skooljunkie

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I noticed the article didn't list the Downtown Local Foods. Is that location closed?

🤷‍♂️ 

5922 Washington Ave. (The Classic, formerly Benjy's) has been sold to a developer according to Culturemap.

The photo caption on the document's front cover incorrectly identifies the submerged roadway. 🙃

This 135-unit senior project was awarded tax credits so it'll likely start going up in 2021. Also awarded:

While I agree it’s kind of ridiculous to consider building a toll road here already, 290 inside the beltway also serves as the connector to the 249 corridor via 8. Also, it wouldn’t surprise me if one day there’s a Westpark-like toll road down Spencer Rd (FM 529)—that would connect nicely to a Hempstead toll road. The Southwest side is served by Westpark Toll, Southwest Frwy., and Fort Bend Pkwy. whereas this quadrant only has 290 to funnel into Loop 610. Ugh, but geez...more concrete. 

4 hours ago, LBC2HTX said:

This area needs significant infrastructure improvements. I’m aware of Sawyer being redone but that’s not enough to accommodate the explosion of multi family development. 

This is above my COH Public Works sarcasm pay grade.

I spotted them running yesterday. Pretty neat. From what I witnessed, the buses didn't seem to have any issues driving in the lanes.

Unrelated but nearby...I spotted survey stakes around the nearly 1-acre property with the small office building at 300 Jackson Hill. If redeveloped, a tower here would be surrounded by parks and have incredible views of DT, UK, and Uptown...and also the AIG building heh. Maybe it's nothing though.

30 minutes ago, Montrose1100 said:

Not to drive this topic further off and into the burbs - but Town home people usually rent storage spaces. Or they park their over sized truck on the street because the garage is too small. Guest Parking is more of an issue. Or if there are Roommates.

 

Nearly every suburb I've been in - affluent or not, has every driveway crammed full of cars because people use their garages to store all their junk. League City, the Woodlands, Katy, Cypress, Spring, you name it. That's on top of having a storage unit as well. Consumers like their stuff.

I don't have a storage unit. Most people I know don't. When I peer into open garages I see some crammed with items. Other garages are spotless and vacant, but many just contain items along the walls. Suburban driveways are often crammed full of cars because there are multiple teenagers/young adults who drive as well. Also, I am a town home person and the ratio of vehicles on the street to homes around here is extremely low--mainly because very little street parking even exists. As for trucks, in my shared driveway, fewer than 15% of households contain a person who drives a truck. In the 10 town houses across the street its 20%. I'll be the first to admit that using just two examples in a metro area of 7 million+ people is not enough data to pipe out generalizations about basically everyone who lives here. That's baseless and tired. However, not everyone drives an over-sized truck, maintains a garage full of storage items, and rents a storage unit.

I like the incentive idea. Before Houston started having disasters every six months I would periodically read about deals between the city and billboard companies. I believe five or so years back 10-15 short, wooden billboards along Richmond Ave were removed and replaced with a few modern freeway types in more prominent areas. 

Well it's a start in reducing sign blight. The ordinance changes add an abandoned category for your typical business sign (Chili's, CVS, generic beige shopping center, etc.). Citywide, an owner with a sign that's not in use must now maintain (pay for) an annual permit or the sign can be removed after two years of non-compliance. I believe, but I'm not certain, prior to this, a sign not in use merely had to meet certain visual requirements to stay up: no words/symbols blacked out, and the pole maintained. Also, signs within 600 feet of the freeways outlined on the map now must be smaller in size and height. For example, a freeway sign (excluding billboards) now has a 31' height max instead of 42.5' and the size of the sign must now be 25-33% smaller in area. I'm guessing they wanted to get this set up prior to the North Frwy. rebuild so anything removed must be rebuilt with the new rules.

I'm more concerned with LEDs though. I think this is an area the City needs to focus next. Many cities have brightness regulations. From what I can tell, Houston's are loose suggestions. It seems the city has made it easier to convert existing signs to LED with this ordinance as well. So yay...more bright lights in your face at night. I've never understood why some business owners don't use a proper dimmer on LED signs so that people could actually read the damn sign at night. Some can't even be read: ahem, Star Pizza. I might order from them again if they dim that solar flare out front. 

1 hour ago, Avossos said:

What a wonderful park. Can’t wait to see all the phases come together.

 

reminds me of Stanley park in Vancouver.

 

will there be a high end restaurant in the park?

Arby's FTW

I'm skeptical!

Improvements to Heights Blvd. and some MKT trail intersections are now being planned by TIRZ 5. Construction planned for 2021 according to budget. Here are some highlights from the June Board meeting:

Project No. T-0527 Heights Boulevard Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety:

TASK A: Final Design for Bicycle Safety Improvements on Heights Boulevard
Addition of Shared Use Trail along Heights Boulevard: The overall work at this location involves striping of new bike lines on existing pavement along Heights Boulevard between IH 10 Frontage Road and Center Street, and adding concrete shared use trail behind the curb between Center Street and Washington Avenue. We understand that the existing sidewalk will be replaced with shared use trail. [Includes design of buffered bike lanes on either side of Heights Boulevard].

TASK B: Analysis and Final Design of HAWK Signal at Heights Boulevard and the MKT Trail

TASK C  Final Design of Safety Improvements along the MKT Trail

MKT Trail at Heights Boulevard: Improvements at this location includes construction of raised crosswalk across Heights Boulevard and installation of new traffic signal.

MKT Trail at Houston Avenue and Sawyer Street: Improvements at these locations includes construction of raised crosswalk across Houston Avenue and Sawyer Street.

Includes design of landing condition on Northeast corner of Sawyer and crosswalk improvements.

Includes design of pedestrian signal improvements at the Northeast corner of Sawyer.
Includes signage improvements along the trail.

Project No. T-0529 Yale and Center Intersection - Reconstruct intersection, replace signal and improve pedestrian crossing at Yale Street at Center Street.

On 6/19/2020 at 5:25 PM, Luminare said:

If y'all really want to see something cool. I haven't seen my google update yet for Downtown. While searching for it I ran into this site:

 

https://zoom.earth

 

Its a live satellite that is constantly updating. Check it out.

 

Thanks for sharing this link. So helpful for me. Nice to be able to toggle between shots within the last year. 

https://www.ridemetro.org/Pages/METRO-BOOST-Network.aspx

These improvements will be stunning--as long as the infrastructure is kept up.

Looks like the first test is Studewood between White Oak and Cavalcade...I like that they are moving and REMOVING stops. Between major roads, stops are often too frequent and way too close to stop lights. 

I give it 6 months tops by the time those drainage channels will be clogged with silt and another 16 years before anyone in this cash-strapped town does anything about it. 

The Kipling School seems to be expanding again. The old warehouse-like retail building at 518 Shepherd was demolished about a week or so ago. The school's website suggests this addition is coming to the SE corner of Blossom/Shepherd:

Only a demonstration project to remove a small piece of WO's concrete has been on the TIRZ 5 budget for quite some time and continually pushed forward in time. It's a hefty pricetag. 

The HHA has been vague about a specific development site along "West Dallas" (likely for good reason) but the map shown in the latest press release looks to be at this location. The unit count is similar to the one that burned. Again...no idea if this is the site. Anyone know? This looks to be a site they are hoping to add as part of their new, mixed-income approach.

http://www.housingforhouston.com/media/56372/august 2019 board report.pdf (p61-64)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PTjtKsqvkGyv7rgOatspN7VwHzmqgUlF/view

Looks like they may be saving the bones of this relic. They starting ripping up the guts yesterday.