BrickStamp

I like having an excuse to slow down. I was chilling out on Sunday afternoon, driving home from IAH at about 65. Not in a hurry, trying to economize on fuel a little. Everyone was shooting past me. It's kind of zen-like, albeit in a somewhat life-threatening way, to drive a little slower on the freeway.

First off, this new google search is awesome. I'm glad it was added.

A question for ipod users. I found this transmitter that will play my ipod in the car. However, I already have one of those (although its an off brand) and it sucks. Is there another device that doesn't need a radio wave signal to play an ipod. I guess I can't really think of any other way it could work, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Someone told me there was but they didn't say how it worked.

I need quality for ipod playing. This way is just not working. Thanks

I think the one I have is a Kensington. it works really well. Key in a place like Houston is that you need one you can change the station on. Mine has three presets. It's that hard to find an unoccupied station in Houston. I have three that work in different areas of town. If you are too close on the "dial" to a station with a strong signal, you'll get static, which is what it sounds like you want to avoid. FYI, the best place on the dial I've found for the Montrose-Museum District area and surrounding is 92.5

Hm... those are pretty interesting. I've seen some houses with the outside storm windows when we were looking to buy, and I didn't really like the way they looked from the outside...

Thanks for the ideas!

You could use the old winter-in-New-England trick... sheets of plastic and duct tape. If that doesn't say class, I don't know what does.

With prices the way they are there isn't much chuck roast left ITL, and the ones that are there don't care what the hell Rail does. Medium Grade Ribeye has to move out of the loop to find green pastures these day.. The Kobe NIMBYS are the ones that hold up many of the rail projects.

Nicely put!

-a sirloin burger headed to the greener pastures OTL

my apologies. I should not have characterized certain people as "lower grade." That was wrong on my part. I won't specify who I was talking about. Let's just say people of limited means...who are not as well off as many of us.

People of limited means usually don't have a lot of political sway. I don't think poor, inner-loop folks are holding up commuter rail. I think politicians, and the developers who own them, are. Developers want highways because people who want houses in the burbs want a good highway to get there. Sure, there are plenty of suburban folks who would love commuter rail. But so far I don't think they have the majority, or the political clout, to make it happen.

Correct me if I'm wrong (which God knows you guys will), but the people holding up the rail are the inner city, lower grade people, who don't want it. I think you'll find that many of the burbs would opt for it. I know I would.

You're wrong.

I guess it really does boil down to human nature. Vanity and jealousy. The one dude who is most concerned that my butt is in a company-owned chair at 8 am is the same guy who shows up about 4 hours a week, to harass his admin for not booking the best flight to Sea Island for the golf/'meeting' he just went to.

I can't really complain; my commute is 10-15 minutes. But how many people on the 1-10 could fire up the laptop at home, instead? If the spreadsheets are on time and correct, who cares if they're watching porn at the same time? This is America! It's all about the market! Profits! We shouldn't care about Joe Analyst II working from home in his robe, in his creepy house, as long as the trains run on time. (OK, maybe not the best metaphor......)

Several years ago I worked for the GHCVB, so was not officially a city employee, but pretty close to it. The city was trying to encourage companies downtown to offer flextime to reduce traffic congestion. But not at City Hall, and not at the GHCVB. No, it was 8-5, no exceptions. It seemed to me that if City Hall was going to ask other companies to do this, they would have some of their own people doing it too. It's always a good idea for someone else to telecommute or work from home to reduce traffic, but nobody seems to want their own employees to do so.

I'm a male mid 20s professional looking to purchase my first home. Thanks to all the knowledge I've gained by reading HAIF, I've narrowed my search to these two companies building new townhouse developments in the East End/Warehouse District 77003 zip code. I've met and toured both, and selected a floorplan from each that I like.

I've read all the separate threads for each company, however I would like to hear some opinions that can give me a direct comparison between the two builders. This is the biggest purchase and one of the toughest decisions to this point in my life. I would like to make the best decision I possibly can, any information or opinions are greatly appreciated.

Things I'd like input on are: quality, maintenance, finishes, appreciation, re-sale, warranty work, and if you've owned one I'd love to hear your experience.

(ps

I'm glad to hear so many people saying they feel safe walking around at night. I moved here five years from NYC, where it was always clear to me where it was safe to be at night and what areas weren't. Since moving here I've had no idea. BUT, I am quite certain that I should not be walking around Riverside Terrace alone at night.

Don't be scared off by all these wusses.

I truly believe that most crime happens to people that are looking for it. If you're not selling or buying drugs, you should be fine.

Don't worry about your dog getting stolen; keep a dog to keep from getting your possessions stolen! It helps if your dog is a barker.

By the way, I can walk my Inner Loop streets at night too...but having a dog doesn't hurt.

I think people are afraid of my mullet, too.

Hi,

I live in Riverside Terrace with my family. There is crime, but what I've found personally is that the crime happens around you, not to you... drug dealers shoot each others, prostitutes get beaten. I'm afraid this is what I've seen with my own eyes. I don't want my kids seeing this anymore, so we're moving. If it doesn't bother you to see an incident now and then, you might not mind. However, there's no way I'd go walking around at midnight, here or anywhere else inside the loop.

I agree that City Park might be worth looking into. One problem is that it is low-end, which of course is great in terms of affordability, but might attract some less stable people and less stable situations. That could impact on crime.

If I were you, I would look into a small condo in a good neighborhood inside the loop, rather than a house in a sketchy neighborhood. Of course, you have a dog, so that's a potential issue, but there are apartments and presumably condos that take dogs.

I have a friend in Sugarland (a nice suburb where people go to get away from Houston crime) whose house was broken into in the middle of the day and they stole her dog. So it does happen, and can happen in any neighborhood. Wherever you move, remember that while many parts of Houston appear like suburbs and might seem safe, this is a big city and there is crime everywhere. So be careful, have an alarm system and keep your wits about you and you'll be fine.

.

My husband and I are moving to Houston this summer. We don't know much about Houston but will be transfering because he was accepted to a Ph.D program at Rice. U. (never visited, I'm from Boston, he's from S. Oregon) I will be teaching high school, probably HISD. We don't have any children yet but have an active dog and we're tired of apartment life so would like to buy a house at least a few months after we move to Houston.

It seems like most of the homes we could afford (we will have about 20k for a down payment) and are close to Rice (under 2 miles) are across 288 in Riverside terrace, Wilmoth subd., etc. Mostly zip codes 77004 or 77021. Just by looking at HAR.com and ziprealty (etc.) I've noticed that there seems to be (at least on paper) a huge increase in crime stats. For example, on ziprealty they show a graph that shows these areas to have crime rates that are near 400, with 100 being the national average. Is it possible that the SFR areas I'm looking at have a lower crime rate and the apt/town-home areas have higher rates? I'm living in Tokyo now where I feel safe walking my dog past midnight so safety is important. However, I know we will have to make some sacrifices by choosing to live inside the loop near rice and not being able to afford places west of Rice (like West U.)

Any opinions?

Are there any other safer neighborhoods that sometime sell for under 140k that are about 2m or less from Rice?

Also, if financing goes smoothly what is the avg time it takes to close a house deal?

Here are the MLS numbers of some homes I'm interested in so far (though I think they will be gone by August...)

• 8855715 3205 CHARLESTON
  
• 1913058 2605 ARBOR ST
  
• 6948117 3010 SOUTHMORE BLVD
  
• 4871043 2619 ROSEWOOD ST
  

{{{Also, from the other posts about these areas I've noticed that some people think race makes a difference in what kind of opinion they give soo... I'm half Japanese/half caucasian, my husband is caucasian. }}}

Thank you!

(((ps. If anyone knows anything about how prevalent dog stealing is in Houston (from backyards) can you tell me??)))

BRT, in the South American examples, also has a paid-fare zone (meaning that, in theory, you could pay once and ride around all day, as an example). Considering we don't even have that for our LRT, is it reasonable to expect that for BRT?

BRT done correctly (as per the South American examples) also has stuff like grade-elevation, totally dedicated lanes, and is not hung up on red lights. This is how they achieve the supposed 25-mph speeds. So the issue about the Magnolia TC and U.P. ROW would exist for BRT, not just LRT, if that is what we wanted to do. So how exactly is BRT a solution to any of our qualms about LRT?

I'm not sure it answers the concerns about LRT (such as stopping at lights, interrupting the flow of cross-line traffic). But it certainly seems like a more cost-efficient solution than LRT. And if there were a dedicated lane, you might get less of that roller-coaster swerving and lurching that the regular buses seems to do. Maybe fewer run-ins (run-overs) wtih pedestrians, cars, too. City buses as they are now are a menace to anyone else on or near the road.

http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/01/28/stre...-brt-in-bogota/

The guys participating in the discussion seem to really know their s--t. I learned quite a bit. This may come in handy when talking about such topics as they relate to Houston's LRT funding woes and potential alternatives.

Wow, what an amazing video... thanks for posting. It would be so great to have something like that here, with the bikes feeding into it...

One of the smaller muncipalities around the city might be more appropriate. They have a small jail population (Bellaire, Piney Pointe, etc) and would be open to it. Particularly if they think the kid is REALLY gung-ho about being in the Police force in some capacity.

Give Bellaire a shot, they have a 5 cell setup in the basement, plus the Fire Department is just across the street and it might be a cool thing to check into as well.

Great idea, thanks!

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...... No wait different story, but back in 1980 at the ripe old age of 20 I went to the precinct convention as it is called. I don't think anyone in the party called it a caucus. The precinct judge presided and essentially the main duty was to pick delegates the the Senetorial district convention. My precinct voted at Brookline Elementary and thats where the convention was. First order of business was to essentially find out who there wanted to be a delegate at the next level and then divide those up based on who you supported. Basically if you supported Carter and voted for him in the primary you should not have asked to be a Kennedy delegate. Then based on the outcome of the primary vote for your precinct the delegates were apportioned. IE if you got 10 delegates to the next leve and the vote was 60% Carter, 30% Kennedy and 10% Nader then you needed to choose 6 Carter delegates, 3 Kennedy delegates and 1 Nader delegate. These folks went on to the next level where they talked platform and essentially went through the same process to elect delegates to the state convention. At state where I was a delegate again we went through the same process to elect the Texas delegates to the National Convention. As I recall the discussions at the precinct level were minimal and as soon as the delegates were chosen we went home. The next two levels were where we got into much more discussion on issues and potential platform agendas.

From what you're saying, the purpose was just to choose who would be delegate. My understanding was that numbers mattered, too. So a certain percentage of the delegates were apportioned based on the primary vote, but a certain percentage were apportioned based on the caucus. So for example, if none of Obama's supporters showed up in the evening, Clinton would get all of the votes for the delegates apportioned by the caucus.

THese are two very different scenarios. Perhaps I need to contact the party HG for clarification...

Umm, I think that's exactly NOT what he's looking for.

Are there any old forts around that can be toured? I'm guessing that if he likes jails, he will like forts also.

Yeah, my son is four. Probably too young for "scared straight," though I'll keep it in mind for 10 years down the line.

A fort would be of interest, but only if it had a place to lock up a bad criminal. Nativehou, thanks for the LaGrange tip. It's a little far but in the absence of something closer, might make a fun daytrip. And who knows, it might even scare him straight.

My son is obsessed with jail. He really wants to see one. But he is rather young to deal with the harsh realities of prison. Does anyone know of an old, historical jailhouse anywhere in the region that is done up for tours?

One more tax question:

I've heard a couple of different information re. tax rates in New Territory. One said 2.57%, another said 3.86%. Which one is correct?

And then, I saw a listing in NT with price $365K and tax $8,393, which implies a tax rate of 2.3.

Let's say that it's true that NT tax rate is 3.86. Does that mean the assessed price will automatically increase based on whatever price I end up paying for that property? Hence if I buy it for $365K, then taxes will increase to $14K (=$365K x 3.86%)?

Thanks!

It's possible that the different quotes you are seeing are because one is calculated on the basis of a homestead exemption. As I understant it, the first year that you reside in your property as of January, you can take a homestead deduction. So, if you move to the area this summer, you will pay higher taxes in 2008, but your taxes will decrease in 2009, since you will be able to claim your homestead exemption then.

Then it gets weird.

LOL.

Thanks for the info everyone. I am curious enough to get a sitter (though I guess I have to find either a Republican or someone under 18!) and check it out. Gotta turn out for Obama!

I've just learned that for the Democratic primary, we have to vote & caucus. So as I understand it, you vote (early or on election day), then return to your precinct the evening of March 4 for the caucus. I'm wondering what happens there. Do we just show up, support our candidate, and leave? Do you have to be here at a particular time? The bottom line is I'm trying to figure out if I need a babysitter, or if the spouse and I can tag-team caucus (that sounds either dangerous or dirty...).

Never been, but envious!

I would check out the Misir

I hate the new site design. Its over done to say the least. Give me the old faster version. And I totally hate that stupid video with sound every time you go to the homepage. Makes surfing at work hard. I think they got sold a bill of goods by some web designers.

I don't like it either, mainly because you can't use it at all from Safari. All my bookmarks in Safari are now totally useless. I have to start from scratch on a new browser. Very annoying.

$975K gets you into this lovely metal building.

Who in the world designed this? "The General"?

http://realestate.chron.com//Sales/Listing...ReportSection=P

I think it's kind of cool. I agree that the back is rather un-lovely, though.