totheskies

I live near Telephone Rd. and Lockwood... the landlord said we were out of power for less than 12 hours. Very fortunate. Also our house... which is all brick, sustained no significant damage.

Something wrong with Fiesta you guys? They are already there ya know. Don't ignore the obvious.

Yeah, but how large of an area is the entire East End??? Fiesta is much more on the Lawndale side, and there's still a big gaping hole of grocers on the northern swath of East End towards downtown (you know, the part that is seeing explosive construction and development right now??). Also, it's a matter of walkability. Houstonians will never totally abandon their cars, but the inner loop is transitioning into a much more walk-friendly area. So we'll have to plan for things like grocery stores and other retail that are in each neighborhood section.

Backyard Burger needs to expand more throughout Texas. They blow Whataburger, Krystal, and all the others out the window.

neat I didn't know Backyard Burger was even in Texas. We have those in the Little Rock area where I grew up.

But Krystal is already here, just in a very far-reaching location for some of us. OPEN more in the Houston area!!

Sorry for the thread resurrection....

We need a second Krystal Burger in Houston... preferably inside the loop. I love Krystal, and I eat at the 1960 location maybe 3 times a year b/c that's the only time I feel like wasting the gas to get here.

There's LOTS of people around Houston who know about Krystal, so let's open some more locations already!!!

Just wanting to get some feedback here. I hope someone figures out how great this area is BEFORE the 2010 Census.

I'm kinda pulling for a Wal-Mart neighborhood market... it would be a great way for the store to nudge into the urban scene.

We bought a Perry patio home in the gated community at Runnels and Jensen over three years ago. I met with the Houston Director of parks as well as the Council Member for the area concerning the little park ajoining our property and they have made a huge difference in the park. It's becoming more and more inviting and they have much more planned improvement for this once forgotten park. Getting involved works!

We sure could use a full service HEB, Kroger... the Randalls on Louisana is a very nice grocery but it's a hike from here. I believe the area could also support more restaurants, bars and small shops of any sort.

I agree with the many who would like more and improved sidewalks. I also think the intersection of Jensen Runnels Navigation would be the perfect place for a drive around with fountain or some point of interest as it seems to be a very important gate way to the east end. The city has made some nice improvements to the railroad underpass on Navigation and a focal point at this busy intersection would extend it!

Agreed, we've got to start with another decent grocer... they should a) tear down Kombat Kroger and build a nice new signature store (like they're doing with Jack in the Box at Dumble/ Telephone) and build at least two more chain grocers-- one to the north of Sampson for the booming area near downtown, and one to the south of Sampson for the rest of us. HEB, or even Wal-Mart's neighborhood market would be GREAT candidates.

The rail line is going to stimulate some things on its own, but we really need some more general hangout places. Cafe Flores and Bohemeos are steps in the right direction, but we've gotta get some of those things in the townhome area!!

yeah, it BETTER have free wifi... fast food restaurants are running out of excuses to stay open without it. Ooh, a 24hr wifi lounge would be sweet

That's so sad!!! This could totally be a great Metro station or Ride Store... ooh, or better yet, a mixed use condo development--- East End Place!!

I think it's pretty obvious now that people would be in support of underground powerlines. 40% of us are still without power nine days after the hurricane.

They are putting the tower crane up today.

According to McFadden and Whitehead, it's official...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVKjC_simy8...feature=related

According to HOB's website, the Shed is still a go for Oct. 11th-- Cowboy Mouth with the Lifters. However Dave Attell (actual opening night) did cancel.

I'm very impressed by OPP in the face of the hurricane... makes me want to consider living there. I hope future developers take a cue from Finger's architects and designers

Man, Disco G must have been top priority on the clean up list... I was downtown on Friday, and it looked near perfect.

I think Houston City University is the best and clearest choice... you can't possibly confuse it with anything else around the metro area. HCU (although one letter away from HBU) is a nice clear set of inititals. I agree that the name change is needed just b/c UH and UH-D are in closer proximity to each other than the other system schools. But HCU is a nice name that the university could be proud of.

Cibolo sucks, nobody cares about the former name of Buffalo. Houstonians may now where Allen's Landing is, but they don't want a university named after it. Houston Center is a development, and real Houstonians know that downtown isn't actually the "center" of the city.

HCU, HCU, HCU

nice! It's even website ready.... there's no domain name for www.hcutx.edu

My source told me that is exactly what Crescent did to accomodate the tenant beginning with H. check your sources pal.

Yes, I know exactly who you're talking about....

H. Ike, Katrina, and Rita Mutual Insurance...

"after we're done with you, EVERYONE will need some help!"

^^ It'd be great to have some old school spot lighting like the Chase Building has!! I wonder if that would work here.

FYI in response to an earlier post about downtown...

I don't live in downtown proper, but I do live in Eastwood, and I try to spend a fair amount of time there (just b/c I love it so much). Discovery Green has added tremendously to the evening activity and even the nightlife of downtown. I frequent the park at 9:30pm and 10pm at night, and I see people strolling, parties at the restaurants, and internet junkies taking advantage of the free wifi. The problem is there is nothing ELSE to do on that side of DT, but that's gonna change in October. I also hang out in Midtown, which is only a train ride away.

MetroRail is a tram. It runs on the street, and has to compete with traffic. We need to just face facts, and be happy that we're getting a tram.

Aww, man... I was hoping for a better deal from METRO. Why $15?? After all, it only costs $1.75 to ride a commuter bus the same distance.

I cannot think of a logical reason why this would happen. Ridership would have to be far in excess of the current Red Line totals to justify moving the line underground. Even if that were the case, a more reasonable, efficient and cheaper solution would be to add additional lines elsewhere designed to relieve the load on the Uptown line. Given that Uptown is not constrained by 250 foot blocks, the simplest solution would be to run double trainsets, or longer ones.

I'm not in the business of predicting the future, but it's definitely a possibility. We all know that Houston is currently a sprawl mecca... but we also know that the inner core of the city (Galleria area perhaps even moreso) has grown alot since 2000. If we keep or quicken that pace between now and 2020, Houston is looking at possibly 1 million people living inside the loop. That number of people is going to cause traffic nightmares. Throw in at-grade trams to compete with that traffic, and something's going to have to give. Again, we never know, but if those conditions come to fruition, Houston will be a ripe candidate for a Subway system.

Also keep in mind... DARTRail has only existed eight years longer than the Red Line, and they are aggressively considering the addition of more Subway. Dallas' inner core is more sparsely populated than Houston's.

Yeah the swimming relay is a great example of why the US is such a great country... we've got drive and discipline that just can't be matched. Well when we put our minds to it. Other than that, we're a bunch of grumpy, snooty lazy a##holes.

So WTF was up with that approved alternative analysis?

totheskies, what's the email address?

There's good news to be had with this though...

It's not that METRO doesn't want Subway... it's just too expensive at this point. But once we have a rail system in place, it can become feasible down the road. Just imagine if the Uptown line shows ridership that's even close to the Red Line (considering that it hits Memorial Park, the Galleria, and BLVD Place, I'd be willing to bet it may even exceed the Red Line ridership). By 2030, Houston will be talking about Subway to replace several of these lines. But for step one in 2012, it AIN'T a-gonna happen.

I just used the email function from the MetroSolutions website...

http://metrosolutions.org/go/inquiry/1068/

They were reasonably fast with their response. I think everyone on HAIF should start inundating them with feedback, so we can make our voices heard!!

But no one was talking about the entire Uptown Line being underground.

Yes, but as it says, they're planning for all of it to be at-grade. So we don't have to worry about something that won't happen

.... totheskies starts singing along with Erykah Badu "I guess I'll see ya next lifetime..."

We need to be either like China... so our government just starts pumping a blank check into our infrastructure, or we need a pile of these Houston-area billionaires to get together and help the city out.

Just so we're crystal clear, I submitted an email to Metro about the Uptown line. Here's the question and response...

I've been hearing a few rumours concerning the possibility of parts of the Uptown line being Subway. Is this something that METRO is seriously considering??

I know it's very expensive, but given the traffic within the Galleria is the most congested in the city, it seems to make a lot of sense.

Especially in regard to the intersection of Westheimer and 610, an at-grade line is just going to be sub-standard, and Houstonians deserve better than that. Building above or below grade would be the safest and most efficient option for the Galleria. Anyway, I'd love to get some feedback straight from the source, so that we can at least correct or validate the rumours.

From : Donna Lane

Date : 08/11/08 11:28

No part of the Uptown rail line is being designed to be underground. As you mentioned, it is very expensive and is not within the METRO budget to do so.

Thank you for your interest.

Sincerely,

Donna Lane

So if you ever want subway in Houston, you better get out your checkbooks.

The part you would see can be installed in a day or two.

That's what I was thinking... they're basically gonna be HD jumbo-trons, right? So assuming they're doing the utility work for them, it won't take very long. B/c of the shock factor for downtown patrons, I'm sure they're gonna wait till the last minute for those.

It'll be really nice to have SOMETHING in downtown that screams for attention though. I can't wait!