moni

Wow, great photos. Those streets are sure crowded compared to downtown Houston!

This is a neighborhood picture. The Mexican part of town has a lot of activity most of the time, especially on Saturdays. Tourists also come here because they are a lot of things to see and do. There is a downtown market right near the financial district, that is wonderful, and it is not just for Mexicans, but Asians and U.S. Anglos too. They sell produce, lots of great fish and poultry with specialty cuts of steaks, good stuff, and it is right in the middle of downtown. They also have several restaurants inside, very cheap but tasty food. Open air bars are normal and you can sit right next to the sidewalks and have a beer, when I first moved to LA, I loved that open feeling. No fancy patios, just a bar with stools. You can get tons of fresh produce at very low prices and many people visit via the bus, you can see families carrying big bags of food on to buses. Obviously, if you want people to come downtown, you have to provide something they want. I really believe that if the Grand Central Market was transported to downtown Houston, you would see the people come in droves. LA's Grand Central Market is a gem.

Some other work by this flipper:

The guy does quite a few houses in the area and other parts of town.

flipper

Omigosh, I love the pink and blue tiled bathrooms. Exactly like mine were when Houston was home, sigh.

I never realized that saying Discovery Green and Central Park in the same sentence was such taboo, but o.k. That rendering in the Chron showing a patch of green surrounded by skyscrapers just made me think of it. It's not like I said something insane like Houston was getting the next Times Square or something.

I'll drop it, but I don't think I'll be the only one (especially when it's finished) to think of Central Park when they see photos or take a stroll thru DG.

It isn't taboo and it is a nice thought. An urban park with hi-rises all around just makes a lovely picture. I can hardly wait to see it all completed. My son has promised me a trip and I want to wait until all these current projects are completed.

That is a really cool rendering. I would sure like to see something showing how cool Houston will look by 2012. Super city, that's for sure.

Just another Pavillions construction photo. This one is from Monday.

This is a great picture Jax, shows a lot of progress. What an exciting project!

There is a plug-in for HAIF that I can buy which allows each user to have his/her own blog on HAIF.I brought this up a couple of years ago and nobody was interested. Have things changed? If I bought the blogging software, would you (and others) use it? I'd love for the HAIFers to have their own blogs.On my other web sites, I pre-screen all comments. You wouldn't believe the things people post, and just for no apparent reason.The other sites are all architecture sites, but people still write things like "Williams Tower is a &*(&O piece of &*(&(*& and should be torn down and the designer forced to &*(*(*((! eat the dust" for no reason at all. People are just so anti-social on the internet.I used to make a joke about the internet being a "fad." But now I can see how more and more people can be turned off by it as the nutjobs run loose. It's CB Radio all over again.

The world is full of crackpots, I ought to know, lol I think people often take their frustrations out on the blog world. I have 3 very different blogs and sometimes I have to delete comments.

Very pretty library, it just makes you want to wander around and check out the books. I love libraries and this is a very pretty one.

Thank you professor. I'm glad I graduated from law school and still need to be told that "gambling was [not] legal in Texas." I must have missed the lecture that day.

I am just posting a pipe dream, is that not legal either?

Yes bk, pipe dreams are legal. If enough people had these kinds of "pipe dreams", then casino gambling would become a reality. Texas as a whole is still a very conservative State and this is ingrained in the mentality. If you don't think this indoctrination is real, just try discussing casino gambling with even young people. You will soon find out that the "sin" aspect of gambling is rampant. In truth, if Houston was seriously interested in bringing big time money and tourists to the city, they would lobby Austin for the rights to casino gambling.

Don't know if anyone has posted this or not. I stumbled across it at youtube

Thanks lockmat, this is great. I have added it to one of my blogs.

Great pictures Josh, brings back memories for us oldtimers.

Something really nice for Houston.

Thanks, guess I didn't get that.

A beautiful addition to Houston's fantastic skyline. Does this building have a name yet??

It sounds wonderful and I know I would love to live there. Unfortunately, it is not in my budget, sigh!

As promised here are the pics. 1956 Galveston. Cool new cars!

Be sure to note in the far background. The seawall is way back. This shows you how much beach has eroded in the last 50 years.

Mom with her best friend and her white convertible. Nothing like being single!

Your mom was very pretty and I think that is a 1955 model Ford Fairlane convertible. These were great cars, lots of room, lots of power and plenty of chrome. Ahhh, they don't make 'em like they use to.

I don't like the design at all. Kind of looks strange with the rounded corners and then square corners. Wonder who is the architect?

These are great pictures Barnes, thank you so much.

I remember thinking that the Intercontinental Airport was way too far away from Houston for anyone to want to go there. It seemed so far away as to be in another city; I couldn't understand why they built the airport so far away, lol.

lol

Better than a rubble filled lot or surface parking.

Seaweed is a valuable crop. Someone should harvest it and make a bundle. Simple enough to contract the cleanup of seaweed to a biomedical company.

They did that back in the 90's...dredged a bunch of sand offshore and pumped it onto Galveston beaches. I think tens of millions of dollars were spent, and if I recall correctly, it was all washed away within a year by a couple of storms in the Gulf.

Big, big waste of money to try and beat Mama Nature.

From: Galveston.com, - Over the past three years, the city has been bringing in sand to widen the beaches between 10th and 61st Streets - as much as 150 feet in places - modeled after similar "beach nourishment projects" in Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach.

This is great, I love webcams and now I can watch the Pavilions progress.

El Paso has many horned toads. We have plenty here in SW NM. They are protected by the State of NM and a very large fine for keeping them.

Check out http://www.galveston.com/ It is mentioned that the beaches at the seawall have been built up with sand and that they are much wider than they used to be.