Jax

Looks like the block closest to Main Street has topped out at 2 stories, and the office tower will possibly be topping out this week as well. From the webcam I think I am looking at the 11th story being completed as I write this.

Gotta love no zoning...

I think the oak farms storage will be there for the long haul, as a lot of locals need extra place to put their stuff. And the guy that started the 99 cent stores had a great idea -- he puts them in upscale neighborhoods. The logic is that rich people will shop there but won't go to a bad neighborhod to shop. Poor folks will travel to a rich neighborhood to shop. He gets em all.

I actually shop at the 99 cents store on Westheimer sometimes because the one in my hood (Almeda and Sothmore area) always has people begging out front and you can't go there without being hit up for spare change. So, I can kind of see where this guy is coming from. Even though its not in my neighborhood, I am more likely to shop there than the one in my hood.

have relocated our call center, network operations center, and a small percentage of our internal hosting infrastructure to Bayou Place, so the core of our team and our service is on display in the new location

That's for the info, that's exactly what I thought.

most people don't go shopping to get natural light, they go outside instead.

Of course not, but natural light makes shopping a bit nicer. That's why the Galleria has skylights.

Ok here's the Foley's building for comparison.

Yes, I shop so I can gaze out the windows. Same reason I go to casinos.

What's wrong with a little natural light while you shop?

The Sears in midtown looks like it used to have windows at ground level but they were bricked in, maybe because of the fear of getting broken into?

Montreal's big department store "The Bay" has windows, although it looks like lots of them are blocked too. This building seems more like a "classic" to me than Houston's Macy's, but maybe I have to take a closer look at the old Macy's/Foley's building. Anybody got any photos?

Here's the Bay building I am talking about...

Can we merge the two topics on this subject?

I agree that the building is damn ugly on the outside. I hate buildings with no windows.

Thanks for the info. I've seen that building before and always wondered what "The Center" was.

(sign says The Center not The Men's Center)

Yeah, I was really surprised the one time I parked there and realized it wasn't free.

Now I ride the Metro Rail when I shop at Macy's (I've since moved to an apartment in walking distance of the rail). I sure beats going to the Galleria for Christmas shopping, as long as you can find what you need anyways.

Why would anyone pay downtown real estate prices to house gear that can be anywhere within reach of fiber optic?

The only reason I can think of is so that they could show it off. The CEO said it will be a "showplace where customers can see firsthand the IT infrastructure-hosting capabilities". I don't think all of their servers would have to be in there, but I imagine they are going to be showing something besides people sitting at desks.

I personally think it's a neat idea.

What's "the men's center"?

a men's shelter. the main building faces main, kind of diagonal from julia's. they own several houses in the vicinity. the man who ran new orleans po boys made donations to the facility

Well obviously the men's shelter is a men's sheter, but what is it? Is it a homeless shelter for men?

"We envision our new offices as a showplace where customers can see firsthand the IT infrastructure-hosting capabilities we provide," Planet CEO Douglas Erwin said.

It's kind of cool that this IT company will let people come in and see their web hosting in action. Most hosting companies are so anonymous (GoDaddy for example). I would be interested to check it out, although I know seeing thousands of servers and hard drives might be kind of boring for some people. I think they chose the perfect location to make their services more visible. It's almost like free advertising. I always except these types of companies to be in anonymous concrete warehouses in the middle of nowhere.

That statue looks so lonely in that huge empty lot, and it's behind a fence too, right?

Yeah I agree. I actually asked the lady I know from the Hermann park Conservancy about that and she said most likely no.

On my daily commute through Hermann Park, I noticed they have begun digging a path for the expansion of the Hermann Park train. They are going to build a train station next to the Metro Rail station so people who ride the Metro Rail can take the Hermann Park train to the zoo, and they are building another station near Miller Outdoor Theater / Museum of Natural Science. I thought that was a cool idea. I guess people often take their kids on that little train and comment on how you can't get off when you see something interesting. Makes sense to me to do something like that. I wonder when the new train service will be running...

Awesome. That part of Westheimer has a lot of potential to turn into something really cool (it already is a cool area around there). This is very exciting if its actually going to be developed.

Another photo of Mosaic from Hermann Park this weekend (a better one).

Sounds interesting. Which building is this again? Is it the grey colored abandoned building around there?

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Check out the map on har.com and look at zip code 77004, there are lots of townhouses near the medical center (and near a metro rail station) in this neighborhood. Look to the west of the 288 as the neighborhood is much nicer than the east side of the 288. There are definitely a lot of places in your price range.

Since elves have nothing to do with Christianity, I could care less if they change the lyrics to a song about elves. I don't consider that a distortion of Christianity, I consider it a distortion of the commercialized holiday of Christmas. Those are two very different things. Unless I missed the part in the bible about elves. I just can't get worked up about a distortion of a song about elves.

Now if they changed the baby Jesus's name to the "Holiday Baby", THEN I could understand people getting worked up about it. And I'm not even Christian.

People complain too much.

So the long term predictions are definitely not right, but I the short term ones most likely are. I guess Houston is going to be the country's 5th largest metro area soon.

Yeah, how old is that data? We've been passed Philly since I moved here (a year and 6 months ago).