roadrunner

It's looking more like September. I have a meeting this afternoon to talk about the groundbreaking.

I think your idea is interesting. What if the rail connected to Memorial. Like from downtown/midtown up through Dallas and connected to Memorial then to Uptown? Interesting thought. What a nightmare though construction wise.

My proposal would be putting a line down Dallas (maybe even start at Hilton downtown) west to Dunlavy. North on Dunlavy with it rising above Allen Parkway. Across the bayou to Memorial. Along Memorial to Memorial Park and then just shoot it straight through Memorial Park to connect to the Uptown Line. I don't know how they plan to do the Uptown Line, but I'm sure the actual connection around the West Loop would be a construction nightmare. Unless they made it a sub-connection (which is what Uptown needs anyways), but that is extremely wishful thinking.

Is this still on schedule for groundbreaking in August?

I don't know what the traffic is like on W Dallas, but the city/Metro should really look at putting a LRT or BRT line down Dallas. That is probably the most urban area in Houston with all of the townhomes and restaurants around. Then if they could figure out how to connect it to the Uptown line, I think the amount of riders would be substantial considering tourists would probably use it to go from downtown to the Galleria.

Of course that is all very wishful thinking.

I used to have to go to St Louis on business trips. Their downtown used to be a lot like Houston .. When the sun went down, the streets emptied. Some older buildings have now become lofts and you can really feel the difference. It feels like a community... No real retail to speak of except the big old Famous Barr (now Macy's) store. The big suprise was this wonderful little grocery store I found in the middle of downtown. It was like a mini "Central Market" called City Grocers. It is strongly supported by the local loft dwellers and downtown hotel guests, but not nearly the amout of people living in downtown Houston.. Here is a link to their site.

http://www.city-grocers.com/show/Home

I could easily see this surviving in downtown houston. It may not be needed but sure would be nice.

How many residents will downtown have once One Park Place is complete?

Oh, I heard about this thing. I made a thread on it (it might have been at my Atlanta board's Houston section).

I'll post what I posted over there, here:

City Centre: Houston

This development is where the old Town&Country mall was. Website is here: http://www.citycentrehouston.com/citycentre/index.php

Total Retail Space: 560,000 sf

Total Surface/On-Street Parking: 344 Spaces

Total Garage Parking: 3,577 spacess

Some renderings:

^^New Residential^^

More:

More: Town & Country Redevelopment

That one picture looks like it has a Z Tejas (www.ztejas.com) in it. Anyone have any confirmation on that? That place started in Austin and is awesome.

Any news on this project? It seems like one of the bigger/better ones in the metro area, but I haven't heard too much about it in the last month or so.