BEES?!

Wow that vendor list has got something for everyone, doesn't it? Can't wait to see what they'll announce next! This place is gonna be awesome! I was already super hyped for that rooftop garden (Love me some outdoor spaces, what can I say... :P especially 'cause this one's so unique for our city) but seeing the huge variety of food offerings and knowing they're going to drop more? Yeah this project is definitely after my heart. :P

So let me think- Discovery West, Texas Tower, Brava, and the unnamed 42-story highrise going up- so that makes 4 towers going up at once downtown, is that correct? When's the last time we've had that many buildings going up at once downtown?

METRONext Moving Forward Plan Update as of June 2021. Not a lot of info on BRT, but as far as the Inner Katy BRT corridor goes, looks like there's a community meeting in July, then an interagency meeting in August. Hope they end up implementing the Memorial Park stop that was proposed. I am so interested to see how the BRT is going to interact with the LRT downtown- I guess it'll share the lane with the trains, is that right? There's also a lot of info in there about the BOOST corridors, looks like they're thinking that the pilot 1.5 mi section of the 56 Airline/Montrose BOOST corridor will be finished this year, and the 1.5 mi partner segment is supposed to have begun construction in June 2021. (6/30, actually) Has there been any info on the preferred alternative for the University BRT line posted anywhere since the Chron article?

I was there this past weekend, we took the MetroRapid Silver line and got off at W Alabama/Galleria station (I was really pleased that it just plops you right there in front of the tower!) Right as we'd gotten on the bus at the transit center, we were hit by a massive storm, which cleared up literally as we were getting off at the stop, so we had a chance to get some pictures of the empty waterwall! We were the only people there for about 10 minutes at most, and then about 20-30 people showed up and proceeded to get their pictures taken, etc. I was really surprised how fast it filled up!

I personally like the lady in the bike lane. She has the look of "Oh flurf, did I go the wrong way?"

That glass on the main building is just stunningly beautiful. Wow.

That sucks! I hope they're able to figure something out to fix that. I know they're pretty limited as to what they can do (no irrigation, no intrusive plantings, concrete can only be a certain width) but I really hope they can make something work within those confines to improve the drainage!

Some utility corridor trail updates I found while checking out the Houston Parks Board site. Phase 1 was finished in 12/2020 and runs from Blalock to Wirt Rd. There was a virtual meeting held today, 6/29 to discuss the next phase of the trail. This is an image of the current planned route (subject to change). Looks like they're well on their way to connecting up Addicks with White Oak Bayou. :) I'm happy to see more of these trails pop up. Speaking of more of these trails, I also found that there is a plan to put in a utility corridor trail in Sharpstown area, the map of the proposed trail is here. The final report is here. I'm not sure if/when construction has begun on this project. The last meeting was held in 8/2020. Can't wait to see more of these projects pop up around town!

I found this! And this PDF from December 2019 (I think there's a thread specifically about this project)

I remembered today that several years ago, a bill passed at the state level which would allow municipalities to work with energy providers to create trails along utility corridors. I had wondered, while driving by one of the corridors, why they weren't being utilized in this way yet. Lo and behold, it turns out that last summer, one of these trails was completed, and it stretches from W Airport down to the Sims bayou greenway trail- about 1.5 miles. Here's a Chron article about it This could be extremely helpful in linking the greenways together and creating a much safer alternative to shared lanes on streets and roads, while utilizing land that really can't be developed otherwise. I'm interested to see more of these corridors develop this way.

I'm super pro-rail and pro-LRT, but I am also pretty surprised at just how much cheaper it is to build BRT than LRT. I totally get why, and I'm not knocking LRT, but wow that is pretty nuts, and it really makes a lot of sense why METRO's opting to go this route, and I respect it. I was disappointed that old maps that showed heavy implementation of LRT/heavy rail seem to have been scrapped in favor of BRT and less LRT, but now that I've actually seen the cost, and understand that it's been a huge fight for METRO to even get money for these projects at all, it does seem like BRT will be more bang for their buck, let them move more people, and maybe be able to prove that Houston CAN be a transit-friendly city. Those BOOST lines sound neat, too. Are they currently being implemented around town? I think I saw on one of the bike path threads they were (painted bike lanes and 'floating' bus stops). If that's what the BOOST lines will all be like, that will be awesome!

It looks like METRO's gearing up to start the next BRT line- the extension north toward the proposed HSR site at the NW mall site from the NW transit center, and then moving east along I-10 to link the NW transit center up with downtown. I couldn't find anything on their site, but I did see this article from abc13. Nice to see that it sounds like they're moving forward on the next phases of the plan, which also makes me wonder if METRO has high confidence that the HSR to Dallas is actually happening (despite opposition from some folks at the moment)- I am so pumped to check out the BRT line when it's open this summer.