IronTiger
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Posts posted by IronTiger
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Based on the freeway, at least one other cross street, and the road length I want to say Pierce and Brazos.
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It seems to be one of the streets around downtown, very narrow (three lanes, no dedicated parking). Were any EaDo or Midtown roads converted back into two way?
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11 hours ago, SpaceGhost said:
Oh man, and that was my own post too.
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Where did Lewis & Coker have its locations before they closed the last one in the late 1990s (Memorial Drive, which became Rice Epicurean/Fresh Market/Total Wine)? All I can find is they had one other location in Kingwood in the late 1980s.
From reading the articles it seems like at least their later days they skewed upscale despite the fact that they operated the Kmart grocery stores in the 1970s.
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I've heard the "save the community center" plot, but I guess it was Breakin' 2 that inspired it (along with the joke about "Electric Boogaloo" being used as a sequel name)?
Did they have a '80s music montage and a freeze-frame ending of everyone jumping up in a "yeah" pose?
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On 1/8/2018 at 0:13 PM, Reefmonkey said:
But if anyone should have lost their employment with the Press, staff or contributing, it should have been him, he adds absolutely nothing of value to that publication. Just two months ago he published a piece advising parents to teach their young daughters to punch boys who inappropriately touch them at school in the face, choke them until they pass out. Don't get me wrong, I have a ten year old daughter and I've taught her a thing or two about self defense, and will continue to teach more moves as she gets older and starts dating, and I've told her if she ever gets touched inappropriately by a boy at school to say very loud (so the entire class can hear) "DO NOT TOUCH ME ON THE _______" But advising violence disroprortionate to the threat, and at school no less, that's insanely reckless and irresponsible.
That wasn't the half of it. During the whole "Gamergate" an individual known as Sarah Nyberg (born male but identifies as female) was accused of pedophilia based on some leaked chat logs from Nyberg's website regarding sexual fantasies with young children (which Nyberg admitted were legitimate). Rouner then responded to the controversy by tweeting him a picture of his daughter in a Chewbacca hoodie to "cheer [Nyberg] up". After right-wing websites picked the story up, Rouner deleted the tweet and then responded with some pathetic damage control that mostly blamed his opponents rather than the dubious things he actually did do. His existing articles on Cracked don't help his case in what his opponents claim he does. Even if Rouner isn't what his opponents claim (a pedophilia enabler/advocate) he is a buffoon who makes incredibly poor decisions and can't take responsibility for his own actions.
Rouner was only one of 50 contributors to Houston Press, so he didn't lose his job because he wasn't really "employed" by them in the first place.
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15 hours ago, plumber2 said:
The other one at the end of Golf Drive was what my dad referred to as the Heights Golf Course. He claimed to have caddied there for extra money when he was a kid. It apparently closed sometime around WWII and then it became developed as Sheperd Park Forest later on.
I've also heard that the current Pine Forest Country Club on Clay Road is going to close. The members have sold the property to developers.
History has a way of repeating itself. Us native Houstonians have been witness to it more often than we'd like.
Reading about it on the current website of Pine Forest says it opened in 1945 (explaining why it isn't on the oldest aerial) and closed in 1975 (which is why the warehouses were only partially built out in 1978).
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I agree that the main reason for flooding is too much development and not enough places for water to go. While road rebuilds can handle water better than the old 1970s infrastructure can, there should have been (years ago) ordinances to put in retention ponds for development. Even the H-E-B in Kingwood decided to get rid of the lake that the old apartments surrounded it, and I heard the flooding was more severe than the Randalls across the street, possibly because of that fact. There also seems to be a lack of oversight in developed subdivisions. Who signed off on that subdivision that would flood if the reservoir got too high? The Inner Loop isn't off the hook either with some intense densification without much thought as to lack of green space and where rain can go.
I've said in the other thread that retention ponds can go in defunct retail areas in the Inner Loop.
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Doing of my "look at something in Google Earth and discover something else" excursions that I do on a far too regular basis, I found what appeared to be a golf course just east of the Sears store there. It was roughly bordered by North Shepherd (west), the railroad (south), Crosstimbers/Westcross (north), and the homes west of Yale (east). By the late 1970s it was demolished for a series of warehouses with railroad spurs, which it is today, though the spurs are not active anymore. Does anyone know what this golf course was? I tried to do searches on it to no avail.
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7 hours ago, nate4l1f3 said:
Maybe it’s just me but is anyone else annoyed by thread titles with just addresses in the title? I’m sure it’s just my pet peeve, but if we have a name of the business why not just use that as the title? The heights forum is full of them and it’s hard for my little brain to keep track of what addresses match what business.
Sometimes the business that the address refers to go under (pretty sure I've seen one thread where that happened). Plus, it can be helpful to refer to previous occupants of the property as well.
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10 hours ago, Sunstar said:
Wow, so much stuff gone now. The foreground across the Bayou appears to be what is now the Wortham Center and Sesquicentennial Park. That would be Preston street bridge. Possibly taken from the roof of the Tennison Hotel? The Bayou was seriously concreted back then. Guess they got tired of all the flooding.
Note the pipes that drain runoff into the bayou. How polluted did the bayou end up getting at its peak?
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11 hours ago, Ross said:
The restaurant was Pinos, and it was there well before 1995. It was one of Marvin Zindlers favorite places, and I ate there many times in the 80's with friends. You might be able to get some information on the sign by parking nearby and looking at the permit stickers. I haven't found a sign permit database that's accessible to the public.
They must have done substantial renovations since 1995 when they expanded into adjacent lots because the differences between the early 2000s and 1995 (plus 1989) are quite different.
Major renovations I can buy, though, and the south part of the restaurant with the red-looking part of the roof helps substantiate that claim. The big sign can be seen on the northeast part of the property, but it appears to be on the other side of the property, otherwise CVS would've used it or wrecked it. Besides, the other businesses in 1995 help disprove the notion that it was Pinos' sign.
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I thought about the gas station, but it's on the wrong side of the property. Actually, pre-dating CVS wasn't a gas station, there was a restaurant on the southeast corner of Hillcroft and Westheimer, built after 1995 but torn down by 2005. The strip center of 6509 Westheimer was built in 1980, but pre-dating that was a restaurant that had, in 1978 a sign about the same length (looks like a different shape but that could be just the garbage quality of the image talking).
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12 hours ago, brijonmang said:
Thank you! I did edit the colors from what the camera recorded as it films in a log format that has very flat colors and did try to enhance them some but tried to stay in a somewhat realistic window. I appreciate the feedback and will continue working on that in future videos!
Comparing shots of 2:13 and 2:47 (which show the differences I noted), I think the problem is that especially clouds or other moisture in the air will tend to wash out natural color but there's not a realistic way of adding back color and brightness without making it look like pre-release footage of SimCity 7.
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5 hours ago, Heidi GK said:
The Texan had the greatest food. I believe it was in an old DQ building. I was a Freshman in ‘85 at A& M. Worked at Steak and Ale which became Oxford St. which was better quality while my BF worked at Fajita Rita’s and roomate at JJ Muggs which also changed names, I think to Rita’s. I recently saw that Cenare was still there. JT mcCords had closed while I was there. Uncertain why as business seemed to be good. Toms barbecue was popular. Swensens and Bennigans were in culpepper plaza along with 3 C barbecue. There was also Pops barbecue. The Deluxe, Cow Hop, flying tomato, the Chicken were all there. Cafe Excel (sp) had just opened close to univ dr and Wellborn and was popular. Now in 2017 it’s a bigger restaurant and different food on Texas. La Taqueria or La Taq as we referred to it was just a short distance down from cafe excel. Kroger was my store on SW parkway before Hastings and now not sure what is there. There was also the chicken oil company in Bryan and Farmers Market. Of course, DOUBLE DAVES is alive and well. I wonder if The Hall and Graham’s dance halls are still in existence? Used to go dancing with friends at The Edge, MC^2 (mc square), and The Roxy....big hair days. Worked out at 24 hr gyms which closed; then went to Golds gym. My son is now at A & M. Seems like a totally different town. I graduated in 1990; so it’s been 27 years. That’s just crazy!
The Texan was a drive-in in the 1950s that the owners later converted to an upscale restaurant over time
Steak & Ale/Oxford Street closed in 2008 and ultimately became a seafood restaurant, which burned down in 2012 and was torn down very soon after.
JJ Muggs/Rita's became a Mexican restaurant by the 1990s and has been a Fuddruckers since around the mid-2000s.
Fajita Rita's closed around the early to mid 2000s and became a series of Mexican restaurants until 2012, when lightning struck an AC unit and burned down the building. Today there is a First Watch breakfast restaurant and Hungry Howie's.
Tom's Barbecue settled in the early 1990s at the intersection of Holleman and Texas Avenue. It closed around 2001 and was torn down for a strip center. The Bryan location is now J. Cody's.
Swensen's closed around the mid-2000s, I think it's Firehouse Subs now. Bennigan's is now an AT&T store.
3C Barbecue is now Napa Flats.
Pop's Barbecue later became a catering business but is now a tire shop after a major renovation.
The Deluxe is gone, having been substantially rebuilt for Chimy's Cerveceria several years back.
Cafe Eccell was torn down for an apartment building. Their current spot replaced Luby's.
La Taqueria eventually became La Bodega, which was torn down for a food truck park.
The SW Parkway Kroger was updated inside and out in 2001, but was still run down, and closed in 2016. It is to become a Tru Fit fitness center.
Chicken Oil is still there.
Graham's is still there. The Hall closed in 2011 and was torn down for a Walmart.
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The other day was in Houston again (Christmas shopping, since I forgot to do Amazon and Walmart wasn't going to cut it) and I noticed a very large sign on Westheimer near Hillcroft and Voss, which advertised Select Jewelers (further up Voss). What was the sign's original purpose? I imagine it was for a business, and I immediately thought Safeway (or Weingarten) since I knew it was at that intersection, but the Safeway store was on the southwest side of the street (now Ross Dress for Less). What was it for originally? The only other theory I had was that it was for what is now the Water Mill Apartments, but I'm not sure on that either. Anyone else have any insight?
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I did some looking in newspaper archives. It was a Wilson's in the 1970s.
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Driving down to Houston yesterday I noticed that the truck stop in Hempstead (recognizable by a large Exxon/McDonald's sign) had completely closed, with the McDonald's sign only remaining (the McDonald's is actually next to it). From my observations:
- The canopy had removed all Exxon branding and even appeared to be falling apart
- It once had a Denny's inside; earlier this year it had been converted to a "Country Delight Cafe"
- Sometime in late 2015 or early 2016 a Subway was added to the end, I remember it being perhaps the first Subway I've seen opened post-Jared
- Today, the gas station is boarded up entirely (looks like Country Delight is also gone) with Subway still open inside.
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Seems like the "neighborhoods" of 200 students all basically working in what amounts to a cubicle farm really seems like it could limit specialized elective classes or the slight variations in where everyone should be in terms of math and social studies (or whatever). I'd be willing to bet that said "cubicle farms" could remodel back into regular classrooms if the project is a disaster.
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For Midtown/Downtown to become anything like Manhattan in density, it basically means that almost every single building that's not explicitly a high rise or a building with irreplaceable historic value would have to be torn down. The stadiums in the downtown area preclude that anyway, though--there probably is a point when it's simply uneconomical to have a big stadium downtown with its need for excessive parking, but we're not at that point yet.
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22 hours ago, mkultra25 said:
I don't think we're ever going to see eye to eye on this, so I'll leave it at that. I'm not surprised that we're having this discussion, though - the Lomax family's heritage in the field of music has long been a controversial subject, with some folks feeling that the family legacy is one of shining a light onto hidden treasures through persistent and skillful curation, and some holding an opposing view that they have unfairly feathered their own nests on the backs and through the efforts of others.
I don't have a personal beef with Lomax or his family, I was mostly thinking in terms of overall quality of output. (And speaking of which, Lomax's work is far better than say, Jef Rouner's, but that needs to go without saying).
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38 minutes ago, MaxConcrete said:
The official HGAC document updated in January 2017 says
"Please note, this revised interim lane configuration [on US 290] does not alter the ultimate improvements proposed for the corridor, which include construction of a 4-lane managed lane roadway along Hempstead Rd to accommodate high-occupancy and toll users. Implementation of the ultimate project scope, as documented in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and Record of Decision(ROD), continues to be proposed within the 2040 RTP and is anticipated to be open to traffic by the 2035 milestone year."The HGAC long term project listing and corridor overview both show the project, with very different costs, $1.1 billion on the corridor page and $2.7 billion on the project listing, which appears to be year-of-expenditure inflated cost.
Whether it actually gets built will depend on numerous factors: if Texas Central is built (which makes the toll road more costly and less likely), the amount of congestion on US 290, the availability of a funding sponsor (HCTRA is probably not interested, private funding would be the best chance or maybe TxDOT depending on the political climate), and whether any high-capacity transit is planned or built in the corridor.
So what are the chances it gets built? It's really difficult to predict. Definitely not a sure thing. I would say 50-50 chance it gets built by 2035.
Oh yeah, that was the thing I remember, that the Hempstead Tollway project did account for a "high speed transit" corridor. In fact, I also remember that they condemned more ROW for the 290/610 project than they needed for that very thing (and a judge made them pay back the difference).
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11 minutes ago, cspwal said:
How likely is the Hempstead Toll Road to be built? It seems like the direction is pointing in co-located tollroads (e.g. Katy Tollway, whatever the new HOV lanes are going to be on 290)
Besides, I suspect more people are going to be able to go up and down a HSR line than a tollroad
The Hempstead Toll Road was planned at the same time of the Northwest Freeway widening. I think there's even the appropriate connections built into the HOT lanes to allow for a connection (at least the last plans I saw, but we know those change sometimes, like the original plan to make a five-stack at Grand Parkway and Northwest Freeway). It involved ROW takeover, like it would alter the intersection where Mangum, Hempstead, and 18th all intersect with each other.
I also see according to that rendering there's no overpasses or anything, it's all elevated. I seem to remember in this thread that TCR would build overpasses/underpasses for their tracks as well as the freight traffic. Guess not, but I didn't expect much out of TCR anyway, and I still suspect that this is all some sort of plan to manipulate taxpayers somehow for a profit as the economics from the last study haven't really changed in terms of how many people they need to do daily to turn a profit. (I expect that I'll receive notifications for replies telling me how wrong I am)
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29 minutes ago, mkultra25 said:
As to Lomax, I defy anyone to read this piece and tell me honestly that he is not a truly gifted writer. Lumping him in with all of the other web-content aggregators who like to claim the title of journalist does him a great disservice, IMO:
Having his mother be a drug-addled violent hippie may earn Lomax my sympathy, but even if that article wasn't a fluke (something about broken clocks), why are all of his other works clearly phoned in?
Frost Bank At 628 E. 11th St.
in The Heights
Posted
That's just not true. Every time I read anything regarding "walkability" or anything related to New Urbanism, they abandon all pragmatism and anything that doesn't "look right" in favor of some unrealistic ideal. Under NU, cars are bad, freeways are bad, all buildings must have zero set-back, public transportation is the past, the present, and the future (Elon Musk be damned), on-street parking should be discouraged, and the end result ends up being so artificial that it resembles an outdoor shopping mall (like, say, The Domain in Austin) rather than a real city.