livincinco

I'm guessing that there will be a gift shop attached to the new tourist center opening across from Minute Maid.

Abandoned properties that attract vagrants and an abundance of surface parking lots have hindered development in a section of southeastern downtown, a study released Thursday concluded. Good thing that a study was completed to determine that. I never would have suspected that could be possible.

I think that they would need to increase the hours of operation before they do that.

Hopefully Midway can do the same thing to Green street.

This is dead. Simon has no plans to develop a mall on the location and the land is up for sale.

I agree. Trolleys are great for a tourist situation like Galveston. It adds character and let's people experience something that they don't get to do everyday. I really hope that Galveston can get going again. They seemed like they really had a lot of momentum when Ike hit and they've just got back to that place.

I really like the fact that this kind of art is springing up around town. One of the things that I love about Houston is the sense of self that is developing. In my opinion, this is becoming a great city because it isn't trying to imitate other cities. More and more, we're striking our own path.

I think that the hotel was probably a non-factor for the restaurant. The biggest draw for the restaurant was that it was authentic and strict vegetarian. The rent was probably cheap, so it made sense. I really never gave the hotel more than a passing glance when I went there. Of course, I only went for lunch, so I can't speak to what it was like at night.

Really not sure why it is considered such a stretch that people would consider personal point-to-point transit preferable to mass transit.

I'd be very curious to see proposed ridership numbers for a Houston-Galveston train. The population of Galveston is less than 50,000 people. I don't know what the statistics are on how many of them are actually commuters to Houston, but I'm guessing that it's a reasonably small number.

It was attached, but you really didn't interact with the hotel to go to the restaurant. I don't know what the relationship was, but you're right, it does seem kind of strange in retrospect.

Its really just marketing. They were able to drive a lot of publicity to the center for probably a reasonably low cost with the added benefit of using this as a way to portray that it's going to be "different". It may not last long, but it should have a bigger impact than a bunch of 30 second TV spots.

Actually, you probably really wouldn't want this building in Midtown. My guess is that this is will predominantly be overseas owners who won't actually reside in the building. It wouldn't do anything to add to the general density and character of that area.

If they make that pool in the shape of Texas, then they'll really be onto something!

Amazing what a strong economy can do.

Grimaldi's is scheduled to open Monday, but I think that they are doing staff training. Wouldn't be surprised at all if they soft open this weekend. I agree with you on both Pronto and Cafe Express. I think both of them would do big business out here. I'm really surprised that more of the local chains haven't moved out here after the success that companies like Mission Burrito and Black Walnut have had.

Are you implying that the laws of supply and demand actually work in the free market? What a concept!

The restaurant was actually called Bhojan and it was quite good, I ate there a number of times. Musicman is correct though, this was a pretty rundown motel that had a lot of long term residents.

It was really just a joke about the general perception of hipsters being too cool to like anything. I'm familiar with Gonzo247 and agree that he does some very cool stuff.

That's actually really bad wording. Art aficionados and downtown hipsters are way to aloof to go to a corporate sponsored event. It isn't "authentic" enough.

That's a by-product of the pricing, not the construction. Besides, the difference in wear and tear between big and small cars is really not the issue. Commercial trucks cause a much higher percentage of the damage to roads. See below quote: The weight limit for nearly all interstate highways is 40 tons. According to a government study, one 40-ton truck does as much damage to the road as 9,600 cars.

Texas' utilization of private partnerships for toll road construction has been a pretty effective way to limit costs for highway construction.

Nothing personal, but you can't compare the density of Manhattan, San Francisco, and the Inner Loop. Manhattan - 1.58 million people in 23 square miles San Francisco - 815 thousand people in 47 square miles Inner Loop - 490 thousand people in 93 square miles Given those numbers, I don't think that the land constraints are really that severe yet. Land prices are reflecting increasing density, but keep in mind that the current density of Midtown per sq mile is only about half of the density of the entire city of San Francisco per sq mile. Look, I'm not trying to be a hater. I'm just pointing out that I think that Houston is continuing to develop in the same manner that it has developed in the recent past. I just don't think that there's a mass rush to urbanization happening. The inner loop will continue to get somewhat more dense as the city's population grows and the suburbs will continue to expand in multiple directions as they absorb the majority of the newcomers.

Agree that it's worth noting, but let's say that over the next ten years all numbers stay consistent and Houston draws another 600k or so people. Even if the optimistic number of 40k moving inside the loop triples to 120k, that still means that only 20% of the population is going there with the balance 80% moving outside. The other factor to consider is economics. The more people that do move inside the loop, the higher it will drive housing prices because of the finite amount of land (which we're seeing already). That will cause the suburbs to look more attractive to a number of people because of the relative value in those properties and will start to shift things back. This is no different than what happens anywhere else in the country. Take SF which is the poster child for most urban planners. The population of the city is only about 800k, and the population of the CSA is over 7 million and that's even considering that SF has a reasonably unique geography that makes certain areas much more desirable.

The numbers just don't support that.