004n063

12 hours ago, monarch said:

^^^ need i say more...?

...maybe it's just me, but...maybe yes? I have no idea what this is supposed to mean .

Edit because can't delete

[I responded to the comment before reading the responses already there. No need to pile on.]

Hmmph

10 hours ago, Highrise Tower said:

My visit to TMCHP this weekend.

There is pedestrian activity! There was an event with food and merchandise.  This is a very good thing that people are starting to notice this amazing park. The park is kind of hidden. Hoping that the 30 to 40 story hotel tower will make TMC3 stand out from afar.   

There is actually all sorts of activities that go on here. Check out the official website for a weekly schedule!

https://www.helixpark.com/

My only issue is that it's still very awkward to get to. Any chance of a connection to the Brays Bayou trail? Or a better connection to the red line?

A 10-foot sidewalk isn't even particularly wide, especially if it is where bicycles are expected to go. The sidewalks on Main Street downtown are generally 16-20 feet and they still feel narrow in places.

18 hours ago, BeerNut said:

I organized a 3.5 mile walk from Graffiti Park to Post zigzagging through downtown Houston with locals and out of towners this past weekend.  It was fun seeing all the murals.  I wouldn't do it during summer though ..   This is the general route we took.  

I did something similar with my students back in the fall. For an almost-free field trip, it was pretty awesome. Looking forward to doing it again next year, if public education still exists.

7 hours ago, Stephen. said:

These lights are awesome. Much nicer crossing Washington now. Only problem is the sensors don’t register me as a cyclists so won’t cycle green. I have to wait for a car to stop too and then the lights will cycle green. Anyone else noticed this?

Try leaning your bike over. That's how I get sensor gates to open.

10 hours ago, clutchcity94 said:

Rent starts at $1200. That’s less than a mediocre garage apartment in the neighborhood.

That's for a room in a shared apartment, though, isn't it?

1 hour ago, editor said:

The mayor's been legit in office for a legit few months.  I legit don't believe he's had enough time to legit replace all the roach sidewalks. 

How about we legit stick to the topic at hand, and leave the roach politics for the politics section.

Isn't the topic at hand the fact that the mayor is inserting himself into TIRZ plans to throw out a planned sidewalk improvement?

It's pretty explicitly not for people like me, but if it's built right, it could be 50 years from now. Unfortunately that's generally how new construction goes. Hopefully the Concept Neighborhood stuff is a little more accessible, but it'd be silly to expect anything in River Oaks to be for anybody but the 1%.

The benefits are still universal, though. When the most agressively densifying mixed-use developments are concentrated in wealthy areas, the downsides of gentrification elsewhere are mitigated.

All that said, getting rid of minimum parking requirements, minimum setback / maximum lot coverage requirements, etc. would go a long way toward making it easier to build smaller, lower-tab suites. 

Likewise, we could work making it easier to open food stalls in parks. Mexico City has an amazing park food culture that feels like something we could emulate in places like Discovery Green, Hermann Park, Buffalo Bayou / Eleanor Tinsley Park, Emancipation Park, Elizabeth Baldwin Park, and even Autry Park. 

Just so we're clear: we're talking about two already-ultra-massive highways that cut right through city centers. And we'll probably have the same conversation 30 years after they're done with these projects.

14 hours ago, Triton said:

Kind of an interesting aside....

Was in Austin this past weekend for the eclipse and it donned on me that the massive I-35 rebuild will start in Austin along the same timeline that the Houston I-45 rebuild will start. It's sort of wild to think two major cities not that far apart will have complete makeovers at the same time. 

Also driving through Austin, it is wild to see just have fast that city is transforming. So many new skyscrapers under construction.

Austin has the highest multifamily construction pace in the country by quite a wide margin.

Absolutely insane that they're widening the moat between downtown and the east side, but that's TXDoT for you.

12 hours ago, ChannelTwoNews said:

Not new, but I liked this picture of the bridge over the bayou and surrounding area at Mason Park, circa 2022.

From the Chronicle's home page today

I could've sworn there was a thread with photos of the construction here but can't find it.

Mason Park Bridge - SWA Group

G2LD - gandy squared lighting design

Mason Park Bridge Projects - Stiver Engineering

One of my absolute favorite examples of (basically) brutalism. Really beautiful up close.

3 hours ago, j.33 said:

The article then brings up the people opposed: "But lawyers representing the owners of a block of land nearby have protested that the variance would make the area less pedestrian-friendly, which is the purpose of the city rule limiting how close buildings can be to property lines. The permission could also curb the possibilities for any potential park that could take the place of the bordering Pierce Elevated, which is slated to be removed as part of the Interstate 45 expansion, they said."

Personally, from the renderings above, I dont really see how it would be negative for the pedestrian experience. This actually would provide more eyes on the street and I think it would actually make that area of Midtown feel safer because there will be a development with windows and lights and not an empty grass patch near an underpass. 

They're getting creative, but the impetus for opposition is obviously concerns about having too many formerly homeless people around.

9 hours ago, nicsamalo said:

This particular location has been in dire need of a convenience shop for a significant duration.

 

I...well I agree. 

On 8/17/2023 at 6:11 PM, 004n063 said:

This corner has desperately needed a convenience store for a long time.

Say it with me: Allen's freakin Landing. Most indefensible missing link

Getting closer. This is a great project, but I would love to see more of the promenade (and that last mixed-traffic bit of Bastrop between Bell and Leeland) activated. The part between McKinney and Polk would be a great place for low-rent stalls (think European Christmas market, or even the Navigation esplanade), the east side of the Leeland-Bell stretch of Bastrop deserves a new build, and the building at the corner of Bell and Hutchins would be worth transforming, I think.

Iirc, there is already something planned for the awkwardly trapezoidal lot between this and Emancipation.

Those poor Southamptonites. Such a downtrodden bunch.

2 hours ago, steve1363 said:

Honestly, the mayor is not wrong.   Even though @004n063 might ride his bike to work.  I'll guess he's the only one at his school. Most of you cyclists likely use the bike lanes for recreation.  There might be a few exceptions on this website.   Let's face it, the bike lanes are empty 90% of the time.  If there were more bike traffic the mayor would not be able to uphold his stance so easily. That's "real-talk" and I know unpopular on this forum.

This may be true of 11th. Not remotely true of Austin or Lamar. You're unlikely to go more than two blocks without passing another bike, and based on clothing, it looks to be about 50-50 recreational vs. transport.

And while I am the only teacher at my school who uses a bike for commuting, there are several who take the bus, and plenty if students who bike, use a scooter, or walk.

If the argument is bike infrastructure versus pedestrian infrastructure (it shouldn't be, for obvious reasons), then of course I choose pedestrian. But I think it would be totally irresponsible to prioritize pedestrian infrastructure to the point of neglecting bicycle infrastructure, for the following reasons:

While a lot of pedestrian infrasfructure in the city is indefensibly bad, what really kills the walkability is the massive distances that exponential parking allotment creates. I live in "walkable" Midtown, and the two nearest businesses to me (Retrospect and Rado) are both about a 10-minute walk. The rest of Midtown - including the red line - is at least a 15min walk, and Montrose, Downtown, Museum, and EaDo are all far enough to require exercise clothes.

That's pretty standard for most of the inner loop, with a handful of pockets making up the exceptions. We are decades of radically different development patterns away from anything resembling a true convenience-level walkability.

Bikes are a totally different ballgame, however. Biking within Midtown, even as bike-unfriendly as it can be, is not noticeably less convenient than driving was. Biking to Montrose is comparable, depending on how far into Montrose I'm going. EaDo is a slightly longer trip by bike, but then I don't have to worry about parking. Biking within both Montrose and EaDo feels considerably more convenient and less stressful than driving ever did, and obviously it's much more convenient (and much less sweaty) than walking.

All of that is to say, I think the city of Houston could lean into bikeability in a much more effective way (in terms of modeshare shift) than it could walkability. 

The key is to approach the issue at the level of the intra-neighborhood trip. We're not trying to ger the Med Center or Uptown worker living on 24th Street in the Heights to abandon his car and bike to work every day all year. We're trying to make the bike a better way of getting to school, to the dentist, to the bar, to brunch, and, eventually, as cargo bikes and/or smaller-load grocery trips become more popular, to the grocery store.

And then, if there's a fast, frequent bus or rail line that used to be a 25min walk away, now you're thinking about making the 7min bike ride to the stop and taking that line in instead of paying for parking and sittinf in traffic every day.

Are protected lanes on 11th St. specifically integral to that system? No, I don't really think so. But that's because 11th was one of only a couple of bad east-west stroads in the Heights, so there have always been alternatives. But they do seem to have curbed bad driving and even made driving a little less appealing of an option. 

I mean, let's say it's yesterday and you and a few friends are meeting up at Loro for an early dinner. You managed to get off work a little early, so you had a chance to go home - say, on Beverly between 9th and 10th. Three years ago, you would have driven without thinking about it - just pop up to 11th and zoom on down. But now...

Shoutout to chlorophyll

Love parking garages with big, front-facing surface parking lots. 

Was this formerly Louis' Lunch or something?

17 hours ago, staresatmaps said:

It's just a fact that the average home owner in that area has a much higher disposable income than the average apartment dweller. People with more money to spend are more likely to shop at whole foods. I know plenty of people living in apartments in Midtown. They all shop at Kroger or HEB. If they want something close they go to Randalls. Nobody ever went to Whole Foods except the one richer family I knew that owned a house there. I don't see how this is controversial at all.

My rich friends refuse to go to Whole Foods on principle because they think it's too expensive. Meanwhile, my too-broke-for-an-apartment ass never had an issue. I choose my grocery store based on

1) what they have vs. what I'm looking for,

2) distance

3) safe bike routes and bike parking.

Do about 80% of my grocery shopping at Phoenicia now, maybe 10% at La Michoacana and 10% at the Montrose HEB. I'd go to the MacGregor HEB more often (I'm pretty much at the midpoint between there and Phoenicia) if they'd do something about the crossing from the Brays trail. It's just annoying enough to choose Montrose.