jgriff

If we have to live with political risk why can't these property owners that got this thing blocked live with the risk that someone might build something in their neighborhood someday? I guess now when you buy a piece of land in Houston you get control over all the land around you too. How nice for them. The thing that really stinks about all this is that people all over Houston have lived with unwanted development as the price to pay for the property rights we have and this just shows that rich people don't live under the same laws as the rest of us.

I just don't usually find restaraunts closed on Sunday nights in Houston. I live in the Memorial Villages area, they all seem to be open out there. Of course they are all filled with the after church crowd. We did drive through the Bagby/West Gray area and there seemed to be a lot of activity there. To me that is the "walkable retail" area of Houston.

My wife and I attempted to go to La Strada Sunday night but found out they close at 6:00pm on Sunday. So we walk over to Indika and it's closed to. Then we decided to try the Italian place next to Indika and it's a 45 minute wait. So much for lower Westheimer on a Sunday night. We just gave up and went to Chuy's. I guess there's not much of an after-church crowd in that area.

I have a friend who lives in the townhomes behind numbers. I'm down there nearly every weekend. Beleive me, it is a very sketchy area. I've looked out the window of the townhouse and counted a dozen prostitues within view at once. Some of them used to use a hearse to do their "business". You're lucky if you can walk 2 blocks without being asked for spare change.

I was out there last weekend and saw a Lifetime Fitness semi on the site.

His home in Houston is now part of The University Of St. Thomas.

Correct... Sorry for getting off topic.

I work near the West Belt and Westpark. No walking possible around here... If I worked downtown I could see myself walking a bit. That being said, I beleive I would rather walk down the Beltway access road in sub freezing temperatures than typical June Houston weather. I think 90 degress and raining is worse than 0 degrees and snowing. If I had gone outside yesterday and came back in I probably would have been fired.

I spent some time in Hamburg for a while, it was around 30 deg F and very windy most of the time. I never had a problem walking around town. You could walk around all day in that weather. You can put on as many clothes as you want to stay warm. There's only so many clothes you can take off before being arrested though... I can fix my hair with a comb at work after removing a hat, a head full of sweat is a lot worse. It's the smell that does it. There's no way to get rid of it without a shower. I work on the West side of town though so your experience may vary downtown. It's about a 1 mile walk down roads with no sidewalks to the nearest businesses. The only people you see walking around here are lunchtime joggers, gang members and homeless people. We recently built a new building and many of the employees asked for showers for the lunchtime joggers. Management refused.

I wear long sleeve dress shirts to work most of the time. There is just no way to walk very far in Houston dressed like that in 90+ degree weather and be presentable for work when you get back. You could do it in 0 degree weather just fine, it might be uncomfortable but it doesn't ruin you're appearance or make you smell bad. I think this is one of the main reasons that public transporation is so difficult in Houston. We do have one guy here that rides a bike to work every morning. He pretty much takes a shower in the sink when he gets here. It makes everyone very uncomfortable and people talk about him behind his back quite a bit. He's known as the "Crazy Bike Guy".

I would disagree. If you walk a few blocks in June during lunch you may have to go home and change clothes. You simply cannot walk around outside in Houston weather during June and go back to work. Montreal may be cold but the cold doesn't soak you in stinky sweat. There is no way I would ever walk to work in Houston unless I lived less than a few hundred feet from the front door of my building. I once worked in a building whose property was connected to the apartment complex I lived in. I didn't walk it once.