Trae

On 6/23/2017 at 4:37 PM, Urbannizer said:

 

Site of Tower 1: There were early articles of Caydon purchasing this block as well for his Midtown project. Either he's behind this or he sold the site to another developer.

 

 

Site of Tower 2: Renovations are planned for the GreenStreet building, so this one may not take up the entire block.

 

 

Someone needs to tell that guy it isn't safe to walk on the train tracks.

On Wednesday, July 20, 2016 at 7:02 PM, Montrose1100 said:

Perhaps someone can explain to me the allure of synthetic weed?

 

If you work at a job that regular drug tests or are on say probabtion then the synthetic weed can give you a similar feeling to being high on the natural stuff. And unlike the natural stuff, it can become addicting to some folks. 

Not about brand nowadays. It's how you wear it. 

 

 

Anyone remember that one rendering a while back that had the UT school being built out in Pearland. I think I remember seeing it in the older Shadow Creek Ranch renderings.

I drove past the google mobile this afternoon on I-10 at the beltway/Gessner. Hope I make it into the next streetview!!

I drove past a Bing mobile on Jones Road like a week ago. What a waste.

I drove past the Bing car on Cullen and 45 near UH and then drove past the Google car on Mason in Katy. Must be a really chill job.

Can Munoz convince the board move the HQ or operational HQ back to Houston?

It wouldn't be in the City of Katy if it was off of 99 somewhere. Many people in "Katy" don't realize they don't actually live in Katy, so they say things like that. It is the same reason why the new football stadium was built in the City of Katy and then people living south of 10 complained. There will be road improvements too, so no need to worry there. I doubt a waterpark creates a big traffic nightmare here. It isn't like it would be year round either.

I love what is happening at UH as well. However, the arms race is coming at a price. The new dorms are not cheap. Moody and the Quad are relatively more affordable than Village/Lofts but not much. The plans to replace the quads include "townhomes" and I have to imagine that those will cost a pretty penny.

I stayed at the lofts for a year (a year too long I say) and decided to move to Cambridge Oaks to finish out my last year. Basically had everything I needed or wanted at Cambridge Oaks, plus a private balcony. The Lofts are very overrated and since the Vue opened, has lost some residents. Though I will say, taking that elevator up to my room or sky lobby in the lofts impressed some dates . Was only a matter of time before they moved onto the Quads. Hopefully the new dorms are made more affordable.

im not sure its so much that the "can't do" mind set has taken over, but more so "oil money" lines the pockets of our politicians. unfortunately they only see these electric trains and CNG busses as taking away potential profits from the oil companies, and don't factor in all the positive benefits they would bring.

Which is just crazy. You look at the Canadian versions of Houston (Calgary and Edmonton), and they have no problems getting rail and the citizens there vote for expansions. I will never understand why the politicians are so anti rail in Houston. It is really frustrating and holding the city back. Nevermind that early 1980s plan (which would be great for Houston currently), if the 2000 light rail plan that was approved by voters did not reach so much opposition, the inner loop lines would all be complete right now. Instead, we get the half assed version and nothing better for the next decade at least.

And lets not forget either, part of the reason the rail runs in the streets without many grade separations is because Metro did not receive help from politicians who blocked funding. Could have been much better without so much corruption and delays.

Yup. You got it. A lot of people bastardize/simplify the whole induced demand theory into "highway widenings are useless" or worse, "highways create congestion", but it really does depend on how the system is set up. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but the main reason 610 backs up near Uptown was that it replaced Post Oak Road, a vital surface street that without it leaves no true north/south road in the area.

Disagree. 610 West Loop backs up because it is in a high volume area near large employment centers. It is still just a 3 or 4 mile stretch. If what you are saying were true, then the Katy freeway wouldn't have bad traffic because there are multiple side streets to take, but that freeway still backs up. Even in non rush hour traffic it backs up (and both directions too).

They're so right about that I-10 West ramp onto the GP. It's pretty awful.

It is such an easy ramp to navigate. When traffic is slow, the grade going up is so steep that you do not even have to use your brakes (like pretty much all ramps). I don't understand why people have so much trouble with it.

Expansion talk for Segment E of the Grand Parkway already starting. New section getting 80,000 vehicles per day. Pretty busy during rush hour now.

http://impactnews.com/houston-metro/katy/grand-parkway-paves-the-way-for-growth/

Saw them on campus yesterday at UH (sorry, no pics). All those students hoping the rail tracks trying to make a shortcut are going to have to find another way pretty soon. With the way people drive around UH, there will be many accidents unfortunately.

We need somebody that can kick Culberson butt out of office. I live just 4 blocks from Ted Poe's district which he is pro rail. I think METRO needs to build light rail down Washington Ave over the Katy Freeway to connect to the Northwest Transit Center to avoid his area. It is so hard to believe he gave Federal money to other cities. This man will stay in office until he dies. When the River Oaks District opens up Afton Oaks will see traffic like never before seen!

It is really frustrating. Houston continues to fall years behind its sunbelt counterparts like Atlanta, DFW, LA, Phoenix, etc., that continue to go through rail expansions. Their politicians, on both sides of the aisle, welcome rail. Meanwhile, we have an enigma here in Houston that does not mind seeing federal funds sent from his city to other cities to better progress their transit plans. Sad.

I'd prefer to see a tax incentive to spur more development in EaDo. Midtown is doing just fine.

East Downtown is doing just fine. It is amazing how some of these blocks have filled in recently. A good amount of people are always out walking and running. Retail needs to happen there though.

I don't see why Houston doesn't invest a little bit more on the stations? I understand the money situation and general cheapness the city has at times, but Houston could've easily made it so that only people with tickets can board the train. Have essentially a glass box or walls and to get in the box area to board the train you need a purchased ticket to slide the door open. I was in Istanbul last week and they had such a great example of this, but I forgot to take a picture. I'm really happy with the effort and interest the city has put into downtown, and I hope they continue improving.

You don't normally see things like that for light rail stations. I am actually not sure of a light rail system with stations like that, unless it is linked with some heavy rail stations (which do have those things you mention).

Thanks for putting those stats together! 25,000 international immigrants seems like a lot. Is that normal growth for a year? I don't have the last 10+ years but it would be interesting to see how that number has grown as Houston becomes recognized more internationally.

Here you go: http://recenter.tamu.edu/data/pop/popm/cbsa26420.asp

The new numbers aren't posted yet, but give it a couple of weeks.

No. Exxon built a campus that Chevron only heard about in like the last 3 months, and it has shattered their world and caused them to rethink all of their facilities development. Its probably the most successful campus in history and its not even built yet. Chevron must follow suit, even if they havto move to Conroe.

Yes this.

They used to say the same thing about Kingwood, Trae. If Houston wants to annex Katy or Cypress, they will. I would not be surprised at all if Cypress gets taken before the end of the decade. Katy is a little less likely, as Houston could simply leap frog the actual city limits and start building up out there by Pedersen Rd, towards Igloo, as the metro progresses westward.

What would be the benefit for the COH to annex all of these residential areas and have to provide city services to them? Not to mention it would sway the city from moderate/slightly left leaning to the right. I believe igloo is in the Katy etj, but I'm not sure. I don't know why the city would annex cypress. There is way too much land in the city now and they can't maintain what they have. no need to expand.

Since Cypress is, as I mentioned before, unincorporated and cannot annex without Houston's permission, it will probably become part of Houston, therefore, any conflict you have with the "suburbanites" will become petty neighborhood bickering.

Houston will never annex the residential areas of Cypress or Katy. These places will just be without proper representation because the Houston etj is way too spread out.

Katy is not large enough to warrant speeding up construction of this road. There are maybe 12k ppl who live in Katy? Tiny.

Same for Cypress. Is that an incorporated city?

I cannot recall the last time either of these two jokes of a city ever annexed land.

The "Katy area" has about 300,000 people and includes much more than the City of Katy. Cypress is of similar size probably. I'm glad they built most of this thing without frontage roads. It will look much better once growth comes around it.

The only uturns north are at Franz and Morton roads. There are also frontage roads in those sections.

FWIW, when the Interstates were built they had far less interchanges than they do today (many roads went under or over). Maybe there would be less traffic overall if they didn't build as many...

Yeah but Texas is pretty unique with the amount it has in its urban areas compared to other places across the country.

About how long did it take to drive 290 to I10?

No more than 15 minutes.

Drove on this thing earlier today and yesterday. Yesterday it was about 3PM and I was heading south from the outlet mall to Cinco. Southbound on the new section, there were a few cars there with me. Northbound there were packs of cars one after the other. maybe six or seven cars in each pack. I'm gonna guess those are people living tat 529 or any of the other roads that intersect 99 heading south towards ten. Today there was more traffic both ways. Definitely wasn't deserted like I thought it would be. It should be interesting to see how traffic flows on it once people return to normal work schedules. I think it is going to have some backups already. This is where I agree with cloud713. They should have maybe skipped over some roads like Clay and Morton Ranch to have less local traffic clouding the roadway, for example. I do know that there are some overpasses without exits/entrances and I don't think there will be new ones constructed there. there was another overpass with exits/entrances that has concrete barriers blocking it.(bridgeland) So, they didn't add entrances/exits for every local road at least.

Btw, love that 70 speed limit. Pretty much everyone cruises in the low 70s on the right with a couple of people going near 80 or a little over on the left. So almost like any other freeway in Houston. It's about time that Houston had a tollway with a 70 limit, because DFW, Austin, and SA all have one at least.