Ross

I've been to Bakersfield. The reason this project is being built is because California is crowded and the traffic is awful. It's time for an alternative. If it's fully built it will inspire the rest of the nation to build similar projects

 

I've lived in Bakersfield. No one there is going to do anything other than drive to Merced.

15 riders is an absurd statement

You have no sense of humor, do you? And, you've never been to Bakersfield, or you would be laughing.

At least the Texas HSR is privately funded, so when it fails, only some Japanese banks suffer. When California's HSR fails, the taxpayers will be on the hook.

The trains won't be going through the neighborhoods at full speed, but at less than 50mph. There will be noise, and for more than a few seconds. Yet another reason to terminate at Northwest Mall, far less impact on neighborhoods.

Merced to Bakersfield and Palmdale to Burbank will be done in 2-3 years. The rest who knows but the idea is to build some of it get people to try it and then private investment will come and put the rest of the $42 billion. Right now $26 billion of funding they have. Makes you appreciate how cheap the Texas project is. The flat terrain and cheaper property acquisition is the reason for the huge difference I think (besides the distance).

 

How much is the Merced-Bakersfield section? That is some of the flattest terrain in the United States. And probably will have about 15 riders per day.

 

 

If the chosen route is down the Hardy corridor, then a Downtown station makes sense. If the route comes in along 290/Nempstead, then Northwest Mall is the obvious terminus. The Hardy route also eliiantes the need for piggybacking tracks through neighborhoods.

 

As for trenching, there's no way BNSF or UP is going to allow that to happen to their tracks.

I have to disagree with Ross as well, I believe the station needs to be downtown.

 

Why? What extra benefit comes from having the station Downtown, where there's little room for parking, and far from the center of mass of people likely to use the service. What benefit is there to having the train spend an extra 15-30 minutes winding its way through neighborhoods to Downtown, when everyone could be off the train and on their way to their final destination at a terminus at Northwest Mall?

 

None of my colleagues who live in GOOF are in favor of a near 40 foot train trestle through their neighborhood.

Wouldn't you complain about this if it ran through your neighborhood Vik? Northwest Mall is the appropriate terminus location. There's no need to go all the way downtown.

A colleague lives near that site, and has since he was born. His mother still lives in the house his parents bought in 1939. According to my colleague, the residents of that area used the ground level ROW until the railroad redid the tracks, and eliminated the level crossings, forcing everyone to use the underpass.

he pushed for suburban sprawl and got it...that's his legacy

 

and it's not a bad legacy. There's nothing really wrong with sprawl, especially when there are no geographical contraints.

 

When are we going to get an Indian sports radio personality? That is what us important.

 

Only f they talk about cricket - there's a definite lack of cricket discussion in this town.

 

too bad HISD athletics is dead though and the administration doesn't care about marketing what they have...the fieldhouse is 20 years too late

 

Why do you think HISD athletics is dead? Keep in mind that HISD, unlike other area districts, doesn't build sports palaces, and the athletics are really about the kids.

 

Big Trouble in Little China is a favorite. Fortunately, I have the DVD.

Plus, noticed on Tuesday this week, we didn't see either Turner or Whitmire at Lanier's funeral service.

 

I owuld have expected Turner there just to make sure Lanier was actually being buried. Whitmire hasn't been in Houston in a long time, and was in Hawaii the last report I saw.

How do you know the lot isn't in any deed restrictions? If the restrictions lapsed, the owner at the time may be grandfathered out of them, but don't the new ones they take effect when the property is sold?

 

There is no Houston wide 5000 sq ft minimum lot size.

 

There had to be notice to all property owners within a certain distance when the lot was replatted, and you can't, as far as I know, subdivide a lot without a replat.

 

Which neighborhood is this in?

There may be a utility easement there, which would require you to remove the deck if the utilities need work. Even if your HOA doesn't have any real teeth, you ought to abide by any applicable deed restrictions if you don't want people to assume you are evil.

I see a Deepwater Refinery Co just west of Manchester, and the Sinclair Oil Refinery north of Allendale. The Sinclair refinery became ARCO now BP, not sure if that is it or not, might be too far east.

 

The Sinclair Refinery is now Lyondell, not BP. I assume the Deepwater Refinery is now Valero - their address is 9701 Manchester. Here's an early aerial http://digital.houstonlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/schlueter/id/471/rec/9

 

Imagine that you are Exxon, Conoco, Chevron or one of the other major Exploration & Production Oil companies. Right now you are being hurt because the profit margin for every well you are pumping oil from is decreasing with the price of oil. These "upstream" operations become less profitable with lower oil prices. This is especially true of wells in "unconventional" plays (shale, oil sands etc.). However remember that all of these large companies also have "downstream" operations like transport, refining and selling retail gasoline and other petrochemicals. Transporting oil costs the same no matter what the price of oil is so there is no real impact to companies who are primarily engaged in transport via pipeline and rail. For a refinery a barrel of oil is actually a cost to them so the lower price is actually a benefit for refining operations. Also, the lower cost of gasoline means people are going to drive more and visit the gas station more often. They will have extra money in their pocket from cheap gas to go in the gas station and spend on soda's and food. This helps offset some of the upstream losses if they company has a lot of retail (i.e gas stations) exposure. Also keep in mind that these huge multinational producers are well diversified up and down stream as well as across multiple energy sectors (nat gas, renewable etc.). They own billions of dollars worth of physical assets (real estate, heavy equipment etc.) that they can consolidate and leverage to weather this storm.

 

 

None of the majors has any real retail exposure these days, the stations are now owned and operated by other companies. There is very little money to be made in the retail side. Lower oil prices may or may not be a benefit to the downstream operations, since they make their money on the differential between the cost of the crude and the wholesale value of the products.

 

Awfully close to those high line wires with that knuckleboom.

I'm assuming those lines were hot, they may have been shut down for all I know. Either way, depending on the voltage, you don't even have to touch the lines sometimes, if the current is strong enough it will arc into anything within a few feet of the lines.

 

I don't think those are power lines. For power, there are usually three lines, as seen to the right above the transformer in one of the pictures. The lines next to the pour look like phone and cable lines, plus some steel cable for supporting other lines.

 

The two alternate routes they are currently considering is a huge opportunity missed.

Map

 

The routes go up in no-man's land between 45 and 6 instead of hitting ANY other population centers.

 

Le'ts just go ahead and bypass

Woodlands - 94k

Conroe - 56k

College Station - 100k

Bryan - 76k

Waco - 125k

....what a genius idea.

 

It's the same damn LRT argument from a decade ago just at a bigger scale.

They are putting it where's its easy and convenient and not where the people are.

 

Great for the people of Houston and Dallas...  but to not also serve 2 major universities and several sizeable population or employment centers...  big ass waste.

 

The goal is high speed service between Houston and Dallas, not local service for the people in between. Adding 5 stops probably adds 50 percent to the total travel time for little benefit.

 

Blocking sidewalks is prohibited because it keeps anyone from using the sidewalk, not just people in wheelchairs, and forces them to go out into the street. Blocking sidewalks is evil and scummy. The word to describe your friends and their Lexus is "entitled" Their precious little car is more important than pedestrian safety, in their eyes. That's a pretty scummy attitude too. I've parked cars on the street for 30+ years, and not once has one been hit. It's not that common, and nothing to worry about.

 

On the tickets? Just pay them, and quit blocking sidewalks.

Not the Aztek. It's so ugly it hurts my eyes!

The Chronicle knows exactly how crappy chron.com is. It's deliberate to make you want to pay for access to the real site.

If I was a Montrose resident I'd be excited... If I still lived in Midtown I probably wouldn't be as excited. TIRZ's are pretty awesome in that you basically get more of your tax dollars spent in your neighborhood. Yeah, you pay a little more but you get Bagby street reconstruction type quality vs mediocre street overlays.

 

You don't pay more with a TIRZ, they just assign the incremental taxes  from value increases to a specific area. Management districts, on the other hand do charge actual taxes. The Midtown Management District has a 11.81 cent tax rate.

 

Decent show, I listen in the morning from when Dean and Rog do the birthday scam until I get to work at 0730.

Rumor is 40% of shell back office jobs to be cut

 

The fact is that for the large oil companies, more than 40% of the back office jobs have already been migrated to other parts of the world. US back office staffing is not that large these days. just do a search for shared service centers along with the company of your choice. Shell was one of the first to migrate jobs overseas on a large scale. After all, why would you pay an American new hore $65k to do transactional accounting when you can hire someone in the Philippines for $15k with the same skills.