totheskies

and if you want to run off customers from downtown then charge more. so you drive down there and benefit but want others to take transit? hmm.

I take transit to and through downtown all the time. Since I spend a fair amount of time there, I would say 2/3 of the time I use transit to get there, and 1/3 of the time I use my car. There are some rare instances where an HGO rehearsal will run past the time I can catch the 40 or 36. So on nights when I have a very late rehearsal, I choose to use my car instead of have to pay cab fare.

Parking downtown is set so inexpensively to encourage people to visit downtown. The more people that visit, the more stores and businesses get built, the more reason there is for people to come downtown...whether by car, by transit, by bike, or by foot.

Yeah, maybe I'm jumping the gun here... we need more people and more stuff in downtown first, and if insanely cheap parking/lax enforcement encourages that, then Amen (so be it).

But still, it's a shame that every week can't be like Rodeo weeks for the MetroRail. They make a killing during the Rodeo b/c people decide that they'd rather park somewhere else and ride the train. Hopefully downtown will be like that one day.

Those two surface lots at Bell station are particularly offensive.

Free after 6.

Great for parking and coming to Critical Mass tonight!

^Too true... but alas, I'm rehearsing with the Houston Ebony Opera Society, so I miss critical mass yet again

I can't understand this for the life of me. All of the street meters are only $1.50/hour to park. They're free after 7pm every weeknight, and free all day on Sundays... regardless of any events that may be going on. If the city is so far in the red, why aren't they charging more money for these meters?

Don't get me wrong, I've benefitted from them plenty of times, but If you really want to encourage more pedestrian activity and transit usage in downtown, you have to charge more for parking!!!!!

Thoughts?

I got a bike at Performance and it was a good experience. I also like Bike Barn. Every time I go to Bike Barn on Kirby to buy something minor, like valve cap or a tire lever, the guys just give it to me for free. Their techs are also really knowledgeable and know how to fix just about everything (but only at the Kirby location...I've had mixed experiences at the other locations). They also have a 24 hour area open to the public at the Kirby location that's basically just a little room with a vending machine where you can buy tubes, patch kits, and other little stuff like that.

You'll want a road bike (thin tires, should be kept almost entirely on paved road) or a hybrid (slightly bigger tires, but still smaller than mountain bike, and doesn't have much knobbiness like mountain bikes, can handle a little bit more off-roading than a road bike). Road bikes are the fastest, but you're less likely to have a blowout from a hazard on a hybrid.

You can load your bike on to just about any Metro bus now. The lever on the front of the bus folds down, you place your bike on the rack, and then you bring an arm down on top to grip the top of your wheel. There are two spaces per bus for bikes. On the big commuter buses that go to the park and rides its slightly different. There's a luggage compartment just to the left of the bus entrance with a bike symbol on it. You pull on the latch and lift up the door and then slide your bike inside.

The train: You can only take your bike on the train during non-commute hours, 9 AM to 3 PM and after 7 PM on weekdays, and anytime on weekends. Best way to stay out of everyone's way is to lift up the seat in the handicapped seating area and stand there with your bike.

You can plan Metro trips on Google Maps. Just choose Directions, type your route, time, and then choose Public Transit. It'll tell you what bus to get on when.

I had a weekday off one time, and decided to take my bike up to Kingwood... The bus driver will let you store your bike in the luggage compartment, and since none of the workers ever have luggage to store. It's really beautiful up there, and I need to do it again.

Holy wow! Glad you're okay! If you want to get back on the bike for a few miles and aren't doing anything Friday, try to make it down to the critical mass.

I've found that anything outside of about a 5 mile radius of downtown Houston is hostile territory. Even some of the roads inside that radius are pretty scary (Westheimer). I'm sure there are other acceptable areas, but the farther you venture from our core, once you get off of neighborhood streets or the trailways, you're taking your life into your hands (or more accurately, you're putting your life in the hands of enraged and distracted drivers).

Yeah, I was more upset with the driver and how childish they behaved than actually "hurt". but it's kind of opened my eyes to how poorly maintained the infrastructure is for the East End. Montrose and the Heights aren't "great" either (still lots of potholes, cracks in the road, and ill-maintained gutters), but leaps and bounds ahead of Eastwood and the UofH area. We've got to get it together on our road maintenance.

...Houston’s handful of dense neighborhoods should keep working on walkability. It’s the right answer for places like Downtown, Montrose, and Midtown. But for all the suburban neighborhoods where most Houstonians live – bikeability is a much more reachable goal.

Thank you for a fantastic post and a fantastic thread!! I was riding regularly, but I ran over a pothole one day and didn't recover in time for a car to come and hit my bike (and grazed my hip as well). That happened a month ago, and I've been too scared to touch my bike ever since. The motorist was driving and texting of course, and barely noticed what happened until they looked up and saw that I was writing down their license plate. THEN they pulled a decisive U-turn to come and see if I was okay. Gotta love irresponsible drivers.

Houston is an amazing city in so many ways... but perhaps more amazing than anything is how neglectful we have been of our infrastructure. It's just plain unsafe. Like other forumers have said, the bike lanes are really sad... most of them are literally falling off of the road or sinking down into oblivion. As nice as these brand new hike and bike trails are, it would also be nice for us to take care of the existing trails that we have too. There's no reason that every road in Houston can't look like the newly refurbished Kirby drive (between Westheimer and Richmond)... a road that can be safe and usable for pedestrian, cyclist and auto alike.

Sorry the rant, but you get the idea.

Ultimately, it needs to be a rail connection, but BRT would be a great idea in the shortrun. But the rail line would be independent of vehicle traffic, which IMO is the most important advantage of "rapid" commuter service.

Starting Monday, January 4, Harris County Transit Services is greatly expanding its bus service to areas traditionally not serviced by Metro. The new routes will more than double the current service to over 60 linear miles and triple the number of stops.

The routes will link residents of Pasadena, Baytown, La Porte, Clear Lake, Seabrook, South Houston, Highlands and Crosby into a single transit system, offering a variety of new travel options. Harris County Transit Services Director, Ken Fickes says people will be able to get to jobs, to school or the doctor.

"It is our hope that more and more residents will see this as an affordable way to get around. We tried to take people's travel needs into account. For instance, you can get on a bus in Crosby and go to the Strawberry Medical Clinic in Pasadena for at most, only a dollar," said Ken Fickes, Director of Harris County Transit Services.

Other direct stops include the Harris County Recovers Housing Assistance Center, 16602 Diana Lane, (serving residents who still have homes damaged by Hurricane Ike), San Jacinto College and Pasadena

Town Square Mall. The routes also include stops at various drug stores, grocery stores and libraries.

Harris County Community Services Director David Turkel expressed gratitude for the public and private cooperation that made this new service a possibility.

"We are grateful to the Houston Galveston Area Council for providing the grant for the service and for the support and cooperation from elected officials and the business community along these routes, Turkel said."

While the maximum price is $1.00 per ride, seniors and those who are disabled will only pay 50 cents. All students with an ID are free.

Route service times vary by location. Starting times range from 5:30 - 7am, and conclude between 6-7 pm. Monday through Friday. For the latest routes and schedules go to www.harriscountytransit.com , then follow the Services tab to Proposed Services.

Wow this is great news for the East Harris County!

The Woodlands is nice... but it's too damn far from the central city. Makes me sick. So I'm voting for Pearland by default.

My mother always told me I was born 40, so that makes me 65. Which means I'm your elder. And you should respect your elders.

I apologize for not being more clear. I'm not calling HOB weak. I'm calling entertainment-oriented anchors weak as a category, which specifically means that such anchors may take up a large chunk of space (at a significant rent discount by the square foot) and draw many people at a time, but that they have a difficult time justifying complimentary retail other than food service. Compare the traditional regional mall business model to that of an entertainment-anchored mall:

A strong mall anchor focuses on apparel and general merchandise, providing enormous draw and broad appeal across all demographics. In-line retailers then have three angles of attack: 1) they can specialize on certain products and themes that appeal to various segments of the large and diverse base of shoppers, 2) they allow comparison shopping between numerous similar stores, and 3) they can exploit convenience-oriented and impulse-driven retail.

In contrast, entertainment-oriented retail anchors start off with a fairly limited demographic appeal such as limits segmentation potentials, they draw people mostly during off hours, and they do not foster an atmosphere conducive to comparison shopping. Aside from food service, there's weak synergistic potential.

And yes, totheskies, I realize that our generation is supposed to go gaga over this kind of thing, so sayeth the Gen-X marketing managers that promote products at us. I don't care. The fundamental rules of retail still apply, no matter how many voracious consumers or European sedans were depicted in the architects' renderings of HP.

Right so that's the textbook difference between successful retail, successful entertainment venues and the advantages of one over another. Got it. HP's current retail scheme is sub-standard (being kind there)... I hope they are trying to recruit more variety for that end of the development.

Depends on whose goal you're talking about.

The City's goal was to have a thriving downtown entertainment-oriented mecca, serving the populations that you identified. The City specifically denied funding for any uses that were not considered sufficiently "public", including residential, hotel, or office space. The subsidies were provided to the developer on the basis that the developer build shell space and were in no way dependent upon the developer hitting an occupancy threshold or successfully attracting the tenants that were initially targeted, nor were there any incentives put forward to benefit prospective tenants.

The developer, working from 2006 rental rates and 2006 cap rates, didn't much have to care if occupancy problems persisted as had been the case in so many similarly-themed projects because they were able to make the project appear sexy enough to arrange for a huge lump sum subsidy. Their assumptions were wrong.

In summary: 1) The City got what it paid for, shell retail space, and would've been better off directly courting retailers such as HOB with incentives to open up shop downtown, letting the retailer determine which is the best location for a new venue. 2) The developer is likely stuck with HP for a good long while, not a good position to be in if the mortgage comes due at any point over the next several years. 3) Downtown promoters have lost the opportunity to point to a successful and transformative project, which is what they were desperately hoping for. Instead they got a rehashed Bayou Place. 4) Convention-goers, out-of-town visitors, and suburbanites get to enjoy the handful of facilities that the City of Houston's subsidies made possible. Houstonians get that enjoyment, too, but overpaid for it. We shouldn't brag about it.

Ok, but 2006 was a world of crazy-ass speculation anyway, and no one could have predicted how bad things were going to get when HP was ready to open. I'm sure that the developers faced some ridiculously hard decisions to get this thing off the ground, and now thanks to so many businesses backing out or stalling, we're left with a half-empty development. Sounds like a story that virtually every city in the United States could tell about it's malls or shopping venues right now. No one is healthy, and we're not even sure what healthy is anymore.

IMO, HP should narrow in its focus first and choose who's more important. They've got the hipster Gen-Y crowd on lock with the entertainment venues. Now they need to go for some things that will appeal more to conventioneers and general Houstonians... a Houston-themed gift shop, a Metro RideStore, a nice Western wear shop like Cavender's. These are places that will appeal to both the tourist crowd and the "downtown tourists" that aren't as familiar with the inner city. It would be a nice way to foster retail interest without trying to redefine what is already working.

Doubtful. If white people aren't willing to ride the bus to get to light rail (in which case they could already get to HP by bus), then you're limited to small concentric circles around rail stations as the catchment area. That's very limiting with respect to METRO's Phase II implementation once you segment out the demographics to conform to the target market.

In order to attract retailers and achieve a reasonable level of occupancy, HP must overcome the fact that it is a mere community center with weak entertainment-oriented anchors and narrow demographic appeal (similar to the plight that faces the ever-beleaguered Marq-E Center, except that that one has visibility, signage, and free parking). HP would need to generate the broad appeal of a regional mall, but that's just not realistic.

OMG how old are you???

I guess I'm trying to reason how the House of Blues is considered a "weak entertainment-oriented anchor". It's been very successful, and hasn't had any trouble competing with the Verizon or Warehouse Live. Pete's is doing very well every time I go there, and it seems that Andalusia and LSL are off to a good start. I agree the reatil of HP is beyond weak becuase it's not well-planned and there's not a healthy retail population in downtown yet. But if you're calling the entertainment segment of this developement "weak" then you're not familiar enough with the project to be making a comment.

HOB Houston is in the plus column... so much so that it makes Live Nations 3Q profit earnings report...

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9MjAwNjl8Q2hpbGRJRD0tMXxUeXBlPTM=&t=1

WOOHOO!!!! I knew Culberson's moaning and groaning wouldn't be too effective.

I recently posted my thoughts of Houston Pavilions on SSP...

PROs

-NRG leased ALL of the Pavilions' office space, so this basically has allowed them to stay alive. And insured that we'll at least have retail space for the future in that area.

-The House of Blues Houston is the rock of this development hands down. It's been one of the most successful of the HOB franchise to date, and continues to draw top notch crowds for it's concerts. Don't know how the restaurant has held up, but HOB is certainly not going anywhere.

-Forever XXI has a steady stream of retail customers, so it can be counted on the plus side.

-Business overall has started to pick up in the restaurant arena. Guadalajara has been a big hit, and has a strong showing of daytime and evening customers. Still a little early to see about Yao, III Forks, Mia Bella and Andalusia, but what I've heard so far has been good.

-Houston Pavilions has went above and beyond the call for promoting retail shopping in downtown. They have contracted out pedicab services that go to the Theater District, Discovery Green and Midtown to pick up shoppers and bring them to HP. Most people don't know about this, but it's really handy and (hopefully) is adding to the visibility of HP.

CONs

-Lidz and Journeys were early casualties... they opened too soon, and were in HORRIBLE locations. The development is just now getting enough "interest" that people are willing to actually walk through it, but at the beginning there just wasn't anything there.

-Books-a-Million is (IMO) the crappiest of the big bookstore chains. It doesn't fit in downtown Houston. I applaud them for their bravery, but I think that B&N or Borders (or an ORIGINAL big bookstore!!!) would have been much better for that area. I do shop there though, because I want to support retail in downtown, and their travel guide section is passable.

-Pedicabs aside, they still haven't done enough to forge a link with the new "zone of activity" by Discovery Green. There's still way too many people that come to downtown to visit the park, but don't know about HP. They need to be more aggressive with their promotion. I continue to hear that there's "nowhere to eat" or "nothing to do" once people are done at the park.

-It's half empty for crying out loud!!!! So frustrating!

So for me, HP is still in the plus column by a 5-to-4 vote. We're much better off having what we have of it than we were with 3 surface parking lots, but there's still a long way to go. I think that 2010 is going to be a good year for HP though, especially on the retail side.

Back to Parker...

Her experience as a Controller is really going to help us IMO. I just hope she can eeek out enough money to keep our transit initiatives going.

As for the soccer stadium, is there some kind of law against the Dynamo just raising funds for it?? Why do they keep begging the city to foot the bill? I'm more than willing to contribute some money to it. Start a pledge drive or something!!! If the city's budget woes are as bad as some think, then a soccer stadium shouldn't be a priority over things like hospitals and very basic infrastructure. But that's an opportunity for the Dynamo organization to raise funds, and then hand the city a check when they're ready to break ground.

Some guy on Channel 11 said she is inheriting the worst financial mess any mayor of Houston has ever inherited.

So what does that say about White? What did he do to get Houston into the mess he's talking about? Things like Discovery Green, Dynamo Stadium etc? I thought people like him a lot, I guess it was somewhat of a smoke screen?

So you're saying Discovery Green was a BAD investment???

The Mobility Response Team was a bad investment for sure, and we probably should have focused on fixing existing sidewalks before agressive expansion of the bike trails, but please please PLEASE don't say anything negative about Discovery Green. It's one of the coolest city parks in the United States!!

Oh, and btw... Discovery Green was a public/private partnership. The city didn't pay very much for it.

I like the last little bit of the article... it sums up the mayoral race entirely. Annise Parker takes a firm, defined stance on the issue while Gene Locke scrambles to respond and distance himself from her. Perfect really.

Let's be honest. The white people wouldn't be there without other white people being around. And the more affluent brown people you refer to wouldn't be around if the white people weren't around, either...just like they aren't hanging out at the Little Toy Club on Telephone Road.

And generationally speaking, yes, young white people increase their wealth at the fastest rate. They start off with what mommy and daddy give them and build from there at a faster rate, statistically speaking, than non-whites.

As for the word "vital", I keep using quotes because it has multiple meanings. I think the one I described does justice to what CALMSP meant by it, but by my reading of things, Canal Street has more vitality than W. Gray. It doesn't need revitalizing...but it still does need white people, because how else are the property owners going to get rich?

Being of a non-white persuasion myself, I don't refute your statistics per se. Affluent minorities are still something of an exception more than a rule in central Houston. No one is denying that. But it is foolish to assume that the wealth generators of this community are dependent upon young white people. There's simply too much evidence to the contrary to imply this as fact in 21st century Houston. The OMB race is still around, but it includes more diversity than it did in the 70s 80s or 90s. What you and most others may be seeing is the fact that no matter how much wealth and success are achieved in the minority communities, there is still a large faction of people that choose to adhere to the expected stereotype.

Also it would be a fallacy for me to pretend that there are more black people on Washington than there are white people... it's just not the case. Black people are still a minority within the greater Houston area. But the scope of minorities (just like everyone else) is in fact changing, and they are now contributing significantly to affluent communities all over the city. Just stating the facts here.

BTW... I checked out the LTC after I saw it in your post. It wasn't my style, so I went back over to Max's Wine Dive for the usual, and then went to join "my peeps" in the gayborhood.

Well I did the early vote... in this race I've liked both candidates to a point, but I've gotten tired of Gene Locke offerring half-solutions to the issues. Annise Parker seems to be the best choice, because she has worked with Bill White, examined what he did right and wrong in office, and is ready to make improvements and keep us moving forward.

Just like the whole police officer debate... coordinating the city of Houston's agencies is a lot better (and cheaper) solution IMO. I work at UofH, and I get sick to my stomach every time I hear about some break-in or something going on in Third Ward, and eventhough the UHPD are less than a minute away from the accident, people have to wait on HPD to respond to the scene. I know the UHPD... they are trained policeman and they are ready to respond, but b/c they work exclusively for UH, they risk their jobs if they act off campus. It's ridiculous. That sealed the deal for AP in my book.

The whole gay thing ISN'T a big deal... it shouldn't be a deal at all.

No, I agree with you. The preponderance of wealth in this country and the world is controlled by people of caucasian or asian ancestry, not blacks or hispanics. Thusly, areas that are being revitalized (i.e. that are becoming "vital" once again) must be considered in the context of the social needs of these populations, and specifically those elements of the population that control an increasing amount of wealth, yet are not tied down by disproportionate concerns over safety or schools.

Example: Washington Avenue is "vital" because it serves as this group's preferred breeding ground. In truth, that neighborhood still has a mixed population and a sizable aging industrial component, but the residential and productive purposes of the neighborhood are secondary to its "vital" purpose.

Where I find fault with your comment is that you provide an observation with no 'final solution'. I was merely taking a guess (which you haven't denied) at what you might propose. Or did you have something different in mind?

So are you implying that

1) only young white people visit the Washington corridor

2) young people that are not of white or Asian races do not spend money or create "vital" environments

3) young white people control an increasing amount of wealth?

We're now almost 10 years into the 21st century, and white people are becoming more and more scarce by the day. Like the old school Republican party, they just don't hold all of the cards anymore. I frequent Washington, and never, not once since I've been there have I only seen exclusively white people, nor have I ever observed ANYWHERE in the city of Houston an arrangement of only white people doing something... not even at a church. This includes various "high society" events in River Oaks or on Memorial where I would assume the audience would be more cohesive.

whatever the promotion is to advertise the East End, it will need to direct its resources to the whites aged 25-35...........thats what helps vitalize an area. Larger incomes and the desire to eat out and have drinks at the bar continuously.

Not anymore dude... there's not enough to go around anymore. The young professional class (especially in Houston) is made up of a wide variety of racial groups.

I voted for Parker, and will still vote for her in the runoff, but losing the Houston Dynamo is HUGE mistake... and we WILL LOSE THEM if a stadium deal doesn't go through. And we need it built in the central city... all of our major sports venues are in the same area. It would be so stupid to build this in Pearland and cut off a huge swath of Dynamo fans from being able to get to games via public transit. I've written the Parker campaign twice now about this issue... guess it's time to write them again.

Hmm I may come and check this out after Lohengrin.

We're not talking the paint colors on the station awnings here. You're talking literally about the foundation of the project.

That's like deciding you want to change the location of the parking lot after pouring the building slab. Or deciding after 3 years worth of time and money go into your retail development planning that what you really wanna build is a high rise. You don't go back and change step 5 when you're on step 85.

No, you don't get it.

Hey, I have an idea... how bout we debate McCain vs Obama while we're at it.

Then why are you now advocating for an inferior system? There is nothing in the definition of BRT that dictates it must be grade separated. BRT is LRT but with wheels instead of tracks. Either can be elevated or not elevated, grade separated or not grade separated. If we couldnt afford to elevate LRT, we certainly couldnt afford to elevate the BRT. When we had BRT spec'd for those two lines, it wasnt elevated. With the money we have to spend on these lines, it's never going to be elevated.. advocating for BRT is the cheaper way out.

It has to do with money appropriation. We're building 5 at-grade lines, instead of focusing on one or two grade-separated lines. The question is, do we need all 5 at-grade lines, or would it be better to make a proper investment in the University Line, and "hold off" on the others?? I'm well aware of the reality of the situation, and I have no plans of going out and picketing METRO, but there's no reason that we can't have an informed discussion about the alternatives just because "a plan is being carried out". BTW everything about the lines has NOT been decided yet... they haven't even purchased all of the land for construction. And the East End is still battling the decision to build an overpass.

Correct. So why are they installing MORE toll roads?

At least tollways generate revenue for their own upkeep, as well as surplus for other projects. I'd love to diffuse the power of HCTRA and get more of those monies to the city and county though. I think Freeways are a bad idea nowadays... all they do is encourage more traffic out to nowhere (not that tollways don't, but atleast there's a little profit from it).

Metro Eng 1 (Jack) : "Oh crap Jason, Looks like they're debating BRT again over on HAIF"

Metro Eng 2 ( Jason): "Wow.. well, maybe we should go backwards a few years and look at BRT again"

Metro Eng 1: "Hello, Mr Wilson?, Yes, This is Jack down in engineering.. Look, sir, those guys over at HAIF, well they're debating BRT again. We think we should probably stop everything and consider the pros and cons of BRT just one more time for the East and Southeast lines"

Frank Wilson: Listen son, after all the work you guys have done down there, that would put us back years. We have already begun utility work and razed numerous buildings for Pete's sake.

Metro Eng 1: Yes sir, I know.. but It's Haif..... and they're debating.

Frank Wilson: .....*long pause*..... You're right. Do it.

If you would like to discuss the merits of BRT over LRT for future Phase III corridors such as Washington Ave... that would be appropriate. Knock yourself out.

Ok... I get your point. But the lines aren't built YET... just being constructed. Maybe continuing the conversation about why sub-par lines are being built will shed some light on the situation, and cause METRO to find better solutions. Frankly, I'm tired of having to settle for the cheap way out for Houston.