102IAHexpress
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Posts posted by 102IAHexpress
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Produce delivery will require a certain level of trust, true. A trust that some are not ready to embrace. However, general grocery delivery does not require that
same trust factor. A box of cheerios is a box of cheerios, etc.
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On 10/8/2018 at 9:28 AM, downtownian said:
There are plenty of other grocery delivery services beyond Peapod. I live downtown and use Instacart every week or do HEB curbside pickup. I imagine Whole Foods + Amazon will start doing an extremely efficient delivery service. Delivery is much more time efficient than grocery shopping - I have zero desire for a grocery store to be located downtown.
Instacart is not a grocery store, it's a third party delivery service. Peapod, instead is a direct supplier of online groceries that directly delivers its products. But yeah I get what you're saying. Grocery delivery to your door is the future. One other benefit, besides the time savings, is buying in bulk. In car-free urban environments, you are hindered by only purchasing the groceries that you can hand-carry with you on your walk home.
You mentioned curbside pickup. Something like that could work in downtown if HEB offered it. Up here Peapod offers a pickup service too. The pickup option is still not a grocery store but allows you to pick up your order at a small Peapod distribution center. If your order is too small and not eligible for delivery then this is a good alternative. I could see HEB having a small footprint pickup center (not a store) in downtown, where downtown residents could pick up their groceries.
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I think the opportunity has come and gone for a large scale full size grocer in Downtown. Grocery delivery services are upending traditional grocery chains in urban neighborhoods. Here in Chicago, In an absolute shock, long time Chicago grocery chain Treasure Island Foods announced they are closing all their stores by next week. I think the best downtown can hope for is Peapod delivery (if it ever comes to Houston).
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On 9/11/2018 at 10:05 AM, Visitor said:
As an aside, why is Houston so focused on Light rail for any type of passenger rail? I'd like us to be more like Chicago with actual commuter rail. (And this is not in the context that it has to go all the way to Katy or other suburb intially. More a comment on the technology/rail and car style) The light rail downtown is a glorified bus.
Light rail is less expensive than commuter rail. Also, heavy commuter rail could not work in Houston like it "works" in Chicago (metra ridership numbers are plummeting in Chicago) because Houston has multiple business districts. In Chicago all of Metra's lines terminate in Chicago's core. In Houston only a small fraction of the population works in any one of the major business districts.
But I agree I don't know why Houston is so focused on light rail. With a lack of zoning, spread out geography and a booming economy making automobiles accessible to the masses the focus should instead be on buses, not light rail. Cheap, clean, safe busses for citizens to use until they can afford a car.
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1 hour ago, asubrt said:
United is announcing three new European routes tomorrow (San Francisco - Amsterdam, Newark - Naples, and Newark - Prague), but none from IAH. Maybe something else will come later, but United has been launching a lot of new routes lately and Houston seems to be getting shafted (Sydney was obviously a big add but that was launched very early in the year, and since then we’ve only had the minor routes of IAH-Dayton and IAH-Akron while seemingly every other hub has gotten 5-10 new routes at least). Hopefully wxman is correct and we hear something soon, but so far it’s been a disappointing year for IAH routes.
Beat me to it!
https://twitter.com/united?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author
I agree that IAH doesn't always get new routes like some of other hubs but I think the "shaft" should also include allocation of newer aircraft. When including aircraft types, I would say ORD gets shafted the most. Some of the United planes flying out of ORD are junk.
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2 hours ago, Ross said:
I flew Air France a lot in the early 90's, and it sucked, big time. CDG has always been the worst airport in the Free World, especially if you are flying to Africa.The CDG staff are awful,in 2000 we had one security agent tell an entire Continental flight "You stupid Americans, I hope your flight doesn't go today", after the previous day flight had been cancelled due to mechanical issues. Maybe they've changed.
I agree the French, especially Parisians are rude. But have you flown United lately? It's a nightmare. A rude AF employee doesn't compare to just one UA flight attendant on a power trip. The worst euro carrier on its worst day is far better than the best US carrier on its best day across the Atlantic. CDG I agree with you has issues, but most airports outside of Asia do. When I flew through CDG in March I paid 60 euros to rent a day hotel room inside the Airport. I slept for several hours, took a shower, got refreshed then cleared security in less than 2 minutes (because it was the middle of the afternoon). Made CDG much more pleasant.
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1 hour ago, ToryGattis said:
Well, they both had it for many years just fine.
I think for just two? Continental merged with United in 2010 then United cut IAH CDG in 2012. It is true Continental and Air France operated the route just fine for many years but I assume that was because they were both SkyTeam partners. Actually, I think United's and Continental's combined operating certificate was not complete 'till late 2011, so AF may have still been benefitting from a CO code share even after the corporate merger but before the "FAA" merger. But I may be misremembering. Now, in 2018 they are competitors in every way. In my opinion I would rather have AF fly the route that UA. I am not a huge fan of UA.
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2 hours ago, ToryGattis said:
Lol. The logical ones would be Paris, Vienna (Star Alliance partner Austrian hub), Zurich (partner Swiss hub), and Brussels (partner hub).
I'm worried about United and AF competing on IAH-CDG. AF is my favorite euro carrier out of IAH (at least when I'm flying on my own dime). Their premium economy product is the best out of IAH. Not just the seats, but overall on the plane and at the airport it's a damn good product. I would hate for AF to reduce frequency at IAH or leave all together.
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Once United starts delivering 787-10 to EWR later this year, then I could see how that will open up extra aircraft for the other United hubs, including IAH. -If- IAH will indeed get more United European routes then I hope it's something other than Paris. It's fun to speculate, but United has a lot of hubs with a lot of needs, lets hope IAH doesn't get left out.
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Harris County should be grateful it has spent as little on light rail as it has and be done with future expansion. Instead, Metro should pour more money into maintaining and upgrading existing local/commuter bus routes. Cars are just too inexpensive and convenient for Houstonian's to give up for public transportation. Outside of the region investing 25 billion for a regional mag lev and or hyperloop, people are not going to start riding Metro in high enough numbers to justify the costs.
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56 minutes ago, cspwal said:
That means it will probably take 33 + 27 + 3 = 1 hour and 3 minutes to go from Downtown to Hobby. That is much worse than I expected - maybe they can speed it up some going down Bellfort compared to the Purple line. How fast do you all think it needs to go for it to be a reasonable alternative?
Metro's 40 Telephone Rd bus from downtown to Hobby is actually faster than a light rail extension costing hundreds of millions of dollars. lol.
https://www.ridemetro.org/MetroPDFs/Schedules/BusSchedules/n040-Telephone-Heights.pdf
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4 hours ago, cspwal said:
It's not clear, but it seems that if they don't use the land for a railroad it's supposed to revert back to the landowner
Yes, typically if you abandon the easement right of way, then it reverts to the landowner. However, tell that to the landowners who got screwed over in the rails to trails nightmare. https://www.supremecourt.gov/qp/12-01173qp.pdf
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1 hour ago, Houston19514 said:
Do you have evidence that eminent domain has been used? I don't think they have gotten to that point and they have expressed any number of times that they intend/hope to acquire all of the right-of-way without resorting to eminent domain.
I haven't researched all the filings. However, the fact that they -do- have power of eminent domain gives them a lot of leverage when "negotiating" with a private party. In a sense they are taking advantage of their eminent domain, even if they do not exercise it in every transaction.
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1 hour ago, Houston19514 said:
They would still only take an easement for railroad purposes. If the railroad is not built, it's status quo ante.
False. It is not status quo because the property is less valuable now, because it has now become incombered with an easement. Future buyers will want a discount on the property because the easement will likely run with the land.
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11 minutes ago, cspwal said:
- I believe they are trying only for easements that could only be used for a railroad - which would mean it's still their land unless the railroad is built, correct?
No. They have the power of eminent domain. Now, it's true, Texas Central can first -ask- for an easement from the landowner. But if the landowner politely responds with, no thank you, Texas Central can then politely reply back with eminent domain proceedings.
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Interesting documentary on Smithsonian Channel regarding the Japanese Shinkansen. Free to watch.
https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/videos/shinkansen/61264
Incredible amount of resources/money in order to maintain the train safe and operational. Much more than I would have thought.
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More power to Texas Central if they can build it without taxpayer funds. However, there are still two major concerns, or "attacks" as some call them:
1) Eminent domain has been used to acquire land. Fair enough, Texas statute allows TC to do that. However, if the project never materializes, then those homeowners got their property taken against their will and it wasn't even developed for the stated eminent domain claim. Incredibly inefficient.
2) Let say the project materializes. Great!. But then fails to sustain itself financially at some later point. Not to worry, taxpayers to the rescue.
The "questioning" of this project is not "odd" considering the potential pitfalls to Texas citizens. Again, if Texas central can get this launched and operational without taxpayer funds, then more power to them.
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On 8/28/2017 at 3:07 PM, Houston19514 said:
^ I don't know the answer to the question. But I'm pretty sure no one really cares. As already mentioned, Amtrak is an irrelevancy
Wrong again. Apparently Texas Central cares. Amtrak and Texas Central partner to provide ticketing and bus shuttle service:
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If Conservatory is a food court for adults (dark, cavernous, beer garden, unfriendly to baby strollers) then Finn Hall has an opportunity to become a food court for families (bright, open, ice cream, easily accessible). The restaurant lineup is exciting. Fingers crossed on this one.
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18 hours ago, CREguy13 said:
The below two quotes + article from today say otherwise:
"Less than a year after opening, Market Square Tower, Houston's tallest residential high-rise, is now over 90% leased."
"Despite many in Houston tightening their budgets, especially in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, interest in the property, where rent starts at $2,200/month, has been robust."
Edit: Just realized @CREguy13 quoted an article talking about Market Square Tower NOT Aris at Market Square, which is what this thread is about.
But for everyone's reference, 90% occupancy at Market Square Tower is 46 empty units as of right now. That's still a lot of empty units, but hopefully it improves.
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Having to offer three months free rent was not forecasted in Aris' demand forecast when they developed this property. No developer plans on giving away three months free. The reality is demand in downtown is not what Aris projected. That's not good or bad, it's just the market reality. There's no need to go into contortions to say otherwise. Demand performance has just not delivered. According to HAIF, people should be flocking to be near the awesome downtown light rail and great restaurant scene in downtown. Or maybe not? Even putting aside the train of death and lack of restaurants, downtown developers were gifted a larger than anticipated potential tenant population caused by the largest rain even in US history and they were gifted oil making a faster than anticipated comeback yet... demand has been ehh. Lets see if a year from now this is still 'temporary' as some apologists would say.
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16 minutes ago, Naviguessor said:
These are marketing angles and has nothing to do with demand. It is about value perception and Marketing. "Free Rent" for a month usually means more expensive rent for the other 11 months. Pretty sure I figured that out when I first started renting apartments.
Again, from the article:
QuoteThe urban core, however, which had a glut of units for lease pre-Harvey, still has a fair amount of vacancy.
Nancy is suggesting the deep discounts on inventory have to do with over supply and lack of demand in downtown. Are you saying she's wrong and your expertise which you gained after you first started renting apartments is correct?
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From Nancy's article yesterday:
QuoteAris Market Square is advertising three months free rent with a 13-month lease. Catalyst, near Minute Maid Park, is offering up to two months free. Alexan Downtown and Block 334 is giving two months free prorated throughout the term of a lease.
Wow, I didn't know residential demand was that poor in downtown. Hopefully it picks up soon.
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23 minutes ago, Texasota said:
Anyway, plenty of restaurants (particularly more chef-driven ones) are closed one day of the week. Often that's a Monday, but Lucienne went with Sunday, and not even the whole day. They are doing a Sunday brunch. Their hours are actually pretty expansive - 6:30am-10pm M-F (with a mid-afternoon break), 11am-10pm on Saturday (with a mid-afternoon break), and 11am-2:30pm Sunday. In no way is that suggestive of any sort of "Nobody stays downtown on the weekends" mentality.
It's a standard hotel restaurant not the former ElBulli in Catalonia. A guest should be able to have dinner at a "luxury" hotel any night of the week, especially Sunday.
Look, it is what it is, I just don't think downtown should market itself as some plentiful restaurant destination any night of the week. To do so would be to willfully ignore facts to the contrary. It's just not there yet. Not knocking downtown, it's great for bars; restaurants not so many yet; and street level restaurants on the weekends even less than that.
University of Houston Campus Developments
in Going Up!
Posted
Very happy for UH and the city on the new medical school.
As to the location. I can see arguments for both. My wife is a professor of medicine at Northwestern. At NU the medical/business/law schools are in Chicago, but the main campus is up in Evanston. There are times when my wife will have to take the shuttle to Evanston to work on something, but 99% of the time she stays on the Chicago campus. Expansion is an issue here for the medical school. There is only so much real estate in this part of Chicago and construction costs are very high (it's basically like the Galleria (mag mile) and med center (NU med center) rolled into one very expensive area). However keeping talent and attracting top students in this part of Chicago is easy. Tons of amenities in this neighborhood. The concern for UH Medical would be if professors, researchers, post docs, etc. would want to commute/live in that part of Houston?