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Ross

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Everything posted by Ross

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

    Midtown TIRZ

    Ross replied to Joke's topic in Midtown

    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.
  3. Ross
    Decent show, I listen in the morning from when Dean and Rog do the birthday scam until I get to work at 0730.
  4. Ross
    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.
  5. Ross
    That landfill is too big and in the wrong place. I doubt the oval ever existed in reality. There is zero evidence of it on the 1944 aerials. It might possibly have been a storage tank site, but I doubt that as well.
  6. Ross
    I wonder if the neighboring golf course is as bad as it used to be. It was so bad, I've never played a worse one.
  7. Ross
    The oval sits on top of what is now McCarty Drive, just North of Clinton. In the 1944 Google Earth aerials, there's no evidence at all of the oval. The properties on the site of the oval are not in Brunsville, but in Port Houston, according to the block book maps, like this one http://books.tax.hctx.net/v029/AE1997_28-29_0522.jpg
  8. Ross
    No. That's at Durham and 20th
  9. Ross
    White Oak Bayou was channelized between about 1948 and 1955. The Google Earth 1953 aerials show the effects of channelization in the Timbergrove area.
  10. Ross
    If you pay for the main subscription site, the content appears to be much better. Chron.com is mostly a click bait teaser site designed to be annoying enough to get you to subscribe to the real content.
  11. Ross
    In the 1925 directory, 1122 N San Jacinto (the street name then) was Guzzardo J B gro In 1930, there's an address of 1140, and it's shown as vacant. That's all I have time for now Here's the block book link http://books.tax.hctx.net/v030/AE1997_30_0133.jpg
  12. Ross
    That's the remnants of the old Friendswood Field, later the Webster Unit. Never farmed, as far as I know, but ranched - it was part of the West Ranch before Humble bought it.
  13. Ross
    Also on Swamplot http://swamplot.com/this-sleek-beaming-william-floyd-mod-in-memorial-bend-is-asking-798900/2014-11-21/
  14. Ross
    For all we know, they did consider street level retail, and determined it didn't work. I still think ground floor retail = empty space.
  15. Ross
    Speed limits are statutory presumptions of what is reasonable and prudent. Cops spout the "safe" mantra in an effort to sound knowledgeable. I know people who have avoided paying a fine by arguing that going 50 in a 30 was reasonable and prudent given the conditions and vehicle.
  16. Ross
    Sort of like Lamar HS when the library there was replaced by a coffee bar and lounge because "all the information is on the Internet"
  17. Ross
    There is a Miller's Cafe on Shepherd in the center South of Sears. Great burgers.
  18. Ross
    Fixed it for you. Tourists do come here, just not in the volumes that go to SFO. That may have something to do with the natural features in the area, since SF is not exactly brimming with cool things to do. We ran out after about 2 days. And the hills were a pain.
  19. Ross
    I don't see any real reason to have the HSR run all the way to Downtown. NW Mall is a good terminus. much like London doesn't have any rail stations in the middle. You can get from NW Mall to DT nearly as fast by other means as you could by taking the train, which would likely be restricted in speed. Terminating at NW Mall saves a bunch of money, and reduces the need to placate everyone within 10 blocks of the rail line.
  20. Ross
    Delhi is 300 miles farther than Doha, according to the great circle mapper. A better question would be how much demand would there be for that route, or would Mumbai work better. Most of the Indians I work with fly to Mumbai or Calcutta.
  21. Ross
    I doubt there would be trains running at 200mph inside town, given the wind effects, noise, and safety issues. From NW Mall to Downtown would likely be much slower. In fact, given the time it would take to get to a Downtown station, NW Mall makes perfect sense as a terminal location.
  22. Ross
    Does that sign say "Motor Courts". It looks like a motel of sorts. The gas station has a Goodyear sign. The latest model cars could be around 1948, but I'm not sure.
  23. Ross
    I can highly recommend the book Ship of Ghosts, which is the story of the USS Houston and its surviving crew.
  24. Ross
    Freeway expansions today cause far less disruption than they used to. The I-10 East expansion that started in the 70's ran on for 10+ years, and was not well done at all. The temporary lanes were all asphalt with poor markings, and nearly impossible to drive on at night. The recent Katy Freeway expansion was hardly noticeable by comparison. The fact is that freeqay traffic is subjectively far better today than it was in the days when the freeways were all 2 lanes each way.
  25. Ross
    A nice theater? When i came to Houston in 1976, it was already a porn palace. There were a bunch of what we would now call quirky shops, with a Weingartens for groceries, and a bunch of hobby type places. At the time, West U had not really started its transformation to upscale living, and was mostly a bunch of older, small houses. I much preferred the pre-renovation Village, but can't say I blame the owners for trying to maximize their income.
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