f95kai
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Posts posted by f95kai
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IB (International Baccalaureate) is known for excellent academic standards. Especially if you're looking for a more international scope in your kid's education as opposed to the standard "US is best screw the rest" fare, this might be for you. What I'm not sure about is how that goes along with Montessori, seems linke a bit of philosophical mismatch to me, but who knows.
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When I tell people here in Germany where in the U.S. I have lived, I always tell them "The Woodlands, south of Dallas". People here either haven't heard of Houston beyond "we have a problem", or else they've heard how ugly it is.
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I don't know whether to laugh or cry about the ignorance displayed by some posters on this subject. I bet they haven't ever spoken to a Mexican, wealthy or otherwise.
I lived in The Woodlands from 2004 until five months ago (have since moved back to Germany), and let me tell you, without the Mexicans I played soccer with (they included millionaires as well as janitors), I would have hated my time there.
It's really sad to see how at least the fly-over part of the US has become ever more know-nothing since 9/11 especially.
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The interesting article below certainly applies to the US as a whole, and more so to other areas than The Woodlands. Still, I feel as though TW could have done a lot better in areas such as public transportation and commercial space layout. Why, for instance, aren't there more mid-rise parking garages "downtown" - not to mention underground parking?
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/10/...king/print.html
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Check out this excerpt from the prestigious global magazine's October 12 edition, from an article about America's population growth.
Houston, we have lift-off
Can America cope with a relentlessly expanding population? A look at Houston suggests it can. The city is one of America's fastest-growing. The population of Harris County, which includes Houston, grew by 21% in the 1990s, to 3.4m. The surrounding counties are booming, too. Since Houston has no zoning laws, developers can build wherever they think there will be demand. Rather than waiting for the city to extend sewers and power lines to outlying areas, they can issue bonds to pay for such services themselves, and pass the cost on to the people who buy the houses they build.
At the Woodlands, a 28,000-acre (11,300 hectares) planned community north of Houston, you can buy a three-bedroom family home on a quiet wooded street for $130,000. By comparison, the median house price in San Francisco is over $700,000. The Woodlands has good schools, 145 miles (235km) of hiking trails, golf courses designed by the three greatest retired golfers in the world, and a cluster of oil and high-tech firms.
It is also safe.
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I think the Woodlands should develop a trolley for public transportation. I just got back from a vacation to San Diego, and their trolley works well, even for a city of 1 million people. I think a small-scale trolley that runs between the main business district and the neighborhoods along Woodlands Pkwy would be ideal. It will help reduce traffic and conserve energy. Once the Woodlands gets more business and nightlife, you could then live there and hardly ever have to use a car, and never need to drive into Houston.
I think I've heard people talk about a tourist trolley bus, but nothing about public transportation. Would this work out well in the Woodlands?
I agree that public transportation is sorely missing in The Woodlands. But I've come to realize that people here love their blasted gas guzzlers so much, they'd never go for it. It's hopeless, I'm afraid.
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Fascistoid Market Street Management Goes Rampant
OK, maybe I worded that a wee bit strongly, but it got your attention, didn't it?
My "favorite" quote from Dull is "The thing we're trying to get across is that we want everyone to come and spend money at Market Street, but what we do not want is inappropriate behavior," he said. "We've experienced inappropriate behavior from those 17 and under, who are believed to have been unsupervised."
Well, at least he's honest, spend money or f*** off is what Market Street, that plastic wannabe downtown is all about. My guess is that the "inappropriate behavior" consists mostly of - well, not spending money
Sure, those teens can be a pain in the butt, I've seen it myself and I vividly recall my own obnoxiousness at that age. But it's perfectly normal for kids in that phase to rebel and find their own way. Doing it in the sanitized Stepford Wives-Woodlands, where diversity (and I don't mean race) is just not welcome, must suck. I know I'll get the hell out of here as soon as my kids, who love the place right now, get to that age.
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Hypocrisy is exactly the problem: bitching about Wal-Mart, but "secretly" shopping there. Kinda like driving a Hummer with "Support the troops" sticker.
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Hey, I wasn't complaining about the 100 yards, i was just saying that it's 100 yards across an asphalt parking lot, which is akin to having to go into a mall, which I avoid whenever I can. Unfortunately, unless you live on the waterway, you still have to drive to Town Center in most cases.
By the way, I lived in Boston and Providence, RI for quite a while so I was really spoiled by easy access to most things, either by walking or public transportation. In that part of the world at least public transportation is not a dirty word, as it seems to be here. People definitely need to get out of their cars more.
Truer words have rarely been spoken.
Gosh, I sure miss Boston. But I'm sure that the next blizzard footage from there on the Weather Channel will ease the pain temporarily.
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You're right, I apologize for having been mean.
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I'm with Red Scare on this one., and I'm sick and tired of these self-righteous people like Katie did it. Get a grip.
I love The Woodlands for noe, my kids are 8,5,3. Once my eldest reaches 15 or 16, we'll move back to a city.
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It HAS to be FSW only. They wouldn't put national media headquarters into a remote area like ours.
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Diverse, and also very white? Am I reading between the lines that you think it's nice because it's white? Cut n' Shoot is white, too, you know?
God, I can't stand such thinly veiled racism.
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It's since gotten even worse. Rouse was acquired by General Growth, essentially a mall developer that also owns the Woodlands Mall. So the vision of Mitchell is DEAD in the Woodlands. Consumerism and profit maximization are taking over.
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I dunno, maybe, say, Wannabe-Romanic church style?
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"Opportunities for urban living"? Gimme a break, they can't even get the pedestrian traffic lights to work properly.
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The new Cineark at Market Street was supposed to focus on indie and international movies for adults. It now appears thez will use it as an overflow for Tinseltown failures. What a shame.
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Try har.com, subdivision price trends.
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Wow, thanks for that list!
These three apartment complexes look very interesting:
Woodridge Park
http://www.apartmentguide.com/Property/pho...qsSFlg=&lk=phTb
Alden Landing
http://www.apartmentguide.com/Property/pho...qsSFlg=&lk=phTb
The Mansions
http://www.apartmentguide.com/Property/pho...qsSFlg=&lk=phTb
Any thoughts on these three? Woodridge Park looks like a Hawaiian resort
in the photos. Are they all about the same commute-wise into the city?
You guys have all been extremely helpful, thanks so much!
Of those three, Woodbridge Park has by far the best location: The Mansions is nice and new, but right on the freeway feeder. Alden Landing is in the back of the Woodlands, far away from anything.
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I can't comment on the commute to downtown, but the intra-Woodlands commute (i.e. getting from Cochran's Crossing and beyond to the freeway) can be a delicate flower.
Luckily, I live right around the corner from bachanon, that is in Grogan's Mill, where the freeway, mall, Cynthia Woods pavilion, Waterway and pretty much any place you would ever want to spend any amount of time in the Woodlands is at your fingertips.
As for floods: Only in Timber Ridge/Timber Lakes. The Woodlands proper have an excellent irrigation system.
Choose the Woodlands!
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If it's close to the library, it would be west of Six Pines, behind the pavilion. The ice rink wais right on the east side of it.
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How does going from 8.1 to 9.8 represent a 36% increase? That Chronicle reporter seems to be mathematically challenged.
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I have previously lived in Texas, and my wife is Texan. I do maintain that ignorance about the outside world, to put it differently, is widespread in Texas.
Some of the negative reactions to my initial post only serve to prove my point. Those people conveniently chose to ignore the many positive things I had to say about The Woodlands.
The Woodlands Town Center Developments
in Points North
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Wow, if bachanon is giving up on The Woodlands, it must have become even worse since I left 2 years ago. George Mitchell, please rescue the "true" Woodlanders from General Growth greed!!
BTW, this water taxi thing in a way epitomizes the wrong turn taken by TW. According to today's Chronicle, they are now seeking federal funding to keep that thing going. IMHO , the water taxis are a joke and always wil be. You'll never get throngs of tourists paying big bucks to coast along a suburban mall drainage ditch. Ludicrous.