Joke

I've been out of Houston for 4 years now, but excited for this to happen. Just popped up in my feed with the Ballpark Lofts demolition.

I've done a little searching, but couldn't easily find what's happening with Pierce Elevated. Has that been decided?

Also, any chance that this will do something about how Spur 527 turns all of west Midtown into just a dangerous ingress/egress path to downtown at the rush hours? Try walking between, say, Drew at Bagby and the McGowen light rail station at rush hour -- it's a car-filled nightmare. 

My thought when I lived there is that they should dead-end a few of the North-South streets at various places, turning whole whole block of street into something fun (plaza, pocket park, whatever). E.g., dead-end Brazos at Dennis, Smith at McGown, Louisiana at Mcilhenney, etc. It would work out fine for local traffic, but the fact you couldn't straight-shot all the way from downtown to/from the Spur would make the spur a lot less appealing to people just passing through Midtown to downtown. 

Alternatively, making 59 to the east side of downtown much more appealing would also do the trick, but I don't know if this does that.

Man, the service at Rico's was shitty. Food was not bad. Hopefully La Calle is more committed.

41 minutes ago, H-Town Man said:

 

Exactly. The difference made by our supposed "overdevelopment" is seen in normal large rainfalls, not Harveys. A Texas A&M study apparently concluded that we have lost 4 billion gallons of rainwater absorption due to development since I think 1990. Harvey dropped 12 trillion gallons on Texas, probably at least two trillion on Harris County alone. (Average depth across the county was 25 inches in two days, so do the math.) 4 billion is a pretty small percentage of that.

 

Thanks for that. I've been looking for any hard numbers, and that's the first I've heard.

6 hours ago, samagon said:

 

https://socialistworker.org/2017/09/06/floods-are-devastating-south-asia-too

 

 

I've never been to Bangladesh, probably will never go, but I assume that they are very similar to other southeast Asian countries I have visited with densely packed population centers, yet the rest of the country is extremely rural, and exceedingly poor, with lots of rice fields and other agriculture that has been this way for centuries.

 

Imagining the southeast Asian countries I have visited being 1/3 under water doesn't add up to development, overpopulation, or deforestation.

 

Unless you're talking about the entire world and referencing anthropogenic climate change. In which case, I absolutely agree, warmer oceans as a result of climate change mean more energy, more evaporation of surface waters as a result and we are going to see more of these torrential downpours. It's not a direct result, but it is all related. 

 

All of that aside, when you're talking about 9" of rain in 90 minutes it doesn't matter what kind of surface you're dealing with, concrete, semipermiable asphalt, dirt, clay, sand, the ground cannot absorb water that fast. it will runoff the surface, and when it does it will overwhelm the storm sewers, and when it does it will flood homes.

 

I'm not saying that concrete and development didn't exacerbate the problem, but in Pearland they had verified reports of 9" of rain in 90 minutes. this resulted in flash flooding that inundated houses. development in the katy prairie and in other northwest areas of town was not in any way related to this flooding.

 

The majority of the flooding was caused by this being a frog strangler of a storm. That being said, there is flooding that was contributed to by development, and I also suspect that there are mitigation steps that need to happen that will still allow development, but also serve to protect the city and dwellings in the city, things like the bypass canals through downtown, buying property along bayous to create larger storm channels, more detention ponds around town, and certainly new regulations that force new development to take certain precautions. I'm certainly ready to pay higher taxes so this can be done.

This is exactly my thinking on the situation as well.

In the wake of Harvey, there has a been a lot of talk about Houston's development and the loss of permeable ground. I think it's an important discussion, but it really has very little to do with the damage form Harvey.

That loss of permeable ground is what makes us more susceptible to flooding from "normal" rain events; it's the difference between no flooding and some flooding for events that are right on the edge. Harvey was so extreme -- so much water came down so fast -- that the water that could've been impounded by permeable ground was basically negligible.

That's my guess. I'd like to hear an expert opine.

I live in Midtown, bike/walk to downtown, and would _love_ to see the Pierce elevated go (well, really what I want is the portion of 45 that runs north-south from Allen Pkwy to Pierce to be demolished and replaced by more entrances to downtown -- ideally green spaces with ped/bike-friendly entrances to downtown). But I'd love to see the whole thing go; i like the high line park idea.

But at the same time, I just find it hard to believe that the Pierce elevated itself (the elevated stretch running along Pierce from Brazos to 45) is necessarily an impediment to pedestrian connectivity between midtown and downtown. Yes, it's kind of unpleasant to look at and walk under, and yes it can be a bit intimidating at night because the columns provide hiding places for potential evildoers. But I absolutely refuse to believe that creative types couldn't overcome these concerns with a fairly modest budget, e.g.:

- Tons of bright lighting on the sides and underside of the overpass, to remove some fear of threat

- Ivy and other plants grown all along the the sides and underside of the overpass, and over all the columns, to turn a sad concrete jungle into a nice green spot

- Food kiosks or food trucks or something directly under the overpass right at the sidewalk's edge. Maybe use the space behind the frontage for outdoor seating. Mandate that these be in operation from early morning to late night.

- In addition to or in place of some of the plantings, do something cool with the look of the overpass, art or something.

I think the real problem with connectivity is where 45 acts as a _physical_ barrier between downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods (as mentioned before, the stretch of 45 from Allen Parkway to Pierce). I really think that the mental barriers could be overcome with just a little effort.

So, I feel like I've heard about a number of new bars and restos coming to Midtown, but clearly Mrs. Joke and I are in a rut because I think the last new place we've tried in the last couple years is Oporto. 

What are your recommendations for Midtown spots that have opened up in the last, say 2 or so years?

PS - We liked Oporto. Need to try it again some time.

SuperLake

Culture map says Whole Foods on the bottom, luxury apts on top.

http://houston.culturemap.com/news/real-estate/05-08-15-midtown-grows-up-with-new-whole-foods-market-and-luxury-apartments-planned-for-prime-site/

So the post on the Lamar bike lanes got me reading about the Columbia Tap bike trail, which inevitably turned up the comments and news stories about numerous muggings on the trail in mid-2013. It also turned up news items (and a thread in the HAIF Crime and Punishment subforum) about some juveniles getting arrested for the muggings in September 2013.

So question to local cyclists -- did the arrests fix the problem? Anyone heard of any new issues since September 2013?

Any experiences would be helpful.

And while I'm here, some good articles on this from the Chron, first from Dec 2013 and second from August 2012:

Biked by today (man, what a gorgeous day!!). Snapped a few pics:

Mixed news everyone! Per an update at the Midtown Redevelopment Authority meeting tonight, bids for this project came in over budget and the MRA board is in talks with several government groups to allocate the deficit (approximately $4M).  If funding is found, construction will start toward the end of 2015... if not, the project will be scaled back or shelved indefinitely. Overall, my feelings are: 

Thanks again, phillip_white! I think I got all of this discussion transcribed (I noted some background on my transcription in the superblock thread):

Good news everyone! Per an update at the Midtown Redevelopment Authority meeting tonight, the parking garage should start construction in the next two months... which will be followed by Camden and park construction.  The goal is to have everything ready to host a Super Bowl event at the park.

Thanks, phillip_white!

Note that technically this was a meeting of the Midtown Management District, and we're dealing with the part of the meeting where a representative of the Midtown Redevelopment Authority (I didn't catch his name) provided an update to the MMD board. 

For grins I tried out an app at the meeting last night that let me record bits and then pay to have them transcribed. I thought this part of the meeting was interesting, but I missed recording the majority of his discussion of superblock.Here's the little bit of SuperBlock-related stuff that I recorded:

MRA Rep: "...also a 12 month construction contract. Very aggressive schedule targeting completion of the park November/December 2016. In time for a potential home uh venue for the Superbowl in early 2017. [iNAUDIBLE]. Uh, Camden's, uh it's 300. Between 300 and 400. It's an 8 story."

I got all of the MRA rep's Caroline Street comments. Will post on that thread.

http://houston.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/01-28-15-midtowns-getting-a-new-barbecue-restaurant-with-a-pitmaster-legend-and-twin-peaks-level-eye-candy/

 

"Midtown's getting a new barbecue restaurant with a pitmaster legend and Twin Peaks level eye candy"

If they really believed the pitmaster to be that good, they wouldn't need the titty gimmick. Weak.

I have zero knowledge of demolition, so apologies if these are dumb questions.

I work next door to the Macy's (29th floor of the 1000 Main builiding, right across Lamar). Any chance that I'll be able to go into my office that Sunday morning to watch the demolition? Or will they require evacuation of all the buildings in the 9-block area?

Went here for lunch a few weeks ago. I'm no expert but it looks like they put a ton of money into this place -- the finishes really looked high end. And they seem to have built it for multiple different configurations --  a variety of (high-end seeming) garage doors to close off spaces when it's too hot to be completely open.

Food was fine, specialty drinks didn't do it for me. But their open roof area was the perfect way to spend a sunny April afternoon. This place has been absolutely slammed when I've walked by on weekend nights.

I love the Pedal Party! Makes me smile every time I see it. And a bit jealous.

Awesome, looking forward to the park. However, Midtown is losing its best spot for throwing around an Aerobie.

Crosspoint is building out an old building a few blocks north on Louisiana in what looks to be a new Mexican restaurant. There is a sign for "Luby Tequila's". I went to the website and it looks like a small chain up in the panhandle. There is also a page for locations showing their future Midtown location.

Nice addition to the area. It surprises me that El Patio has been the only Mexican food restaurant in Midtown for so long.

Cyclone Anaya's?

Wow, that first pic reminds me of nothing so much as my high school. Except for the escalator. No escalator in the high school. (Also, HP is missing a big athletic field overrun by portables).

You have to get the vegetarian dumplings. Or at the very least go half-and-half with veggie if you're going to try the pork.

The lady who runs the place is little but certainly not old.

And she's extremely efficient but nice (or pragmatic) -- one time (way back when I used to go there twice a week and before they took credit cards) I didn't realize I had no cash on me until I had the dumplings in hand. She said I could pay her next time, which I did of course.

As for the line, it could stretch past Potbelly into the main hallway and you'll STILL have your dumplings in 5 minutes or less.

Yeah, after I finished my post I re-read his and noticed his sig. His sig quote seems to be quite inconsistent with (my reading of) his post.

It made me wonder if I'd completely misread his intent, but at that point I'd already replied.

[in fact, I'm now hoping dbig will come back and clarify that I somehow misunderstood; I'd happily edit my comment if that's the case. Yes, I'm a card-carrying starry-eyed optimist.

I'm also glad I decided against including a line about how a different vowel would seem much more appropriate in "dbig".]

Maybe those who have so much food that they can afford to throw it at animals should have their Lone Star cards revoked.

Hey dbig, try to keep up -- the free admission to Lone Star Card-holders is a NEW program starting up in August. The "summer free days" with the food-throwing issue were days when the park was free to EVERYONE.

According to the article, zip code info combined with census data allowed them to estimate that "less than 9 percent of free-day visitors were from low-income areas".

At least try to get your facts straight before deriding the poor.

... It is the digging a couple of holes in the middle of the street and burying the supports that gets me. The funny part is the anti-METRO crowd is always complaining about how you can't run light rail in the middle of the street, but apparently you CAN bury trestle supports in the middle of the street. That's OK.

...

Well, when the supports start traveling through intersections, blocking cross-flow and left turns from parallel flow, then I'll agree that supports are equally as problematic as at-grade trains. But as long as the supports stay fixed in the ground, they seem A-OK to me.

That's not to say I'm anti-light rail - I use it and I like it. [FWIW, I think it's significantly improved since they "fixed" the timing of the lights in downtown.] But as I've gotten used to it bring in my neighborhood, it's caused me to mentally cut the midtown/downtown area into two halves; I tend to stay on my half when I'm driving anywhere (and I stay off Main Street completely) because it's frustrating to have to circle around when you cross through or make a left turn. Rail above or below grade wouldn't have had any of those consequences.