kzseattle
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Posts posted by kzseattle
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Ok, I moved to the Woodlands a few months ago from the Galleria area, and the Tanglewood subdivision. We had trash pickup TWICE a week and Patrol cars constantly cruising the neighborhood, the streets were clean and the builders had ordinances to follow. I have yet to see ONE patrol back here in the back of Sterling Ridge and the builders act like its the wild west and there is trash everywhere.
Trash in Woodlands? I have been to Woodlands many times and it is by far one of the cleanest regions around Houston. Do you really trust COH to take care of trash? Have you been to trashy areas in Houston? If COH were so good in keeping the city clean, every neighborhood would be like Tanglewood. And perhaps Woodlands doesnt have patrolling because it doesnt need it!
From what I know, the standard of public services actually went down in Kingwood after it was taken over by Houston.
I am also puzzled at your suggestion that COH would have never allowed construction of apartment complexes or a Walmart close to million-dollar homes. Are you aware that Houston doesnt have zoning laws to begin with? Have you seen the glut of trashy apartment complexes in Sharpstown and Gulfton? If COH took over Woodlands and voided deed restictions and zoning laws enforced in there, I am sure you would soon be seeing muffler shops and Zones D' Erotica right behind your own backyard!
I am sorry if I came off harsh but it is my opinion that COH has been doing a pretty poor job of providing quality public services in this town.
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Nope! Just moved here from Seattle few months ago. Since you have lived here all your life, I can see why you want to try something different. I think you should go ahead and try it, if only to experience different places. As an outsider, you may then be able to look at Houston from a different perspective, compare and contrast it with other places and more clearly see what does Houston lack and what it doesn't.
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I really don't know why some are so pissy with you, Hellraiser. Frankly, there are lots of points that you brought up that made sense.
All of the "points" brought up by Hellraiser (heat, humidity, traffic, lack of zoning) have already been brought up and discussed numerous times before on this board. However, there is a fine line between insightful criticism and blind bashing. and when that's crossed, it can cause some agitation.
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As far as trees, I can't think of another giant city that has as many trees as Houston. Maybe Atlanta. I can tell you that I've seen old pictures of the area I live in Katy and the developers changed what was a prarie into a small forest.
Isnt it funny? Where the trees dont exist, developers are planting them. Where they do, developers are cutting them! I do agree though that, overall, Houston is indeed quite green.
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I know i came on harsh, i know my name is not inviting, but I yes want the newbies to feel at home as though when i go to my new place of home as well.
Hey Hellraiser,
There is another way to look at it. If you barge into a house, yelling at everyone who lived there, telling them they all sucked and the place they lived was a piece of crap, would you still expect to be welcomed as a newbie and would still want to feel at home?
You obviously prefer country-living but thats not everyone's preferred way of life and so you cant expect everyone to agree with you. For instance, I was once in Biling, Montana (which I believe is it largest city) and I couldnt imagine surviving in a town where it is freezing nine months of the year and where going out or partying on a weekend amounts to no more than shopping at a Wal-mart, dining at Denny's and watching movie at a Cineplex. But then of course there are others who are perfectly happy with that.
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Isn't there a new restaurant in Carillion named 713? Or did I imagine that? A friend that designed the interior ( she also did Sushi King, Rickshaw & Kubos) was telling me about it & I thought she said it was in Carillion.
True or false? Anybody been there?
As I have already mentioned it above, it has already opened and it is in Carillion. I think I saw your friend since once I was there before it opened, I saw someone who appeared as a designer examining the interior, giving instructions etc.
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In essense this zone would form a sideways capital T if looking at a north oriented map. Any other details mentioned?
No, no rendering, not much details unfortunately. I wonder what they plan on doing but it could simply be continous sidewalk, human-scale lighting, street furniture, pedestrain bridges etc. I wonder if they could expand the sidewalks. Of course, they cant do much about surface parking lots/setbacks of existing structures on those roads.
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Does 02 have a website?
I dont know. I just picked up a free copy at Marriot hotel in Sugarland Town Square! Its mostly about urban real estate. You would find many advertisements on lofts/townhomes/condos etc. One interesting piece is a study about several neighborhoods to determine their urbanity and it has ranked them accordingly. While the author has a PhD in urban planning, he talks about pretty much the same things we always talk about here. I would post the ranking sometime.
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I have a brother that lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mtns. After spending about a week there, hearing nothing but the sound of the river at night, when I came back, it took awhile to de-sensitize myself again. The city noises and people pollution seemed very jarring, and it really is, we just get used to it.
Good luck.
You know, I have noticed that you would find someone in any city who hates that city. Those who live in big cities are tired of noise/traffic etc and want to move to a small town in the middle of nowhere. Those who live in a small town in the middle of nowhere are tired of laid back/stagnant/rural ambiance and want to move to a big city in the middle of everything.
One would think that one wouldnt find anyone in a city like Seattle, that is admired so much, who has a few complaints. Well, someone got so frustrated that he has created a site (www.seattlesucks.com) to complain about its issues such as traffic, sprawl etc.
So, hellraiser, good luck in finding a place that everone likes!
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My bad. I meant GreenWAY, not Greenspoint.
But yeah, that pedestrian thing. Respect.
I was reading O2 magazine and, according to it, there is a plan to create pedestrain friendly zone/promenade from Sage to 610 and from 610 to Westlayan on Westheimer, and from Richmond to Woodway drive on Weslayan. Does anyone know anything about this?
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Im sorry for my abruptness, I understand that these people have to make a living also. But if they would just DO more preperations and planning out at what its going to do in the long run as far as traffic and tree-trashing (these people here dont like it either http://treesforhouston.org/
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look at all this sprawl... disgusting...
LTAWACS, if might help if, instead of complaining about sprawl, you offered logical solution. For example, could you explain how 6 millions people could fit inside the inner loop (since you consider everything outside the loop as sprawl)? Now, you might say they could be crammed in high-rise buildings as in Hong Kong which would be quite artificial given the amount of land available around Houston. Moreover, what if some people wouldnt want to live in small residential units in high-rises but, instead, would want single-family homes? Wouldnt it be rather selfish if you forced them to live a lifestyle that you prefer but they dont?
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Maybe he thinks they're talking bout Greenspoint.
Yeah, I figured that. I was only pointing out the misunderstanding indirectly, in the context of his common complaints that pretty much everything is too far for him.
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Vancouver WASH/Vancouver CAN
The two cities share the name but they surely aren't rivals. Seattle and Vancouver, however, can be considered rivals.
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I dont think I will ever go out that far... it's just too... far!
So now even Greeway Plaza is too far for you?
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I know CVS got a bad rap for the Midtown store...
We need this woman in our Midtown!
Woman Drives Car Into Drug Store
February 21, 2005 Lynchburg - An elderly Lynchburg woman accidentally drove her car through the front entrance of the CVS drug store on Langhorne Road yesterday afternoon. Police say 81-year-old Jean O
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I love the vibe of the Carillion Square, anchored by the original Sherlock's Pub.
Back in my party heydays of the late 80s-early 90s that very colorful and pretty commercial facade seemed it was kind of happening, like it was still gaining.
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Oh, I never lived in Seattle. I've lived in Houston my entire life, except for 6 years in Austin. I wasn't even in Seattle a week. I just visited and I realized that the things that were touching people weren't the things that were built for tourists, but for the people who live there.
Our natural assets are the bayou and the fertility of our land. Clearly we'll never have mountains, but we've got water and trees, and we could do a better job of capitalizing on that, and I think that that equates to making the city better for "us", not necessarily thinking about "them."
I think a CN tower, or a "Spirit of Houston" or any grand project like that is destined to fall short if attempted in Houston. With the possible exception of the Astrodome redevelopment and beyond what we already have, by way of public athletic venues, the things that will communicate how special Houston is to the world outside, will be relatively small things.
Well, I lived in Seattle for a long time. I can tell you that the primary reason Seattle attracts people is its natural beauty which unfortunately Houston lacks.
However, as far as other things that have been built for its people as concerned, I believe Houston has pretty much everything that you would in Seattle and then some: more dining options, more shopping options, more nighlife and more entertainment options. The downtown area in Seattle does have an edge over Houston as its street life is more prominent and active. However, before Pacific Place was built which attracted other nationally known retailers (and therefore the crowd), the Westlake mall and Pike Place market were the primary pedestrain zones.
Having said this, I agree that a symbolic attraction such as a "tower" or a tall building is not going to make much of a difference for Houston. It needs to find a special niche of its own to create its own special place.
By the way, I have have noticed that many of the highly praised cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego etc face the same issues that we see in Houston yet they are often "overlooked" (traffic, freeways, sprawl, tract housing) whereas in Houston those same issues seem to get all the attention while its positive aspects are "overlooked". Not fair, eh!
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I don't understand how this is the smart solution - i.e. structures with surface parking attached. It would seem to me that there must be much more logical solutions with long-term objectives in mind for the area.
If this is the reason that developers keep building business structure with surface parking attached, then I can't help but conclude that these developers are short-sighted.
It is probably cheaper for them to build surface parking rather than buidling multi-story parking structure or providing underground parking. Since there are no restrictions/ordinances in places to force the developers pursue those options, they would do whats cheapest for them. And therein lies the reason behind ugly features of our city such as strip centers with bland/tasteless facades, huge surface parking lots and that thin, yellow building in Uptown.
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Or something like that. Buffalo Bayou can't really be developed the same way because of flooding concerns, but the city really would benefit by continuing to focus on the Buffalo Bayou plan to develop it into nice parkland (and with any luck relocate the Pierce Elevated in the future).
There was an article in yesterday's WSJ about how downtown Oklahoma City has been redeveloped. They built a canal through part of downtown with bars and restaurants nearby like the Riverwalk. Now they have hundreds of thousands of people riding boats on the canal. Something like that would be nice to see here. A water channel through downtown was included a few years back as one of those periodic redevelopment proposals for downtown, but the idea went nowhere.
What if they built a canal connecting Buffalo Bayou with Brays Bayou that would pass through downtown, midtown and TMC (that is, similar to the route if light rail)? That could speed up redevelopment of midtown too. I wonder if thats plausible. Hmm, may be its a crazy idea.
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Also, I think King of Prussia in the Philly area is bigger than our Galleria, but also is split into two areas by an outdoor walkway. Again, it makes for a hassle because not everyone knows where the walkway is, weather, inconvenience factor.
Galleria already has a walkway that connects Nordstorm wing. A walkway could work if it is covered (so weather is not a factor) and it is prominent.
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What reason would someone plan a vacation to Houston? Orlando has Disney, Las Vegas has it's casinos. Can you name your reason for someone to board a plane to travel to Houston?
Apparently, the city and its residents aren't interested in tourism or tourists. After all, Houston has one of the highest tax rates on rental cars in the nation and Houstonians voted for that. Whether or not we prefer a touristy city, I think that wasnt a smart move since tourist-industry can bring in billions of dollars to a city (and, therefore, could potentially lower taxes and fund city services/infrastructure improvements). Moreover, it helps bolster the image of a city and therefore forces the city to keep up with the reputation by keeping itself city clean and tourist friendly (since, apparently, city officials dont give a crap otherwise). Remember how Houston tried to show its best face during the Super Bowl? Well, imagine it did so every day.
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It's just market driven and zoning or no zoning, the housing has to appeal to the demographics or it will just sit there. I think the Cityview project, which I admit I know nothing about, sounds like they were trying to attract a higher-income renter by sounding urbanesque and perhaps playing on the miniature skyline there but you just can't fool people.
The area is really too far from the city and, rail or no rail, urban types won't want to live way out there. There's no retail in the immediate vicinity except the mall, hotels, which are useless for residents, and restaurants. To the south you have the typical shabby Houston taqueria/dollar store zone and to the west is the freeway, then sparse, low level suburbia.
Unless they worked nearby, why would anyone making 50-100K want to live there?
Since apartments are commercial properties, I would imagine that zoning could control their development. Since zoning dictates land use, it could dictate how much land in an area could be use for apartment complexes. However, that's just my guess. That is why I asked if other large but zoned cities experienced the same phenomenon, that is, glut of low-income apartment complexes causing the decline of an entire neighborhood.
Highland Village Shopping Center At 4055 Westheimer Rd.
in River Oaks/Upper Kirby/Greenway Plaza/Bissonnet
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A couple of my friends are visiting me from out of town and so I had to drive them around this Saturday night. We went to Main street and I was shocked to see the amount of activity going on over there past midnight. The streets were jammed with cars and the Main street was overflowing with people. I had of course heard of bars/clubs on Main street but had no idea that it would be so packed and bustling. The Main street has indeed been transformed into Houston's version of Austin's 6th street. Of course, while everyone has heard about Austin's 6th street, Houston's Main street is still a surprise.