IronTiger

Google maps images show the post being there even in 2001 with no apparent sign. I guess that if that was the case, it would be one of those close-to-the-ground billboards that populated Houston more plentifully in the past, but if is the diameter so large, large enough that apparently they never bothered removing it, then why are there not more examples?

So today I went to the Apple store in Willowbrook Mall to get an iPhone screen repaired, and my route took me down FM 1960, which I had really never gone on before. A few interesting sights were there but the most interesting, or at least most unexplained, was a thick metal smokestack at Meadow Vista Blvd. and FM 1960. It is rusty and speckled with graffiti, but it has no attached structure...the last building there on the lot appeared to be a private house demolished sometime in the 1980s...but it wasn't attached to it anyway. The only guess I have that there appears to be a gas conduit running along there, but you wouldn't have a SMOKESTACK for that now would you? https://www.google.com/maps/@29.9478046,-95.5621505,3a,69.9y,74.35h,78.1t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1shQjPcjP9lsmvZRngNROM-Q!2e0!5s20160901T000000!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

First Randalls that opened as a Randalls and not converted from a Minimax (store #3).

Whoops, 5 is indeed the Parking Lot, Parking Garage is 150.

Well, after looking at about 34 different HAIFers (including myself) I was able to extrapolate a partial list (HAIF doesn't seem to have an accessible "member's list" anymore). Public Park - 0 Parking Garage - 5 Billboard - 10 Bridge - 15 Drive-Through - 30 Strip Mall - 50 Single Family House - 90 Post Office - 100 Parking Garage - 150 Museum - 200? Theater - 400? Condominium - 600? Convention Center - 700? Mid Rise - 800? Hospital - 1100? University - 1200? Lighthouse - 1500? Hotel (this one is the Holiday Inn) - 2000 High Rise - 3000 Neo-Classical Skyscraper - 5000 Art Deco Skyscraper - 8000 EDIT: Boy I feel dumb. I think the Art Deco Skyscraper was added in later, as well as the Brown Stripey Skyscraper. http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/10585-q-what-are-the-user-ranks-and-icons/

Well, I've finally passed the threshold to get a new thing about my avatar, the Neo-Classical Skyscraper (at 5000 posts), which I think used to be the Brown Striped Skyscraper (or something). I think I remember reading that they originally corresponded to the height of buildings (5000'), but what are the buildings pictured? I think the downtown Holiday Inn was one of them (already passed that).

Sprouts, Goody Goody Liquor, and Five Below. But that's #20 and opened in the early to mid 1980s. We're talking about stores much earlier than that.

That was listed. It is #7.

My theory is #5 and #9 weren't in the Houston area directly. I'm forming a theory that #5 was in Rosenberg (an old Randalls was in the strip center pre-1980s, and the strip center was built in 1970 per FBCAD) and #9 was similar (possibly an older store in Galveston that pre-dated its current location).

Your 1976 directory sounds right. The phone book (1974 I think) had the "new" address, which was about when the NW Plaza strip center opened. They must have moved about that time. In any case, those do line up. The second Minimax was #2 at 5550 North Freeway, and the third store that Randalls did open was on Katy Freeway. Long Point was #4, I drove by the store often and you can tell it has a larger awning than the stores around it. Half of it (left half I believe) is a restaurant called Seoul Garden, and it probably closed in the late 1980s when the store further down Blalock opened (#39, now Super H Mart). So in any case, it was indeed at 43rd and Mangum and not a misprint. Interesting! But if there is a misprint there, AND the Randalls "Super Valu" stores (I thought they were in Pasadena...?) then maybe it is somewhat out of date. I've yet to find Randalls #5 and #9, which were not listed with the 1976 stores. Maybe they weren't in the Houston phone book coverage at all. As I was telling SpaceGhost, the pre-Safeway numbering (for the Houston-area stores) was all chronological, so #1-#10 were before 1980, #11-14 are former Handy Andy stores, #15-#49 were all progressing through the 1980s, #50-62 were all early 1990s stores (New Generation stores and/or stores that did really badly and closed within a few years), #63-65 were former AppleTree stores, and the ones heading into the 70s were late 1990s ones before Safeway bought them and switched the numbering system.

A while back, I started researching old Randalls locations more closely. It's fascinating...some really questionable locations in their history (mostly early 1990s--did you know that there was a Fiesta near FM 1960 and US-59 that Randalls bought but only ran for a few years?) but the mystery of Randalls #1 is still out there. Randalls began with renaming two Minimax stores with a third opening off Katy Freeway soon after (unsurprisingly, none operate as grocery stores today). From at least 1974 as per city directory to shortly after 2001, Randalls #1 was at 11071 Northwest Freeway. Problem was, Randalls did not recycle store numbers, but the strip center there did not exist in 1966 (the freeway definitely didn't, and it faces NW Freeway, not Hempstead Hwy.). An old article mentions it was really at "43rd and Mangum", which I think they meant 34th and Mangum, and there is indeed a small grocery store there. HCAD is no help here, but if my calculations are correct, was there actually a Minimax here prior to 1966 and a Randalls for a few years afterward?

I'm sure 290 wouldn't be an issue if they had right of way ready to go from day one. Or if they didn't have to rebuild the entire highway as part of the project. Or if while doing that they also had to keep 7 lanes or so open for the freeway. Or if the highway was sunken and they didn't have to build new overpasses. Or if.........you see where I'm going, right?

lol you're giving Critical Mass way too much credit

Critical Mass is scheduled regularly and has police escorts, and supporters of Critical Mass would claim that they're trying to raise bicycle awareness on the roads (you know, share the road and all) and bike at a normal speed, and not "I specifically aim to be an asshole to antagonize others into doing what I want", which is what you seem to be suggesting. Secondly, bicycling has gotten a better reputation and even in areas that don't have Critical Mass (like, say, College Station-Bryan) bicycling improvements have gotten much better. Correlation doesn't equal causation, bud.

Even with the toll roads, there are plenty of ways to get around town. When visiting friends in Pearland from the northwest, I take 290 straight toward 610, work counter-clockwise, then go south on 288. It's less mileage too I believe. Back when I lacked a tolltag and didn't have enough change, I also went from Bellaire toward 290 on the Beltway. There were maybe 15 lights and traffic was bad, but it was just as bad on the tollway too (it was a Friday afternoon). When I lived in Spring Branch, exiting Gessner was just as fast, and the times I went meant very little traffic on it (heck, it wasn't even four lanes near Hempstead Hwy. even 10 years ago). Point is, for a vast majority of what you're trying to do, there are ways to avoid tolls without destroying your commute. I dare say that if you mentioned your neighborhood and your work, we would probably point out that you don't pay tolls at all, but then get lectured because it's the "principle" of it.

Right, because they're the Tolluminati. It is part of the Harris County Public Infrastructure Department. Link. Not every governmental agency has a .gov. They're not converting existing roads into tolled roads. What you're thinking about is the non-limited-access highways getting tolled limited access roads, which doesn't apply here. As they say, put up or shut up, because that's completely irrelevant to your rage against HCTRA.

You know, that previous response about not believing anything from official government sources was supposed to be a joke, but now I'm not so sure. Also Change.org petitions are almost always implausible (at worst) or wishful thinking (at best). If those things actually worked, then I think there would be heated arguments over which season of Firefly was the best.

I'm curious as to what your solution is to building free roadways without the obvious solution of raising taxes. Redirecting money out of oversized ISD budgets could almost (probably) work, but public resistance is going to be really hard against that.

Of course there's not "zero room to assume" (why do YOU assume otherwise?), and there IS oversight and public interest, so if you don't like what newspapers tell you, just specifically request an Open Records Act inquiry about where that money is going. Open a text editor or get out a piece of paper that says something like "Dear HCTRA, I am concerned about the amount of money going into toll road projects, per the Texas Public Information Act of 1973, I am requesting further budget information on where the surplus of HCTRA's budget is going, whether it is toll road projects like the 249 tollway and the Grand Parkway, or non-toll projects... ...Signed, Vinyard Vincent III" (or whatever your real name is) and send it off.

The HCTRA is a division of the Harris County Public Infrastructure Department so I would assume that a real budget summary could be acquired through the Texas Open Records Act, so if you were truly convinced that HCTRA is up to something shifty, you can try to write to HCTRA asking about the budget and be sure to mention the law. No guarantees it will work (they'll at least mail you a denial if nothing else), but you might find your answers that way.

The express lanes were originally designed to be free, as per Houston Freeways. Remember, 288 was the very last urban freeway TxDOT was able to do until budget restraints and environmental overhead put the nails in the coffin of highways of that magnitude. I'm not sure when it was switched over from "free future planned" to "toll future planned" though I would say there's an 85% chance it happened under the Perry Administration.

http://www.chron.com/business/real-estate/article/Randalls-to-expand-Midtown-store-7378514.php

Highways are expensive, it costs about $4 million per mile to widen a 4 lane highway to a 6 lane highway (on average), and besides, different funding means different rules. Besides, can you imagine anyone seriously trying to suggest money be redirected out of Katy ISD and toward the highway fund? People are going to go berserk!

Does COH have a page where you can look at PDFs/TIFFs of new development plans? I'd love to see a plan (or a picture, if anyone's in the area) of the "green wall" they're proposing (or have already built?) for the Midtown Randalls store.

It looks like Beall Village (now downsized) is a completely different property with its original name and address. I thought it would just be remodeled into the standards presented by the new Campus Vue buildings.