august948

19 hours ago, pablog said:

If anyone was confused by what I said, I never said “get rid of roads.”

I-10 is a not a road, it’s a 26-lane monstrosity that we should be embarrassed to have in our city.

I-45 will become another embarrassment with the small positives of the cap park and removing the pierce elevated.

Billions can be better spent building out transit throughout the core to reduce short trips.

That's strange...I drive I10 inside the loop all the time and always thought it was a road.  A small one at that compared to how it is outside the loop.  If only it could actually be 26 lanes across inside the loop.

4 hours ago, hindesky said:

There was a guy who flew by the ship channel in his helicopter and when he got to the 610 Ship Channel bridge he would fly under it. Saw him do it several times while operating a tower crane close to the bridge. One time he didn't make it and hit the water. Had to pay to retrieve his helicopter while they shut down the ship channel.

You know you have money when you can do stunts in your own helicopter and then pay the damages when something eventually goes wrong.

4 hours ago, editor said:

There's no shortage of cities that clung to their backbone industry for too long, and because of it became relics of yesteryear.

Poughkeepsie, New York clung to IBM's mainframe business, and when that died, so did the town.

Lock Haven, Pennsylvania clung to paper mills and light aircraft.  They left, and the town pretty much died, and would have been closed if it wasn't for the college.

Green Bay, Wisconsin; Appleton, Wisconsin; Allentown, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh; Paterson, New Jersey; Newark, New Jersey; and a hundred other places clung to a "backbone industry" for so hard and so long that they couldn't recover when it moved or was no longer needed.

Somewhere, some town was the world capital of buggy whip manufacturing.  Guess what happened there?

Houston is big enough and economically diverse enough that it will survive the trend of burning dead dinosaurs to go vroom.  Nobody on HAIF is rooting for all of the oil wells to stop pumping tomorrow.  But it's folly to pretend that the writing isn't on the wall.  We should all recognize that there needs to be a slow, orderly transition from one thing to another, and be prepared for the future through the continued expansion of the economy and infrastructure — including transportation. 

+1 for the mention of Appleton.  Don't see that come up very often.

The future is certainly moving away from burning dead dinosaurs to directly power your vehicle.  Not so likely is the move away from the personal vehicles themselves.  Thus roads of all sorts are still going to be king.

Even cowboys need to ride the concrete sometimes...

Yeehaw!

59 minutes ago, Highrise Tower said:

I might be going to the M.C. Escher exhibit at MFAH.  Any restaurant recommendations? I typically go to Niko Niko's after the museums.

https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/virtual-realities-art-of-mc-escher

If you're going casual then Bodega's mentioned in the post above yours is not bad and just a block or two away from the MFAH.  Also nearby on Almeda is the Turkey Leg Hut.

3 hours ago, pablog said:

I wish the title read, “TxDOT Proposes Razing I-10 near I-45

I wish the title read, , “TxDOT Proposes Raising Cane's Location I-10 near I-45

2 hours ago, TacoDog said:

Why? What good would that be?

If they razed I10 inside the loop to make it a double-decker, that would be awesome.  Maybe that's what he meant.

32 minutes ago, editor said:

It probably depends on the view that's replacing it.  Better than one of the hundreds of abandoned Microsoft and Google retail stores.

Perhaps a Linux store then?

7 hours ago, JLWM8609 said:

I remember hearing that depressed freeways were supposed to be better in floodplains because they can function as spillways during floods and store water that would otherwise flood adjacent neighborhoods. Is there a reason they're not going this route (no pun intended)? Maybe the nearly 22 acre detention pond would take care of that?

Just a complete guess here...but could it be that they want to make sure certain routes stay open during flooding events?

7 hours ago, astrohip said:

It better not block my view of Westheimer. Right now I can see all the way down to the Apple store. Six stories is taller than anything on that side.

I may need to get out my "Ashby High Rise" sign, and re-purpose it.🤪

NIMBY!

Seems to me blocking out the view to an Apple store would be desirable...

1 hour ago, TrainTrak said:

i think it's also interesting to think about the financial implications of our car-based transportation system.  while our tax dollars fund roads and highways, each individual also has to buy a car and then insure/fuel/maintain it (you technically don't have to own a car in houston but in reality you kinda do).  sure you get some control over what kind of car you buy, but at the end of the day, owning a car is part of the "living-in-houston" tax.  if you take the money that millions of houstonians spend on their cars and divert it into a public transit system, would it be enough to turn houston into a city where you don't need a car? 

Wouldn't that require running buses along all the backroads that encompass the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugarland MSA?

I'm also curious how you would go about doing ordinary family shopping.  How do you bring a cart full of groceries and other sundries home via train and bus?  What happens when you try to bring back a sheet or two of plywood from Home Depot?  Do you have to make separate trips for everything you need since you can only carry so much?

1 hour ago, editor said:

Are there?  It sounds like you're projecting.

Yet somehow it was OK for millions of people to abandon (inflation-adjusted) trillions in investments when cities replaced their trolleys, interurban lines, and bus systems with trillion-dollar highways?

TxDOT's budget is a third of a trillion dollars per year.  Perhaps we should demand that more of the money that all taxpayers pay is used for transportation that all the taxpayers can use.

I don't believe I commented on the moral implications of post-war white flight, if that is what you are referring to.  Whether or not something is morally right is sometimes different from what actually happens.  The interesting question is why something happens and what can we glean from that for the future.

As for TxDOT's budget, is that third of a trillion dollars just for urban areas?  Are they not responsible for building and maintaining roads state wide?

22 minutes ago, Some one said:

That issue could be solved by having a walkable environment and an efficient biking and bus system. Yeah cars are still needed by some magnitude, especially if you live in a rural area, but in a large city, having walkable areas accessible by trains should be priority.

I will never understand this argument. Should we stop driving cars since they have been around since the 1900s? Should we stop using our phones because they were invented in the 1876? Trains in America may be abysmal (although that's due to a lack of investment in them) but that's not the case everywhere else. Go to Spain or Japan and tell them that their maglev and bullet trains are outdated and see how they'd react. 

It was more of an example than an argument.  When you have multiple (millions, really) possible start and end points for a journey combined with millions of individual trips the most efficient way to pull that off is a packet system.  In this case, cars or buses are the packets and roads are the pathways that allow them to move from any point to any other point.  Trains, by definition, follow a fixed path and cannot deviate from it.  Thus, trains are efficient at moving people and goods from one fixed point to others along the same fixed pathway.  That's fine if all your start and end points are along that pathway but the efficiency starts to break down once you move beyond it.

Most of the developed world came into being when foot travel was the primary means of transit.  It shouldn't be surprising, then, that Spain and Japan among others have developed in such a way that train transit naturally works better than it ever will here where we have had at least horses and horse drawn carts to enable greater movement of people and goods.  I know there are those that fantasize about millions of people abandoning trillions in investments in single family homes in the suburbs in favor of high rise living inside the loop but that's just not going to happen.

2 hours ago, Some one said:

Tell that to most European and Asian countries.

Ah yes, this is much more effective and efficient than taking the train.

With regards to moving to and from multiple destinations that are not near a rail station, and/or carrying more goods than you are physically able to lift and bring on the train, that is exactly correct.  If you happen to live by a rail station and all your destinations are near rail stations, and the train runs on a schedule that works for you, then a train might be more efficient.

Cars and roads are analogous to the packet switching system used by the internet. 

Trains are a bit more analogous to this technology...

38 minutes ago, gene said:

yep Berryhill will be missed...it was the one chill hole in the wall places/hangouts left in Uptown proper. i liked that vibe (and their jalapeno ranch dip!)

Are there any Berryhill's left now?  This one was the last of four locations we used to go to all the time.  Sad to see them go.

10 hours ago, pokemonizepic said:

Westpark is getting a mix of protected bike lanes and 10 foot wide shared-use paths from Dairy Ashford to Wilcrest, along with utility work 
https://www.engagehouston.org/westpark-paving-and-drainage

 

'bout time they got this done.

8 hours ago, mattyt36 said:

I came across this gem of an article from Texas Monthly from 1978.  It's actually a great piece of writing, I think much of it tongue-in-cheek.

Dallas Is Better Than Houston – Texas Monthly

Some of the best parts:

"In Dallas you can live an abundant life and not drive the freeways at all."  (This is just laughable, and it surely must have been laughable in 1978.)

"Houston destroys individuality . . . Houston is now national and international corporations with the caution yet ruthlessness inherent in such machines. No soul, no heart, no mind. All hands, mouths, and computer brains. Faceless people sit in interchangeable tall buildings above Houston doing the same things people in the same kind of buildings do anywhere in the world. Today no Houston individual can match personal economics or powers with the people in the towers. Howard Hughes is dead on arrival in Houston; Glenn McCarthy lives in a house by a mosquito bay."

"Native sons and daughters are harder and harder to find. You talk to an ambitious young jogger on the Memorial Park path (he’s in banking) and you learn what a tremendous future Houston (not Texas) has."  (I'd say this idea of "Houston First," ahead of Texas is still true.)

"Houston has become un-Texan, no longer looking to its Texas roots—or caring. Maybe this sense of native soil is no longer very important to the residents of Houston-—it’s certainly not to the leaders—but to other Texans, it leaves a gaping hole in life when you must dwell in a Texas city that acts ashamed to admit it’s Texan."

"And no little people are on the way up, that you can find. Not that Houston isn’t a blue-collar town, statistically speaking. But you don’t come in off the farm anymore from some little place like Sweeney or El Campo and zoom to takeoff in the new Houston. But even if you decide to gamble and take on the big town one-handed, you find it’s too flung out to make a dent. Even a secondhand car dealer, screaming like mad, can’t get on the tube and make a name for himself, or a fortune. Neatness counts. You don’t smell cow manure on the elevators of Shell Plaza or Pennzoil Place. Good ol’ boys still make it in Dallas; the good ol’ boys that come out of East Texas State and UT-Arlington to arm wrestle the establishment, who catch the bus in from Winnsboro and come looking for the foot of the ladder. That sort of thing is gone in Houston. The minimum price of admission to the shooting gallery is a UT law school sheepskin."

"It’s impossible to be a Cowboy cult follower and remain a racial bigot."  🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

"But I find more adventure to living in Dallas than Houston seems to offer—outside the thrilling prospect of getting murdered, a statistical nicety at which Houston annually surpasses Dallas. Dallas is still in the possession of its citizenry, run by people who consider themselves Dallasites. Houston belongs to someone else."

"Six Flags Over Texas is still the classiest amusement park in America"

AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITE QUOTE

Most Houstonians will spend eternity in hell.

—Billy Graham

Here is the rebuttal article

Houston is Better Than Dallas – Texas Monthly

There are a couple of zingers, but not as well written or enjoyable:

"By the end of the century, the likes of Denton, Diboll, and Daingerfield will be vying for the title of Big D." 

"It is not surprising that Dallas has turned increasingly to Jesus. Headquarters of the Baptist General Convention of Texas for many years, Dallas is now the home city for hundreds of different Gospel Retreat Convention Temple Conference Revival Revelation Pentecostal Proof Redemption and Glorious Miracle Healing Centers. With no apparent reason for its origin and little excuse for its continued existence, Dallas has nowhere else to turn."

Best part...."You don’t smell cow manure on the elevators of Shell Plaza or Pennzoil Place."

And that's Houston for the win!

15 hours ago, Some one said:

Now that Houston won the world cup bid, do you guys think Metro will feel more inclined to speed up progress on the University or Inner Katy Line, or even start working on the Metrorapid line to IAH/Purple and green line extension to Hobby? After all, the Red Line (originally the Main Street Line) was built partially for the 2004 Super Bowl.

Metro needed a win on the Red line and used whatever they could to boost it.  Since then I don't think any event has provided a measurable impetus to get a project done faster.  I wouldn't expect the World Cup to be any different.

6 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

Exactly.  I had typed out a response saying pretty much exactly that;  I'm not sure what became of it.  ;-)

In addition to it being a lame criteria, I'm pretty sure they got it wrong.  If you do the math, it tells you that we have about 6.9 bike trails.  I have no idea how they came up with that number...

Also, just counting number of bike shops per capita seems fairly lame and I'm curious about how they came up with their "bikeability" score. They don't give any clue about their methodology for that one (and it's a pretty large part of the overall score).  

I thought about bringing up the "bikeability" score as well, but the other, even lamer criteria seemed more enough to view this list askance.  Not saying Portland isn't still #1 or that we don't have room to improve, but some of the analysis put out is demonstrably laughable.

2 hours ago, samagon said:

thanks for the context, 29 sounds great, but 29 out of 50 sounds less great.

and to get even less 'back patty' about it....   if you look at the stat 'bike trails per 100k' we have the lowest score at .3, and the average is 1.6.

I know the projects are being built out, and it can't happen over night, but we have a long way to go. granted, since Houston is probably one of the most car centric cities anywhere, this is still good progress.

Other than the odd "google searches" weighting, bike trails per 100k is a bit flawed for inclusion in the calculation.  Bike trails can vary widely by length, some being a block or less depending on how you want to count it.  They should have used bike trail miles instead.

5 hours ago, mattyt36 said:

You're not helping his case, Augie . . . I think that's actually worse! 🤣

If he's casing the men's room, it's not my place to interfere.

6 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

Interesting.  For context, the 2022 anytimeestimate.com study referenced by Amalgam was a study of the 50 largest cities in the U.S. 

...and includes google searches as a factor...🤪

20 hours ago, mattyt36 said:

Whoa boy! 😂

I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if they ran into each other at a “neighborhood bar” as Mr Berry was found to do.

Now, now...maybe he just stopped there to use the restroom.

On 6/10/2022 at 9:11 AM, sapo2367 said:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/Last-long-stretch-of-Brays-Bayou-trail-breaks-17231401.php?

Breaking ground on a new segment of the brays bayou trail heading west. Purple is the section under construction -- target completion of EOY 2023 

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5532d390fb234779b0b9286744d85a2f&extent=-10738567.3143,3422710.9725,-10493663.0756,3533850.4116,102100

There's already been grading work done for this trail at the Eldridge and Dairy Ashford bridges over Brays.  Just getting the connection done between Fiorenza Park and Storey Park is going to be huge.  Once complete, though, you'll be able to bike from past hwy 6 on the west all the way to Mason Park where it joins Buffalo Bayou.  With a little street riding north from Fiorenza you can hit the Terry Hershey trail and go west through Katy almost to Fulshear.  That hits chinatown, TMC, the Museum District, UH and much else along the way.  Connecting inside the loops to other trails and you could easily do a multi-day tour of the broader Houston area by bike, staying at hotels along the way.

14 minutes ago, tigereye said:

We’re over here asking “if Metro would consider using larger commuter busses” when the obvious damn answer to this city’s traffic issues is using RIGHT OF WAY SEPARATED COMMUTER RAIL to all major suburbs. Not more buses that contribute to and also get stuck in traffic. 

Cmon Houston. WAKE THE F*** UP. 

 

That's one idea.  Another would be to put in 4 lane HOV on every highway, including all the loops, much like the Katy freeway and then run the longer P&R buses on those.

1 hour ago, editor said:

Follow the link to the picture gallery.  Plenty of ideas in there that are natural grass.

While I don't have personal experience with the maintenance of this sort of thing, I don't think it's crazy.  I say this because there are low-growing varieties of plants that can be used, and because I've seen real estate developers do this sort of thing in places where they're required to put a certain amount of rainwater runoff into the ground.  And you know how real estate developers hate ongoing maintenance costs.

Personally, after years of Houston yard work and fighting weeds, I'd opt for artificial in a case like this.  The grass they make now isn't our father's astroturf. 

10 hours ago, Amlaham said:

Another gas station, which is better than what was there but is 4 gas stations at every corner really necessary?

The picture in the op looks like it was once a gas station.  So upgrade but no change here.