TXK

12 minutes ago, 004n063 said:

The problem with that view is that it ignores the fact that they are wealth-generating engines for the city in addition to their local communities. And given the geographic scope and longstanding traditions of antiurban land use even in denser areas of the city, the whole "no sidewalk improvements on Washington until all the streets in Deer Park have sidewalks" line of thinking is absurd on its face. There is no resiliant future for Houston that isn't nodal.

Dollar for dollar, the potential economic activity generated from an infrastructure project surely must be significantly higher in denser areas where you have so many more businesses and residents, right? It feels like low hanging fruit to improve connectivity in the busiest areas so that in the long term you're set up for healthy businesses and communities, but it really feels like there's no coherent long term vision for the city from the mayor's office.

Their space up on World Houston isn't terribly large (used to work next door) so maybe they're expanding their space and team in Houston to support all of the oil/chemicals/plastics/medical/etc industries in town? They carry a ton of different instruments and just acquired another company in the space last year. Cool to see a more industrial-focused business move towards the center of town instead of the outskirts.

The hypothetical on the opposite side of that spectrum is why should someone be able to restrict what happens on land that's not their property? Alternative hypothetical would be why does being there first give someone the right to decide what is the best use of land for their area?

Personally I think that within reason we shouldn't have policies that artificially limit potential housing supply in a desirable area. I think this development specifically is a net positive for this neighborhood.

5 hours ago, steve1363 said:

I guess you guys tell yourself that to make yourselves feel self-righteous about your position.  Guess what…the opposition also argues that the safety of their children is their number one concern.  Why can’t you acknowledge that creating congestion on a neighborhood’s main thoroughfare will increase traffic on interior neighborhood streets?   Just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t mean they are selfish and take pleasure in pedestrian deaths.  That’s simplistic thinking.  Try looking at both sides.

If you're worried about more people driving down your street, I appreciate that - I feel the same way about mine. But if there's not any evidence to support that side streets become more dangerous as a result of lowering car speeds and increasing pedestrian infrastructure, then it's not a relevant argument. And it still has baked in assumptions that there are a fixed amount of cars on the road and all these projects do is divert them elsewhere and that there's no way to change people's transportation decisions. If more people chose to walk or bike down my street instead of drive because of infrastructure design, that makes me and my family safer. If there is something showing that there is another negative side effect of these projects besides driver inconvenience, I'm happy to learn more.

Side note, it comes across as disingenuous to characterize it as simplistic thinking when "taking pleasure in pedestrian deaths" wasn't ever an argument anyone made.

8 hours ago, samagon said:

What people who are against these changes are effectively saying is that the safety of others isn't worth the 15 seconds they have to sacrifice to accommodate them, and that the 1627 crashes with pedestrians and 209 deaths in those collisions is acceptable trade for your convenience. is that who you want to be?

Very well put and sad how many people are more than happy to make that tradeoff, truly can't understand that mindset. I think there's also a significant portion of the population who have never even realized that this tradeoff is what enables them to have whatever car they could possibly want and be able to take it anywhere, because it's so ingrained as the default way of living in most of the country.

Just went past it and it appears to be small enough to not easily get multiple cars in there and also seems like it's begging for people to stop up traffic by trying to turn in/ parallel park there instead of behind the building in the lot. Even if it's just pick up/drop off, you have to anticipate people will abuse it. Don't really understand their thought process of it being on the street.

So sad that the mayor of a city this size has such small and shortsighted priorities.

Looks like it'll be a bar called Heights Hideaway.

https://www.instagram.com/heights.hideaway

https://heightshideaway.com/

The church's sign this morning said something to the effect of "we care about safety, accessibility, and mobility." Medians are torn up and starting to be taken away.

Putting "prayer works" on the sign to presumably celebrate getting their way comes across as somewhere between disingenuous and hypocritical given that is was their complaints and connections that caused the change.

Does their property extend that close to the trail? The current fence is definitely further away from the trail, and there's a ditch/green space/power lines there now where that parking is on the drawing. I don't know enough about how that affects where or what they can put there.

On 1/30/2024 at 12:42 PM, hindesky said:

 

This would be incredible for Navigation, but how on earth will they make that work with the amount of trucks that use this stretch, or the cars lining up in the school zone, or the bridge over Mack? I can't wait.

They are starting to set up for construction at the Navigation/Lockwood intersection - barrels are on the medians on each street.

6 hours ago, CREguy13 said:

Honestly, I think the best thing would be for Greentown Labs to pick up their things and take their 80+ member companies to a warehouse (Somewhere like Ironworks would be ideal) in Eado/East End or the Heights.

East End Maker Hub offers this to some extent but has a wider scope of tenants and obviously a different business model than Greentown. A Greentown to EEMH pipeline would be great for the startup community (speaking from experience). Even if the innovation-centric development doesn't happen in Midtown, hopefully they can still grow the area right around the updated future transit center.

2 hours ago, kennyc05 said:

Maybe it's a situation where they have to spend the money or lose it 

Been there before, know the pressure to get things into a budget before it goes away. But they couldn't find any other possible way to spend money to achieve flood improvements that doesn't result in this much construction for an elevated section highway? Wish all this money being thrown around could be used to buy out properties in flood plains and renaturalize them instead.

The bayou trail is closed with barricades north of Pinemont, I assume due to the construction picking back up. They'd started tearing up the banks of the bayou over the last month or two, does that mean it's getting the same concrete treatment as the rest of the channelized sections?

Really convenient that they can share the parking with D&T. Love that they can turn this house into a neighborhood restaurant, especially since it's right down the street from the new apartment complex too and with the modal filter to help people walking across Cavalcade.

33 minutes ago, MaxConcrete said:

At Thursday's NCTCOG meeting, a Dallas representative demanded that Dallas also get a tunnel

I get that at grade ROW is hard to come by and maybe there's another rationale I'm missing but demanding that your city's state of the art infrastructure project be hidden underground where you can't show it off seems kinda pointless. Especially when the alternative is the built in advertising of flying over all the drivers stuck in traffic on I-30.

Per District H newsletter, this will start next week. Link is the same as earlier in this thread: https://www.engagehouston.org/southlockwood1

8 hours ago, Twinsanity02 said:

Glad tree roots are protected, but a bit leery on how slippery they are, especially after a rain. Suppose it is better than the sidewalk being lifted a foot up by tree roots. Moving in the right direction.

We walked over a few of these on Saturday night in the Heights immediately after it rained, can confirm that they get slippery. Not terrible for most people but could certainly be a problem for some.

Comalito is open now. Tried it last week and both the food and drinks were quite good. We had a lot of different things which added up in price but in general I didn't feel like it was too overpriced. Though I was somewhat surprised that it was still table service - I was expecting and hoping for it to be a more fast casual type of place based on their social media posts ("authentic Mexican taqueria"), for instance maybe ordering at a counter/bar, rather than waiting for a server to order a few tacos. I suppose I had assumed that Wild Oats had struggled in part because it was a bit more expensive and nicer of a place, and that simplifying the experience would bring more casual market wanderers in the door. They also changed their hours and now close at 6 instead of 8, which I understand if there aren't enough people to support being open for dinner, but selfishly is inconvenient for my schedule. Hoping for the best for them but in my opinion there's a bit of room to improve.

On another note, man has the market been busy the last few times we've gone over. Vendors set up in tents in the plaza area, signage up in the produce stalls, more units full/being utilized, seasonal decorations out back. It's been nice seeing it continue to grow.

On 2/23/2023 at 12:53 PM, samagon said:

having recently been at this intersection near school dismissal (I'm guessing the "Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic School"), and seeing waiting parents parked on Jensen, and then wrapped around the corner onto Navigation, I am wondering how this roundabout is going to look around school dismissal?

especially, if as it appears, there's only one lane on Jensen headed north as it comes out of this roundabout. 

Drove past during this line up yesterday and it blocks Navigation because a lane is closed at St Charles. Hopefully they can figure out a better solution after the construction. Is the school's pickup time so short that all the parents have to be there immediately as school ends?

This building has been demoed. It's a decent sized lot now that you can see the whole thing. Looking forward to a better streetscape on Airline with the parking behind the building.

It'll never be the Embarcadero but it'll continue to improve as the area develops, as right now it's still not the nicest, which I feel justified in saying since I live very close by. But in my opinion the infrastructure improvements to make the area a destination feel insurmountable. Want to drive there? Be prepared for drivers paying no attention to the poorly marked lanes. Want to walk around the area? Zero shade available and sad/nonexistent crosswalks. Want to bike? No bike lane so you'll be stuck in the same lanes as the above drivers and all the commercial vehicles that service the area, which likely explains the white bike at the Link/Airline intersection.

But I agree that they could be really creative with what they put in these units (does the new Margaritas To Go stand count?) to match what their current customers are looking for. Just might be a slower burn than originally anticipated.

Seems like the open air section has been very successful while the buildings have struggled. There's consistently a ton of foot traffic through the produce vendor stalls and often a line backing up to get into the parking lot from Airline. They've increasingly held events in the green space out back, though I can't speak to attendance. But then the buildings seem geared towards a totally different set of people. I don't think many of the people who are buying cheap, cash-only produce or spices are looking for a $12 burger, a $45 steak, or to rent a pickleball court.

I'm sure it's not the result the developers were hoping for but I think it will continue to come into its own as the area grows and they get a better feel for what types of business are best suited for these units.