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OkieEric

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  1. OkieEric
    To further Brian's point, if you go to pg. 4 of linked report it breaks population change down by census tract. Tracts 41 and 51 (western part of loop) grew 11% and 13%, respectively, from 2000 to 2010 while the eastern areas inside the loop actually declined. As someone who has lived in Midtown, Montrose, and now also Braeswood over the last decade or so I can assure you there has been quite a change. Of course it is related to growth in the Houston economy, but if/when things slow again let's just see how much better the suburbs fare I don't have any references handy but I am fairly certain the property value increases in the western part of the loop have outpaced the suburbs. Then again, there are a lot of suburbs out there and certainly some areas have done better than others
  2. OkieEric
    Wow, yeah the west side of downtown looks pretty bad. I guess the only thing worse than a bunch of surface parking lots is a bunch of empty surface parking lots Looks like Tulsa has built a comfortable lead
  3. OkieEric
    Current Final 4 has Houston vs Tulsa: http://dc.streetsblog.org/2013/04/08/final-four-parking-madness-tulsa-vs-houston/ Sorry if this is already posted elsewhere - not sure whether this is a widely read blog but it actually made the news in Tulsa. Kind of interesting, anyway My money is on Tulsa (my hometown) to take it all. There's actually been a bit of a resurgence on the north side of downtown there but yeah, downtown in general is still pretty desolate. If only they had just zoomed out a bit on that shot of Houston....or maybe thrown in a picture of the area around Reliant Some of the original entrants didn't seem that bad, but maybe my view was biased after working at 800 Bell for a few years
  4. OkieEric
    Facebook page confirms that they sold it. End of an era for me as I spent quite a bit of time there years ago after it first opened
  5. OkieEric
    Is light rail handled in the same way? That is, at-grade right down the middle of the street? I guess in some ways I'm not as worried about Richmond as I would be about Montrose, Shepherd, Kirby, Wesleyan, etc., etc. Actually, considering we have a decade or more before this even possibly comes to fruition I guess I'm not really worried about any of it. Hopefully in the meantime a better solution presents itself I don't take the rail because even though I live just west of the med center and work downtown, it's still more convenient to drive. Maybe someday that won't be the case
  6. OkieEric
    I don't know...after switching my Montrose to downtown commute out to Med Center area to downtown, I'm really starting to think rail down Richmond is just a bad idea. At least with that design. Rail down Richmond = horrendous traffic on Richmond and every street that crosses it. I've sat at a red light that's somehow stayed red for 5 min. Imagine something like that on Montrose, Shepherd, etc? Suddenly any people using sidestreets to try to get around are forced onto the major roads to cross the rail line, creating even more congestion. Not worth it. You could say just take the rail but the stops along a few straight lines aren't all that accessible to most of the population
  7. OkieEric
    Yeah, I'm certainly no expert in the market dynamics for new apartment construction. That said, there are literally so many new announced projects coming up (or under construction) in Midtown/Montrose/Greenway it's hard to keep count now... Quite a few new projects along Richmond Ave itself, even though the University Line seems indefinitely delayed
  8. OkieEric
    Old Braeswood
  9. OkieEric
    Moving to Old Braeswood within the month - I really hate leaving Montrose, but babies happen My understanding is that Project Brays is going to virtually eliminate the 100 yr flood plain around Brays Bayou upon completion in 2017. Is that true? Just curious as our new place is on the edge of the 100 yr (flood insurance is minimal) and well, that would be nice. I'm afraid that might tend towards more tear downs and re-development, but there's already some of that going on. I'm surprised so many of those 50's style ranch homes are still around
  10. OkieEric
    Kind of torn about this one. Nice to see some new development, but not sure I like the precedent this might set. Sort of a weird location to me since the beach is pretty nonexistent on that particular stretch. Rendering at least looks OK at least
  11. OkieEric
    That was going to be a Gables development. Hadn't heard about it in years, though http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/heights-news/article/More-units-coming-to-the-Gables-Upper-Kirby-1571594.php Just drove by there the other day and wondered what the story was. I remember the Distinctive Details owner holding out, at least for a while
  12. OkieEric

    Lufthansa Airlines

    OkieEric replied to editor's topic in Planes

    I took this route on the 3rd, just a couple of days after they started the service. I actually didn't realize I was going to be on it until I was in Frankfurt about to take off. Anyway, flying in a giant plane is both cool and a bit unnerving, but to be honest the interior wasn't all that great, at least in business class. Kind of the typical Lufthansa set up with no completely flat seats and the same old entertainment system. I thought maybe Lufthansa had ordered some new planes, but if they did we got rotated some older ones because you could definitely see the wear and tear. They did have some cool outside cameras that you could watch, like one up on the tail that looked down over the plane. Pretty nice view on take off and landing
  13. OkieEric
    Hopefully there's a dash cam or something.... The fact that she made a video of the cop standing in the street and then took the effort to make the sign and stand out in 100 degree heat seems a bit suspicious. This is certainly a story that deserves attention, but it seems that people often side against the police quickly because it is easy (we hate tickets) and quite frankly, we all apparently want to get worked up over something. I do question why she didn't get a resisting arrest charge if that was really the case.
  14. OkieEric
    I was wondering if he would get slapped with a felony... http://blog.chron.co...picasso-attack/ Not sure why it took so long since his name has been out there for a while
  15. OkieEric
    Amazing...5 years later, and the "new" building has never had a tenant on the ground floor
  16. OkieEric
    From the Galveston County Daily news: http://galvestondail...m/story/319850/ Awesome news! Two of the taller, vacant buildings in Galveston are to be renovated! I had noticed the work and progress at the Jean Lafitte hotel but wasn't sure what the story was there. Now if we can just get some news on the Martini Theater... With the cruise industry booming in Galveston I would have thought at least one of those towers would have made a nice boutique hotel My wife loves Galveston so we actually bought a historic (weekend) home last year and now I love it, too. I'm biased but it seems like things are getting better
  17. OkieEric
    Hilarious....I saw this guy (with shorts ON) riding it at the top of the bridge a couple of weeks back. It was such a weird sight that I immediately called my wife to tell her, who of course called me after seeing that article this morning. It seemed really dangerous as he was weaving all over the place next to traffic, plus how on earth would you go downhill?
  18. OkieEric
    Looks like you're right: http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2012/01/apartments-to-replace-montrose-fiesta/
  19. OkieEric
    Not to go too OT on this, but a big part of the complaint of the original website was the trash that tends to collect in front of these properties. Who exactly is responsible for this trash? It's obviously pretty clear when it accumulates in front of one of these places, but often it tends to show up in the corner of an adjacent vacant lot. As it can't necessarily be proven where the trash has come from, is the owner of the lot still responsible? This has been going on for YEARS in the area If Fiesta goes, the shopping cart problem will go with it. My wife pointed out that she just saw a shopping cart full of trash over on Driscoll - a double whammy!
  20. OkieEric
    I don't get it... But anyway, maybe I'm too hopeful but I see the new development (including whatever may replace Fiesta) as a step in the right direction. I would think the proximity of some of the properties to a cleaned up Dunlavy with a new HEB and possible Marvy Finger development is likely the quickest way to generate interest in them. The rest of the streets around there still suck, though, and I'm amazed at the big trash generating capabilities of area residents - I guess that it's really more indicative of the turnover of renters more than anything. Thank goodness Houston only picks up big trash every other month so the piles of discarded mattresses and couches can fester for a while. Driving down Driscoll it's often hard to believe you are in the middle of Houston... Maybe I should be more active on 311 myself
  21. OkieEric
    Interesting thread... I got a letter from a lawyer (yikes) about this earlier this year. Apparently someone not as thorough as TheNiche had done some investigating and somehow came to the conclusion that I was the creator of this website. I guess that was based on the fact that I had used the word "slums" in a post on swamplot once! Anyway, back at that time the website was much more directed at one particular property owner in the area. They must have eventually found the creator since it looks like his approach has changed quite a bit since then.
  22. OkieEric
    Well we already have the "Fairmont Museum District". Lots of places listed for sale in my area (77098) also claim "Museum District" as well. To be fair, at least you can easily walk to a museum (Menil)....but yeah, that's still a stretch
  23. OkieEric
    I don't know. That video didn't really show much.... A similar thing happened to Union a while back (discussed on here), in which some people turned away at the door claimed the club was anti-gay (it wasn't), when in fact the place was just overcrowded. That said, in the video it doesn't really look all that crowded to me, so I'm not sure I buy the "we weren't staffed for 150 people" argument. If anyone actually knows when they've been closing on Tuesdays (not just what was on the website), that would be interesting to know
  24. OkieEric
    Just called - guess this isn't all that uncommon. Basically since I refinanced and got married around the same time, they showed a change in owner (wife was added to deed) and apparently by default removed the homestead exemption. Anyway, they said that I can ignore the April 30 cut off and re-file. Unfortunately, the length of time it will take them to process means that I will probably have to pay the higher bill, but I should at least get a refund.
  25. OkieEric
    That doesn't make any sense, though. Is this common knowledge? I'm the same person in the same house. Does a refinance count as a purchase and somehow me (+ wife) as a new owner? I don't see anything on the hcad site that refers to this particular situation
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