marmer

Looks like they had coffee parking and a shop garage.

Thanks, ed. This is slightly off-topic, but I've been wondering when the world was going to wake up to the carbon emissions and fossil fuel use of the aviation industry. They don't have a good "electric" or "hybrid" or "fuel cell" alternative, either.

Maryland Manor used to be a dump, but a fairly cheap dump. Yes, lots of Rice students used to live there. It was extensively remodeled in the mid-90s, seems to be pretty nice now. I would not assume for a moment that those people who live there now, probably grad students, med students, and middle-income-ish retail and office workers, will be able to find 67 similar units in the area. I could be wrong, but I bet I'm not. But, hey, go ahead and tear down a perfectly decent, up-to-date, highly occupied apartment complex, and build something that might not get financing, might not find tenants, and almost no one in the area really wants. That's what property rights at all costs, with a side order of urban density, really means!

For the purposes of this discussion, it may not be a significant numerical difference, but I've gotta point out: Maryland Manor serves a lot of Rice students who walk, bicycle, or ride scooters to campus. I'd be willing to bet that every one of the likely residents of the Ashby high-rise will drive to and from work.

Um. Yes. Thanks, crunch!

The only thing I found on myspace.com was a guy who reposted Manda Clair Jost's (the architect's daughter) MOJO Relic YouTube video. The only recent pics are the ones by Narrow Larry mentioned in the Houston Press article in July. Posted earlier by sheeats

Very sad. Glad to hear the Civic Club has a plan, though.

This set is the "bane" of my existence. Something from the Wizard of Oz, maybe?

Oh, sheeats, you are such a tease!

I don't know if it's still there but HMNS used to have a Corliss steam engine that was used in the early days to generate power at Rice. Given that and the tall smokestack on the Power House, I can't imagine that they used anything but coal. Admittedly, the petition from President Lovett, quoted by sevfiv in post #2, speaks more to construction than to coal.

Rest in peace, Mr. Horwitz. A great Houstonian and a great man.

Yes, exactly. We (the orchestra) played Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien and the fireworks artist was in contact with the various "firing stations" by radio or more likely wired intercom. I don't remember if he had a cue person following the score, but I think he did. Anyway, in time with the music, he would call commands like "Venti due.......GO!" It was very cool. It was at a planning meeting for this event that Dancie Perugini Ware greeted my arrival by throwing a chocolate truffle at me, which hit my jacket with a very surprising "splat!" Sort of a chocolate paintball, I guess. She paid for my dry cleaning and sent a box of truffles to my office. Classy lady, classy firm.

I had a bag phone from Houston Cellular, too. It was a Christmas gift from my wife, probably '89, '90 or so. It was pretty expensive at the time. Don't remember what the minute charge was, either. Expensive enough that it was pretty much only for emergencies. Edit: I don't remember the Continental flyover, and I was there. But I had a thousand things to worry about with the orchestra, and that may have been earlier in the day.

Yes, let's not get this thread confused with the equally enjoyable "Back in the '60s when we had an actual culture..." thread. The first time I saw cell phones was at the opening of the GRB convention center in '86 or '87. There was a giant fireworks display created by some Italian fireworks artist and the Rice orchestra played live music for it. Several of the organizers and event staff were walking around with "bag phones" slung over their shoulder, having Very Important Conversations. These phones were about the size of a purse or large hardback book. I wonder what they were paying per minute? I bet it was something like a dollar or something.

I like the Mondrian shirt on the kid in the front row, next to the kid wearing Nantucket red pants. Another one: pretty much all the fun stuff to do was outside. You could go "roaming" or "exploring," even if you were a girl, and no one thought anything of it if you were home in time for dinner. Going to a ballgame or to the movies was a reasonably cheap entertainment choice.

Lake Jackson here. Born 1961. Yes to all of the above with a lot of fishing and motorcycle trail riding thrown in! This isn't maybe so much of a good thing, but many if not most adults smoked. The only real no smoking areas were gas stations and chemical plants. Little kids learned to watch out for cigarettes held down low.

One thing I did a lot if in the 80s was go visit friends in other large cities. I went to Boston and New York and had a very serious job offer from an institution in LA. I was always very glad to get back to Houston. In terms of traffic, cost of living, commute, all that "grownup" stuff, I can promise you that Houston did not suck when compared to the larger East and West Coast cities.

GTO, I have agreed with every one of your posts. In fact, since I was a frequent Theatre District-goer then, I rather enjoyed how un-crowded downtown was. It made event parking and getting into the few Theatre District restaurants very easy. If you stayed with the crowds, it was perfectly safe. The only thing you didn't do is go out to dinner after a show and leave your car in the garage after most people left. I did it twice and had my car broken into both times. On the other hand, I wouldn't be too surprised to have that happen now. So why don't you post some things that you remember that were cool about the 80s?

Of course the buildings are all still there and still very cool, but driving down Louisiana Street to show off the new cool skyscrapers was one of my favorite things to do with out-of-town visitors in the 80s.

Again, yes. You had to be careful but pretty much everywhere I went felt perfectly safe. I was worried about break-ins in my Montrose duplex, but we never had one. I do remember the statistics about murder rates but that didn't seem to be what we worried about then.

Scott, that all sounds good except I would never recommend riding a bicycle on Shepherd at any time of the day or night.

Yes. Exactly. Houston was cheap, fun, and safe. Within reason, of course. And there were way more quirky clubs/bars/restaurants/shops than there are in today's over-developed mass market national brand sprawl.

Yes, Cricket's is a good stop. Beware of the mean old lady in the antique store next door. She will come out and yell at you if you leave your bike on the sidewalk or in front of her store. I agree with everything sunsets posted here, and wish you great joy of your ride. The Houston Bicycle Club has a couple of weekend rides, the EZ Ride and the Houston Sans Car, which sound very much like what you are describing. I would suggest looking carefully at the big bikeways map kylejack suggested. There are a lot of places where bike routes parallel a heavily traveled street one or two streets over where there is little traffic. It's the kind of thing you don't really notice when driving a car but if you seek them out you can happily ride in greatly reduced traffic. I also suggest doing what the clubs do and start early in the morning. You will have a LOT less traffic and it will be somewhat cooler. If you don't want to ride on Waugh, take W. Dallas into the western part of downtown (past the Beth Israel Cemetery and Founder's Cemetery), cross the bayou near Sesquicentennial Park at the Wortham Center, and take either Washington or the Eleanor Tinsley Park bike path back over to Heights. Washington is a straighter shot.

I very nearly put One's A Meal in my list. I thought about House of Pies, but it's still here and mostly unchanged. Jamail's Grocery next to House of Pies would have been a good one, but I had only ten. By the way, I like your list. Rendezvous Houston was really cool, for one.