august948

i agree its definitely not "good" in an overall sense, but i don't think its completely bad.

what makes you think the quality of teaching has decreased? most of my teachers went to places like Cambridge, Harvard, and Princeton, and were extremely intelligent. i did have a Chemistry professor/old timer who was defintely there on tenure and would literally take 5 minute smoke breaks in the middle of class, and didn't seem too with it. but he was a rare exception.

i completely agree about #2..

yeah kids are definitely being "spoiled" and not realistically being prepped for what its going to be like once they get out of school and are living on their own dime.

as for all those amenities.. i guess i was spoiled by Baylor. heh.. almost 10 years ago, i lived in i believe the oldest male dorm on campus.. and while we had 2 community bathrooms per floor, and shared a room with 1 other person, we did have a gym in the basement (even though the Baylor SLC [student life center/rec center] is ridiculous), along with laundry room (there was also a program for regular laundry pick up/cleaning if you desired by an on campus laundry service) and a game room down in the basement as well. a 5 story parking garage next door. study lounges on each floor, and TV room/hang out lounge with a big screen. and this was a dorm built in the 1950s.. all of the dorm complexes built on campus since the early 2000s have been the apartment style "Living Learning Center" dorms with living room/kitchen/multiple bathrooms and bedrooms, like you describe. but the majority of the students were spoiled rich kids anyways so it was kind of expected i suppose.

That sounds like Martin Hall.

This is on my to-do list next time I'm in SF.

http://www.oursausalito.com/golden-gate-bridge-bike-to-sausalito.html golden-gate-bridge-bike-to-sausalito

Or if budget is an issue, they can go with this...

if they put in stairs they'd have to put in a ramp, or elevator for ADA compliance. That cost may have been the first thing on his mind.

 

In the wishful thinking department...

 

I wish they had spent some money not on concrete, but on dirt and sod.

 

 

yeah, they'd have to have a continuing budget the cut the grass, but couldn't they just put some blades on the bottom of the light rail cars themselves??! (kidding!).

Just attach one of these puppies to the back of the train and you're good to go.

So what are some interesting things to visit along the new lines?  Bars, restaurants, funky stores, etc?

That's pretty odd. Given the proximity to Silicon Valley I'd have expected most of them to have iPads/iPhones sporting Square card readers in lieu of garden-variety POS terminals. Businesses always gripe about the merchant fees they're charged by card companies but it still seems like they'd be leaving a bunch of money on the table by adopting a cash-only policy. 

Taking cash only has some not-so-legal perks. 

I don't know...President Good Hair just doesn't have the same ring as Governor Good Hair....

1960 is continuous from 290 and Hwy 6 all the way to Dayton!

610 is infinitely continuous!

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'Twern't so in the 80s.

 

We were using Whole Paycheck as bait.  (**hypnotist voice** - cooooommmme to the granolaaaaaaa...**)

 

What were we thinking?

West Mount Houston, to be precise... 

And all this time I thought that fiery glow in the east was a refinery...

Guys...guys. I think we know what they are really doing up there

(with some help from photoshop of course)

Is that Mount Houston in the background?

It's all good.  But you should get the stereotypes right.  Baylor isn't known as the rich kids private school.  That goes to SMU hands down.  As for "I once saw a Bentley", every school has its overpaid football coaches and former athletes. 

Say what?

In a pasture somewhere?

Apparently, there's a pasture nearby.

Where should the horses be?  I would think they are closer in speed and scale to the bicyclists than the cars.

Speed, yes.  Scale, no.

I believe any new development would be required to install sidewalks along the front of the property. This may be in part a city ordinance and a requirement of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

I think that was already part of the city ordinances when this was built (2000 or so).  I've wondered if they got a variance of some sort as they did build sidewalks along other sides of the development.

Yep. Exhibit A, from the Chron piece linked above:

 

 

When that store opened, I remember thinking that there was no way it would last. Fiesta's niche is not in Sugar Land, and trying to go upscale with "yogurt and coffee shops" reminded me of nothing so much as JCI's effort to refocus their menu more on things like "chef-driven" hot dogs (although the jury's still out on how successful, or not, that strategy will wind up being). At least the Sugar Land store was an experiment that likely didn't cost nearly as much as if they'd opened a new store - it was a Gerland's before it was converted to a Fiesta, and at the time Gerland's and Fiesta were both owned by the Levit family.

They did the yogurt and coffee shop thing at the one near me at Westheimer and Dairy Ashford, but it was gone within 6 months.  Replaced by a florist counter.  Other than that the store has been doing ok so far, judging from the traffic in and out.  Not as good traffic as the one at Bellaire and Hwy 6, but decent.

It's very similar to, and is owned by, The Cheesecake Factory.  Ambiance and lighting (on the dark side) are similar.  Food is a standard assortment.  They used to have enormous chocolate cream puffs, but those have been gone for several years now.  That was the only thing that made it stand out to me.

Green and gold cars are not in this country.  And Baylor students drive Bentleys?  You seem very biased, to the point of delusion. 

 

Nowadays it's more often Hummers.  Back in the day BMW's and Mercedes were the more common cars.  I did see a kid driving a Rolls once.  Probably a hand-me-down.

That being said you shouldn't get so emotional when I say something about Houston. As if you are its chivalrous defender. It's good to compare to other cities to see what Houston could become if the correct infrastructure investments were made.

And vice versa.

We shall see. I hope I'm wrong. As much as Fiesta gets bashed by those who can't abide any grocery store that's not a brand-new HEB or a Signature Kroger, it's nevertheless been a unique and important part of the community for a lot of people. The fact that it will no longer be locally-owned and operated by owners whose core expertise was in both wholesale and retail grocery operations, but rather by financiers based out of state, doesn't fill me with confidence regarding its future.

I don't see Fiesta leaving it's niche. If they do, they'll never survive. Not much value in a bit player mainstream grocer. It'd be my guess that they clean up whatever they can and sell to a larger chain looking to expand in the Hispanic market.

Didn't they come and go once before?

Yeah. They built a number around 2000 or 2001, including one downtown. After 3 or 4 years there was some sort of dispute between corporate and the local franchisee and they all shut ddown.

I don't think it has to do with nationality more so than it has to do with the fact that we have a piss-poor driving education system here. It's ridiculous how easy it is to get a license here.

And most college students really haven't been driving that long either and lack the experience and judgement of an older driver.

Can businesses and developers within the city limits be forced to build a sidewalk?  There's a long stretch of Richmond along the Royal Oaks development where they never put in a sidewalk.

There is also going to be a Krispy Kreme on Westheimer between Dunvale and Fondren where the Arby's used to be in the Target parking lot.

Sweet!  An Arby's further out on Westheimer, east of Dairy Ashford, also just closed.  Now I can get my hopes up that they convert that one to Krispy Kreme, too.