crunchtastic

It may just be the the first new apartment building featuring the added amenity of a parrot colony. I understand they particularly like cell towers, and tend to live by the dozens in them. Don't know if they're a nuisance in the way grackles are.

heh, that's only because I wasn't living here at the time. I was too busy being pissed about the Zachary contracts in SA.

This post has officially restored my lagging faith in the HAIF. It sums up everything I love about it here: history, buildings, intellectual curiosity, community, freaky things. If 'giant woman at 70s north Houston strip club' doesn't pique your interest, you are officially dead inside.

A TIRZ and donated land is public funding. It may not be direct out of my pocket, but it's still public land, and future public tax revenue. Trust me, I've read every story on this issue, long before there was a Dynamo. Like I said--it's a basic philosophical position. I don't care if it's soccer, or my beloved Astros or San Antonio Spurs. I love sports, but they need to pay their own goddamned way. Clearly this deal is nearly done, so I'm standing down and will support it. I live over here, so I sure hope all you fanboys put your money where your mouth is.

The management district (and the civic associations who spread their message) need to stop the fear mongering. By all means, encourage citizens to support the stadium. But I will not support an organization that uses rumor, lies and scare tactics (crime! economic blight! jails!!!) to push their agenda. It's too bad, because as a white, professional, property owning new resident of the east end, I know they want me on board with the new world order. But you don't get my support by insulting my intelligence with shrill, amatuer propaganda and bad logic. (Claiming that the the Dynamo stadium will cost 'peanuts' compared to Reliant, as the ECA 'action alert' stated, does nothing to advance the argument that the new deal is good one. In fact all that did was remind me how much greedy NFL owner have ruined pro football for me-- not a smart thing when trying to get me to support a deal for another sports team owner. ) FWIW, my opposition is philosophical in that I oppose any public funding for privately owned stadia--not land, not money, not anything. But that ship has sailed, and since the city already commiteed to the deal, just build the thing already. I do agree that the east end location is best.

I think I remember seeing an HBJ article a while back--want to say it's Ashley.

If you've got her 10 grand, I'd bet she'd do weddings and bar mitzvahs, too. The Ted Nugent thing out at the Rick Perry pep rally is almost as embarrassing as the Who at the super bowl. At least the Who got a cool light-up stage. All terrible Ted got was a bunch of pinched-looking folks and a faulty sound system. But then, I'm sure he's used to that from the gun show appearances.

having gone back an re-read the email and the Chron story it linked, there was a quote from the mayor that the city was looking at sites (multiple) for a potential new jail or crime lab. It was vague at best. I would actively oppose a jail on the site, but I will not support the stadium based on a vague threat that something else might get built instead.

I have the same question. I've heard rumors and internet noise, amd now the alarmist email, but no source. The idea of a jail removed from the court complex, and within walking distance of two sports facilities, the convention center, and Discovery Green is seems a little difficult to believe, especially when it only seems to come up in connection with the Dynamo stadium.

wow, sorry to hear it. Unfortunately, there's already an oversupply of lawyers. Unless someone else is paying your school bill....it's a gamble. The degrees simply don't pay for themselves as quickly or easily any more. Purely anecdotal, but instructive: a fair number of my high school friends went to engineering school. This was back in the big Houston oil bust years. EE and PetE were really popular and highly competitive majors, but when they got out of school in the late 80s, there was no work and all but one went to law school. Of them, only one ever practiced law. The only reason most did well ultimately was because their families had land out in the rice patch and they took over the family concern. When it comes down to job security, if I could snap my fingers and be anything right now? I'd be a bilingual RN/nurse practioner with a willingness to do shift or travel work. Good luck to you!

I was thinking a toothless meth casualty working at the quick lube and fantasizing about Megan Fox, but that might be more east Montgomery County. In all seriousness, I was not aware the COH had annexation sights anywhere at the moment. Do they?

hmm. your little lady needs to give me back my swimsuit cover-up, and return the highlander goblets to her ex boyfriend she met at the renaissance fest. As far as Red goes, you should buy him two drinks. He's shy and it takes him a while to warm up to people.

yes.

well, seeing as how we're in mostly absurd territory, in addition to my check from the COH, I'd like a championship Astros team. ....and street food vendors. It makes no sense that I can't get a hot dog or a schwarma or a brisket sammich on a downtown/midtown/uptown streetcorner in the 4th freaking largest city in the country. Oh, and alternate for-hire transport. More jitneys! End the cabbie cabal!

Cleaner air

disband the tobacco companies? Of course not. That would be unAmerican. We continue to let them achieve all the tobacco market penetration they wish..... in the third world. And in the new countries of the future, formed when states secede and get their wish of eliminating health-related entitlement programs. Come to think of it, that would be double-extra bonus American way.

growing anectdotal evidence suggests that more bars and clubs are simply defying smoking bans. Saw articles not long ago in the NYT and Chicago Trib about this. A friend in Manhattan told me that there are a growing number of bars (and swank clubs) outright ignoring the ban. I personally have been to bars in Seattle and San Francisco that do the same, and these were not little speakeasy back rooms. Depending on the bar and the clientele, a bar owner here in Houston might reasonably assume that with practically zero enforcement for these ordinances, non-compliance isn't much of a risk. And especially in tough budget times, show me a municipality that diverts precious law enforcement resources for raiding bars and going to court over smoking fines, and I'll show you some elected officals who won't keep their jobs very long. Further proof that I am becoming an anarchist in middle age, I believe that smoking bans in bars should be considered little more than a suggestion, and adopted only at the will of the owner. I stopped debating this years ago but haven't changed my opinion, which is that if public health were REALLY the issue, cigarettes and other tobacco products would be illegal. Period. But public health is not the issue. It is an expendable crew member compared to the lobbying power of big tobacco (who entrenched themselves by, smartly, diversifying years ago). So, as a culture that values money and the freedom to make gobs of it above all else, we attempt to assuage this hypocrisy by making public secondhand smoke the villian, and passing toothless ordinances so earnest Wendy Whitebread will get off her 'I don't want to smell smoke' trip, thus freeing her up to go protest illegals, or the Ashby highrise or some such.. /rant.

I should've never looked at this thread. I've got a massive cigarette craving now. Will they ever go away? The weight gain is more than enough torture for quitting. on the bright side, only 6 smokes in over a year. success!!

bless her heart, she's a yapping little too-tan mutt with frosty beige lipstick, but that hit was pretty harsh.

Is tailgating permitted by the leaugue, team, or the venue? The only tailgate I've done at MMP was for a Jimmy Buffett show, and we paid an extra couple of hundred bucks for each parking space, plus an upcharge on the event tix. (The parking lot was far better entertainment than the actual show.) If the Dynamo stadium went in downtown and they were using MMP parking lots, would they even allow tailgating? Guess that's written into the contracts.

well, let's see it I can do this justice: Gorillas--big dumb guido juiceheads at the beach Creeping--trolling the clubs for cute skanks to bring home for a hookup Grenade-the irritating 'friend' who gets in the way of successful creeping, or drags the skank out of the house after you've already gotten her home Grenade Launcher--the fat ugly girl/bossy enforcer who escalates the Grenade's inteference in successful creeping. There's one in every pack.

Whoa! What's with the hatin' on the Jersey Shore? We're taking away your tanning salon membership! Thanks to the show, I now know the alternate meanings of grenade, grenade launcher, creeping, and gorillas.

Heh, this tells me all I need to know about the SSP forum. This is EXACTLY what a big city is all about. It's the ugly and the industrial and ramshackle doing the dirty work, so theorists can draw pictures of tall shiny things ( which few people can afford to build, much less live in). Since you've opened the door to the east end, I agree that going further down Harrisburg and surrounds is a great idea. Looking forward to your next installment!

Your phrasing almost suggests that vapid rhetoric might sway you on some other matter. Think of the children, Niche. The sweet, helpless children!

Immigration, legal and illegal, is necesary to keep growing the GDP and will be necessary to keep this country competitive against China and India. The idea that services received should equal taxes paid is a great tea party sound bite but isn't the economic reality in a world economy based on leverage. Besides, if that were the goal, we'd be raising the hell out of tax rates on corporations, as they consume far more taxpayer-paid resources (mainly in the form of military protection, occupations and wars) than people living near the poverty line.