HeightsGuy

Well, no one calls San Fransisco the 1849ers or Philadelphia the 1776ers, so give it a week or two and everyone will be calling these guys the 36ers.

Still, it's just ridiculous pulling Cops off their beat to go roust homeless people in some sort of ode to Sisyphus with no tools at their disposal other than telling them to go anywhere other than where they currently were.

It would be just as productive to have cops move rocks from one side of a street to the other.

Sorry, thought the story was from today since the paper listed that it was filed at 1:21 pm on 1/24/06. My bad.

Officers order the homeless to pack up and go

Sure, I'm a bleeding heart liberal, but even the most conservative out there must realize that when you kick homeless people out of one area and don't give them any option besides an order to start walking, all that's going to happen is they are going to show up somewhere else. And when you kick them out of downtown, we all know right where they're headed - to a vacant lot in midtown.

You know, when i was considering moving to Houston in 2004, i have to admit that i was not impressed with Houston Intercontinental AT ALL. I mean, i live about an hour from Denver so i think the world of Denver's Airport, partly because its the newest in the country. When i arrived in terminal A of IAH, i thought, this airport looks like a 1970s style airport. Dallas- Ft. Worth's airport is really nice too, but not as sleek and shiny as Denver's.

Actually, I like terminal A the best. Yes, it has been updated, but you can still see the original stylistic cues in the ceiling of the ticketing area which are unchanged from the original. But when it comes to convenience terminal A smokes the other terminals. I travel a lot for work and usually fly Continental due to all the direct flights they have. When I go to Denver however, I use Frontier which has a gate in terminal A and leaves at 6:30am and returns at 10pm which gives me a whole day there without having to spend the night. Because it's more or less cut off from the rest of the airport, terminal A is like a small airport by itself. Once I park my car in the garage, it takes less than 15 mins to walk from my car, check in, go through security and get to the gate. Try doing that flying Continental when you have to check in at terminal C and walk a half-mile to a gate in terminal E.

I'm laughing like hell because this is the post I would've made if I had the desire to go through the process of typing it. It's almost to the point where I don't even read info on projects anymore to gain information but to watching the frenzy of people picking every nit possible to the point of contradicting a point they made about another project.

The project will be imperfect. I can't think of one that ever comes out perfect. Anywhere. Then again, going back to some other famous nitpicks to be found at HAIF, it may all be a smokescreen, a fraud. It may never even be built.

Which will take some of us back to another old reliable complaint. You know, the one about nothing ever getting built in Houston.

I'd love for this board to be part of a focus group concerning a proposed project. The developer might kill him/herself after a few readings.

Sorry guys, you can't shame me into being on board with this park design. Many of you are architects, you know that it's possible to stuff an oversized L-shaped couch, wet bar, and a 50 in plasma TV into a 10x10 room, but why would you do that? An 8.5 acre downtown park is the public space equivalent to the 10x10 room.

The only, and I mean only, point I am making is that there is too much going on. Less is more, that's all I'm saying.

So as to get off my soapbox and show you what we are potentially missing out on, here is an example of what another city decided to do when they had the chance to build a new downtown park. Seattle in the process of building a brand-new 8.5 acre downtown park along the waterfront. Notice the lack of restaurants and vendor booths in the plan, I know, shocking.....:

Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park

Sure, call it a whatever. It just seems like any time Houston gets a chance to make something great everyone jumps over eachother to try to come up with the brightest, flashiest thing possible when, just as good (or even better) would be a modest take on a proven idea.

When is the last time everyone here went to Tinsley park just to hang out and enjoy the green space on a saturday afternoon?

For me, last weekend with about 1000 others.....

I don't have a general negativity toward this park, I have specific issues with it. First of all is the liberal use of the work "park" here. IMO, the plans for this space have more in common with a Chuckie Cheese than a park. My specific beef with this park is that when it's all said and done, there will be less "green" space on that parcel of land than there is now even when you include the 2 blocks of parking lots.

Exhibit #1:

Site activity plan for the new park

An 11 acre park with 10 distinct areas, one of which is a 2 acre pond. The only thing this park is missing is a ferris wheel. Tilman Fertitta would be proud. Don't people know by now that trying to be all things to all people usually ends up being a mess?

I agree, I have never understood the whole heat thing. It gets just as hot in NYC on a given summer day as it does here, only difference being that it's August when that occurs, not necessarily April or October.

On the flipside, in Boston, Chicago, and other northern cities, the temp can dip below 0 degrees on occasion, and can stay below freezing for weeks on end. I don't think they have built extended tunnel systems in Boston to get them out of the cold.

If you've ever read any of the articles that were written before Millennium Park opened, the same criticism ran rampant. Now where are those articles?

Yes, the money could go to infant orphans in Afghanistan in need of prenatal care, but it won't. This park will be a HUGE asset to downtown's revitalization and should be welcomed.

OK, then tell me the last time you hung out in Millennium Park? After all the publicity dies down, the only people that use Millenium Park are people who work on blocks surrounding it. It's so broken up it's more a maze than a park. Same goes for Jones plaza. Jones Plaza doesn't look like a park or a plaza, it looks like an over-designed monument, which is exactly what I am forecasting for the new park. I saw that there are a bunch of rich socailites on the board of the new park. My money says they're going to want to impress all their friends with the amount of money they raise and all the crap they can stuff in the new park.

Here's a crazy design for the new park, plant as much grass as you can fit on the land with enough trees to provide shade in parts while leaving open areas for congregating. Add a couple large pieces of outdoor art and you have a simple, elegantly designed green space for people to enjoy, not some over-designed "legacy" to a socialite's fundraising ability.

I don't know if replying to my own reply is against the rules, but I had another thought occur to me on this subject. It seems ironic that in posting after posting on this site, everyone complains about the lack of urban-style development and growth in the center city, but when something does happen everyone complains about the type of development that is taking place.. It seems that we can't have it both ways; either we leave lots of open green space and put up with the resulting sprawl or we go dense with urban walking environments by building vertical and digging underground to conserve space.

Houston is getting bigger by the day and it

Has anyone considered that citykid09 may in fact be Nancy Sarnoff?

Lots of Texas Artists like Pat Green, Robert Earl Keen and Cory Morrow. I like it.

True, but the stands were half empty which me some loss of revenue.

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I'm going to pull a Semipro on this comment. I don't think Young will do welll in the NFL - he will be like a Cordell Stewart. This guy is nothing compared to Michael Vick or Cullpepper.

Tool, you're not pulling a Semipro, you're actually saying something pretty close to the truth. Vince is a winner, but as a pro QB it's a gutsy call to pick him. I don't think he will have the passing ability for the NFL without extensive work with a QB guru. He can run better than any current pro QB (even you Vick), but the passing stuff he gets away with in college would lead to an average of 2 INT's a game in the pros. He would have to be taught the pro game first before you could even give him a good evaluation as to whether he could handle it. The Texans don't need another project right now, especially at the QB position. That said, his potential is off the charts.

Absolutely right. The Texans have few problems running the ball, if they had Bush in the backfield he would have been awesome. He also would probably have taken some pressure off of Carr which in turn would have made for a much better season.

I don't think Semipro is thinking this through.

I would upgrade that "probably have taken some pressure off" to "definitely have taken some pressure off".

What Semipro fails to realize is that a RB of Bush's caliber upgrades the line by himself. With Bush in the backfield, any defense we face will be forced to key at least one linebacker on him on every play no matter what else happens. That alone buys Carr at least .5 seconds on every pass play. In the NFL a half-second can seem like an eternity. And with Bush in the backfield during running opportunuties, linebackers will be loath to shoot the gaps on us like they do now with the threat of Bush cutting it to the outside. CB's are going to hate to play against us as they will be doing a lot of the tackling with him in the game.

Yeah, one person can't turn around an offense, but Bush can bring a lot more to the table than a low 1st rounder and a couple of 2nd round picks which is about what we would get for him on draft day. The last coach to give up a draft day for a player (ditka - Ricky Williams) was run out of town the next year. Even a draft pick like Bush is not going to get us as many extra draft picks in a trade as you think it will.

Went to Shade for New Year's Eve dinner and noticed a Thai Spice sign on the corner of 19th and Nicholson across from Collina's. I have never eaten there, does anyone have an opinion?

I think Davis will still be the starter, cause Reggie is a rookie and he have to learn the ropes in the NFL. Now, since there will be a new Head Coach, the Texans needs a playbook that will put both Reggie and Davis on the field at once. Trading Davis is out the question.

What ropes does a running back need to learn pray tell? Besides knowing blocking assignments in pass situations, all a running back needs to do is run the ball. Running Back is one of the easiest positions in Football. The skills required of a running back are mostly individual oriented, not team oriented. 1st pick running backs usually have the individual skills hammered down or they wouldn't be drafted 1st in the first place. I will however agree with you on trading Davis. You should never trade decent running backs no matter how deep you are in the position. The Oilers did quite well in 1988 with Highsmith, White, Pinkett and Rozier crowding the backfield. If the Texans trade anyone it will be Morency only because he's still a relative unknown.

All this hype about this runningback, Reggie Bush. When his butt get's here in Houston next year, watch he get's hurt, cause he gonna try to impress everybody around him.

Beleive me what I tell ya. Davis will be the starting back for next year, while Bush on the sidelines just like this other runningback, Tony Hollings.

That's a very mean thing to say. Since you are in a minority in Houston (minority=people who don't want Reggie Bush) are you really hoping he gets hurt so you can tell everyone you told us so??????

Here's a question for all those who don't want Bush. A lot of knowledgeable people out there are saying Bush is one-of-a-kind, that he is going to be one of the great running backs of our generation. Usually, I scoff at such talk when it comes from a few scouts, but a LOT of scouts are saying this. So the question is, do any of you want to be known as the team that passed up a OJ/Campbell/Dorsett/Payton/Sanders/Smith for a left tackle?

Different sport, but does anyone remember the 1984 NBA draft. Portland needed a center, so they passed up Michael Jordan and picked Sam Bowie. It's 22 years later and Portland still carries shame over this move.

The article makes a great point about being more than "just" a stadium. You put this thing in downtown, and it will become just as bad as Reliant with 20-30 events a year tops. Make it low-tech and low-maintenance so it doesn't cost much to open the doors for an event, surround it with 10-12 soccer fields, and you have built-in chances at hosting regional soccer tournaments as well as the ability to establish city-wide soccer leagues. Kids fly all over the country to go to these things, and we have a golden opportunity to create one in our backyard. That's an opportunity to get visitors to Houston that wouldn't necessasarily come to a soccer match in a compact downtown facility.

Also, I don't understand all the pushback on the Delmar site. Almost a half-million people pass that spot daily, it's on a future rail line, and in terms of the plat size needed to support it, it's as close to downtown as you're going to get.

Well, if you're going to dream, dream big. How about a smaller-scale version of the incredible Allianz Arena which was built for next year's World Cup. The outside shell of the stadium is covered in ETFE and can be lit up with a number of different colors. An architectural masterpiece designed by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.

Whoa there cowboy, first things first. Win the division or win the wildcard, then talk World Series trophy.

IMO, we have a good chance at winning the division next year with our current roster. With all the suffering Houston collectively talked about in the World Series, we forget that we ripped St. Louis' heart out and handed it back to them on a silver platter in the NLCS. Some teams never come back from that, and I think the Cards will be done by July 1. That leaves the Cubs, Brewers and Reds. Cubs will be the Cubs, I think the Brewers were a fluke, leaving the Reds as our major divisional challenger next year.

That's just the thing, though. We use the same team from last year minus Clements AND minus anyone to help Oswalt, Backe, and Pettitte, and use the same players that added up to one of the worst offenses in the MLB last year, and you're only running with the HOPE that one of the current players will step up as a power hitter with no insurance. Granted we made it to the World Series last year, but as we lost Clements, at least 10 other teams out there bolstered and improved their bullpens and bats.

Not saying we can't win the World Series next year with the current team, but it's extremely risky, players will have to become stars, stars will have to become superstars, and Garner will have to be extremely careful to just get the team to the playoffs...

Are any of those 10 teams you mentioned the Cubs or Cards? Last I checked, St Louis lost Matt Morris already, and neither team is lighting up the free agency wire. Same goes for the Brewers. Unless you think the Reds are due for a breakout season, we should have no problem keeping our head above water in the central next year with the current roster, giving us time to evaluate talent for midseason aquisitions. Something you left out is our offense last year was without a healthy Berkman for much of the year, a healthy Berkman alone will drive up the offensive numbers next year.

Westgrayguy, ownership of the club has deep ties to Texas oil. That probably had weight in the decision.