wxman

Oh yes because South Padre Island is so beautiful...ok. Little do you know the Florida beaches for the most part are natural. This is from Wikipedia...

Destin's White Beaches--Destin is famous for its white sand beaches. The sand is some of the whitest in the world. The sand actually comes from the Appalachian mountains. Residue flows down the Apalachicola River and is deposited into the Gulf of Mexico. Because of the currents the sand drifts west and settles from east of Panama City to the Alabama coast.

Destin, FL-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Destinflorida.jpg

Galveston, TX-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:USA_Gal...on_beach_TX.jpg

Ok buddy, you need your eyes checked.

Mikeybob2...Those pics were hillarious!!! . When talking about vistiors...most of those are Houstonians who can't afford to drive anywhere else. As someone who lives here, I wouldn't go to Galveston (for pleasure) to save my life. We do drive the 628 miles to Destin, FL were you can lay in sand instead of laying on sand that's hard as concrete. Brown is Galveston's como. I believe many other people would drive away as well if gas wasn't so expensive. There's not very many beaches that have one of the nations largest cities 47 miles up the road. Also some vegitation would be nice, you know, palm trees and such. Refer to the pics of Key West above.

Rivers drain in other parts of the country...not just the Texas Coast. There is no excuse, besides lazyness, why the beaches look the way they do. If they'd clean them up and clean that town up, people would be tempted to go there and development would also boom. The more development, the more people that come. Raise the standards! The Mississippi coast (pre Katrina) had brown water as well, but the beaches were nice and the town of Biloxi was clean and had lots of stuff to do! I'd go back. I'd go there before I would ANY Texas beach...that includes South Padre.

It's been rumored for a while now that The Woodlands Mall or a nearby location would be getting a Nordstroms. Does anybody know if this is true? I work at Macy's at TWM and my manager said that it was true and Nordstroms was just waiting on a location. But I've also heard that it fell through.

We're in the middle of a huge oil boom, dontcha know? Apparently 21 floors is all we can handle.

Heck, Austin has built more ambitious skyscrapers than this the last few years.

Not to mention it's Austin. (no offense). It's not like they have dozens of Fortune 500 companies. If 21 floors of office space is all we can handle, then I'm affraid the other towers that are being proposed may not make it off the drawing board.

wow, 21 stories of office space? What an anti-climax. Oh well, beats a poke in the eye. What's the deal with Houston anyhow? Atlanta is poping up towers left and right. Houston is putting up a midrise. ewww ahhhh.

East as in the east side of DT. Anyway, I've lived in Houston since 89' and I can tell you that Houston deserves it's bad image because it does nothing to clean up slum areas. You can't tell me that the gulf freeway inside the loop or the north frwy all the way to Greenspoint is not ghetto? Not to mention the "energy corridor." What an embarassment. I think energy corridor I think high rises and tree lined streets, lights...I dont' know. When you drive down I-10 (I'm talking about inside the loop) there is grafitti and rusted out overpasses and buildings that havent' been used in years. That's something to be proud of...let me tell ya.

I love Houston...don't get me wrong. It's WAY better than Dallas. But when you drive through other cities, you don't see the poor areas. Houston, which has the most expensive zip code in TX, are all hidden. I just wish they could do something that would clean our image up. Houston has great potential. Somebody told me that Houston is just simply reality. Maybe they are right. It was not my goal to offend anybody...it's just simply my opinion.

About the topic...has anybody heard anything new on the Rail Yards? I think it would be a great addition.

I think I'm more excited about this project than anything. The east side is...well lets face it, ghetto! This will be a nice addition. The only thing is, I haven't heard one thing about it. Is this project dead?

yeah, I'd say expect something along the lines of Anadarko Tower or 5 Houston center. I find it hard to believe that Discovery Tower will make it much past 35 or 40 stories. It won't even compare to the trophy towers of the 70s and 80s. As a side note, if the space DT is so tight anyway, why not take the chance and build one big building instead of having plans in the works for an expansion?

Honestly I think the architecture in Houston is rather repetitious and just flat boring. Other than ther Heritage Plaza, 700 Louisiana, and Williams, not much can be said for such a powerhouse of a city. Houston needs to put on the ritz. The Houston skyline, though impressive, is dark. It can hardly be seen from the air flying in at night or driving down 45 for that matter. Anybody remember the Power of Houston display they had back, I believe in 86' and again in 97', when they had lazer lights and fireworks coming out of the buildings? That made a statement. For a city of such importance and such wealth and such growth for that matter, Houston really seems to be dragging it's feet.

As a side note, Houston is the only city I've been to, and I've been to a lot of cities, that seems to be proud of its ghettos. You drive down 10 (inside the loop) down 45 (inside the belt) or 59 Estex and it's an eye sore. Come on Houston, you have a lot to be proud of!

Not everybody lives on the Katy Freeway.

Honestly guys, I thought that's where Memorial Hermann's new 35 story tower was being built; or was that at Gessner? I know it was right in that area. As far as construction goes on the freeway systems, ever heard of double decked freeways? I live in The Woodlands, and on a Sunday morning it takes 25 minutes to get DT. On Monday morning, it's an hour commute sometimes. Have the upper deck be express lanes going to the burbs and the underside be for regular exits and what not. Only have distinct exit points from the upper decks. That way you don't have to keep widening the freeways every two years. Houston is projected by the U.S Census Bureau to grow by 3.7 million people in the next 20 years I believe it was. We'll be in a lot of trouble if they don't do something.