citykid09

What I have been saying all along. Houston's pedestrian friendly areas are just shopping centers made to look urban. They are surrounded by parking lots with no interaction with the surrounding neighborhoods. BLVD Place, River Oaks District are two examples that come to mind. This is a serious problem but is it the fault of the developers or the backwards city of Houston requirements? The ONLY true urban development in Houston that has been announced (don't know if it will ever happen) is Regent Square. This is the only development that is built up to the sidewalk on existing streets (not fake streets that the developer adds in).

New Park/Pedestrian Bridge in Dallas. I don't know the name of the development, but it use to be a vehicle bridge in Dallas. Very nice! Stay progressive Dallas! Don't let the haters stop your progress!

I thought Memorial City was getting a Hotel ZaZa with residential and a Whole Foods all in the same building? What ever happened to that?

Are you saying that Southwest Atlanta around Campbellton Rd., Greenbriar Pkwy., Cascade Rd., and the West End all have even more nice urban development? Or are you saying its the suburban type of development or what?

I want to share some photo threads from Skyscraperpage by Detroitman and Ant131531. I must say WOW! Atlanta has changed a lot since I was last there. Its a very walkable city compared to Houston. Wish there was someway Houston could change its rules on zoning, planning, etc. DetroitMan http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=213215 http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=213221 http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=213420 http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=213421 http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=213422 Ant131531 http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=213354

Had you never been to New York? Now you see why some of us on here are always pushing for Houston to do better because it is FAR behind when it comes to being lively in the inner city.

Not speaking of cities in Africa, Speaking of cities in the United States. There seems to be a direct correlation between GDP and city infrastructure in other American cities. But when it comes to Houston it seems that everything must be as cheap as possible or it won't get built. Its seen in all of the recent architecture (box shaped buildings), the power-lines strung about all over the city, the rail road track cross overs in nice areas of the city, etc. I guess Houston's purpose as a city is for people to make money and move on to a nicer city that does not have all of these problems.

Sorry. When I said parking, I meant to say parking lots. Parking structures are fine.

Exactly what I was thinking, dated design, good concept. If Houston wants light rail to be worth it, the stations should be surrounded by development that people want to explore and not suburban shopping centers with a sea of parking.

When you look at city infrastructure (Rail Transit, streets with curbs and sidewalks, etc), Houston is far behind the others. So when we look at the GDP of the city, why aren't the amenities in Houston on par with the other cities at the top? Where is all of this money diapering to?

I had totally forgot about this. Is this up to the street like it looks and not surrounded by parking lots? If so, this is 100 times nicer then being a BLVD Place junior.

Are you serious? LOL!

Digging a subway that takes you all the way to downtown Houston, The Medical Center, Greenway Plaza and the Galleria area among many others. We can wish!

I think a "hub and spoke" heavy rail system would work for Houston. Businesses that locate in areas such as Westchase, the Energy Corridor and Greenway Plaza were obviously never looking for a an urban walkable environment to do business. You can see it in the way the building in these areas are designed. They are surrounded by acres of grass and or parking lots. Although these centers are far from the core of the city, they developers missed a great opportunity to create a true secondary business districts with street grids transit parks etc. Now many of these areas are saying that they want to become more livable and walkable to appeal to the younger generation, but its sort of too late. unless you add density, transit and housing to these areas they will never appeal to the younger generation. With all of that said, I believe a "hub and spoke" system would work in Houston. Build a inner city heavy rail connecting uptown and downtown and all the areas in between. I guaranty that mostly all major companies will want to be near the rail line. People will want to live within walking distance of the rail line etc. All of those business located outside of the inner city heavy rail such as the Westchase district and the Energy Corridor would not be able to compete with the convince of what the inner city has to offer so they would probably try to come up with some cheap alternative such as a BRT. So in conclusion, build a heavy rail transit system in Houston which will cut down on sprawl and at the same time create a place for culture in the city. I love Houston to death but the way that its developed make it a very boring city. Yes Houston maybe the most diverse city in the country, but the only places you ever get to really see that diversity is in a grocery store or at a mall which all have to be driven to. Yeah there have been a lot of changes to the style of development in the city and there are a lot of nice new developments drive around to those developments and you can tell that there is no master plan so the city. The only development in Houston that sees my point (but has not been built) is regent square. Its the only huge mixed use development that actually wants to build on the street and not surrounded by a parking lot. I'm talking to you BLVD Place and River Oaks District. Okay, enough venting.

Tell me why Houston's light rail cost more per mile than any other cities? And tell me how Helsinki Metro was able to build this rail line below for less than Houston was able to build a cheap a** (actually expensive) street car/light rail? Looking at the cart above Houston got robbed. Those cities have much nicer light rail lines for much cheaper.

Don't think this is Houston: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UsUWGublnk

I am all for rail. Against BRT in the Uptown area and I would NOT like to see rail along Post Oak either unless it was more like a street car. What I would like to see is a Subway line from Uptown to Downtown that way no one can say anything about how they don't want it going down a certain street or in their neighborhood. It may cost more but look at all of the benefits a subway would bring over a light rial line. No interaction between rail with cars or pedestrians which means no car/train wrecks no stopping of traffic and no humans getting hit by trains. Everyone will have to pay and there will be no confusion on if your pass is still good or not. People will be protected from the heat, rain, etc within the subway stations.

Will the power lines stay or come down?

I had forgotten about this one. Too many developments to remember and many times its easy to forget about them if we are not here talking about them everyday.

Please do take a photo. We would appreciate that a lot!

Is the limit only 5,000 units for the incentive? Well it should surley be moved up in my opinion to at least 20,000 units. Midtown should also have these incentives and require that the buildings be at least 5 or more stories, no parking requirements, no set backs, power lines must be placed underground and the sidewalks must be as wide as the ones you see in NYC.

With the way the inner city is densifying, we are bound to hear an announcement sometime soon about a rail line (hopefully heavy rail) connecting the rest of the lines to uptown. Once the millennials and generation Z take over, I am sure Houston will finally get the heavy rail that is deserving of a city this size.

That Hong Kong skyline is unreal! Looks so futuristic!

Does anyone know if this one will have ground floor retail like the others?

Does any of you think that the trend of suburban shopping centers, suburban aparment complexes and subruban houses is over with for inner city Houston, or will that trend continue? I like that more "urban" development is going up in the city, but I hate that noting really matches up as in a larger over all plan for the city as a whole. Its just spots of development, no large overall area to just walk around and enjoy the urban environment. No area for tourist and locals to walk around and congregate.