102IAHexpress

That's a fair point. It's rare to sit that long, but it's been done by established airlines too. Japan Airlines’ flight between NRT and BOS has a ground time of approximately 19.5 hours in BOS before returning to NRT for better connectivity to banks. It's fair to be cautious. We will see. Personally I have never flown Ethopian but I have heard good things. Not excellent like the ME3 carriers or one of the Far East Asian Carriers, but -good-. Young fleet, commitment to safety, well managed. It would be helpful if United did a codeshare with them, but I'm not sure if that is in the works or not? Probably not, since United prefers to feed Africa flights via FRA. Anyways, I hope it works out at IAH!

Update. Texas Central signs design-build agreement with Italian firm Salini Impreglio https://www.salini-impregilo.com/en/texas-high-speed-rail.html

You are correct about spaceports in general. Last year Wired had an interesting article about the boom and bust of spaceports in general. https://www.wired.com/story/americas-spaceport-boom-is-outpacing-the-need-to-go-to-space/?CNDID=13660475&mbid=nl_090518_daily_list3_p4 Essentially, there is an oversupply of spaceports in the US. And it is correct to question the need for Houston's Spaceport, especially when the airport system could use funds for sooo many other projects. I'm afraid we may have another Bayport Cruise Terminal fiasco on our hands. At this point, we have the FAA horizonal license, so I am all for utilizing it. However, I'm not sure why we need to spend so much money on capital costs for a port without tenants. IMO, the best play (in Houston) of the three options above is number three. Stupidly rich tourists. You don't need any new construction. Just market Space Center Houston as the "terminal" and have the tourists ride in one those silver Airstreams to the runway at Ellington. It's marketing gold for the city. But of course we will not take advantage of it. We don't need a bunch of tenants at the port. We just need -one- to operate the space tourism flights.

haha, l love that "alleged" quip. Totally clueless. Without getting into a tax seminar, the proposed parking garage is up in the air right now. One of the updates to the tax code from the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act affects for the first time churches and their parking lots, believe it or not. Google "Church Parking Tax" It may get repealed it may not. The new code is below.

It would be incredibly useful actually. A church parking lot that appears full is a warning sign for most church goers to not even attempt to park and instead go on their way. Simply put if it looks like too much of a hassle they will leave and go somewhere else. In this case, instead of parking at Annunciation they will leave and attend mass at the Co-Cathedral with plenty of easier parking on that side of Downtown. I'll refer you to the Ten Commandments of Church parking. https://thomrainer.com/2016/03/ten-commandments-church-parking-lots/

This is flat out false and wrong. Astros fans looking for parking are considered trespassers and regularly bounced from trying to park on the lot whether they want to pay to park or not. The pastor will not even allow parishioners to park on the lot, attend mass, and then attend MMP afterwards. The surface lot and future garage (if it is ever built) will be 100% free of charge for Annunciation/IWA parishioners, faculty, administration, staff and visitors.

To be fair to Metro, things could be worse. Los Angeles' Metro is in the midst of a 40 year, $120 billion, transit plan. Yet their bus ridership is plummeting and light rail ridership is stagnant. https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-bus-ridership-plummets-in-los-angeles-efforts-to-boost-it-hit-speed-bumps-11566725400?shareToken=st054c3c3c85714a549b3d10411a0995c7

I am very familiar with HGAC. Used to office with them when i worked on Timmons. They are no authority to take seriously.

So one more time: We do not have a region wide transportation agency The Feds consider the Houston MSA region as 9 counties. Metro was charted specifically to address the needs of one of those counties (Harris) Prior to Metro, HouTran specifically addressed the needs of only one city (Houston) Unlike most large MSA's, Houston is not focused on region wide transportation solutions. The current agency, has lost a lot of good will because of lots of reasons (see bait and switch ballot initiatives, broken promises, etc.) Houston has region wide transportation issues. It needs a region wide transportation solution. It's as simple as that. Just repeating that Metro is a region wide service does not make it true. To be fair, Metro does cover the City of Houston and little beyond that. So I think it is fair to call it a municipal regional transit agency.

How does keeping Metro help with any actual problems? What's the definition of insanity?...

2 million + people outside of Harris and growing, is a slight concern. Especially when they are clogging transportation arteries within Harris during rush hours.

Probably not. Because our existing transportation agency is by definition -not- regional. It was created for -Harris- county.

Not an issue. Ft. Bend currently funds its county transportation (FBCPT) without a sales tax. It's a piece of junk service that most people don't know about, but it is a transit service. Funded entirely by federal dollars and rider fares. Anyways, that could still easily be incorporated into the region wide agency on a limited basis. Or not. Once their residents realize they are the only county in the region to be left out of the full system, then they will decide to put more skin in the game. https://www.fortbendcountytx.gov/government/departments/county-administration/public-transportation

Who said anything about forcing? Not me. Anyways, in the past it has been rejected. True enough. So? Put it to another vote. Thats basically what -this- bond is, a revote of failed previous metro projects that failed to get enough votes in the past. If your argument is that its been denied before, then lets not have this bond vote either.

The same advantages that other regions have found. Metro is almost exclusively within the boundary of Harris County. Indeed, it is the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County. However, most big regions have a unified system for their passengers beyond just their main county. See Atlanta and Dallas. I would replace/or at the very least supplement Metro which is basically a municipal bus system for the handicapped and car-less, with a regional agency that better serves commuters from counties outside of Harris. Or I suppose Houston could also do what Chicago does, which is keep a dual system of local cta buses/subways and supplement it with METRA commuter trains. But just having Metro try to be all things for all communities is not sustainable.

He literally also held a Mayor Turner fundraiser at his house. He was also the democratic chair for Galveston County. I personally worked for him for several years. But even if I didn't there is something called the internet. You can access information for free. He has participated and donated to both political parties. All this is searchable. Typical HAIF'er, post first, think second. For the same reasons we abolished HouTran and created Metro. Things have changed.

I think Turner was supportive of Metro monorail back when he was a candidate in 91? But I could be wrong about that. But I agree he is not too vocal about supporting Metro these days. As far as Buzbee and Metro goes, I honestly don't know. We have never discussed it. He is not a republican or democrat these days so I'm sure he's open to hearing contrasting points of view. I personally have never seen him on public transit, but in the all the years I worked with him, he never spoke badly about it either.

The mayor nominates and the council approves 5 of the 9 board members on Metro. The mayor has a lot of clout with his 5 board members.

This quote above is how I know @Toopicky has never ridden Light Rail in Houston. There's zero point in debating with someone who has never even been on Metro Rail. As far as the bond vote on the 20 year plan. It is what it is. Personally, I would rather, have a vote to abolish Metro and just start a new regional transit authority. In fact, if Buzbee wins, which is a big if, I will recommend we do just that.

Very cool pics! Brings back memories. This is what I tried to post earlier.

What was the reason for closing the sky lobby? Was there a reason given? I don't remember anymore. I worked on the 73rd floor of the building for six years. I never had an issue with the sky lobby tourists. They always seemed well behaved from what I remember. Because it's Friday and I like you all so much, I'll share a pic of one of the restricted elevators. Lots of buttons!

This is just false. Developers in other cities, envy how easy it is to build in Houston. Apple or any other retailer/developer can do pretty much whatever they want in Houston, and no one over at CoH would stop/hinder/request a kickback. Houston, compared to other cities of its size is extremely easy to build in and permit. More importantly, Houston has way fewer NIMBY lawsuits from local citizens than cities of comparable size. Again, I have no idea why you think city of Houston officials would even care one way of the other, they haven't cared in the past. Up here in Chicago, President Obama can't even build his library in the hood without people suing/seeking an injunction. From today's WSJ Activist NIMBY's have prevented a huge development of an abandoned steel mill. https://www.wsj.com/articles/activists-try-to-stop-a-huge-chicago-development-over-1-3-billion-in-tax-incentives-11562849876?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=4#comments_sector

Probably hotel guests instead? If the Downtown At A Glance survey included inmates, Downtown's population would almost double. In downtown there are usually between 8K-9K inmates in the jails in a given day. https://www.tcjs.state.tx.us/docs/AbbreRptCurrent.pdf But inmates are really more like hotel guests. Temporary occupants for a night or two. True prisoners that actually reside in downtown and counted in the Federal Census? Perhaps the Joe Kegans State Jail in downtown holds actual prisoners? But I'm not sure.

Interesting. Thank you for your observations. My question was more about rail and increased rents. Also, you make it seem as there is no public transit available now? Do you not count the bus as public transit? What about uber? Taxi's? Also, personal antidotes aside, the trend in sunbelt cities is that increased rents are causing people, including immigrants to leave urban areas. From yesterday's wall street journal: Everywhere Metro's light rail has been built, rents have gone up. This may change that area indeed. Wouldn't it be better for the people in that area to get better bus service instead?

I see. Let's say you're 1000% certain el tren will transform that area for the better, dare I say it, gentrify the area. How would that help the immigrants who now have the burden of increased rents in their more gentrified neighborhood because of your "tren."