IronTiger

The freight line is a non-issue, it's just a really long spur, and if GSC is still going to move (at least before C&S anyway) then it will probably no longer cross Holcombe or OST...not with trains anyway.

They're not widening the freeways for extra chump change, that's for sure, although when 288 was planned, those were to be free express lanes. Anyway, the reason they can't build a light rail to Pearland (even if TxDOT was entirely up to the idea) is that Pearland is outside Harris County, meaning that in terms of funding Brazoria County would have to come up with a way of funding any sort of joint project (at best, good luck getting that county on voting for it), or Pearland literally gets a free ride in terms of rail. (There was a thread about two years ago on this topic I think, plus see page 1 of this topic). Plus, even if things did work out in terms of funding and a commuter rail-type light rail was being laid down 288, then this quote could just as easily apply to that rail system.

I know the Katy Tollway features similar "left hand exits", but in a way they're more like a smooth lane change and less like requiring you to merge in with the fast lane. Yeah, I know, I hate to see that median space go, but that may just be nostalgia. Either way, it sure is nice to have the 288/610 interchange finally make more sense.

That was the one I was thinking of.

There is a whole blog out there focused on LGBT Houston history. I have forgotten the name of it but it sounds like what you are looking for. From what I've seen, it has great shots of Westheimer from the '70s.

You can't buy stock in H-E-B, but yes, I think they are the biggest grocer in Texas (besides Walmart). H-E-B's stores number about 370, though I don't know if that includes the Mexico stores are not (there are 50). Kroger comes in second with 320 stores in the former SW division (including a handful of stores in Louisiana), while the Albertsons total (scraping together United, Randalls, Tom Thumb, and the legacy Albertsons stores) come out to a bit over 200.

Looks like through old directories, they were the Bayou DeVille Apartments, and the Houston Town & Country Apartments were on the other side of the bayou (I know I've wondered about them before). That or I've got the two mixed up.

It is a bit sad that HAIF has subscribed to groupthink that often plagues large forums, a majority opinion is formed, and that becomes "enforced" as dissenters are ganged up on and eventually driven out.

I haven't had my coffee yet, but the official website says that there will be "plenty of overpasses and underpasses to keep people moving". I don't see anything on the official website that says it will be elevated the entire way. "Texas Central will work closely with landowners and communities on ways to safeguard their ability to farm, ranch, commute and generally go about their lives. We are committed to finding land-use solutions that work for everyone," implies that they would want as few elevated/depressed areas as possible, which makes good business sense but is a far cry from being elevated the entire way. I'm also thinking that the 100' right of way is *not* the maximum but the minimum. They go on talking about how it will try to share space with power/other transportation right of ways, but they also say that "can be deployed with a very narrow footprint (approximately 100 ft. wide), including security fencing". The Project page also says.... THOUGHTFULLY DESIGNED ABOUT 100 FEET That’s the width of the Texas Central track, about the size of an average Farm to Market road. The track will run along existing rights-of-way... ///// They refer to that as the "width of the track" not "width of the right of way" or "width of the easement". I can assume that the "width of the track" is something as pictured on their website in what I presume is Europe through otherwise unpopulated farmland, and not a single train being 100 feet wide (or something). But still, why that? Either Texas Central is getting "right of way" and "width of the actual system" confused or they're deliberately skewing numbers to make it look like they'll need less land than they actually do. Either scenario is disingenuous.

It was also known as the Camelot Inn at one point in time, and also at one time had three restaurants (or at least that's what the Chron said) operating inside of it. After it was torn down it was sold to Venture, who intended to build a discount store on the site (but they never did). The car dealership came later (I don't think the car dealership is a converted Venture).

You can't build anything on a pipeline easement but you can access it and use it like anything else. Drive on it, let cattle go free on it, let grass grow on it, with the only caveat that there's no permanent structures on it and whoever owns can do tree trimming (or whatever) for maintenance. But we're not talking a clear-cut area with some power poles above or flags marking a buried pipeline, we're talking about basically a permanent no-go area 100 feet wide at the very least. The same applies to highways.

Doi, didn't read (from the article) [due to the quoting system, only the first paragraph is actually the quote and I'm sorry for the vertical floating link]

Eminent domain is fairly easy to get in Texas. In the late 1990s (pre Kelo), North Star Mall took out a small (non-blighted, at least originally...they may have declared it blighted) neighborhood for an expansion of their premises, and Cowboys Stadium (post Kelo) also used eminent domain to get rid of holdouts on the property they wanted to acquire. Googling shows that there's no eminent domain laws passed in Texas as a reaction to Kelo. http://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/article3874791.html http://ij.org/action-post/foul-ball-ten-cities-that-used-eminent-domain-for-sports-stadiums/

I'm convinced that the TCR is a long-range con game. When it was first announced they swore up and down it was all privately funded, and now they're asking for state-enforced eminent domain, which bodes poorly for non-governmental involvement. Under the 2005 SC ruling in Kelo vs. City of New London, private property can be taken for eminent domain if it benefits the public somehow (new jobs, economic uplifting, etc.) but that was very controversial on both sides and several states (both red and blue) enacted local laws attempting to limit it. A train could be argued in favor of that, though in areas it will simply run through wouldn't benefit from that, as stations would be miles away and cost a significant amount of money. Highways would work as well because they are accessible to others and do benefit the surrounding area. The Keystone pipeline is a stupid comparison because it takes up even less right of way than rail (which was brought up in the Highway 249 topic) and is an easement, meaning that you can still use land as you normally would but the company has access to maintain it just as any other utility right of way. TCR could argue eminent domain, take a massive chunk of property through legal if unethical means, not build the railroad, and sell off the land (in Kelo vs. City of New London, the developer did go bankrupt before anything was actually built). TCR hasn't revealed a business plan how it's going to operate, how much tickets would cost, or how it's going to be profitable.

As I recall, the SW Houston deterioration, especially regarding Gulfton, was because they built cheap, dense apartments for well-paid yuppies in the oil industry, and that was fine and good, but then the oil crisis happened, the well-paying jobs disappeared, and the resulting apartment glut led to below-average rents and below-average renters.

Price Busters confirmed but I don't know when it closed.

The interesting thing is that the "Kittens" were not the only literal "junior" high school mascot (the actual high school's team was the Tigers, and ultimately the Kittens became the less-laughable "Cubs"), the newspaper also references "Bullpups" (Bulldogs). If we are going to use "stock mascot names", then the junior high school team should reflect that. If KISD's new high school picks Hurricanes, then the middle school team will be the Tropical Depressions.

I guess this will mean the end of the Scott Street/OST store when it opens knowing H-E-B's penchant for closing older stores (even multiple stores) when a newer one opens. By the way, what used to be here? The current site shows an abandoned, curvier road north of the current North MacGregor Way, and prior to 288, that was all homes (c. 1953), but after 288 started construction (c. 1978), it was some sort of building complex I'm unable the ascertain the use of (seems a bit too dense for apartments, guessing offices or educational use). By 1989, it was torn down to just some foundations, and that's the current state of it.

Fun fact: many years before my time, my junior high school's mascot name was the Kittens, and not just the cheerleaders, the football team! http://hold.cstx.gov/ProjectHOLD/DocView.aspx?id=463382&searchid=a7e7dcb3-21e3-47e3-89f1-cabd22d26ef2&dbid=0 Yeah, I know it's not a high school mascot per se, but no one would be caught dead with these sorts of names today.

Most of the H-E-B stores are pretty terrible in the exterior visuals department, often yellow boxes or something even tackier. The only ones that are notably not terrible are Tanglewood and Montrose (and the interior of those stores is nothing to write home about) as well as a few tasteful brick affairs that were courtesy of Albertsons.

The only teams that would have anything to fear would be terms related to ethnic groups or slurs (Cotton Pickers, Arabs, Coons, Redskins, etc.) Animals won't have that problem unless we get to a point where certain types of people are saying "Your 'Wally the Wolf' mascot is offensive to me and my fellow wolfkin, please change it or we sue," and at that point, then we've got bigger problems. I'm not saying they should pick something as wacky as possible to screw with the "mascot establishment" ("Fight! Bite! Don't play nice! [something] High School Pubic Lice!") but all of the "stock" choices just seem so overused.

Ignoring any meme magic, why can't people pick actually interesting mascot names? Seems like there's a limited number of "stock mascot names" with the only unusual ones occurring in small Texas towns (Kangaroos, Hornets, Unicorns, Sand Crabs, etc.) Is it just a matter of "We can't get a mascot costume for it"?

iPhone 4S running iOS 6. It's pretty old, I can't play Pokémon Go even if I wanted to. Thing is, it didn't behave like that until a few months ago.

To add to that, according to my newly-restored access to the Chron archives, in 1986, Circle K bought a number of NCS stores, but not the whole company. It does not say if any were converted in Houston, likely not due NCS being located in Houston and avoiding any antitrust issues. This would be the first of many times the two crossed paths. The same year, Circle K also started doing video rentals (a poster advertising such a service can be seen in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Also of note is a real estate brief of Circle K buying land for building a new store at the corner of Sommerall and FM 529, which is now a Valero Corner Store, which means that Circle K will return to that space. The reason NCS was having problems was mostly the recession. A 1987 article mentioned that "[NCS]'s primary customers have always been young, blue-collar males," but surprisingly, in 1987, they purchased all 270 7-Eleven stores in Houston, putting the company in first place in convenience stores. (As an aside, the 7-Eleven stores in College Station-Bryan continued on for a few more years before being sold to E-Z Mart sometime in the very early 1990s, but by 1988 new construction on 7-Eleven stores had pretty much ground to a halt, while NCS purchased most of the San Antonio stores in 1988 as well). When 1990 rolled around, NCS was trying to go upscale... ...but Circle K was filing for bankruptcy, despite being second place with 141 stores in Houston (down from a peak of 250 in the mid-1980s). Circle K had been under fire, with a lawsuit still hanging over them from unjust firing of Asian employees and an unpopular policy of removing healthcare involving "personal lifestyle choices" (health problems from AIDS, alcohol, drugs, etc.) In August 1990, Circle K began to close stores. It would only get worse for Circle K, and in 1991, Circle K announced it would get rid of 1,500 stores out of 3,700 outlets...comprising 40% of its outlets. While Dallas, Waco, and San Antonio would no longer have a Circle K, Houston kept their Circle K stores. Meanwhile, NCS was struggling under the weight of 7-Eleven and filed Chapter 11 in December 1991. Reports of a few closed stores came in, though officially NCS didn't close any. In 1992, Circle K was bought by investors under the name "CK Acquisitions", predominantly owned by Investcorp, which owned Saks Fifth Avenue and other luxury brands at the time, and NCS exited bankruptcy protection. In February 1994, Circle K and NCS agreed to a store swap where Circle K bought some NCS stores in the West Coast and Circle K sold their stores to NCS. Now former Circle K and 7-Eleven stores were under one banner. But by that time that happened, Circle K stores had numbered to only 68 in Houston. The Chron mentioned that Circle K "still will have 272 stores in Texas, principally in San Angelo, McAllen, El Paso, San Antonio, Austin and Laredo." (which is weird since another article says they pulled out of San Antonio in 1991). With the economic upturn, both chains were doing okay in the mid-1990s, and in 1995, Circle K made a $200M for NCS, which NCS turned down but Circle K kept on. The same year, NCS introduced a new logo for Stop N Go (now just "S n G"). With Circle K not letting go, NCS was forced to look for other suitors. In November 1995, they accepted a purchase by San Antonio-based Diamond Shamrock (I believe this rebranded a lot of Citgo stores, which 7-Eleven had paired with, since they owned 50% of the company at one time). Meanwhile, Circle K was bought by Tosco, lost a discrimination lawsuit that involved firing more Vietnamese workers in 1992, and would go on to do other things, just not in Houston. Tosco was sold to Philips Petroleum in 2001, and that became ConocoPhilips in 2002, with Circle K being sold to Canadian-based Alimentation Couche-Tard soon after. As an aside, I'm guessing that the "Knockoff K" stores originated in the early 1990s when Circle K was shedding stores but before they sold to NCS. So with Circle K now officially out of the picture for now, in 1996, Diamond Shamrock (which became Ultramar Diamond Shamrock due to a merger that year) was operating Stop N Go and their own Corner Store brand, which had been in Houston at least since 1992. In 2001, Ultramar Diamond Shamrock was purchased by Valero Energy Corporation, which announced in 2005 it would phase out the Diamond Shamrock name. I'm not sure when the Stop N Go name was taken off stores in favor of Corner Store (which Valero kept). In May 2013, Valero spun off Corner Store as "CST Brands", which must have had some sort of contract with Valero since that's what most Valero stores were paired with and I've only seen one Corner Store that wasn't with a Valero (a Shell in Georgetown, TX). In August 2016, Alimentation Couche-Tard announced it would purchase CST Brands and rebrand the stores as Circle K, which means that ultimately Circle K did win out against NCS and its successors, and WILL take some legacy ex-Circle K stores back. Go figure, eh?

From indications on this thread, H-E-B won't consider building until that part of the Heights goes wet, and that would need the signatures and a slot on an election time. I wouldn't be surprised if they bought the land and will squat on it until they get what they want, though.