totheskies

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).

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.

More tollways!!!! When are we going to convert all freeways to toll roads??

Eh, I voted for Parker... I agree with her most of the way, but I worry that she'll be "too much" of a fiscal tight wad.

Thanks My point being was this... some of our lines are obviously "ready for LRT"... such as the Uptown and the University Line. But I'm beginning to get the impression that we are over-building our system, and settling for sub-par light rail lines on all five corridors. There is not enough grade separation and ROW in these areas to constitute a significant trip-time improvement over the current cus routes. Yes it's going to get riders because of rail bias, and because it's nice and new, but we would be better served by building a few high quality LRT lines than by building lots of "ok" lines. If the Southeast and East End lines are only going to have 10,000 riders per day, they would be better served by a BRT system. THAT's my point.

This is an issue that has come up before, but it's very intriguing. I understand METRO's viewpoint with having Light Rail lines for places like the East End and Southeast, but I often wonder if BRT would be a cheaper investment at this stage. Especially if we do it right and provide grade separated guideways, it would be a whole lot more cost effective to build now, and it would serve as infrastructure to convert to rail in the future. The projected ridership of these rail corridors is very low, and I think it would be worth it (before the lines are fully built) to re-investigate BRT as an effective planning tool for some of these areas. Your thoughts?

NIMBYs. They just don't want it there, yet they fail to offer suggestions for a better location. The homeless people aren't going to leave downtown any time soon, so I think this development is a good idea. Plus with more street level retail, it potentially benefits everyone.

Man, I'd kill for all of these retailers (in URBAN format of course) to come to downtown. How cool would it be for downtown to have a Best Buy, a Kroger Marketplace, or a Beall's???? We've gotta work on this stuff for downtown!!!!!!

That's weird... why isn't the US90A commuter rail route going all the way to Sugar Land?? No sense in building it if it's not going to serve the highest population area.

Well first things first... I'm in love with the new Winspear, and have already bought tickets to Don Pasquale in February. What a beautiful Opera House!!! Secondly, not loving what I've seen of the Wyly theater... it looks like something that Houston would build. It's gray, big/box, angular-ness is the antithesis of Winspear (which makes it even weirder to have them so close together). Hopefully when I experience the facility, I'll feel differently. D-CPA isn't going to "enliven downtown"... it's too far away from the rest of downtown for that to happen. It's also not going to help Victory much. It's in a retail dead zone, and it will be a couple more years before anyone lives in the area. At best, it's going to create another "zone of activity" for the downtown area, but it won't cause people to actually move back and live there. The missing people of the puzzle in Dallas is still figuring out how to connect Downtown and Victory Park. Once that's done, the area will be able to revitalize.

I don't know what all the fuss is about with EaDo... over half of the city still has no earthly idea where EastWOOD is, so it's not like they're going to find Eado anytime soon. Houston east of I-45 doesn't exist... unless it's near the airport.

I'm a regular viewer of both news networks... can't stand Lou Dobbs though. Fox news is slanted and CNN is slanted, but the problem is that there are more left-leaners (CNN/HLN, MSNBC,) than right-leaners. Same thing with print media... the left far outnumbers the right. But there is a reason for that... we are becoming a left-of-center nation. There's no point in trying to deny that as a fact. The other problem is that we're leaning more to the left, but not necessarily leaning more to the democrats. I personally think that CNN understands that a bit better than Fox News at this point. They're branching out and working hard to promote themselves as a "global channel" more than a partisan mouthpiece. Of the shows I regularly watch on Fox News (O'Reilly Factor, Huckabee, Shepard Smith), it's kind of disappointing that they don't focus on the growing diversity of our country. They continue to preach to a very slim segment of society. Juan Williams (a regular FNC contributor) has even said this on Hannity's show. The best opinion show on television was Hannity and Colmes... hands down. It was a great way to try and make sense of the logic (or lack thereof) between the two groups, and then try to find your own viewpoint. I really miss that show. But anyway, FNC serves a really important purpose by boldly proclaiming the opposing viewpoint. I don't want that to end or even be diminished. But I think they would do better to learn from CNN and try to look at a broader scope of the issues. They seem to gravitate around the same group of talking points... national debt, support our troops, Obamanomics... etc. Open up the eyes a little bit more, and it really is a good network.

There's a Dunkin Donuts on Wayside between Harrisburg and Polk. It's in the Magnolia area.

Yeah, I've seen this too. I think it's a branch bank location.

Well if y'all don't like Calhoun Lofts at UofH, get ready to not like a lot of other stuff. Stadium Parking Garage and Cougar Walk... http://www.uhsa.uh.edu/regents/board_meetings/documents/081209Facilities/FCMP6.1.pdf New Business classroom building... http://www.uhsa.uh.edu/regents/board_meetings/documents/081209Facilities/FCMP8.1.pdf

Depends on what "type" of university situation you're going for. If you're wanting a direct comptitor for UofH (i.e. a school that is planning on being at an exemplary level), then you'd want to look at a prime location like the inner loop. But if you're just working on another region-centered school like UHD, then it should really go in one of two locations... Southwest to Sugarland, or Nort between The Woodlands and Tomball. That's where another 4 year university is most desperately needed. UHS-Sugar Land is "next up" in the system master plan to become a four-year university.

The combined enrollments of the seven 4yr institutions in Houston is approximately 95k... that includes Sam. Which means there's a wide disparity of nearly 100k between the yearly number of eligible students to enter a 4yr school, and the number of facilities in Houston that can support them. College is of course not for everyone, so many people will be more than happy to make it out of places like HCC, and go on with their lives. But even then, we're still ending up about 30k short of what's needed to retain the area's talent. One other factor about post-secondary ed... it's taking longer. The average student now stays in school for 5 years. Thanks to the bad economy, even fewer jobs are available and competition is getting fierce. You've got lots of students that are staying in school and ciphoning resources just so they can pay their rent. So the number college-bound students is on the sharp increase. It'd be nice to say that this will lessen once the economy has recovered, but it doesn't work that way. The educational standard for our workforce continues to be raised, and more people will be expected to have a 4yr education. Compare today to 20 years ago... are high school grads getting high quality jobs anymore? In 20 more years, a 4yr degree will be the minimum standard for the whole workforce. We have to be prepared for what's down the road in Houston. BTW Sam is part of the Texas State system... SFA is independent

Quote from Dude, Where's My Car?? "The continuum transfunctioner is a very mysterious and powerful device whose mystery is only exceeded by it's power." Such is the case with Tier One

I think a UT system school could have a place here... or we could continue to grow the University of Houston's system. In either case, we are still severely lacking in 4-yr. universities in Houston. Here's some web facts about why Houston has to have more 4year universities... HCCS... 61,396 (HCC factbook) Lone Star... 51,494 (Lone Star statistics) San Jac... 30,000 (from San Jac article) Lone Star... 51,494 (from LSCS Census Day Report) Community College total... 142,890 Region 4 (houston area school districts) seniors: 60,560. So the FTIC pool for our region is greater than the entire UH system.

Yes, I was incorrect in that. It is owned by the university, but it is "separate" from RLH's other projects. Essentially, the university is copying the business model that they have observed from Cullen and Bayou Oaks, just keeping the operation in house (which is a dumb idea, unless they lower the prices).

Please refer to this Dallas Metropolis thread... Tier One is a very real and physical initiative, eventhough we're not discussing on HAIF very much. And again... elevating a school like UofH to Tier One status is a huge undertaking. It means that we eventually want UofH to be a direct competitor with schools like UT, Rice, A&M UofMichigan etc. It is within the Houston area, but what is the value of a UH degree once you leave Texas?? As Houstonians, we have a very practical side to our collective personality... practical almost to a fault. But doing something like this has very little to do with practicality and worrying about the present. We have to have spaces like Calhoun lofts to be competitive on the Tier One playing field. So I'm glad they built it. I'm also glad that it's sitting there half empty right now, because it lets UofH know that they are charging too much.

Yeah, but that's good ole progress. I understand if gentrification bores some people, but to me it's a very good thing. Houston is a very interesting place because we're constantly caught in this struggle to define ourselves. The East End is a great microcosmic example... many suburban tendencies, run down areas next to some of the city's most impressive gems, and an incredible infrastructure (even if it hasn't been kept up well). But the last thing that I would want is for this neighborhood to stay as it is. I want it to be improved, and I definitely want property values to increase. I want more options for retail and entertainment here, and I want this neighborhood (like all of inner Houston) to become more transit friendly. Yeah, the light rail plan isn't as good as it could be... I'm also especially upset about the overpass. It's a cheap and senseless solution to the issue. That's why I continue to complain to Metro about it. It hasn't been built yet, and if the public unites in their disapproval, it may not be built. I've called, emailed and stopped by the East End corridor office and METRO headquarters about it at least 3 times now. I'll tell you what our mistake is... we're not making a real stink. If Harrisburg residents and business owners were organizing the same way the STOP ASHBY HIGHRISE people were, Metro would already be digging that underpass out right now. The general light rail plan is mis-matched IMO. The most sensible plan would be one east-west route to compliment the existing north-south route. The east-west route should connect some area of the port of Houston to downtown, and then continue (probably via Washington) to the Galleria. At the very least, keep a "watered down" version of the University Line also, but the East End and Southeast line are really excessive and would best be served by some really tricked out BRT. Also that way if we wanted rail, we could grow the corridor to such point to where extra financing for grade separation wouldn't even be a question... we'd just do it. But Helas Helas... that's not the hand we're dealt right now. But again, we can work with METRO and continue to steer them to reasonable conclusions of their current plans.

rp

Yes, of course, and there will always be students (regardless of income level) that will refuse to live on campus. But the proportion of students that want to live on campus is on the rise, and it's due tremendously to the fact that the campus is becoming more livable. The Cougar Den has alone has added a lot more vitality to the south end. Same business model that they have with Cullen Oaks and Bayou Oaks, only they are cheaper and have the goal of being less selective. But I do agree... the prices for these places are kinda ridiculous. I added up all my "living bills" including the gym membership and it's still under only 750/month with electricity, cable/internet, cell phone (no home phone here) and gas, and I live very close to campus. As long as students can find a good deal in places like Montrose and Eastwood, or just lease a townhome and have 4 guys or girls pile in there, Calhoun Lofts won't be nearly as competitive as it could be.

Just called Davis Bros... they are HUD-funded apartments. No retail or amenities planned Target date for completion is 15 months, so we're looking at Feb. 2011.