totheskies

At least Dallas isn't afraid to invest in it's lines. But I agree... now that the lines are built out through Downtown, they need to do a Circular Line (or if you're being very Dallasite, a BELT line) to provide some east-west coverage. Plenty of commuters in the Metroplex never need to dip into Downtown. Doing that would attract lots more users to the system.

I'm eyeing Stephen Costello at the moment. As lefty as I am, he's built a solid resume as a moderate Republican, and has been a true force of action on City Council.

I'm not an engineer, but I find this debate bordering on the ridiculous... Would it really be that much more difficult/ expensive to build an elevated line down Richmond?? Houston just built two elevated sections of the North Line (because that was their only option when crossing existing rail lines) and they work great. Like Dallas, we have now successfully designed and built an elevated rail station. These costs are not some vague abstraction anymore. Richmond needs to have an elevated line. The costs couldn't be much more than expenses already needed to build the road. Just elevate the whole damn thing, including stations.

Per the APTA press release, vehicle miles traveled increased by 0.3 percent, while public transit increased by 1.1 percent. http://www.apta.com/mediacenter/pressreleases/2014/Pages/140310_Ridership.aspx

As I noted on my blog, a few interesting things to note... 1) Houston was the only major city in Texas to have an increase in ridership in 2013. Dallas, San Antonio and Austin all saw declines, while El Paso was basically flat. 2) Houston's growth in bus ridership was second fastest in the nation. Only Washington DC's bus usage grew at a faster rate. http://texasleftist.blogspot.com/2014/03/transit-ridership-is-houston.html

My only comment... SAYONARA surface parking lots!!

Wouldn't Demand Response (DR) be referring to MetroLift? I don't think APTA measures Park and Rides, at least not in this report. If they did, I'd assume the total volume would be much greater than 6,000 boardings (vehicle entries) per day. That makes more sense as a MetroLift number to me. I could be wrong though. It's especially heartening to see some significant ridership growth in bus boardings. As a bus rider, I can attest that my routes are becoming busier by the day. People are starting to seek out transit alternatives, and that is a good thing.

I agree with your sentiment here that pushing residential is key to developing a proper retail base for Downtown. But Houston has done an exceptional job with that, and I believe now is the time to broaden the focus. As the new apartments are getting constructed, we also need t plan on keeping new residents in Downtown. There's one other consumer base that no one is bringing up... transit riders. As Metro busses continue to feed into the rail lines, more and more people are going to be passing through Downtown, because it is the central hub of the city's transit network. More retail options (mainly thinking grocers here) will be needed as the share of bus and train passengers continues to grow. But the key here? It has to be the right kind of retail. So many iterations (Houston Pavilions, Houston Center) have failed because they're just building stuff without considering what the Downtown target populations actually need. Phoenicia has been so successful IMO because of the multi-use nature of the store. It's a specialty grocer, a wine bar, an eatery and a music venue all rolled into one... which is why they never lack for customers. This is the kind of retail that Downtown needs right now or in the near future so that residents won't feel like they're shut down after 5pm.

Any clue how ratings are changing because of streaming services? I rarely watch live tv shows... unless they are streamed on my computer, iPhone or via Apple TV at home. Do those views count as a part of Nielsen ratings yet? I've always been curious about this.

Yes, this re-innovation (not sure we can call it a restoration anymore) is looking very nice!!

Well I wouldn't be surprised if the Southeast Line meets or exceeds those original projections. Besides general neighborhood connections, this line will also connect the student populations of UofH, TSU and Yates High school to Downtown's central bus network. Right now, they have to take busses to meet the Red Line, then get Downtown and eventually transfer to their needed bus. The Southeast Line will take one significantly shorten the trip. For students that live on campus (UofH is now up to about 8,000 and TSU is getting close to 4,000), the Southeast Line will provide rail connections to shopping at the Northline mall, groceries at places like Randall's and Fiesta, and all of the other amenities in Downtown and the Med Center. As a daily rider of the 42, I have no doubt that this line will be used even before the University Line is constructed.

This is a planned Transit Center... it's not being used much now, but once they route more busses here, this will become a hub of activity just like the TMC transit center. I'm very proud of this station!!

I'll believe it when I see foundation beams. And even if they get that far, they could always downsize it. "Did we say 102 stories?? What we MEANT was 10.2 stories." LOL

This would be so perfect for A Trader Joe's...

Congratulations samagon!! As I work on campus, will be sure to stop by.

I eat here regularly... never seen the place "packed" but it's far from struggling from what I can tell. I'm surprised the owner hasn't expanded yet. Juan Mon's has even been featured on the Travel channel...

I agree one hundred percent that this is better than surface lots... if we must have parking, we may as well put the cars in a garage. But it would be a shame to waste the opportunity for some additional street-level retail. I hope they don't.

Ok, I'm willing to go on record... I like EaDo. It's a nice brand to help grow the area, and it's both unique and predictable. Several cities have something like this (SoHo, LoHo, WeHo, LoDo, SoCo), and I think Houston is deserving of the same. Most importantly, it's a good name because it honors the area's past as an industrial section of Downtown, but looks forward with future branding opportunities. So yeah... I'm a go for EaDo!!

Great to read your blog Kylejack!! Yes the Greenroads project is awesome, but even better is that there is finally some movement from the mayor to make Complete Streets a priority for the city. It won't happen overnight of course, but her Executive Order is witness to an important shift in thinking about how Houstonians use roads.

Is there no street-level retail for this project?? Restaurants would make a killing before and after games!!

I also think our apartment stock is too "big". Houstonians are also going to have to adjust their ideas of space as the city grows and changes. We need a wider selection of studio and efficiency-style apartments for single renters... it's surprising that there aren't many complexes that are majority studios. Probably because everyone in Houston wants a spacious 1 or 2 br. But if you go to places like New York, everything is about location. People are willing to live in a small space if it's where they want to be. Hopefully a larger share of the inventory going forward will be smaller apartments, as that would help to level out the market.

Agreed cloud713... I've met a few people both in downtown and here in Montrose. They're new residents to Houston. One lady is from New Jersey, and she originally moved to downtown Houston, but came over to Montrose after a year. She said Montrose really "felt like" her old neighborhood, even though it doesn't quite look the same. I assume she meant that it has a more urban feel than downtown? Which is why the new development is so interesting. It's creating an urban look to match the urban feel that many inner loop neighborhoods have already achieved.

Oh sorry... Didn't know where to put this, since it was kind of a general discussion too. Fascinating to see how architects/ urban planners view Houston when they're from a more traditional built environment.

http://texasleftist.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-texas-way-of-being-urban.html If you've been to Houston recently (and took some time to exit the freeways), you probably could tell one thing pretty quickly... the city is in the throws of a rapid transformation. Much of this building boom is taking place in the form of new condominiums and mid-rise structures, which will likely increase after revisions to the city's development code. But it's not just the law that is mandating these types of developments... much of it is driven market demand, as more and more Houstonians prefer to live in a traditional "built urban" environment. The shift in thinking is starting to get noticed outside the city as well, for it affects the way Houston does business. Take this interesting interview on the changing face of Houston architecture, from an architect's perspective. The editor of the Chicago Architecture Blog interviewed John Lahey, CEO of Simon Cordwell Buenz. SCB is a Chicago-based firm that is currently working on projects across the United States, including two in Houston. Editor: Houston is a whole different market. Lahey: For an urban person, it’s not as accommodating. But there is a sprit of Texas that you can’t help but like. Even if, politically or whatever, you’re not in sync with it, their do-it-yourself identity is really kind of neat. Editor: How is working in Texas different than the other markets you’re working in? Lahey: The people that we’re working for in Texas are from Texas, so the Texas imprint is very apparent. I would say in Texas it’s just not as dense and hard an urban environment, and it’s a little more gracious. A little more landscaping when you come into the building. It’s hot, but it’s sunny a lot. The units are a little bigger. There’s a vitality in Texas that is different. Chicago and San Francisco have very established urban areas and you’re sort of being part of an established urban framework. Whereas in Texas, you can be more freewheeling, and people want to just celebrate it a little more. The buildings in Chicago have a lot of civility, where in Texas… it’s hard to say exactly what’s different. In Texas the construction costs aren’t as much as they are here, and so you get more for your money. Editor: And no zoning in Houston. Lahey: Austin has zoning. It has a lot of zoning. But the buildings there are large, and we’re working on a few smaller ones, too. Editor: In the last few years, people in Houston seem to be coming around to the notion that it’s OK to live in a tower instead of a rambler. Lahey: I think there’s quite a bit of it. And then there’s more stuff starting to happen in downtown. The one that we’re doing in Montrose isn’t a super-tall tower. It’s probably half as tall as this [Rincon Two], but that’s tall for there. But what’s neat about an area like that where there’s already a density and there’s restaurants and stuff, when you bring in that many people and do it in a way that still lets the neighborhood be what it is, it’s just more people going to these things. Walking to them. And you can see how the urban experience that we all love, will morph into a Texas way of being urban. Austin is a little more urban feeling because of all the music downtown, and it’s pretty centralized. And because of the size of Austin, they’ve probably got a denser core than Houston. But I think Houston is going to be really good. The things that are happening there are really positive. Editor: Are there things that you have to do differently designing a building in Houston? Lahey: It’s not so cold, so when you do your amenities, the outdoor — the pools and all that stuff — are really important because you’re going to be using that a lot. Balconies… You know, it gets so hot that some people want them and some people don’t. Somebody told me that you just don’t sit out a lot in Houston. So when we’re doing it, there is the thought that people are going to be in their apartments and have the windows closed and have the air conditioning on a lot. Now in Chicago, we have the same thing in the winter — people are going to be inside and have the heat on. So, they’re similar. Whereas in Chicago, you’re making sure things don’t get too dark, in Houston you’re making sure things don’t get too light. You don’t have the short days, what you have is the big hot sun. Here you’ve got the winter, when it’s dark and it’s cloudy, and you want to make sure you get enough light into each unit.