kjb434

I love the light rail appearance. It does add to the atmosphere. I do also agree about the market forces. They are the best way to determine when a place is ready to move forward. It's what is behine the Pavilions project. They are making an investment in the city. Yes, they will get some tax abatements and assistance, but they are in the form of bonds that will be paid off by the TIRZ and not taxpayer money directly.

Yeah, They will be over it, but they have to work very closely with UPRR which owns most if not all the rail lines in the region. Railroad companies are some of the most dedicated to their current customer base.

Yeah, I have the same fear of landowners jacking prices up and slowing development down. I'm thinking midtown and downtown already have this happening.

A lot of the blue screen of death and illegal functions are due to poor or bad RAM. Back in college I had a computer that did this all the time. Some of the guys in the computer engineering department told me to get a higher grade of RAM and you'll see the errors disappear. Higher grade means name-brand and higher costing.

The key word is "smooth". The biggest hurdle that METRO has to deal with is the current rail road companies. Sharing the rail is an efficient use of space and current alignments, but the rail road companies has keep their current customers happy while allowing the use of their lines by a different entity that is on a tight schedule.

Well, if the red light camera's come to Houston and I happen to get tagged (It was dark yellow, not red), I would pay. Some Phoenix citizens realized they don't have to pay the red light tickets since they aren't being served by an officer of the law. The same premise can apply to Texas. Some may say that the tollroads have the same system as the red light cameras in case you run through and not pay, but it's a different situation. The toll road is a private road built by the county and paying customers get to use it. In the rules that apply to the toll road, you accept the use of the cameras when you drive on it. IMO, I think the downtown reconstruction was quite well planned and organized. Not only did the project have to replace city infrastructure, but also much of the infrastructure for telecommunications was replace by private companies in the process. None city infrastructure were also relocated and rebuilt. It was an organization nightmare, but it was realized that if everybody gets involve at once to handle everything, then the new roads won't have to be torn up later. Downtown also has now a new fiber optic upgraded telecommunications infrastructure. The signal timing here in Houston is alot better now than it used to be. The existing network is finally being utilized to time lights and provide easing of traffic congestion. The city is now efficiently using their traffic control systems where they weren't before. They have an advance system in place that wasn't being used.

How permanent are these new residents. My assumption is that they would move out as soon as the free rent ends.

go to the Fort Bend County Toll Road website. They have a bunch of pictures of this project. All the sections withing the Belt would be part of HCTRA instead. They also have a bunch of pics of the Westpark Tollroad portion in Fort Bend County.

KHovanian is also building a large section of homes in Cottage Grove (TC Jester just north of I-10) and off of Prince Street in the Timbergrove area (north of 11th and west of Shepherd). The houses they have completed are quite nice with a entry level at $210,000.

I think the city has done plenty enough for downtown. Don't you see all the rebuilt streets and the infrastructure under them that was put into place? The city has played the key role in setting downtown up for growth.

Below is the agenda from the Houston City Council with a the added "PASS" next to each ordinance and recommendation for the Houston Pavilions Project. ********************************************************************* NON CONSENT AGENDA - NUMBERS 35 through 35D MATTERS RELATING TO THE HOUSTON PAVILIONS PROJECT 35. ORDINANCE enlarging the boundaries of Reinvestment Zone Number Three, City of Houston, Texas, (Main Street/Market Square TIRZ) - DISTRICT I - ALVARADO - PASS TAGGED BY COUNCIL MEMBERS GALLOWAY, GREEN and GARCIA This was Item 21 on Agenda of September 7, 2005 a. ORDINANCE approving a third amended Project Plan and Reinvestment Zone Financing Plan for Reinvestment Zone Number Three, City of Houston, Texas (Main Street/Market Square TIRZ); authorizing the City Secretary to distribute such plans; determining the portion of tax increment the city will pay from the area annexed into the zone - DISTRICT I

^^ good post. With credibility. Hey Jeebus, do you remember how Huricane Andrew was handled? Was it Mike or Edwin that was governor then? I think either one had the national guard ready also.

Why buy the books there when you can get the same ones cheaper online and at Half Price Books? I haven't been in a Borders or Barnes and Nobles in years.

The Galleria store was by the Alabama St entrance in Galleria II. It was real small and i never saw anyone in there but 1 salesman. I don't know if it moved since or closed.

Well Memorial City is becoming it's own version of Uptown without Town and Country. Once the $700 million mixed use development is finished, they will have office and residential towers and a more urban core.

Also, the charge of Bush cutting the funding for levees is red herring. Louisiana gets the most army corps money at nearly $2 billion. California comes in at a distant second. Mary Landrieu along with Louisiana state legislators redirected the funding from New Orleans levees to other projects. The money allocated during the Bush adminstration for levee and flood control improvements were the highest ever and more than ever allocated during the Clinton adminstration. Check out the Washington Post article detailing all of the events regarding this. The money was there, the state as usual wastes it. Also, the white house is prepared to release the tapes of the conversations between the president and governor Blanco along tapes with Nagin and governor Barbour from Mississippi. The decision was made after reporters were asking crazy questions implicating Bush at a white house press conference. The press secretary said we can release all the tapes of exactly what happened showing how Louisiana denied federal assistance until the end of the week after the storm hit. The press corps shut up and retracted all of there acusatory questions.

I never thought the federal government was good at moving fast to take care of things outside of the military. I just never want to rely on the feds. FEMA and the RedCross were waiting to get into New Orleans, but were told not too. The were moving into Mississippi's hard hit areas as they waited to go into Louisiana's. Governor Barbour asked for the assistance and the help, Gov Blanco refused and wanted to think it over. Those are the actual instances. I don't think the feds are completely out of the blame, I think congress (repubs and dems) should get lots of blame for putting all the red tape into the Homeland Security department. They both should be ashamed. I think if I were FEMA, would have started yelling at Gov Blanco to let them in. It's not like they didn't want to go. Outside the Homeland Security step, FEMA under the previous configuration had to operate the same way. I remember Clinton having to call Florida after Huricanes hit. Florida said come on over and FEMA went in an did a great job. There's a process that is annoying and was followed, but I'm so aggravated at my former state's politicians and cringe. My other fear is the after math with funds. FEMA is notorious in all emergency situations at getting funds to people, states, cities and organizations that assisted after the disaster. Those 2000 debit cards they are going to hand out. The concept is great, but the red tape to get the card is hard. The person applying has to be dilligent and checkup on FEMA to get it. You aren't just handed one. Over and over again in FEMA and many government bureacracies demonstrate ineffectiveness. It's just too big move with the needs of the country. It great at defending and international relations, but getting specific help to specific communities it is not. The states are much more equiped to handle this. This is why it was setup that the feds have to ask the governors to help and the governors have to request it. The answer is always yes (except for this last case in Louisiana). The US government under the constitution also doesn't have the right to take over the responsibilities of the state. It doing so would violate the Federalism in place within our constitution. Very few times have the federal government intervene in a state such as in the civil rights era. Even then, special approval needed to be granted by other fed officials in congress, the judiciary, and the deparment of justice to ensure the constitution isn't violated. So yes, FEMA isn't perfect, but they absolutely couldn't do anything. I don't care who the director was or the president, the state was at fault.

Hey, i like enemas and but plugs, but that's the freak in me. I would go further, but I'm afraid I'll get kicked off.

Do you have a cable internet right now? Is it good. I have some friends that mentioned to me and some forumers on here that cable internet in the heights isn't that good (probably old lines). Mine is fine in the Cottage Grove area. Some friends are happy with DSL from SBC. Direct TV is still offering satelite internet. You will get another satelite to go along with your TV satelite for internet service. The Dish Network is now partnering with SBC, so they'll direct you over to DSL. Right now I have Time Warner's second level Digital Cable package with Cable Internet. My bill is 85-95 dollars a month (depends if I use I-Control for movies that month). I'm happy with the service. I've had no interuptions. Both DSL and Cable are ok. DSL you have login unless you have router do it for you. Cable is always on. I think you have to login to Satelite if I remember from my friends in rural Louisiana. They like that service also. I think there is another satelite service called Pegasus for internet. It may be who Direct TV uses. Pricewise, you can get DSL as fast as cable, but you'll be paying about the same. DSL has several speeds and various prices. The cheapest is about a half or two-thirds the speed of cable. I don't know what the price of the satelite service is.

I'm not putting you down. I'm more or less showing many of the die hard inner loopers on this forum that there are commuters that don't think suburban life is that bad. HCTRA and FBCTRA are in the business of finding customers (commuters). The Westpark Toll Road is well on it way of becoming another successfull project like the West Belt. I use the Westpark every now and then because I have some projects in that area. I love the road. Very efficient.

Trust me, TxDOT went into the meeting with idea of using the Hardy Toll Road. You didn't scare them one bit. They have to have multiple alternatives for their MIS and EIS reports to the Feds. They like to go with their prefered plan the furthest until resistance occured. The mere mention of this meeting would show them oposistion exist. They just switch options. Let's see the residents of the area north of downtown go next. They were pushing hard against the Hardy Extension. It's between the heights and the north downtown area (i'm avoiding the word NoDo at all costs). My guess is the Heights will win and the north downtown area will lose. Looks like the more well off will win over the lower income citizens. My guess is that TxDOT will partner with HCTRA. My next hope is that the heights and the I-45 Coalition work on getting architectural and landscaping enhancements to the project.

Any renderings or some idea of what the building will be like?

I think they were trying to get NASCAR's approval but it never happened. There were some NIMBY factors. The area they were planning to put it really was in the middle of nowhere along SH 288. It would have been a great economic benefit for the area. A lot of it also depends whether the group with the idea could get finacial backers to jump into the deal.

I don't know where the lakeside rendering would take place, but the one closer to downtown was going to destroy a bunch of low income and delapidated housing. People cried racism as usual. I guess now with most of those homes destroyed and the people not really owning them, it's a good chance for a new stadium.

Yeah, there combined resumes to impress a client to pick them. We do it in the engineering world all the time. We'll get a geotech firm, a structural firm, and a traffic firm to join us on a team to submit our qualifications to say TxDOT or Harris County. If it looks good enough to them, they'll pick us for the project. This is a little oversimplified, but the gist of the situation.