LarryDallas

GREAT NEWS!!!!

I got him adopted into a home of emptynesters. It is a couple in their 50s who have adult children who are grown and living in their own homes. The kitten will live in a quiet and peaceful home from now on and they have commited for life to him. These people were found through a friend of a friend and not on HAIF but that is not important. I do kind of feel sad about not being able to keep him in my home(long story) but I am THRILLED he has a loving home now.

As Bob Barker always says PLEASE have your pets spayed/neutered to prevent the creation of new pets that will live very short, cruel, and painful lives.

BTW, this is what he looks like:

The 95 pic makes me want to cry. Home Depot is nothing but a thug. They had enough of a parcel of land to place the store facing Chimney Rock with the rear facing the square with enough room for trucks to be able to get to their loading docks. As it is over 50% of the Home Depot lot is never used. The only time I recall it was even over 50% capacity occupied was in the 2-3 day period right before hurricane Rita was coming this way. If they had bulit a lake (as city park property) where the land was in the glory days of the square we might have been spared the ugly Home Depot coming in.

Although it will likely not occur I would like to see that whole area gutted and single family homes built where Home Depot, 99 cent store, and the Chase are. With rising energy prices this location is more valuable than it used to be when gas was 99 cents and Sugarland was a viable option.

It is very odd that this parcel of land sat idle so long from the 60s to 95. Currently there is a small lot of land right in front on Home Depot next to the Dominos Pizza for sale. It is big enough to accomodate a fast food joint. I pray that does not occur. God help us if a McDonalds opens up and all sorts of crime comes along with it.

I recall someone posted about Rascon's interviews at the bus loading area; maybe that was you as well. Not to excuse his behavior he did do a few good stories. He did one back in 02 or 03 where he interviewed and went along with a coyote that was smuggling people in from Mexico whenever he felt like it. He would take them to any major city in the US. This was at a time when the Department of Homeland Security was feeding us BS lies about how it was so capable and handling the situtation of a secure border with perfection. In fact, the smuggler too a group of his pasengers right in front of the Whitehouse and KTRK filmed it.

Rascon also did a good smaller story after this immigration amnesty thing became popular. He posed as an illegal alien and got a job in a pipecutting factory to show what it was like and how much money someone made in day. Granted it was no prize winning story but these were issues much more important than the ones other stations do following around loonies like Qunanel (sp I'm sure and don't care to correct) to stir up race relations. KPRC LOVES to create racial tension stories between blacks and either Chinese/Korean people and it always involves a C-store.

Now the reporter that is most scary is Alex Sanz on KHOU in the morning. I think he is Satan himself come to Houston in mortal form. If you look at his eyes for a few seconds you expect to see lightning shooting out at you soon. The guy has his own private URL which is rare for a reporter of his level to have at this early of a stage in his career.

He is just creepy:

http://alexsanz.com/

I went to Poe but decades later (class of 1990). While I was there it was the height of the cold war in the 1980s. The USSR had just launched their new Typhoon class of submarines that carried enough ICBMs onboard to destory any city in the world in a matter of minutes. We used to do these disaster drills in Poe where we hid under our desk if we were in he classroom or crouched in the hallways agaist the wall covering our faces with our hands.

The Houston Post ran a story about that bombing in the late 80s during the anniversary of it one year. One of the student survivors was an amputee and they had a large color photo of him that I remember very well.

During my time there Poe suffered a fire during summer vaction of one year but it never impacted the school calendar year so it was a non-event as far as I was concerned.

If any fellow Ravens are here; did the school always have those lights that were an incandescent bulb with concentric rings around them? During my 1st grade year they did a major renovation to the school and all of those fixtures came out. In went the flourescent tube lights; getting us ready for coroporate settings I guess. On a side note and totally off topic thing I would like to say that Ms. Irvin of 2nd grade in 1985-86 was the most attractive teacher in the whole school during the time I was there.

He is a stray that I found near my workplace. I estimate him to be 10 weeks old. He has a very loving personality and it broke my heart to see that some TOTAL #%^&%*@^%& abandoned him like that. A true ferral cat would be fearful of people but he is not so he came from a home somewhere and had contact with human beings in his very early weeks of life.

I can provide more details and photos if anyone is serious about this.

He is available to ONLY loving and commited to him for LIFE homes. I prefer someone who has been or is a cat owner to get him. Since he was out on the street he is not well nourished yet so he would not do well in a home with young children that can be rough on pets.

You will need to provide me your Vet.'s name and phone number so I can call for a reference; absolutely no exceptions on this. I need to know he will be well taken care of in a loving home.

texan_176@yahoo.com is the best way to reach me.

Oh, he is grey with white paws and a white stripe that runs from his chest all the way under his body with a green eye color.

Did anyone else watch that 4th of July show on 13 tonight? Montgomery Gentry was awesome! I really lost touch with country music after about 2001 so most of the songs were new to me.

Anyway, what was up with Curry? Her hair and makeup was not appropriate for a family show like this one. It was more suited for showing up at a pornography shoot to work. I'm not complaining but KTRK has gone over the top with this one. I thought it was cheesy when they kept showing Jessica Willey during hurricane Rita with wet hair in Galveston to make the news sexy when it was a total non-event (rain and wind wise) in this part of SE Texas.

KTRK is also running this promotion of Curry at night that is a cheap knockoff of the cheap commercial style KPRC has. They used to have one with Dominique Sachse years ago and now they do one with Wendy Corona and Jerome Gray.

Your thoughts/comments/2 cents...GO.

Those post card photos from the glory days of the square are awesome! At the same time, they make me want to cry at how that place went from such a wonderful independent business and no motor vehicle place to the concrete jungle home depot is now.

I would have to say while all of us on the board, minus a very small minority, wish the square was now as it was once, we have to be realistic. These times in which we live are nothing like the times were back in the 60s. I was born in 78 so I do not speak from firsthand experience but even in my lifetime I have seen our culture and population move towards egomania, anti-social, and flat out rude behavior. These days people want to drive to a big box store in an urban assualt vehicle that screams "I have more money than you do", buy communist made chinese goods on the cheap, and not give a rat's tail about much more. People used to be more nicer and more friendly just a decade or two ago in my experience so the 60s must have been way better than I even know.

Anyway, while we will most probably never see that style of community square place in town I would like to see the square preserved somehow. These days if you want that kind of walkable marketplace in the neighborhood you have to shell out megabucks and live in a town where not just a subdivision is masterplanned but the whole city is a planned community.

A sterling example of this is a place like Celebration, Florida.

http://www.celebrationfl.com/

This is news to me. Any links on which stops have WIFI?

I think Free WIFI should be available in every large (over 500,000 population) city at least within the loop of the city or say a 10 mile radius of the center of the town. This would probably not be as great as a private pay per subscription service but it would be very handy for tourists.

In fact, the states should put in Free WIFI in all rest stops along the interstates. I can't think of how handy internet access would be on a long trip where using your cell phone can not get reception to be used as a modem or your wireless WIFI card is useless. Truck drivers would also greatly benefit from real time information not restricted to the CB radio and broadcast radio/TV.

Most all rest stops already have emergency phones and all other utilities so setting up a WIFI system would not be a major project that requires billions of dollars.

Such a thing should be subsidized by the feds.

I understand where you're coming from, but the jet engine/prop analogy isn't very valid in this particular case. Of course jet engined aircraft needed longer runways, they had higher takeoff speeds and higher takeoff weights than thier prop counterparts. Cars do not have to be at a high speed to handle a curve, they can slow down and adapt to the road design without crashing.

Yes and no. No because if a vast majority of roadways are designed by engineers to be taken at 60 mph with complete safety and you have one that is a newly built exact copy of the first one built back in the 1950s when vehciles themselves were primative (solid axels, body on frame design, drum brakes, etc); this catches people off gaurd and is a major safety problem even in low traffic conditions. Someone who does not know that interchange and takes the turn at high speed can have a crash. Yes it is the fault of the driver for crashing but it is the fault of TXDOT for making conditions more favorable for a crash.

I was on the Levi Jordan dig in 2002 when they got started and they needed slaves....um..volunteers to find things and then not touch anything but only call in the find to a person on staff that could doccument it.

The contact person is Professor Ken Brown of U of H; he is the director of the whole project. Since your wife has a background in this maybe she can go to work with his people.

http://www.publicarchaeology.org/webarchae...ml/kennethl.htm

http://www.anthropology.uh.edu/faculty.htm

HAHAHA...funny stuff with the Dr. Bellows reference and the Jennie pic.

Do you guys remember that room they had toward the end of the museum with all of the planets in the solar system done to a scale? The walls in the room were painted black and each planet was lined up right by the sun which was like 10,000 times the size of earth.

When I was under 12 or so it used to freak me out and I always thought the sun was just going burn the earth to vapor with me on it. Well, actually that is kind of true. The earth does turn slower as each day passes and one day millions of years from now it will cease turning completely. The sunny side will be a wasteland inferno while the shaded side will be a frozen wasterland. Then I think the sun is supposed to die and as it does this it will expand and eventually incinerate the earth in its path before it explodes.

Something like that is what I recall from a geology class I took years ago.

Anyway, great thread and yeah that is the mural I was talking about!

Man I LOVED that old place.....it was classic NASA as represnted in shows like Jennie as well as news media in the 60s. The modern Space Center Houston is garbage compared to it. The entire main hall is nothing but a playground for kids while the back is just an overpriced resturant. The theme of the place has gone from one of technology, science, and discovery to just marketing to make a buck.

Design standards were different in the late 50's when the interchange was designed. Cars were bigger and slower, and people didn't barrel down them like they do today. I don't see anything wrong with those ramps today. Solution is, if you're driving a big rig or a SUV or a car that can't handle sharp curves at speed well, slow down! That's why they're going 25-40 mph in light traffic. If you crash going through it, it's your fault, not TxDOT's. They have signs telling you to slow down. It's all part of being a responsible driver.

To adapt to the changes that have occured in vehicle design thus enabling higher speed operation the roadways must also be changed.

Do you think putting jet engines on aircraft was a bad idea? Props are what flew out of airports all over the world first so was building longer runways to accomodate faster jets also a mistake?

It would have to be built elevated to retain at least 2 lanes going each direction on S. Post Oak. It would look sort of like the intersection of Willowbend and S. Main near the Al's Formal wearhouse. It would be a mix of freeway and surface streets; a concrete nightmare full of smog.

The gasmer land has already had the WillowWaterHole built on it plus the land that Shell owns they would probably not mess with.

This was before Disney came in and built the Space Center Houston. You used to drive up to the security booth at NASA, tell them you were going to the visitor center, and just go. You would also drive your car to the Rocket Park that the tram takes you to these days.

Sure they did not have the tram tours that took you to the training and R&D areas of NASA but I liked the old museum so much more. The Space Center Houston really seems like a playground for kids. The old museum had things like actual presidential pens that signed key doccuments in the space program, trophies, more actual equipment that was once used by NASA, etc.... I always felt like the old building and display was the I Dream of Genie NASA in her glory days of the 1960s.

Best of all it was 100% free.

Anyone have old photos of that place?

The mural near the theater was such a pure NASA/Houston thing....it is burned in my mind.

The part where people had to cross 4 lanes of traffic to get off on Westheimer if going north on 610 was a 100% success with that excellent single lane off ramp that gets you off of the main lanes before you cross over 59 and then dumps you right on the feeder before Westheimer.

The major failure was in the ramp that takes you from 610 north going to 59 south. Before they reconstructed this area that area of 610 right in front of the Home Depot was famous for wrecks. I still see the area jammed up at all hours of the day during the work week. They did improve the access to go to 59 north but the 59 south ramp seems to be too narrow and sharp for large commercial trucks and SUVs to take at high speed. Even when the traffic is not heavy people slow down to 25-40 mph on that turn.

They should have built an exit ramp like the ones they have at beltway 8 and 59 north where it is a very lazy and gradual curve with lots of shoulder room for people to feel more safe about not hitting the wall. This curve should have gone over the old existing 610 bridge that goes over 59. The exit for the ramp should have been at least a mile before the actual exit by raising a wall protected with crash barrel to keep people from jumping on the exit at the last second and causing more slowing.

With that intersection being in the top 10 more busy and dangerous in the USA the sky should have been the limit on funding a good solution.

The ultimate plan is to extend 610 to main street down Post Oak.....

Oh GOD I hope not. If 610 had an elevated freeway that ran all of the way from W. Bellfort to S. Main where S. Post Oak is the traffic in the area would just explode. Fewer people would jump off 610 where S. Main intersects it since they would be able to, in theory, take the other way without ever hitting the brakes.

Speaking of that area what were they thinking when they designed that off ramp that you take coming west bound on 610 to exit on S. Post Oak? People try to get off on W. Belfort and have to jump 3 lanes over to do it. I have seen tons of wrecks there. It might have worked when people used to drive under 70 mph on the freeway and our population was low. Now, it seems as if the cheap solution would be to build a wall that would force drivers to exit on S. Post Oak instead of crossing 3 lanes to get off on W. Bellfort if they are coming from 610 west. The expensive solution would be an elevated bridge sort of like the one that allows you to get off on Westheimer from 610 going north where you do not have to cross any lanes at all and it dumps right out on Westheimer. That would cost millions of dollars while a wall would probably cost under 10% of an elevated bridge.

Use a tar dipped nylon mesh matrix and apply the wet patch on this matrix. The mesh acts as rebar does in concrete. Without it the patch will dry and crack fast -----> a fast leak returns.

A permanent solution is a hot patch (trumble type 3 tar) or a roller roof patch. West End Lumber sells this stuff but I would hire a pro to do it cause you need either a cooker for the tar or a roofing torch for the roller roof.

A patch will cost between $150-$250 depending on size.

The materials cost $40 for 100 pounds of tar and $65 for a roller roof......LOTSA money to be made in roofing. It takes under an hour to make the reapir with the right equipment.

I live about a 5 minute drive from the Home Depot in Westbury so I do not go on S. Main much to go anywhere. It is just the impact the Chimney Rock traffic that is having on W. Bellfort that is horrible. S. Main is probably a nightmare going north in the AM since people try to avoid US 59 and come up the other way. I think the beltway and 59 to downtown ride is over 1 hour in the mornings. This is a major reason I decided never to move out there. It might have worked in the 50s and 60s when our population was less than half what it is now.

The Walmart in meyerpark has been a disaster IMHO. That whole mall is surrounded by a pretty good area. The home to the south are in the 250K-350K price range. The apartments next to the mall are kept in excellent condition. Also, you have that small duck pond there which is a nice place. Walmart draws in people from as far as Fondren out west and as far as Griggs out east becasue it is the closest one to them. The attitude Walmart has about not wanting to set up shop in less desirable areas is BS since their customer base is not exactly the elite class of the United States.

When the golf range was where Walmart and that self storage thing is it was a nice mall to go to. People used to come to that AMC 16 from all over Houston before the stadium seating was put in about 10 years ago in the movie houses with 36 screens. Just a few years ago some old lady was robbed at gunpoint in the Randalls parking lot and later died in the hospital. This type of thing was unheard of in this area.

Whatnot

I can't stand this at all. People who pretend they know what they are talking about or want to seem to sound intelligent use this word commonly. After I hear it I know the person who said it is full of ****.

Foronda was the better anchor.

I kind of liked how KHOU was going with a serious theme of get to the point wihout much stupidity that involved teasing and jokes on the air. So I guess Len Cannon got knifed in the back and will go back to some other time spot.

I speculate this move comes just from trying to be politically correct and not have an all male news team. That sucks that they are breaking this team up just to get a woman in there and NOT because Hurst and Cannon did a bad job.

I think the problem mainly had to do with what a mess S. Main has been for as long as I can remember. In the 28 years I have been in Houston S Main has always had orange barrels out there and turns into a mud pit when it rains. Just recently have things been changing for the better on that roadway. Compared to how it has looked since the 1980s it seemed much more orderly in the 1960 photo someone posted in the Westbury Square thread.

I think people just did not want to go to that area because of this mess and how poorly lit HWY 90 has been at night. This type of thing allowed undesirable business like sleazy night clubs, fast food joints, and shadytree mechanic car shops to proliferate in the area. The mall that is on the SW corner of Hilcroft and S. Main has tons of potential but it all needs to be demolished and rebuilt. Instead of putting the store they built in MeyerPark I think Walmart should have placed a SuperWalmart at that location. It would have done wonders for the lighting problem and attracted smaller reatilers to set up shop. Places like cell phone stores, shoe stores, car stereo, etc.... Look, we have to face reality....we are not going to get Tiffany or Saks to open a store on Hwy 90. The goal should be to just get it out of the totally junkyarded state it has been in for a long time.

As much as I like how the new Hwy 90 looks I can't stand how the Ft. Bend tollway dumps traffic right into Chimney Rock. The traffic is a nightmare in the AM because everyone drives north to W. Belfort to connect to the loop. If HPD set up 4 police cars at the intersection of Greenwillow and W. Bellfort to run a speed trap they would collect millions of dollars a year in ticket revenues. People normally go over 50 mph on W. Bellfort weekdays between 6am-9am.

If the owners of the Centerette are in Mexico and refuse to clean up or sell the property why does the city not sieze it and sell it at auction because of the numerous code violations of things like junk cars littering the lot, junk school bus parking, no kind of control of who squats in the property, etc?

I think the side that faces Cedarhurst can be home to some sort of business. No one would have figured a Discount Tire on that street would pop up and do so well. A doughnut shop or a pub where people in the area can come and socialize would be the best thing for that area. I do not mean like a night club that attracts crime but more like a place where regulars go to hang out for a few hours. The Exxon should just be demolished since traffic on Bellfort moves so fast no one would stop to fuel up there. That corner is best suited for a business that serves this community like a dry cleaners for example. The shops next to the AutoZone have the same problem of traffic moving by too fast. Maybe they should just demolish the everything but the Centerette sign and put an Applebees in there. I dunno.

Westbury Square should be saved from demolition just because it is so unique and historic. I think the best idea with that is to do what they did to the Jefferson Davis Hospital near downtown. That place was in ruins for decades and they recently renovated it to house artists at a reasonable rent. We should do the same. If not artists then senior citizens or something. They could make use of the vast parking lot in the western end and construct more buildings that are much like the ones that once existed. Leave a few spaces open for light retail in the future if needed. Just do that and have some tax exempt entity be in charge of the whole thing so it does not end up a slum as do many properties run by for profit groups that just care about a buck.

I went back out today and shot some pics of the building that housed the Cargo Houston. You can also see the live theater that is still open.

This is the area that faced the main fountain as seen in the postcards someone else posted. The Tuesday Morning signs are still there. I tried to look inside but the windows had bubbled tint all over them.

This fountain must have been relocated since it was no where so near to the building in the old photos. Was this the fountain that used to be in the center? Also, was this the tile that has been there from day?

Yet another sign from the city.

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