totheskies

Every news outlet in town was on wall-to-wall for a week or more. 13 was not the only ones. I'm not a fan of 13 at all. For me it's Channel 2, Fox, 11 and 13 in that order.

Sorry, I wasn't aware of that... neither was I aware of Channel 11's radio broadcast.

I went last year.... ehh. But I am glad they're having it.

Uncle Barack's Freedom over Texas!!

East of downtown??? wait a minute, where's that?????

saw this on their website:

TUTS is thrilled to announce a new partnership with Houston Pavilions. Beginning with LES MISERABLES and continuing with all main stage shows, patrons can begin the evening by valet parking at Houston Pavilions on Fannin for $10; Houston Pavilions will also be accepting TUTS

Just out of curiosity, do you think it's feasible to live in Houston and have a bike/ mass transit be your primary mode of transport? Any areas of the city where car-free living is possible?

Yes, I mean Fannin & Greenbriar, sorry, I live near the Med Center & stick to 288, Almeda, & Montrose for heading north, not that familiar with Main.

Try turning left from Fannin northbound to Braeswood westbound (at old Fire Station 33) during rush hour, you'll end up sitting there forever. There are a few other places where making left turns can be highly frustrating, but I can't remember them too well since I've totally altered my driving habits to avoid them.

I can't wait for the Cambridge St bridge from Holcombe to MacGregor opens, it's been almost completely done for awhile now, but it looks like it won't connect until the MacGregor realignment is complete.

not if you're on a bike

Victory Park and HP are two very different animals...

HP is three blocks... Victory is a whole district of places meant to link the West End and Uptown.

They went "all out" with Victory, and built super high-end stores that cater to a very small part of the population. HP is more of a mix (edit: it WILL be once all the stuff actually opens). I have no use for BCBG or XXI, but I do go to HP because of the House of Blues, Books-a-Million and just to stroll around.

Both of them are well situated with transit (especially when the permanent Green Line opens). But even as one who's been there a couple of times now, navigating around Victory is pretty tough. Houston Pavilions is a very simplistic project by comparison... park in the Garage, and take the skywalk into the development.

LOL... I'm holding onto my Arkansas DL for dear life now... maybe we can slowdown the fast-approaching 2010 year!!

I'm not a native Houstonian... but have been here nearly four years. For the most part I like the alternate names. The only problem is when you start direction piling. "12315 East Loop South just past the Baytown East." What the fcuk does that mean??? If you were giving someone directions and you said that to them, they'd probably pull out a bowie knife.

But for locals who know where everything is, it's not that big of a deal. I am confused at a couple though...

If I-45 through downtown is the Pierce Elevated, does that make the curved section immediately before it the Bagby/Dallas Reach-Around?

And then what about 59 on the east side of downtown? The Chartres Depressed????

One last thing...

Channel 13 really stretched themselves to the limit during the Hurricane Ike coverage. They broadcast the news continuously for at least a week after the storm. I watched the news coverage on my laptop from Dallas, and they really pulled together as a team then.

Chalk up another vote for ABC13... when I first moved here, I was a big fan of Fox26 in the morning, but then I discovered how "balanced" the news is on channel 13. The morning show delivers the serious news with class, and always manages to throw in some humor as well. Casey Curry is my favorite meterologist in town!!!! But even beyond Casey, the channel 13 weather team is just awesome. Second favorite is David Tillman... he's very honest with his weather forecasts.

I do however wish we could switch up some of the anchor slots though. I agree, Art Rascon is a fabulous reporter, but not suited for the anchor chair. Ted Oberg just perplexes me. He just doesn't look like a news reporter at all... he does a great job though, and I always watch his stories and specials. Eric Barajas is not only the hottest male anchor in town, his reporting is always very fair and balanced (sorry to steal FoxNews' slogan). If I had a suggestion for a very dynamic evening news team, I'd go with Ilona Carsona and Eric Barajas. I like Gina Gaston, but her clothes are weird.

I wish channel 13 could steal Owen Conflenti from Local 2... I'd love to see Owen and Sharron Melton paired up for the morning, and I think Tom Koch would work well for the midday newscasts (he always seems a little dry for the morning).

Anyways, congrats to abc13!!

Well, I am just only in town once every few months and whenever I come I take as many photos as possible and stay downtown all day I go to school in Arkansas and its terrible but I grew up here and since living in a backwards redneck rural state I have come to cherish downtown and the second I graduate, Im moving downtown if I can find a job here.

Hey be careful what you say about my home state!!

(Notice I didn't say that I disagree with you )

oh.. and GO WONDERBOYS!

Oh and yes...those new Calhoun lofts start at around 800 dollars a month. At that price, I could probably get a decent efficiency somewhere in Midtown or something.

Yes... if you're already familiar with the Houston area, and/or can find a roommate to share with you. Otherwise $800 is getting harder to find in Midtown or Montrose.

I know for my graduate program, all but one of the people in my class were from outside of the Houston area. We tend to associate UH with "local education" but many people (at an increasing rate) come from out of town and all over the country to attend here. Calhoun Lofts will (hopefully) be a great deal for these students.

The sheer increase in the amount of on-campus student housing in such a short period of time is enough to raise a red flag. How deep is the pool of demand right now, how much will demand be cannibalized after Calhoun is marketed, and what is their forecasted absorption rate? If financed entirely by debt, I forsee that there will be negative cash flow issues that plague them for at least the first several years.

If I were them, I'd wait for about two years and see how well Calhoun is received by the marketplace, then proceed (or not) based on an analysis using stabilized market data.

Pretty big actually...

1) Cougar Place is on the chopping block... as it should be. That facility is in shambles and needs to be raised.

2) UofH hit record enrollment last year at above 36,000 students for the main campus. That's last year as in Fall 2007. We'll get the data for 08-09 next semester, but from my workload as an Academic Advisor and the onslaught of the recession to Houston, there's no way enrollment decreased.

3) Moody Towers was overbooked by almost 100 people in Fall 08. They were reported for being in violation of the fire code... some of the students had to sleep on cots in the basement and in the lounge of the dorms. It was a real mess at the beginning of the semester.

I guess I don't understand the difference between having a private-owned facility and a university-owned facility. The actual dorms are going to be run by the university (as opposed to an outside company like Cullen Oaks), but the retail portions will be private entities in Calhoun Lofts. Just FYI, they're having trouble filling Calhoun Lofts with graduate students, but have received a flood of requests from undrgrads, and they decided to open the facility to seniors and juniors just so they could meet the expected quota (I'm not sure if it's been met yet though).

It would seem more likely that they weren't able to find a developer willing or able to take on the project on terms that were amenable to UH. Again, if the private sector can't do it...

Bing...

They are still seeking "private assistance" for the new Freshmen dorms that are under development... though I highly doubt it will be anything like the way Bayou or Cullen Oaks have been run. Many students have been displeased with their customer service.

For UH, public-private partnerships have proven to be almost perfectly pertinent.

Its like a pay per night cheap hotel for homeless and semi-homeless. Its going to be just a gym after they move locations.

Not necessarily... the Y used to be like a really great Hostel... they get a very diverse group of people from all walks of life. I stayed at the old Y in Raleigh, NC and it was a great experience. These places may not be the cleanest and "most impressive" hits on the block, but they have a lot of soul, and you encounter very interesting people.

Any word on the fate of the downtown Y? Is it going to be torn down???

The majority of employed persons do not work in an office environment, but instead work service sector or blue collar jobs. These are difficult to set up for telecommuting.

It's a common mistake, though. College-educated people confuse "the average person" with average people of their demographic cohort, which is often anything but average. If you want to understand what average people do and think, read the Chron.com forums.

A "majority" that has been decreasing by the day... (Recession )

Granted for some jobs it's going to be impossible to live "near your workplace". If you work at a sewer treatment plant, it's pretty obvious that you won't be able to live at or very near the plant. It's also an increased probability that you'll own a car to get you to work. But there are always exceptions. I rode the 30 Clinton to work everyday when I first moved here, and it was fascinating to see how large and magnificent the industrial sector is here.

As a Houstonian, I understand that commuting is going to be inevitable for most people here. The city is S-P-R-E-A-D O-U-T and there's not much we can do about that now. What's important to us for the future is to strengthen the connections that we already have, ease and work for more efficient car traffic flow, LEAD the NATION in decreasing our dependence on oil and converting to green energy sources, and expand our entire transit system from roads, to busses to rail.

I'll believe that when I see it.

Perennial Optimism... it must not be your niche.

I wonder how much the downtown population (not accounting for prisoners) has increased since 2005? From my understanding, the new YMCA won't have residential so that's going to be a loss once the old one closes down.

No need to quibble about whether or not its Midtown. Is the Wet Spot in Midtown? I would say yes. Midtown probably ends about Cleveland street, so that's only about 2 blocks short of this project. More people know where Midtown roughly is than Freedman's Town, so I'd say its forgivable.

What Freedmen's town? You mean Freedmen's townhomes

I'll tell you what really gets me... the boundaries of Midtown vs. Neartown. Where the heck is Neartown anyway??? It appears to be a part of Montrose.

My only concern for this park is what kind of security is going to be there? This is a highly transitional area where there are still (unfortunately) a lot of shady characters, and there have already been a slew of arrests at or near that church. A park doesn't seem to alleviate this problem.

^^Nice. and just think... once OPP finally decides on the grocer, you could be living 4 blocks away from a Whole Foods or Central Market too.

Are you kidding me? Since subways are WAAAAAAAY cool, Joe Q. will be riding that bad boy in style!

LOL... no fuh-reaking way man. Why the heck would Joe Q. ride a damp, dark subway when he can just climb into his car and it'll take him ANYWHERE he wants to go?? That's dumb.

One "quick" change that METRO could make that is relatively inexpensive... retrofit all of the busses with GPS and put e.t.a. signs at all of the bus stops. It would make our transit system very efficient with or without rail.

By Metro not helping i meant that they should have at least added an extra 10 miles to each line theyre building. What good does an 8 mile line do? Its not commuting anywhere. But I know about voters not allowing anything to happen. This transit agency is at least 20 years behind and this city is growing at a phenomenal rate. I dont agree with the East End and the other Green line that run almost into the exact same area of town. I really dont understand the reasoning behind the Brown and Green lines' planning.

I'm assuming you don't live in one of the corridors that will be affected? As someone who lives in the East End, I'm glad that they are building that 4 miles of rail that you deem "useless"... it's not useless to me, in fact I'll probably be using it a whole lot.

LOL I also have to assume that you don't understand the difference between light rail, heavy rail, and commuter rail. Houston is not building commuter rail right now... we're doing light rail. Take the red line for example. Somehow it seems to finds millions of paying passengers each year, but it is LESS than 8 miles long. It's not "commuting" anywhere either, but that's not stopping people from riding it.

Dallas DART has a commuter rail system that literally BEHAVES as lightrail in the downtown area. I would call it a hybrid for that reason, but you can't really define it as light rail. I would have loved to see something similar for Houston, but our suburban areas shot down the idea. You can thank Tom Delay.

Now in the aughts, at least we are trying to set some rail precedents for the city. If this "starter system" is successful, who knows what could happen... Houston may be able to build subway eventually. But it's not going to happen without light rail first.

I don't think Continental would want to support a downtown rail line to Hobby, what with it being a Southwest Airline's hub. In fact, I would expect the to fight any such proposal.

Good advice, but I think many people who'd be willing to take passenger rail to the airport might be less inclined to take a bus. Also, take into account that parking downtown isn't really any cheaper than parking off-site at IAH, so downtown airport service (bus or rail) is great for downtown workers but not so great for others who'd have to pay their own parking.

Depends on what you consider "downtown". I never park downtown if I can help it. For my latest trip, I actually parked at my church's parking lot, which is on the rail line, and just let them know how long the car would be there. They have a full-time staff of security guards, so I knew the car would be safe for the duration of the trip. So my total parking and transportation costs turned out to be $32.50 ($2.50 for MetroRail, and $30 for the Airport Direct).

As a side note/discussion...

I have been riding the bus a lot more lately, and I'm really enjoying it!! I cross downtown a lot. Is it just me, or is there a marked increase of "general pedestrian traffic" in and around downtown. Everywhere I go, I'm seeing more people walking dogs, pushing strollers, or just wandering around looking for places that are open. I don't think that this represents an increase of residents in downtown proper, but you can certainly tell that more people live, work and play in close proximity to there.

EaDo is kind of a stupid name, but you have to call this area something now... everyday it feels more and more "habitable". Though some small parks would be nice.

If you include two blocks outside downtown proper, the number rises significantly with Lofts at the Ball Park, townhouses on St. Emanuel, Herrin Lofts, 2016 Main, Sabine Street Lofts.

Hey, not so fast... that's EaDO!!!! Don't steal