Subdude

^ X2. I still live in Midtown, but I've pretty much given up hope that it will really change.

That's not to say it's all bad -- it's incredibly convenient to anything inside the loop as well as the airports...by car. But I don't expect it will ever become the truly walkable mixed-use neighborhood I had hoped it would.

I think a lot of people hoped that Midtown would turn out that way, but I doubt it was ever really in the cards. The easiest and cheapest thing the city could have done to make it walkable would have been to add diagonal parking on the streets in the area to take out lanes of traffic. This would have slowed traffic and drastically reduced the need for surface lots, thereby encouraging walking and more dense building. The best place to see this in action is the section of Westheimer east of Shepherd. All that said, Midtown is a lot better shape now than it was 12 years ago before redevelopment began.

Note duplicate topics merged.

I've heard of Trader Joes but never seen or been in one. What is so special about them?

I saw people today wearing hats that said "Who's Your Paddy?"

In the 1980s wasn't there an Aca Joe store around?

My you do get about.

This is what happens when a Chicago politician lives in the White House:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obam...-031709.article

There's a picture on the other end of the link.

Fantastic!

Don't forget that the Irish claim O'bama as one of their own, since he has Irish roots.

The Saint Patrick's party was in the Emerald Room.

There was also a nice little bar off the hotel lobby. We occasionally would stop in for a drink. I believe the bar still exists at some other location in Houston.

First decade of the 20th century - the first oil boom after Spindletop, and shortly thereafter digging of the ship channel. In a short time Houston went from just another small town to the largest city in Texas.

I went to the final Saint Patrick's day party there right before it closed. Unfortunately along the way I lost the silver commemorative cups. Needless to say a great and very sentimental evening.

This is the one at St Joseph's Hospital?

Hmmm...lot of meat-eaters here. Give me tofu!

Dirty's has been gone for quite a while. The new Cyclone Anaya's was built at Dirty's former location (1710 Durham).

Wasn't there another location on Fountainview or Chimney Rock? Is that still there?

why is it that chicago is so hip on st. paddy's day? do people in la or houston celebrate as much? what gives?

I would guess that Chicago has a greater population of Irish descent than does Houston.

Don't they dye the Chicago river green? I would suggest that Houston dye Buffalo Bayou green, but the color is close enough already!

Great pictures, thanks for posting. I take it this time there were no last minute sightings of people running around inside immediately before the blast?

Good stuff! When it comes to Saint Patrick's Day I say Spare No Expense!

I don't understand the problem. Why would gay people (and for that matter, fair-minded straight people) want to patronize a bar run by homophobes in the first place? If the owner of a bar wants to economically punish himself for his backward beliefs by making a bunch of noise, I say let him. The bar won't be around for much longer. And there you have it: justice is served.

So if a bar owner decides to "economically punish himself" but refusing to serve blacks, I suppose that would be OK too. After all, why would they even want to go to a bar owned by a racist?

Dirty's, used to be located on Durham just south of I-10. Great chicken-fried steak

Strawberry Patch on Westheimer where Pappas Bros Steakhouse is now. Also great chicken fried steak, as well as the best hot blueberry muffins ever created, included free in your bread basket.

Harry's Kenya, a great upscale restaurant downtown.

The San Jacinto Inn - great seafood. Right by the Battleship Texas - NOT to be confused with the Monument Inn.

Tuffy's Seafood down on Galveston

The original Mariposa lunchroom in Neiman's at the Galleria - it used to be on the 1st floor right by the entrance to the mall, now that area is a cosmetics counter

The Sakowitz downtown lunchroom. The Sakowitz Post Oak lunchroom, for that matter. Great orange rolls in the bread basket

The original downtown James Coney Island

Las Brasas mexican restaurant on Kuykendahl just south of FM 1960

Dong Ting's very upscale chinese restaurant, in the same little area as Brennan's (and I'm looking forward to Brennan's reopening)

Cafe Artiste off Mandell and West Main

Hills Pier 19 in Galveston, now a (shudder) Joe's Crab Shack. Also Strand Street Brewery, now a Fuddruckers.

Zan's down in Galveston. I can't remember when this closed. Fortunately, I got a taste of Zan's cooking again in 2004 when he catered my wedding. Oh, yeah, Phoenix bakery down there did my wedding cakes, and now they are closed.

Cafe Miami, a cuban restaurant off Bissonnett at Hilcroft

Dolce and Freddo

Pino's on Westheimer and Hilcroft

Cafe Montrose

Guy from empress - was that Richard, or Scott Chen?

Dirty's is gone? I had no idea. It seems like that was there forever.

I only ate at Dong Tings a couple of times but it seemed WAY overrated.

I like a lot. That space has been surface parking for decades, and the hotel plays nicely off the Wedge Tower. My only concern is that a hotel in that location will make it less likely that the Sheraton Lincoln building will ever be redeveloped.

I saw some small scaffolding around the upper parts of the building today.

Fixing storm damage?

I agree with the sentiments here. Forced valet parking is just a ripoff. I tend to skip places that pull that kind of garbage.

Nice, but no Brunsville?

Or how about taking one of those giant crosses sprouting up around the city and turning it into a fountain. Now that would be something to see!

Sadly, no updates on Las Alamedas or what their plans are, but thought y'all might like to see some pictures of the now-abandoned interior:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2009/...ertain_futu.php

Very sad to see that.

Widespread hardening of the power grid along the Gulf Coast is too expensive a solution to prevent another blanket blackout like Houston experienced int he weekns following Hurricane Ike, according to a report commissioned by the state's Public Utility Commission.

Richard Brown, vice president at Quanta Technology, spearheaded the report. He said broad-based approaches such as burying all power lines are cost-prohibitive at a price of $1 million per mile.

"If you put just distribution lines underground, it would double rates," he said of the transportation costs consumers pay as part of their utility bills.

Texas has 28,200 miles of overhead power lines within 50 miles of the coast, which would cost $28 billion to bury. By contrast, the cost of storm damage to the grid in the last decade was $1.8 billion, according to the report.

full article

And what was the economic cost of millions of people not having power for weeks? There's no reason they would all be buried at once. Couldn't it be phased in over 10-15 years?

Also I've pointed it out before, ongoing maintenance costs are a lot less for buried lines (at least in urban areas - the argument is less clear in rural areas). My source for this was some transmission engineers.