mkultra25

5 hours ago, samagon said:

nice. I'll send this over to my friend. he ate his poop as we crossed the rails here on our bicycles.

By any chance, does your friend have four legs? 

23 hours ago, Texasota said:

I dunno, I really think Huntsville is pushing "other Houston neighborhoods" waaaaay too far.

It's only a matter of time until the series of highway loops encircling Greater Houston spreads that far. Unfortunately, the name "Sam Houston" is already taken by the tollway, so I guess "Piney Woods Parkway" will have to do.

High Density Housing Plan in Berkeley Sparks Familiar Fight

A somewhat more nuanced take than is usual on an ever-contentious subject. 

5 hours ago, s3mh said:

The Heights are officially over thanks to the idiots who own commercial real estate.  They would rather have storefronts sit empty for years than dare to give a local business a lease that wasn't at the current market rate.  

The owner's quoted in the linked article as saying that the pandemic and the resulting lack of the usual summer increase in sales is to blame for the closure. What isn't said is that since Fat Cat opened, there have been multiple other craft ice cream shops that have subsequently opened nearby which have surely had to cut into their sales as well. 

I'm not questioning that there have been quite a few local businesses that have been forced to close or relocate due to rent increases, but I think there are other factors at play in this particular situation, unless you have additional information to the contrary. 

Someone on Reddit posted a Google Drive link to an archive of most/all of the "Sole of Houston" series:

Sole of Houston

5 hours ago, clutchcity94 said:

He looks very much like former Rocket Mario Elie!

Could be cause for concern if someone spots him doing this.

Demolition of the Rice Memorial Center is likely imminent - the last update I saw indicated that it would happen at the end of the spring semester.

1 hour ago, samagon said:

I recall one of the things he promised when he ran for office was to eradicate potholes. I haven't seen a lot of action there.

At the beginning of his first term, he promised that potholes would be fixed within 24 hours of being reported. There was a lot of attention paid to this initially, and for the most part it appeared that the city was making good on that promise...for a while. Haven't heard too much about it since then, so I don't know if they're still making that claim or have just quietly swept it under the rug. The last pothole I reported was on a freeway feeder road, so I got referred to TXDOT as it was outside the city's area of responsibility. 

I had hoped that Turner's long tenure in the Texas Legislature would have left him well-positioned to be a very effective advocate for Houston's interests at the state level, but we all know how that's worked out, not least because of the apparent belief of the current Powers that Be that any elected official with a "D" next to their name should be forced to shuffle down Congress Avenue clad in rags, ringing a bell, and crying "Unclean! Unclean!"  If Whitmire gets elected to succeed Turner it'll be interesting to see if he's any more capable of thawing relations between the state and Houston/Harris County.  

8 hours ago, samagon said:

I'm a huge proponent of de-gendering all words.

I have an ottoperson in my living room. I don't go to Hermann park, I go to Personpersonn park, etc. /s

\herstory has entered the chat

22 hours ago, august948 said:

And, as with it's modern descendants, in Latin you use the masculine form, alumni, to refer to mixed groups of men and women.  I always wonder if people who get up in arms about gender usage in English have their heads explode when they find out that in much of the wider world languages can have distinctly patriarchal patterns deeply embedded.

I have wondered the same thing. As you pointed out, nouns are gendered in every Romance language. I can't imagine that changing any time soon to reflect latter-day gender identity politics, but that probably gets into a debate of linguistic prescriptivists vs. descriptivists. Who knows what languages will look like in several hundred years - consider the differences between Chaucer's 14th-century English and that which is spoken today. 

5 minutes ago, mollusk said:

Saw one this morning on my way in to work.  It went all the way from the far right lane of Katy Freeway to try to merge with the far left lane ramp to 45 South starting from just before the Crockett bridge - as if it were in "oh... the exit's on the other side of the freeway" mode.

Definitely a learning curve.

Sounds like it's already mastered the skill set of the average Houston driver. Another impressive milestone for autonomous driving!

The next challenge will be carefully timing it so that the car's the fourth one through a light that's already turned red. 

19 hours ago, SpaceGhost said:

Yes, I'm actually working on a page to add onto the blog eventually. In the meantime though, It was King Olafs from 1969-1972. It was the first location to open, and the second to close. It was briefly a Village Pizza Inn, and a Stop N Go by 1973. 

That makes sense. I never patronized the Stop N Go until probably 1979-80. It's entirely possible I drove by it occasionally with my family when it was still King Olaf's or Pizza Inn, but I have no recollection of ever having done so. 

20 hours ago, SpaceGhost said:

Originally a fast food restaurant named King Olaf's Roast Beef. Owned by National Convenience Stores, it only operated for about 3 years. It was one of three locations, and was the only one NCS chose to keep, converting to a Stop n Go.

Wow, I had no idea this was ever anything but a convenience store. When I was in junior high/high school, I had a friend and fellow classmate that lived nearby in Shepherd Park Plaza, and we'd frequently drop by that Stop N Go whenever I was hanging out at his house.

Any idea of a rough timeframe that King Olaf's occupied it? 

End of an era, indeed. Berman's the last of that generation of local sportscasters, and hopefully will enjoy a well-deserved retirement.

As an aside, after reading that tweet I can't help wondering if GM D'Artagnan Bebel has three brothers named Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. 

2 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

What is UST? 

University of St. Thomas.

1 hour ago, august948 said:

They should build it just like the picture, with a washateria/liquor store/cbd/vape/greyhound station on the ground floor.

Remember, it's not really a CBD/vape shop unless there are a couple dozen feather flags around the perimeter of the property.

2 hours ago, Ross said:

The architectural Audi could only dream of being as cool as the Delahaye. There were a couple of them at the Museum of Fine Arts a few years ago, allowing me to check off a bucket list item.

Yep, the MFAH had a Delahaye 135M Competition Coupe and a 135MS Roadster in that exhibit. Delahayes were all about the lavish custom coachwork, as in those days with high-end cars it was common practice for car builders to sell a bare chassis, and the buyer to commission a coachbuilding firm to construct custom bodywork for it.  In the 1930s, the French coachbuilding firm of Figoni & Falaschi, who clothed both of the Delahayes that were on exhibit here, were at the pinnacle of Art Deco design. 

On 5/7/2023 at 4:09 PM, august948 said:

I'm still hoping for a ground floor washateria and liquor store here...😜

Not entirely without precedent, as Bayou Liquor used to be smack-dab in the middle of Rice Blvd. in the 80s (where Sweet Paris Creperie is now).  They catered more to the brown-bag crowd than the deep-pocketed imbiber, as well.   

So this hypothetical new place could be marketed as a return to the area's historical roots. 

Great photos. Thanks for reposting!

3 hours ago, IntheKnowHouston said:

I'm sadden to see La Vibra / La Vibra Taco is departing Yale St Plaza at 5th. 

Anyone know if they're moving elsewhere, or going out of business? Google's overview says "permanently closed", but there are some very recent Yelp reviews that don't say anything about an impending closure. 

20 hours ago, 004n063 said:

I'm still mad about the naming of Taiga. Just about the least Houston biome there is. 

It's like they don't even care about geographic accuracy!!

I don't know, people who've had to relocate to Houston from the East or West Coasts for work have historically acted like they've been exiled to Siberia.

42 minutes ago, hindesky said:

I was talking to my dad about an hour and a half ago, and literally said "I hope Garcia isn't going to need TJ surgery."

 Half an hour later, the alert popped up on my phone screen. 

"Fffffuuuuuuu....."

ProPublica published a piece last week concerning trains blocking crossings for extended periods of time. It touches on some of the same issues @JClark54 mentions:

As Rail Profits Soar, Blocked Crossings Force Kids to Crawl Under Trains to Get to School

8 hours ago, ChannelTwoNews said:

Galvan's Sausage House on 90 and Pitts Road. They also own the firewood / bbq pit place next door.

I used to eat at Galvan's occasionally when I still worked in Sugar Land. As an unbiased observer, I'd have to agree with you that Galvan's BBQ is better than Swinging Door, and I like Swinging Door. 

22 hours ago, hindesky said:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/lyondellbasell-office-move-downtown-galleria-18076645.php

Quote

The Rotterdam, Netherlands-based Lyondell — with regional headquarters in London and Houston, where it has about 1,300 employees — said it expects to begin moving into its new offices at 2800 Post Oak by late 2024 or 2025. The company said it plans to occupy floors 37 through 51.

Wondering if there are plans to relocate existing tenants that currently occupy space within that block of floors, perhaps as part of leases that may be up for renewal between now and late 2024? I don't believe all of those floors are 100% vacant currently.