Ross

That's been the law for some time, according to my in-laws who have tow trucks. However, they would be the first to tell you that it's not always the smartest thing to have someone's car towed without trying to speak to them first.

So Red, what do you think the woman should have done, given HPD"s lack of interest in those situations?

Red, I've tried calling HPD about cars blocking driveways, sidewalks, etc. HPD doesn't care. They won't show up most of the time, and on the rare occasions they do, they get mad at whoever called them (I've had that conversation with a patrol officer a couple of times). You can tow a car that's blocking your driveway without calling HPD first, but then you have a pissed off drunk who is more than ready to trash your house and yard. Sometimes, you just have to make your point the old fashioned way.

s3mh doesn't realize that John Nova Lomax is one of the best reporters in town. I would tend to believe most of what he says as being reasonably accurate. Red, did you see the part where the machete incident took place after patrons of the bar would not quit blocking/parking in the driveway of the woman's home? Probably far more effective than trying to get an HPD officer to show up, which would take a week or more if they actually cared.

That's the one. Sadly gone now.

That part of T C Jester isn't bad, it's a few blocks North of 11th. That's a nice neighborhood (although not as good as the real Timbergrove the other side of T C Jester) with nice homes.

I Saw the listing when that house went on the market. It was pretty grim, as an old lady had lived there forever. I'v ebeen driving by on my way to and from work, nad it's looking pretty good.

You are probably being funny, but just in case there's an actual question here, a steam cracker is a piece of process equipment that mixes steam and hydrocarbons, applies more heat and pressure and "cracks" the long hydrocarbon molecules into smaller, more useful molecules that can be used in other processes.

In my experience, the non-union guys often make more money. They also have more work, as the companies hiring the contractors (especially the process plants) don't particularly like dealing with union issues and attitudes.

I understnad the G550 is worth every penny of the $50 million+ it costs.

That makes sense. I just had not considered the possibility. I am no match for those stratgic thinkers in Bentonville.

Which would be wrong, since the steel plant was closed for years before WalMart came along

You must kowtow to your superiors. They are far smarter than you, just ask them. They have managed to subvert the police power of the City to do their dirty work. They won't come on your property, they will send an armed minion of the City Administration to pass the message and force you to submit. If you resist, they will send the SWAT team to force compliance with their vision of what the Heights should be.

Why shouldn't the guy down the street be able to build condos? It's his property, not yours.

How do toll roads rob us? It's not like the money is going into other uses. Without tolls, the roads would not be built. And, you have a choice. You are not required to use a toll road.

The Memorial Villages collect very little sales tax due to the paucity of business locations and have every right to complain when their share of GMP is cut, since their residents pay sales tax in Houston. Rail will never help them, whereas much of the traffic on their streets is cut through by people going from one part of Houston to another.

Too bad. The people who decided are much smarter than you, and far better qualified to make decisions affecting your property than you are.

Garages, no (note even the rich), but cell phones are everywhere in the third world.

That's not the word I get from my former neighbors who have been leaving Midtown for years. The rail is OK if you work in the med center or downtown. Otherwise, it's a waste of space.The rail construction pjhase definitely had a deleterious effect on Midtown, and was probably the cause of the knee cartilage tear I had when I had to walk to Milam to take the bus after my car was flooded during Allison - the construction made walking East to West across Main very difficult. It might be better now, but I'm skeptical.

Perhaps turning it into a free road would mean the end of maintenance. It's not like TxDOT has lots of moeny to maintain roads. Of course, the tolls are easily avoided by not using the road.

Our garage serves as the storage for our small 2br house. Where else would we keep the camping gear, coolers, lawn tools, seasonal decorations, workbench, tools, etc? Certainly not in the house, there's no room in the two small closets. The garage lets us live in a house that's much smaller than we would otherwise need.

Light rail killed Midtown for years. We moved to Midtown in 1998, and there was a bunch of activity there and Downtown. Then, the road and rail construction started, and all the new businesses went out of business, and it was impossible to get around. As for the Med Center folks, I am not at all happy that we spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the light rail just to make their parking situation easier. That ought to be the responsibility of the hospitals, not the populace as a whole.

My garage is 2/3 the size of the hosue. It's great!

One sure way to annoy a cop is to point out that any officer who isn't in the military is a "civilian", just like the rest of us. I hate the whole us vs them attitude law enforcement seems to embrace. They forget who they work for, and that the Constitution makes their jobs more difficult for a reason.

I am still trying to figure out why the City thinks there's a real governmental interest in replacement windows and siding. I can understand plumbing and electrical, there are life safety issues there, but windows? Siding? Why would the City care one whit about those? I do have a complaint about the electrical permits. The City won't let you pul your own permit, you have to spend a ton of money to hire a master electrician. Why not let me pull my own permit, and red tag me if I don't do the work correctly? That little rule means I'm not rewiring my garage, becuase the quotes I received averaged $2300, while I could do it for about $150 in materials. Yes, I know how to do the rewiring.