kzseattle
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Posts posted by kzseattle
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Okay so I do not need to say anything if he doe snto care for English then it is no problem. he is welcoem to go where ever he wants and speaks what he wants just do not force me to change just to accomodate him.
If they are just visiting the US then I have no problem with anyone speaking any language that they want or feel like speaking. I will be more than happy to help anyone one who wants to visit this wonderful country in any way I can no matter hop difficult. Now on the other hand if they wish to come live here then they should make every attempt to learn the local language and I expect someone moving to their country to do the same thing.
When I lived in France I did my best to learn the local language and the locals were very patient with me as well. Not once did I complain or try to force them to understand English. That is the way it should be. it is only the polite and curtous thing to do.
Yup, you said the right things. I actually find it amusing how freely the accusation of racism is thrown around. I mean, it's a long way for someone to simply suggest that one should learn English when living in an English speaking country for one's own benefit and convenience, to being a racist!
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Jesus H. Christ.. Someone get this man a translator - STAT!
I believe he wrote in Spanish on purpose to show he didnt care for English. Basically, he complained that American are enforcing their way of life onto others and since Americans who visit Mexico dont speak Spanish, why should they speak English when they are in America. And, oh, he called you are racist!
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Sorry, if I am too lazy to check out the place myself, but I saw a commercial on it a while back and the area looked kind of nice, or maybe they were just sugar coating it. From the commercial, I saw more of a pedetrian oriented retail district, rather than a strip mall with oversized parking lots like Uptown Park(which I might add had so much potential if they had built it in an urban design). What exactly does Town & Country Village look like? If you have any pics, that would be great too.
Unfortunately, it is similar to Uptown Park. Actually, Uptown park is slightly more pedestrain-oriented. In T&C, parking lots are even bigger. The buildings in T&C, however, do look nice. As I have often complained, I am tired of over-sized parking lots and waiting for the day when a developer wakes up, smells the coffee, realizes people are getting sick of huge parking lots and builds something that is truely pedestrain-oriented.
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I think the issue of economic stratification is being ignored here. While it is true that without the presence of early adoptors the Downtown and Midtown areas would be dormant, it does not bode well for the economic well being of a city if all the "prime" areas become an enclave for walk-on from 'Friends'. I take it none of you know what it is like for the armies of anonymous copper skinned labor who troll around in slow Metro buses commuting in the wee hours from the suburban slums outside the Loop.
I suppose that is why I enjoy the Montrose, and while it is succumbing to gentrification, its mishmash of cultures and socio-economic levels ensure its egalitarian nature in a city where that is disappearing.
Since you specifically stated "suburban slums OUTSIDE the Loop", are you implying that everything outside the Loop is a slum and that there are no slums inside the Loop?
I also don
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Because it is an upscale store stuck in a middle class neighborhood masquerading with upscale pretensions.
So if The Woodlands with an average household income of $85,253 is a "middle class" neighborhood who cannot even afford to buy at Central Market, who do you think Central Market is after? Only those who live in River Oaks? Well then I am surprised they havnt gone out of business yet since thats a very tiny market!
Central Market isn't Hermes or Versace. I am sure that, before spending millions of dollars on their store, they did some market research to determine if they will be affordable.
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OMG
I TOTALLY clip coupons from the Sunday paper!!! I guess I am one of the few? 
Maybe it's a girl thing. I dunno!
When someone remembers that butter costs 25 cents here and 40 cents there, we can kind of guess we got a coupons-clipper
I wish I could remember all those prices! -
I think that space is too small for a housing subdivisions. I think most likely they are going to be townhomes. The starting price is mid 200s so they must be quite upscale.
Found the following site with lots of info on whats going in Westchase district. According to this, Westchase Manor is being developed by Lakeland Development and was called Westchase Trails.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:1MsoY...e+Houston&hl=en
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If I remember correctly, I read somewhere on the WCD website that this is going to be a new home subdivision. I think... It could have been townhomes... Damn it - Now you've got me wondering...
I think that space is too small for a housing subdivisions. I think most likely they are going to be townhomes. The starting price is mid 200s so they must be quite upscale.
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4: What is that construction going on behind Starbucks at Carillon Point on Westheimer? I didnt know Carillon Point is a Wulfe's project. It looks nice although, as in other retail centers, there is too much parking space and so the shops/restaurants seem rather disconnected. I wish they had made it more
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Right. And an honest look is better than spending years in delusionment like some other new growth cities. Only recently has cities like Phoenix admitted some of its quality of life issues such as rising crime, lack of transit options, dearth of public parks and an antiquated water works department. Dallas recently came to grips with reality not being in tune with the locals perception, particularly with regards to schools and crime. Atlanta is finally starting to acknowledge that it is a city that also extends south of I-20 and that blight and decay is growing at a faster rate in this area of the city than prosperity is growing in other parts.
The moral (as if I'm one to give morals): the first step to being the best of what you can be is to acknowledge the worst of what you are.
Thanks for putting it more eloquently than I did! While we can all take pride in our accomplishments and enjoy them, lets not forget our shortcomings.
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Is this necessary? huh?
I guess there is no harm in taking an inward look and knowing what our problems are and admitting them so they can be resolved. And I think there is no harm in comparing with other cities of similar size to see which ones are doing better and what we can learn from them. That's all, nothing more.
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Trash:
Answer is no. Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, New Orleans, Lousiville, New York City (despite the excellent clean up initiatives of the last ten plus years) and even San Francisco all strike me as being trashier. That said, we need to clean up our medians, because the medians help the trash to standout. Not many cities have medians as wide as Houston (in fact, I can't think of any that have as many) so every piece of paper that sits in a median stands out more. Fortunately, Houston doesn't have areas where lot after lot (and many in residential areas) is infested with bulk trash that no one seems to care about, like what you find in Philadelphia or Detroit.
That said, the worst offender for trash in Houston is Fifth Ward and most of the NE Side.
As far as cleanest, I'd say Seattle is the epitome of clean, with San Diego and Denver close behind.
Roads:
Answer is no. Easily. You haven't seen bad roads until you've visited some of our midwestern cities. Boston and Dallas both have a bit of a problem with potholes, too. In fact, moreso than when I first visited some ten plus years ago. I would say Boston is slightly worse than Houston where Dallas is slightly better--at least IMO. Conversely, I think Los Angeles, Atlanta and San Diego have the best roads as far as major cities are concerned.
Thanks! I was just curious to know where do we stand now and what is the status of our infrastructure when compared to other cities in the country. Coming from Seattle, I am kind of new to these issues so I guess I get frustrated a bit more than long time residents.
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3. I've wondered the same. That land's been empty for a minute and you'd think that someone would've tapped into the fact that Westchase is fairly large and reasonably prosperous area that needs more retail. I don't think it will be upscale but it'll probably be a step up from some of your bargain basement centers.
I think the land is owned by the same company that owns Briar Lake Plaza, the tall building right next to the land, so it is part of that office complex. Therefore, I highly doubt it would be a free-for-all kind of thing with liquor store, nail shop and a pawn shop. From the rendering, it seems that it would be a two store building similar to those in Town and County village.
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I used to prefer HEB over Kroger's and Randalls, but since all the HEBs near me are so busy nowadays, I shop at old reliable: Kroger's.
Randall's has always been too expensive, and their selection is surprisingly ho-hum compared to their competitors.
I mean, go to the Randall's in Midtown, for example, and they barely have any Lil' Debbie snack cakes.
I mean, c'mon!
I havnt been in town long enough to check out all Randall's and Krogers. However, I have seen a few. For eg, The Kroger on Westheimer in Westchase next to Hilton hotel and Randalls also in Westchase on Westheimer near Target. If I compare just these two, its like comparing Target and Wal-mart. In Kroger, staff is usually no where to be found and when I do find it they are rude and act as if they are having a bad day. The store is rather dirty too. Compared to it, Randall looks much better. Just my opinion.
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KZ - You trying to remind us how dirty our city is? (just kidding!)
You made me realize I didnt ask the question correctly. What I really wanted to ask was how does the littering problem in Houston compares with other major such cities as Atlanta, Philly, LA, NY etc ? Is it about average, above average or below average?
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I hope Harris Teeter buys Randall's.
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sigh....I can't arque with you on that. She really was referring to the East End as "my neighborhood" though. It's very frustrating trying to get any improvements going where I live. Hardly anyone seems to care. I see that potential but...alas,
A few of us came up with a proposal for designing a master plan to turn the neighborhood into sort of an Art Deco village, taking advantage of the era in which the homes were built, painting some of the existing buildings a certain way etc. and just generally cleaning up the area. Other than a couple of people, the idea got no interest and some resented the idea of being told what to do. Thanks to the City at least for imposing $500 fines for heavy trash violators or we'd really look like we were targets of a convoy of litter bombers.
Sometimes I use this forum to vent that frustration.
I remember you used to be a big advocate for Pecan Park. What happened? It seems that some things went south recently. Does Pecan Park has deed restrictions? If not, may be thats the only way to enforce positive changes in that neighborhood.
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What? Boeing ruled Houston out in its initial search because it already had a presence in the Houston area. That's why it ruled out several locations. I think the state, and the city has done a tremendous amount of work creating jobs here in a time when jobs simly didn't exist. Give me burger king. I would hardly call a private multil-national; multi-billion dollar company a far-flung empire of burger franchises.
Just because Boeing was relocating its headquarters didnt mean they were creating/moving jobs too. The manufacturing and R&D sites where bulk of Boeing jobs are stayed in Seattle and elsewhere. I think only about a couple of hundreds administrative jobs moved to Chicago.
However, it does help the prestige of a city when a company like Boeing is based there although it stayed in Seattle for so long that in the minds of most people Seattle is still the Boeing city.
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A/C used to be uncommon in cars. Now you can just drive from store to store. You barely have to use your legs.
Yup! All the while ensuring that we stay on the top among nation's fattest cities.
By the way, I dont think all malls are dying. Its survival of the fittest. The underperforming ones would vanish. Others are going to stay. Like I mentioned once before, people dont go to mall just to shop. Many go there to pass time, window shop and watch people. You cant do this at a strip mall.
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A lot of our lifestyle issues have been issues since I moved here 16 years ago. Traffic, crime, trash, ugly billboard and "free-for-all" styled ugly businesses along them, bumpy roads, and complaints of high property taxes are alive and well today. This is not to say we should give up on our lifestyle issues, but it seems at times they just become full circle issues.
Speaking of trash, is Houston considered the trashiest place? I know for fact that Seattle is way more cleaner than Houston but thats the only place where I have lived long enough. What about other major cities?
Also, what about bumpy roads? Which city has the worst roads? Is Houston the king in this category?
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tw2ntyse7en no offense was meant to Louisiana, I only included it because I love it the most
. You know, sorta like, "I hit you because I love you".I also understand what you're saying about Lifestyle being more important than tourism. I really don't think anyone, including myself, would disagree with you. But there comes a time when growing cities have to "step it up" and understand the different aspects of large International cities. New York, Boston, Philly, DC, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver (it's suburbs), and over the past 10-15 years even Dallas and Atlanta, all have reputations for being places for leisure as one of it's characteristics. Personally, I think Houston should and could be in that group. No offense to anyone but Charlotte, Cincinatti, Nashville, St. Louis, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City, and Pittsburgh are not our counterparts and are not in our league and we shouldn't compare ourselves to them. We can stick our toungue out at San Antonio and Tampa for not having rail, but should we even be concerned about them?
A lot of our lifestyle issues have been issues since I moved here 16 years ago. Traffic, crime, trash, ugly billboard and "free-for-all" styled ugly businesses along them, bumpy roads, and complaints of high property taxes are alive and well today. This is not to say we should give up on our lifestyle issues, but it seems at times they just become full circle issues.
Houston doesn't do enough in the tourism department for me. I just want us to be loved
.Most of the cities that you have mentioned with reputation as places for leisure have characteristics that Houston simply can
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3: Where is this at exactly?? I drive past here everyday! I've never even noticed a sign? It's on the west side of the Belt right?
By the way, have you noticed Westchase Manor under construction at Briar Park and meadowglen (i think) near Marriot Hotel? I am not sure if it is apartments, condos or town homes although I think I saw the sign saying "starting from mid $200,000s" so obviously it isnt apartment complex.
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3: Where is this at exactly?? I drive past here everyday! I've never even noticed a sign? It's on the west side of the Belt right?
4: My wife & I eat at the various restaurants there everynow & then, and it seems to me they've just been fixing everything up. I don't think they've torn anything down that we noticed. The problem with the parking is that only in the last 10 years have developers started to toy with the idea of street front stores in new strip centers. I think they've finally figured out what shoppers want.
3: Briar Lake Village is on west of the beltway, at the intersection of City West and briar forest (across the school). Yes, there is a sign.
4: Regarding parking in front of stores, yeah thats the concept behind "power centers" where the customer can park right in front of the store and just be done with the business. Thats fine for places where people are just looking for convenience (such as outside big box stores, grocery stores etc) but it doesnt seem like a good idea for places like Carillon Point, T&C, Highland village etc. It would be nice to see some developments that make it enjoyable to stroll around. In fact, that makes sense from business point of view as well since longer the people stay at a dining/shopping venue, more likely they are going to spend some money at that place. But people dont like to walk around in parking lots. I dont know when would developers understand this simple fact.
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Zoning also involves height restrictions, which create an artificial scarcity of resources.
As for height restrictions, I think that even if we had zoning it wouldnt impose height restrictions in an area like downtown. It could do so in other residential areas such as the Heights (how coincidental) or West U. Apparently, however, the neighborhood associations in those areas have already been successful at stopping a couple of high-rise projects anyway.
I TOTALLY clip coupons from the Sunday paper!!! I guess I am one of the few? 
Maybe it's a girl thing. I dunno!
. You know, sorta like, "I hit you because I love you".
Mexicans Taking Over Houston
in Way Off Topic
Posted
You mean as in the sentence above?
Just kidding! I assume those are typos!