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brian0123

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  1. brian0123
    http://www.historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=8E-06&lat=29.7530172583808&lon=-95.3598124970701&year=2004
  2. brian0123
    I was poking around on their website and discovered they are calling this "The Millenium Med Center". They have it listed as 378 units, which would make this their largest complex in Houston. It also says they are pursuing LEED Gold... http://www.dinersteincos.com/services/construction/
  3. brian0123
    Grew up in Cypress, now can walk to Reliant Stadium from my house. The burbs were nice back in the 80's and 90's, but now there is just too much traffic, increased crime, and poorer quality homes. Plus, the inner loop is a zillion times better now than what it was back then. Never planning to leave the city.
  4. brian0123
    So what does it mean when my appraised value is 24k less than my market value? I thought the market and appraised values were always the same? Did I get lucky and have them decrease the value of my house?
  5. brian0123
    I watched the entire thing from my office window. I never thought much about wood complexes before, but after seeing how quickly the place turned from smoke to collapse... I'll NEVER live in a wood apartment complex/condo. I also saw the worker walking around on the top and jump over to the balcony. That dude was soooo lucky.
  6. brian0123
    Yeah they've been busy at this place. I was surprised at how quickly they were able to make this place disappear.
  7. brian0123
    The America Tower is awesome and I feel bad for these employees. Their work lunches in Montrose/River Oaks and jogging along Buffalo Bayou will be replaced with lunches at (insert every restaurant in the burbs here). Plus, the commute on I-45. Yikes.
  8. brian0123
    @Elseed Midtown land is owned by individuals... TMC land is the TMC. Also, the TMC has a lot of land still and their 20 year plan has them building on it a ton. The land is south and below the bayou. Probably in 20-30 years the TMC skyline will connect towards Reliant stadium. I'm on mobile right now, but the TMC website has a huge PDF outlining their growth plans south of the bayou.
  9. brian0123
    This is awesome. Thanks!
  10. brian0123
    I was never a fan of Jay. I actually enjoy Jimmy Fallon a lot more and actually sometimes watch the show now.
  11. brian0123
    Thanks! I'd love to see you all get to having a predictive quality to the traffic patterns. Just like we are now using software to predict areas of crime, I would think it would be fairly easy to apply the same concept to our traffic patterns. It would be awesome to see a "FutureCast" feature, or something like that, that we could click and show us what traffic might look like along our route. Glad to know you all are looking at something like that. Quck question, but is TranStar's data only available through the website, or is it possible for me to download a database/file dump of the data like HCAD provides at pdata.hcad.org?
  12. brian0123
    Thanks for following up on this! So far, I've noticed this mostly along 290 south to the 610 and I10 interchanges and leading to them. As mentioned by another user earlier, this could have been the result of all the construction in the area. I've also seen it recently (just once) on 45 north near Gallery Furniture. I live in the loop and rarely get on the freeways, so it seemed odd that the past couple of times this has happened. Since you are here on the board I'd love to know if TranStar has ever thought of building (or maybe you have them and I haven't found them) forecast models for traffic based on past usages? I'm a programmer and wanted to build something like that, but I could never find if TranStar made their archived speed and incident database as a publicly available downloadable db similar to what HCAD maintains for properties. It would be cool if users could plan trips around past data. I would imagine (with the amount of data you all collect) that you'd even be able to build traffic hotspots for where accidents tend to occur so people can try to avoid those places at peak times. For example, on days where we've received x inches of rain at x time of day on x stretch of road, speeds have averaged x mph with a x% accident rate over the past year. Sorry for the long response but figured I'd ask since you're on here. Thanks again!
  13. brian0123
    I know this is an old topic, but is it just me or has TranStar been pathetic the past couple of months with their traffic reporting? I rarely get on the freeways, but EVERY time I have lately, I end up in a jam when TranStar reported it green. I've even checked the map when sitting in traffic and it showed green. I don't believe it's a caching issue (unless their servers are) because I've checked on different phones and computers. Has anyone been experiencing this recently?
  14. brian0123
    Really, I'm thinking a garage more for having an organized system to park. Even if the number of spots stayed the same and they claimed more greenspace, I think having an organized "park here" and "lot full" type of system would make more sense than the free-for-all it currently is. It would probably generate enough money to pay for tons of enhancements to the park as well.
  15. brian0123
    I'd agree with you for those who tend to be couples/older families. However, most of the people parking at the zoo lot are families with multiple kids with multiple strollers, other junk to load up to bring with the kids, picnic supplies, etc. and visitors from out of town. If Houston were a city with true mass transit... then you'd have a point. Yes, there are a lot of options nearby for parking... but no one knows about them unless you live nearby. For those visiting, there is no clear signage or indication of where there is public parking available and where it's at. Heck, even the Ben Taub parking garage (where people park at and walk across to the zoo entrance on the back side) has notices posted saying that the garage is to only be used for hospital visitors.
  16. brian0123
    With the growth of Houston and popularity of Hermann Park growing every day, traffic and parking at the main lot for the zoo is a nightmare and growing worse. Just the other day I witnessed two fights in the parking lot from people arguing over who gets the next open spot (with kids and everyone looking on). This is one of Houston's true destinations for tourists as well, and the current parking (and irrate behaviour due to lack of) is pathetic and should be addressed. I know some may not like the idea of a garage and would prefer to keep the park as natural as possible, but it is a serious problem and you cannot expect visitors from out of town to ride the rail, figure out where they can park in a med center garage, etc. There is no worse image to visitors than coming to our zoo and seeing fights in the parking lot and driving in circles waiting for a car to leave. Are there any long term plans to build a parking garage here? If not, who would be the responsible party for making this happen?
  17. brian0123
    I emailed Swamplot about this and they asked for a picture (haven't been able to take one yet). A guy at our civic club meeting said it was new multifamily but couldn't elaborate.
  18. brian0123
    I enjoyed the videos of all the cars driving through smog. I also like that this idea was dreamed up decades ago when we didn't know what we know today about traffic, pollution, urban growth, mass transit, etc. This video shows that the Grand Parkway is an antiquated and old solution, being pushed by good ole boys, and that it tackles a 21st century problem with ideas from the 20th.
  19. brian0123
    I went to Vegas one time and vowed it would be my last. Places like Macau will continue to grow and suck business from them. States will allow more gambling over time as well. Add to that water shortages and I'll give Vegas as we know it 50 years. Really, I think the nail in Vegas' coffin will be when Texas allows gambling (maybe in 20 years?). Galveston would see a surge in casinos (someone will probably even create a Balinese Room #2).
  20. brian0123
    I have a legal question for you (maybe there's a patent lawyer on here that can help). A couple years ago, I wrote some apps for Android (I won't go into details to keep things anonymous). I just found out that there is a company coming out with a tool (being sold in lots of places) who's app functions like two apps I wrote and they are using the same name I called one of my apps. My app had been downloaded by people from around the world so it's possible that someone from their company had seen it. I pulled it from the market a couple months ago because it was having issues with the latest Android version and was going to do an upgrade. I didn't patent it, but it seems odd and feels unnerving that a company is selling something that is similar and uses the same name I had used. Thoughts?
  21. brian0123
    Yes, the Greyhound station is the last remaining bad place in Midtown and I have not heard anything about it moving now (especially since the Intermodal terminal is not happening). I lived in Midtown for 5 years, walked/jogged around at night, but never felt safe around the station. My wife's grandmother who can't drive far will take the bus in to visit us occasionally and I go to pick/drop her off at this location still. It's weird going back to the old neighborhood and seeing how much Midtown has changed just in the past two years, but the station still remains the same (as it did back in 2005 when we first moved to Midtown). All that said, it's only bad within a block of the station (it's like they feel more powerful when they congregate together). The location of this proposed development would make me feel safeliving there (even though it's only three blocks away). The dealers/thugs that hang out around it do nothing to you and are cowards when they are not standing together with eachother lumped around the station itself.
  22. brian0123
    I believe it when I see them break ground. Milhaus went to the planning commission as well and got everything approved... then sold.
  23. brian0123
    I was referring to the question earlier "will Midtown's boundaries expand?"
  24. brian0123
    He actually did a trick on Stephen Hawking last night.
  25. brian0123
    Former Midtown board member here. I doubt Midtown's boundaries will expand much further since it's a TIRZ and there are rules about how they can expand. Plus, expanding would mean they'd have to provide additional services to a larger area (i.e. constable patrols, park upkeep, graffiti removal, etc.). As for Midtown, I think all of the empty lots on the SE quadrant of Downtown will need to fill up first before Midtown ever starts to see apt buildings knocked down for even taller buildings (and there are a ton of empty lots there). My guess is that in Midtown, you'll see some of the older strip malls owned by the various longtime families knocked down and replaced with something larger (i.e. like what happenend to the old strip mall that was replaced by Camden Travis). I think Midtown will be a primarily residential neighborhood. HCC Central campus will probably continue to expand and they might one day build some taller buildings. I think between Midtown, Downtown, East Downtown, Washington, and possibly even 3rd and 5th wards... you'll have enough space for a very long time to support the youngest workers and development will be dispersed amongst those areas accordingly. I think the biggest "in the loop" upward growth will be the TMC area and possibly even down by Reliant (see http://www.texasmedicalcenter.org/files/24/ )
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