musicman

NEW ANCHORS: Books-A-Million Superstore, and Forever 21.

what a letdown retailwise. i do like the restaurants.

i found this on visithoustontexas.com

Houston Pavilions Announces Restaurant Line-up

Houston Pavilions, soon to be downtown Houston's premier entertainment, retail and urban office hub, announced that it has secured six new restaurants to add to an impressive lineup of tenants that already includes Houston's first House of Blues

Also, it seems strange that The Social closed. The bar was packed every weekend and always had a good crowd for Sunday brunch. I wonder if they sold out to a gas station or other project. Does anyone know about this?

We live along Washington near Memorial Park and would like to urge others in the area to continue to fight the graffiti issues by calling 311 to report graffiti to the city. The City of Houston has employees that will paint over the graffiti.

several of the bars have the attitude that it is all about money and not about making a better neighborhood. when the crowds start to fade a little, they close up. The ones that care try to build a clientele to make the business more personalized. The Darkhouse has many regulars cause they do want to make a difference.

A lot of the graffiti is on city property too. they need to be proactive without 311 calls.

You stole my thunder. They had some clean cut dude holding a mike and looking "really" serious and stoic, but you could tell that deep inside, he couldn't wait to throw on some bowling shoes and hit Lucky Strike when it opens up.

it was the new guy eric james who knows nothing about houston so his stories tend to sound serious.

ch 13 had a reporter there on this morning's news so if you can't attend, i'm sure they'll have something on later newscasts or their webcast.

Our properties are all away from the tracks, and are unaffected. We personally live near them, and thought we'd just get accustomed to the noise, and were very wrong.

So no, not the reason. The best thing a proactive developer can do is improve the areas in which they build. Being involved in a quiet zone coalition would not only provide me a full nights rest, but being involved personally looks good as far as being an area developer. This action also can drastically improve property values to the area.

Sleep+Community Involvement+Marketing=Progress

well i tend to think the east west corridor tends to be busier than the other quiet zone developed parallel to the west loop so it will be more difficult to develop a real quiet zone. the train is a part of the neighborhood and they are there to stay. as for drastically improving property values, yes that would happen if the trains were removed. unless a new transporation system is developed, i have reservations that will happen in our lifetime. i think the trains are really a quintessential part of the area. i'd just recommend ear plugs if you're having problems sleeping.

do you tell prospective buyers that a train line is nearby?

I've actually done quite a bit of research, and thought about doing it myself. The problem I'm running into is not getting a straight answer on pop up emitters. My yard is almost 5000 sq feet and both drain lines (if run to curb) will be 100' plus, so I'm trying to avoid that by going with the pop up emmiters.

I've had several web sites that say to stay away from them as the top usually floats away with a heavy rain, then others that state the opposite. If I use them, I can cut my drain line length in half which obviously cuts cost way down, and then I might decide to do it myself.

Thanks anyway.

i'll bet with your research you'll know more about popup emitters than the installers. i think your biggest factor for success will be whether you have the necessary slope between where the water enters and exits at the emitters. another large factor will be the amount of water you are trying to remove. if you're talking a large volume, them i'll bet the emitters will choke the system and result in the water backing up. i had to design a system for my yard. if you get someone to dig the trench, then they'll probably charge you the same thing for 100 ft and for 50 ft since they'll probably using a ditch witch. i ended up paying for someone to dig and installed the pipe myself and i'll bet my total for 125" was 400 or so. i remember 1 bid for $10/linear ft which would be 1250.

groundbreaking ceremony 10:30am today!

Why is Houston having all this in-city fighting over rail? Because Dallas seemed to seamlessly incorporate rail into the fabric of that city with what seems to be a very workable and educated plan. Do we need to consult with Dallas on how to implement rail? If that hurts your Houston pride, then stop complaining and start being a part of the solution. Otherwise, we can call Laura...

Dallas made attempts to isolate their lines so that they wouldn't comingle with traffic. of course not all the line is isolated, but they did make an effort to do so which makes it more appealing.

I noticed a Culberson sign on a business deep in the Montrose near Castle Court and also thought they were kind of brave. I wouldn't think a business would wear political signs, especially in areas where your sign is the total antithesis of voters in the area. The area is hardly even politically balanced.

i went to a party on norfolk (near dunlavy) this weekend. i asked the owner what he thought of the proposed rail. he laughed and said people in this neighborhood wouldn't be caught riding public transportation. we'll have to see what happens.

It is rare to see stucco now a days, except in some higher priced communities when they want a mediterranean look.

go to midtown, eastside, 3rd ward, it's used quite a bit.

Minimum, $300. Probably run a new "homerun" for the outside lights $100, Additional bath light $50, Adding a spotlight to the back $50, I am guessing you have purchased the lights already. Then, the 3-way is the only question I have, I am guessing $100, but may got to $150, depending on the labor involved.

if you can get it for 300 i'd say bargain. i was thinking 500-600.

there are so many unknowns that it would be hard to give an estimate. i personally think it would better to have them bid on the job as a whole and not an hrly rate. $50/hr would probably be less than their hrly rate. after their done you'd probably need a sheetrock person too.

1)adding additional light in bathroom i just running a wire from the old light to the new light.

2) changing a circuit to 3way in your den is more than adding a switch. rewiring old switch to 4 conductor wire would be required as well. and since it is stapled in wall, to make it easier on them, they usually make hole in sheetrock to route wire.

3) additional light outdoors should be similar to adding light to your bathroom

4) adding lights to front of garage might be a little more challenging depending on siding material, access to attic near outside walls, etc. most likely some sheetrock work here too.

none of these are particularly large loads so i could see them tapping into an older circuit too.

i would guess that your estimates will vary quite a bit.

I keep reading about desireable and less desireable parts of Glenbrook Valley, but I'm not sure which is which. Also the HAR listings show Glenbrook Valey 1 and Glenbrook Valley 2. What do those designations mean?

there are multiple sections in glenbrook, there are over 10. Many larger neighborhoods are divided this way as homes were built at different times. RPS can give you specifics of which section is where.

That said, I tend to believe as WG believes that not all tenants listed will actually come to be. Most of them? Sure. All of them... not quite as confident. For example, does Hard Rock Cafe really want to move? Possible but not sure.

when the president of the development company said the list was not updated, you have to give his statement some merit. tomorrow's groundbreaking will end the speculation.

I've seen several very old stucco buildings in the Midtown/Montrose areas which appear to be in great shape, with no visible signs of repair (e.g., Spanish-style apartment complexes on Fairview, that French Mediterranean house on Hyde Park, the Carlton on Winbern, the former Depelchin Faith Home on Albany, Felix's Restaurant on Westheimer, small apartment house in 600 block of W. Alabama, etc.).

I'm not doubting that there's been many problems with stucco in Houston, yet it seems that at one time at least a few people were able to get it right. Is it some sort of lost art?

New Orleans has a climate similar to Houston's, and the French Quarter has many stucco buildings which are nearly 200 years old. Granted, many have been cleverly maintained and refurbished, yet the majority withstood decades of neglect without failing.

things just aren't built as well today as they once were.

Is someone interested in keeping a running list of those businesses opposed to rail on Richmond? I don't frequent these boards enough to be a diligent custodian of such a list, but I would certainly be interested in using it for my own informal boycott. Who knows, maybe the boycott wouldn't stay informal? I think these businesses should be called out on their short-sighted, self-interested agenda that hurts Houston.

when METRO starts condemning properties for ROW, they may not be there long anyway. enjoy em while you can.

What I'm really getting at is that you can see clear from the hallway into the bedroom's bathroom. That is bad. ...and we're not talking about frosted glass.

oh no, i agree the glass doors would be an issue for most.

good question. i've been recently thinking of painting my house and have been exploring colors. one thing that i have noticed is that when you have a sheen in it, the color appears to be slightly lighter than it would be if it were a flat color. i guess cause light is more reflective if there is a sheen. when i think MCM i think shiny metals, sleek lines, veneers, etc....so maybe not flat?

I was driving by and stopped in to check it out. They lowered the asking price to $199k.

It doesn't have a garage, one of the bedrooms is really more of a den than a bedroom, and too many of the doors are glass. It is nice and all, but when there is a bathroom with glass doors opening up to a bedroom with glass doors and has many windows in the bedroom facing Dumble, any sense of privacy is just shot all to hell.

i saw a modern house recently where the bathroom doors were glass but they had the glass frosted. looked great in the modern setting but in a house such as this i'm sure the vintage look would be tarnished. having many windows is period IMO. yeah the dumble street might result in a bad view but some shades that raise up from the bottom would hide anything visually annoying.

Thanks for the most eloquent of responses Musicman.

?? might someone have musicman on the mind?

Then way do they keep on being them , is it just cheaper to build?

yes it is a cost issue. putting brick, siding, etc costs them more.

If you looked up the word "pimp" in a nineteenth-century dictionary, you would find a picture of this. Or at least an illustration.

it definitely won't be seen on MTV cribs.

Completely and utterly false. It disrupts traffic in the following ways, which I have personally observed on multiple occasions:

• Conflicts with signal timing in downtown, where Main Street is often the only north-south street with a red light while all others are green. By my estimation, I am inconvenienced about every fourth time that I cross Main Street in downtown.
  
• Conflicts with signal timing in Midtown, where LRT vehicles crossing many intersections trigger four-way red lights and prevent continuous movement, as had been intended.
  
• Divides neighborhoods in half and eliminates the efficiencies of a grid. This applies not only to vehicular movement, but also to pedestrian movement, since crossing the tracks on foot is illegal.
  
• Traffic is displaced to Fannin and San Jacinto, which parallel Main Street. Unfortunately, Richmond and most other routes do not have any comparable parallel streets that can diminish the adverse effects on mobility along the LRT route.
  
• Because neighborhoods are divided with a limited number of crossing points, higher volumes of traffic are funnelled into fewer locations, creating congestion.
  
• Congestion caused at choke points often results in vehicles stuck in intersections, blocking and delaying the LRT vehicle.
  
• During peak hours, when LRT service is the most frequent and automotive traffic is the heaviest, grade-level turns can cause congestion similar to that of an additional stop light. Evidence this just north of Fannin & Braeswood.
  
• At the LRT crossing at Fannin and the South Loop, making a right hand turn from southbound Fannin to westbound 610 is exceptionally difficult at peak hours because even when the signal is green, the right-hand turn is often blocked as a result of LRT vehicles. I experienced that little problem at 4PM on Friday. I'd hate to see it at 5PM. Fannin is now desperately in need of a westbound flyover or two IMO.
  
• And of course, it takes up road lanes. That is a big opportunity cost that could be avoided if properly engineered.
  

great rebuttal to "it has zero effect on traffic"

there's another more detailed thread on haif. i do remember if it involves brick mortar, then recommendations were not to pull it.