits of it were curving with an occaisional curve intersecting a straight line. For some reason, it never occurred to the dreamt version of me that I should use a toilet in a different stall, on another floor of the building, or just hold it until I got home. In the final iteration of this process, right before I awoke, the pattern was revealed. I was finally somewhat comfortable with this possessive force (and it really wasn't my own will doing this, but some outside entity), at least enough to allow it to continue drawing what it was. Big fat dollar symbols, in random orders and rotations. And moments after I realized that, I panicked in my dream and woke up with a jolt in front of my computer terminal. It was time to go home... I've never been possessed in a dream before, so it get classified as very weird in my book. Anyone got anything weirder?

What's wrong with concrete? Please respond to post #80.

The replica is a replica, so it is not art...merely a form of appreciation. This peice is original, and regardless of the medium that was used, I'd consider it art. ...whether it fits your taste is irrelevant. If you don't like it, then you probably aren't the audience. Art is about creativity and expression, and it does not necessitate great expense or ornamentation...in fact, I personally consider the most brilliant peices those that can convey meaning in as little effort and expense as possible. That is a greater challenge than just throwing millions of dollars around.

It's his license to make a killing. The Texas Real Estate Commisssion (TREC) requires that people be licensed in order to sell homes as intermediaries that collect commission on real estate transactions. Comes in handy.

I considered "neither / other" as an option, but decided to force the vote one way or the other.

Ah, ok. When you notice that the sign is removed, give Creech a call and ask about it. Be sure to report back to us on HAIF. ...you aren't the only one interested in what's happening on that prime site.

Exxon building, love it or hate it? Why? http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/Images/Buildings/Downtown/ExxonMobil-001.jpg (Image courtesy of artefaqs.com)

Yep, that's the simplest and best explanation. One thing I don't like about Telfair, though, is that it is directly in the flight path of Sugar Land Regional Airport.

That is why the word "scarcity" was linked to the Wikipedia explanation, which btw I have screened for reasonableness just to be sure.

A highrise medical office condominium building is being planned by a developer in NYC in the area, and there are is an apartment complex on Almeda that is being built, along with townhomes scattered throughout the surrounding neighborhood. For the moment, I'd imagine that what is for sale is just for sale. Also, the Children's Museum is going to build a new wing. I know the apartments you're talking about, btw. They're respectable from the outside, but the interior is so-so. The common areas are all open to the weather and the units are pricey and don't have a very high-end finish for what you get. ...but some units overlook Hermann Park and views from the top of the parking garage are pretty decent if skyline photography is your thing.

It's also in north Houston, intersecting De Priest and in the vicinity of W. Montgomery, W. Little York, and N. Shepherd.

What good will that do?

All goods with any positive monetary equivalent value are scarce. The underlying concept from which all economic systems arise is in fact scarcity. This is what is taught in the first couple days of an introductory economics course. Oh, and brerrabbit, isn't it possible to demand the physical delivery of commodities at hubs for futures contracts that have reached maturity? I recall that it is possible for natural gas at Henry Hub for instance, but aren't there others for crude or gasoline as well?

It is true, but it has no traction.

Actually, I was in the womb. My parents contemplated buying a unit in the Warwick Towers overlooking Hermann Park but decided against it. ...instead, I grew up in the rural countryside of Hays County, just southwest of Austin. So not only did my parents, a childless but employable yuppie couple, decide to locate outside of Houston, but in a exurban/rural area. ...I hadn't actually factored that into my theory, but thank you for validating it and reminding me of how well my own childhood was related to just the same basic patterns. Actually, I know quite a bit about the one-two punch that was oil and S&L. ...and you're right that the hardest-hit places were small-lot suburbs that were in the middle of being developed at the extreme urban periphery as well as apartment complexes that were of mediocre quality and insufficiently differentiated from their competition. Places like Williamsburg Settlement, for instance, are still being filled in even today, and we can all see what became of SW Houston and to other areas to a lesser extent. There were even some subdivisions like that which already had the infrastructure in place but had to be replatted and reconfigured as larger lots to be able to sell. Such is the nature of a region in which there is a vast oversupply of homes throughout all price points in the midst of an economic meltdown. Only so much demand, and that which is there tends to physically occupy the best housing, while the really crappy stuff ends up with a really low occupancy, much of it valued only as dirt. Regardless, values of all types of housing are hurt for many years and development slows to a painstaking crawl. This is not only the pattern that has been communicated to me professionally, but it is borne out in the data. ...and you're right, by the way, that this is a more cautious expansion than in the last bust. I want to clarify that I'm giving a scenario analysis moreso than a forecast. If I were forecasting something like this as being on the horizon, I absolutely wouldn't be playing around with money in the East End. ...that's not to say that it can't happen, but I wouldn't be doing what I were doing if I didn't think the market was going to hold.

I've stricken through anything that you mentioned in that list that is dependent upon expansion of the local economy to make money and that you could expect to see shrink its staff size or at least stop expanding in the event of a bust. I gave most educational services a break because they tend to be fairly stable in a recession on account of that some people use being laid off as an excuse to get more education, while other people find themselves in a position that they can't afford it. Where the hospitals are concerned, they need people to treat, and if they have few people to treat, then they'll scale back operations; places like Ben Taub on the other hand, may see an increase in customers that could not afford better treatment. By the way, according to Claritas, which bases estimates upon economic Censuses, only about 19.8% of business establishments with more than 20 employees in the Houston MSA are located within the Inner Loop or Galleria area (77056). Please don't rely on anectodal data to try and prove a point. ...at least use hard employment numbers--but oops! No, that won't work either. Still, only 24.3% of employment are in these areas. ...yes, a disproportionate concentration, but still not really all that compelling to someone who is would now be faced with very low gas prices and much less congestion on the roads as a result of so many people not driving to work.

Ah, but inner loop appreciation has very little to do with poor folks even though there are still great numbers of poor households, family and non-family alike. In areas such as West U, Bellaire, and up into Afton Oaks, River Oaks, and to some extent Montrose, there are few enough poor households at this point that the schools are decent enough to support upper middle class households with children--and the extremely high land values are supported by public schools with a good reputation. In areas of the inner loop where regentrification is not yet complete, relatively high land values that don't match with the demographics that presently exist there are entirely supported by the expectations that childless yuppie households will come along and make the neighborhoods highly desireable again. Take a big chunk of childless yuppies out of Houston and put those that remain in the neighborhoods that have already regentrified but where prices had been too high for them before a bust, and you could expect to see a lot of areas rapidly regress as prices plummet. This is a scenario I've played out in my head several times over, as I have exposure to that very risk in the East End. Oh, I don't doubt that a few lucky families would very quickly fill any void in pricey areas like West U and Bellaire that have trusted public schools, but I don't know how your financial status is, except to say that an energy collapse would be a regional problem and that if most of your savings is tied to the value of your house (which is true of very many households), then you could still be as much up the creek as the next guy when it comes to buying up. The result, in high-demand neighborhoods like that, is that the profile of such households may not change significantly even though average household incomes might decline somewhat and there could be a lot of shuffling around within the same demographic cohorts.

Yeah, this isn't Hidalgo Park. You were standing underneath Wayside, across from a wastewater treatment plant. Specifically, this is where they discharge treated effluent. Hidalgo Park looks like...a park. Complete with a gazebo, ball fields, etc., with a picturesque tree-lined bayou right across from it. You'll know it when you see it.

I take it that the turn-off for Live Oak Lofts as far as you're concerned is the price? There are a couple other loft condominiums in the same area as LOL, and some are fairly affordable. Perhaps if you could provide a price range and requirements, someone on here could have a better idea of where you might fit in with the market.

I doubt it. If anything, extremely low land and fuel prices, coupled with a large cohort of aging baby boomers nearing retirement, as well as a non-energy sector that is less concentrated in the inner city, would provide incentive for people that were still employed to locate themselves in exurban or rural areas. Also bear in mind that childless young singles and couples are more mobile than those households that are anchored by children; they comprise the largest part of demand for yuppie inner loop households, and they will comprise the first wave of an exodus from our region.

Bear in mind that employment growth within the local economy is more closely correlated with the rate of increase and acceleration of energy prices than with their actual level. Also, higher prices are leading indicators; it takes a bit of time for firms to ramp up employment as a response to higher prices. If the prices do nothing other than level off, job growth slows. In the long run, if the prices remain about level, job growth within the energy sector and related sectors will stop and even decline slightly, although that downward effect would be partially offset by a non-energy sector that is correlated and usually slightly higher than U.S. employment growth. If prices plummet and it appears as though they aren't likely to come back up in the near term, a lot of projects get cancelled and the entire region gets hurt badly. In the long run, non-energy expansion into space vacated by energy allows us to recover and even expand, but the short term consequences would be disasterous. Real estate demand within the inner loop is very closely correlated with demand for office space in the CBD, TMC, Greenway, and the Galleria area. Three of those four are disproportionately driven by energy and related sectors as compared to most suburban areas, and even a fair bit of large philanthropic donations to non-profits in the TMC come from folks who have made their fortunes in energy (not to mention that a larger and wealthier customer base is a more viable customer base), so even medicine is not completely immune. ...so a collapse in energy prices would be bad for the region, but I think even worse for much of the inner loop. It would hurt across all levels and types of housing demand, from the 5th Ward to River Oaks. Make no mistake about it. It'd be ugly for several years before the non-energy sector could move in and fill up the inexpensive office space and industrial facilities vacated by energy. I think that Clear Lake/League City and probably far northwest Harris County would probably fare better than the inner loop or west Houston and Katy.

Actually, there has been confusion in the past over East End. People sometimes post items about towns in east Harris County in that subforum.