wernicke

I am a dog owner living in Midtown... I would say I pick my dog's mess up about 90% of the time... but sometimes it is either small (my dog is small) or the location is hidden and I will just let it lie.

I think only about 50% or less of my dog-owning colleagues do the same. There are massive piles of *hit laying in highly conspicuous locations at all times. It is quite annoying, especially as someone who generally cleans up after my own dog, so I hear where you guys are coming from.

I particularly get annoyed by the large dog owners who think it is fine to leave a truly gigantic load sitting in or near a walk way.

Newspapers seem to be screwed as a whole... only the large "national" newspapers will survive in their current state: NYTimes, WSJ, USAT, WashPost.

Talks currently of more large lay-offs at the Chronicle.

I gotta admit, the near-finished crown is looking better than I expected...

The pinstripes on the glass look nice. I still think the "spikes" or whatever look quite strange and robotic.

Maybe HAIF could get a corporate pad and throw weekly parties...

Seriously though, this place looks awesome... The amenities are top notch. I wonder what percent of the 346 units will be "corporate"?

Pretty cool... what kind of camera do you shoot with, editor?

FYI: No free internet at Books-a-Million.

Found this GRB green fact sheet.

This blog indicates the initial panels would only supply 1% of GRB's power, with plans to expand the project to provide up to 20% in the future.

It still does not translate to what the currently use to show the percentage reduction in grid power consumption. I would think that would be fairly easy to broadcast.

Just read the BMW dealership's "solar roof" would supply 37000 kilowatts per hour annually, or 18% of the buildings energy consumption... maybe the proportion will be similar for GRB.

If you have time, here is a very interesting investigative piece on how Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis have basically mismanaged McCain '08.

If anyone has found themselves asking "What happened to John McCain?" (like me), you will find some of the answers in the article. Much of the blame, it seems to me, falls on McCain's choice of Steve Schmidt to run his campaign.

Among other poor strategic decisions, the Palin choice seems to have been solely Schmidt's idea. Can you imagine where we would be if it were McCain-Bloomberg?

McCain should have stuck with Mike Murphy, a Republican strategist who seems to be intelligent and have a conscience.

I much preferred the blue...

Good for the city... let's hope White's successor continues these green policies.

I think pursuing alternative energy reflects very well on the oil/gas/energy capital of the US... we're not all about burning fossil fuels down here even though oil and gas built this city.

Anyone know if there is free Wi-Fi in Books-a-Million? I got off early and was thinking about heading over there.

In a medical sense, addiction generally refers to chronic use of a substance of abuse that leads to increased tolerance and withdrawal symptoms when discontinued.

In a psychological sense, I think people promote the use of the term "addiction" to describe an emotional or obsessive dependence that interferes with normal functioning... sex, porn, gambling, religion, HAIF. In a medical sense, I don't think this term is entirely accurate. "Disorder" maybe.

More so, I think only if the dependence is actually interfering with an individual's daily functioning (i.e. not claiming a "sex addiction" after being caught hiding multiple affairs, but rather skipping multiple days of work to sit around and watch porn all day) should the term "disorder" be used.

Well you claim to want to exclude partisan politics, then make a patently false statement about what the Democrats have proposed regarding healthcare... "Pros and Cons of a Socialized Medical System as the Democrats are always claiming they will deliver."

I'm not exactly sure what you are talking about. Obama wants to expand employer-based coverage (private insurance), and utilize government-based coverage if a citizen cannot get health insurance through a provider.

No one ever talks about implementing socialized medicine (certainly not Obama or mainstream Democrats)... which would involve the US government dissolving the entire private health insurance industry in favor of a single-payor system. This simply would never happen in the US, so you are essentially building up a Straw Man to beat down on this issue.

Fire Station 33 is still standing and vacant - I like that building, but is has been neglected for four years now. The new #33 is a block south on Fannin on the opposite side of the street:

I believe this fire station (at Fannin and Braeswood) has been acquired by whoever runs/owns the Lanesborough apartments adjacent to the very large empty lot it sits on. This is a very large tract of land that seems prime for development... maybe someone knows something specific about plans for the site?

Also, the Valero at Fannin and Braeswood has been torn down... empty lot now, up for sale.

Pretty cool... Hess occupying the entire DT would seem to bode well for approval of new towers.

Oh, and DT is already on the 2nd above-ground level.

Just drove by... they are planting very tall bamboo plants in the beds in the center of the pedestrian walkways... seems like an odd choice. Near HOB, the bamboo plants almost overwhelm the walkway.

I may go back and snap some pictures later today.

Here is the Denver Pavillions directory for comparison.

Evidently they are pursuing Zara and H&M to replace a couple of expiring leases.

A good variety though... I hope HP fills out with quality stores.

As for this studio, I'm not all that confident it'll happen, but I'm for it if it does.

I seriously doubt this studio thing ever happens.

I personally think the Astrodome should come down. Have you guys seen this thing lately? It is in a state of total disrepair, and would require an unreasonable amount of money to refurbish, icon from the 60s or not.

I haven't seen the Camden plan, but if this superblock becomes basically impenetrable for pedestrians it could kill the growth of mixed-use/walkability there. Seems to me you'd want to see all this Camden stuff happening around the block, not in it.

Well that's why I made it real easy and linked the plan in my post above.

Here is the link again.

If you look at the rendering, it has a pedestrian street cut through the center of the development (that would likely lead back to Travis) and mentions a park at the southern edge. Looks pretty pedestrian friendly to me.

A coffee shop that is local and that is NOT Starbucks. I am tired of Starbucks.

It is not local, but a Joe Muggs Cafe/Coffee shop is inside Books-a-million.

Oh, and the Gap sucks.

Here is the HAIF discussion of Camden's proposed plans for the site.

Here is the Ziegler Cooper page with renderings of the proposed development.

While I agree there should be more park space, I would much prefer the development rendered on the Ziegler website for this location... it would be a much more effective and exciting use of the land.

Productivity and real wages will probably increase, but if your justification to build something right now is that we'll be too wealthy in the future to afford it, you might want to rethink that logic.

I'm saying light rail in Houston is an inevitability, whether you like it or not, and that investing now makes a lot more sense than waiting longer (it will undeniably be more expensive the longer we wait).

And while the TMC was expanding previously, the light rail has certainly had an impact. Texas Childrens' just built a 1500+ car garage at the Smithlands stop to provide parking for their massive expansion projects along Fannin. The Methodist Inpatient expansion is massive, undoubtedly these employees will ride the rail. Would a simple bus shuttle from the surface lots that are already full have been feasible to move the tens of thousands of people who have been added to the workforce since 2004? Unlikely without adding significant congestion to a highly congested area.

Unless you have rode on a jam-packed double car train into the TMC during rush hour, I think it is hard to appreciate the rail's impact on mobility in this area.

...yeah, I think that the notion that local governments reliant upon property taxes to make huge capital investments on a totally speculative basis, just hoping for higher property tax revenue as a result, is one of those concepts that needs to go in the thread about antiquated ideas that aren't cool any more.

...same goes for the ridiculous notion that the inflation-adjusted cost of building things is always going to increase.

For the most part, we already have the rights of way (and to the extent that we do not, I would concur that we do need to pre-emptively acquire and preserve it), but we can't force developers to build anything around it (Red Line a good case in point). Therefore we need a policy of 'if they come we will build it'. Not the other way around.

I disagree... since the Red Line, we have seen an outright explosion of development in the TMC (where there is no parking and employees are reliant on rail to get to work), we have seen Houston Pavilions and MainPlace pop up on Main St, citing proximity to rail as a valuable asset, and, although Midtown has not lived up to expectations secondary to speculative land grabs and price gouging, I am quite confident that transit-oriented developments will eventually pop up here (they are proposed at the McGowen and Ensemble/HCC stops). These things take time, particularly with difficult credit markets. You cannot build rail, and expect within 5 years all of these private developments to emerge... these are long-term investments.

And are you saying the cost of metal/materials/labor is not going to increase in the next decade or so, which is the time-frame we are discussing??