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004n063

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Everything posted by 004n063

  1. 004n063
    Glad to hear there'll be a coffee bar. I kinda hate going to the Starbucks in the Hilton lobby when I'm over there. Should do great business (though rent is probably astronomical).
  2. 004n063
    Interesting. I wonder if there's any chance this coordinates with the vacant lot across the street. Also wonder where the taco truck will move to. I think the big Fairmont Museum III is the main source of their business, but they have excellent gorditas.
  3. 004n063
    So TxDoT can eminent domain like ten blocks of EaDo to build a highway, but not ten blocks of highway underway to build a park. Love that.
  4. 004n063
    While the first paragraph obviously describes a gimmick, I fail to see how the second doesn't. Clearly, there's a market, and people seem to enjoy it, so while I'd personally never go, I don't think there's anything wrong with their existence. But playing up non-flavor-related elements to the tune of higher prices is classic gimmickery, if you ask me, whether it comes in the form of ironed tablecloths and tuxedoed waitstaff or splashy backdrops and DJs and Instagram-oriented dishes.
  5. 004n063
    Interesting - I was unaware of cost benefits, but it makes sense vis-a-vis elevated heavy rail, and presumably elevated light rail as well? But it's still much more expensive than ground-level light rail, I would think. And I don't think traffic problems are inherent if the design is good - the red line is extremely reliable, for example, despite running at grade. The view from the train part is totally true, but I'm not sure that's an entirely valid reason to increase costs. I disagree about views of the bayou, because at grade it's only partly obstructed for a few seconds while the train passes; elevated means there will always be tracks in the way. All of that being said, I just don't see Allen Parkway as a valid transit corridor - not nearly enough trips start and end along it. (Memorial Drive, on the other hand...there's an idea...) But this is a thread about Hanover Autry Park, so we should probably stop...derailing it with our transit fantasies.
  6. 004n063
    Why monorail? But I do think a Dallas-Gray circulator could be useful.
  7. 004n063
    Brick coming in. Nice dark red.
  8. 004n063
    Wow. Early contender for worst new build of 2024?
  9. 004n063
    I mean... "a good deal" is pretty strong. The Downtown TC and adjoining Red Line stop are a 7-minute and a 5-minute walk, respectively, from the old Greyhound stop, and each has more utility than Magnolia Park/Green Line, I'd say.
  10. 004n063
    This guy About Heres
  11. 004n063
    I mean, yeah, they could have done that, but the citizens of Houston would have (rightly) rejected it once again. A neighborhood as close to the center of a city this big absolutely should not be as sparsely populated as this one is. Yes, the live oaks are beautiful, but R1 zoning is a disaster pretty much everywhere it exists.
  12. 004n063
    I haven't seen site plans - is there anything (e.g. big METRO-owned parking lots) preventing housing and retail from springing up organically?
  13. 004n063
    I just generally don't like things that treat pedestrian infrastructure as an afterthought. Yes, there's a ramped walkway, but this makes it seem like the nice pedestrian space they built was less meant to be used than looked at.
  14. 004n063
    I'll take sides: Rich Oaky Boulevardiers trying to paint themselves as the victims in their fight against densification in a ridiculously suburban neighborhood two miles from the center of the country's fourth largest city will never not be funny.
  15. 004n063
    I like trains. I like sidewalks. I don't like trains on sidewalks.
  16. 004n063
    Like most old European cities, Amsterdam is beautiful and has lots of charming walkable neighborhoods. But from a planning and urban design (and especially street/road design) perspective, it's the modern (<30yo) suburbs and other new neighborhoods that are truly mind-blowing, and they're also what really set the Netherlands apart from other European countries. Paris may have the most magnificent mass transit system the world has ever seen, but nobody redesigns streets better than the Dutch, and that's almost entirely due to the national systemization of the ever-evolving CROW manual. Applied here, people would feel like it was excessively prescriptive, but it's really the same thing as Houston's car-oriented regulations, but with a teleological bent toward pedestrian and bicyclist safety and comfort, rather than automotive throughput and storage.
  17. 004n063
    Do you have any design schematics for this? Done right, Center Street could really live up to its name...
  18. 004n063
    I rode it a couple of weeks ago. There is still a longish and rough dirt segment west of Jensen, and the trail is not passable under the Jensen bridge.
  19. 004n063
    I'll say it again: for anybody on a bike (which is an ever-increasing number), losing Polk is significant. Fixable with proper lanes or paths along Leeland and Rusk, but right now the only safe crossings are Gray and Polk (and kindasorta Runnels).
  20. 004n063
    It's also ten cross streets, not 15. And from the perspective of someone whose "car" is a bicycle, closing Polk is significant.
  21. 004n063
    There are multiple other bus companies that operate out of the East End without any of the issues of the Midtown Greyhound station (the one in Taqueria Monchys is always fine, and they never have security or police around) so if the problem was Greyhound, it seems to have been specifically Greyhound (and not bus stations in general).
  22. 004n063
    He is a HAIFer. I met him on a Coffee + Bikes ride a while back and we talked about it.
  23. 004n063
    They did that with the new sidewalks on Hawthorne as well. It can be a little awkward walking on, but it's a good solution. I'm curious how it compares in longevity to the rubber they use in parts of Boston (and presumably other places).
  24. 004n063
    Really cool. Two questions for the general crowd: 1) Does anybody know whether the crossings will be raised as well? 2) With bikes being prohibited (correctly, I think), are there any plans for bicycle facilities on Fannin or Travis? Main St. was really the only bikeable north-south street through the center of Downtown - it'd be nice to retain that access without having to awkwardly snake over to Bagby or Austin.
  25. 004n063
    Oh yeah forgot about that one. And yes, I'm quite accustomed to ignoring those "bike lane closed" signs.
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