august948

- Sprawl, in the real estate sense, is just a loaded word for the areas of a city urbanistas hold in disdain. Unless it is geographically or politically constrained, a metropolitan area will consist of denser portions surrounded by areas of gradually less density feathering off into the countryside. It's just the organic way urban development happens. Even The Heights was sprawl at one time. - The city doesn't stop at any particular place, unless you are talking about a political boundary. It builds gradually from the surrounding countryside. - A better question is why would you want to combat it? To raise house prices inside the "city"? To lower the average square footage of living space per family? To increase congestion by packing more people into a smaller geographical space? To decrease privacy? To increase control? To force people onto mass transit? To limit options? To increase the cost of living?

And way before that Rush addressed the issue..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYYdQB0mkEU

Wow...US News & World Report must be pranking us then...http://blogs.houstonisd.org/news/2014/04/23/hisd-schools-earn-spots-on-u-s-news-world-report-best-high-schools-rankings/ Who are "current employees" hiring? Maids and gardeners? If said "current employees" need new hires, won't the hisd graduates be well qualified to serve as maids and gardeners since they obviously do so poorly academically-speaking? Plus we always need people to flip hamburgers. Here's the real travesty that increases tax burdens on homeowners...http://www.houstonpress.com/2014-05-01/news/texas-property-tax-assessments/ I'm looking forward to the precipitous drop in house prices. I missed my chance to buy inside the loop during the oil bust. Can we schedule this Detroit thing for 2016 so I can sell my current house and have the cash ready for a steal in West U? What kind of ore are we talking about here? High grade uranium? Gold ore? Or just plain old iron ore? The answer to that question makes all the difference. Are the hisd officials going to trade the ore for tans or are they going to tan all the other tax authorities? Is the future so bright they have to wear shades? Sounds like the community and students are already way ahead. Or at least they are ahead of the Alief School District.

The problems with the tunnels are lack of visibility from the street and the tunnel hours, which are pretty much M-F, 9 to 6 or so. If you could rely on only shoppers shopping during their lunch breaks, that might work. But, a tunnel level/connection might be workable if the store is two levels, one street and one tunnel so you get a street presence and don't have to take up a built-up level above ground. Probably would help if it was located near a light rail stop to expand it's potential customer base. I suspect though, that you need to reach some level of local residents within a geographic area in order to make it feasible. The major grocery chains have experience with that in other urban markets and no doubt already have a good idea of the criteria that need to be met in order to make a go of it. As soon as those criteria are met, you'll start seeing stuff pop up.

Props for the clever use of links.

Wouldn't it be likely that he'd end up working at the new Exxon campus in The Woodlands and thus the kids would be in whatever ISD is nearby? At a bare minimum HISD would only be one of many choices depending on where they wanted to live. Is Houston traffic really that much worse than Dallas?

Folks in NYC are used to the higher prices and inconveniences associated with having to shop at the corner grocer(s). If you are coming here from a city like that or are a hard-core urbanista then you might be willing to make the sacrifices. But if you are used to lower prices and the convenience of having everything you need at one stop, like most people are in Houston, then you'll balk at doing it that way. That's why Houston needs, and eventually will get, major grocers in or near downtown, providing the population base is there. I've also heard that NYC has policies in place that discourage large grocers from moving in. Not sure if that's accurate or not. Another big thing in NYC is grocery delivery which, frankly, I'd be inclined to use as my first option if I lived there.

Seems like anywhere I have ever lived it's been pretty easy to set out some food and the local cats will adopt you.

I've also run into a few inspection stations that unnecessarily nitpick the windshield wipers. After being gouged for a new one, I've started replacing mine right before inspection time.

The Buc-ee's on I10 near Luling is what always slows my trips to San Antonio.

We've got a rambunctious 8 month old half-husky, half-golden retriever. You're right about the cost. We're about to get her spayed and have already easily spent more than $1k in stuff for her and to dog proof our yard.

Yeah, the Syrians living next door to me put a big American flag on the back of their suv the next day. The Palestinians down the street put away the Palestinian flag that had been flying in front of their house after news reports started coming in of Palestinians celebrating in the streets.

I watched it unfold on the monitors of the Shell trading floor at 2 Houston Center and then we were told downtown was being evacuated in case other attacks were imminent. I recall they immediately stated shutting down air traffic, but there were some flights/planes that couldn't be contacted for whatever reason so they were scrambling jets to investigate.

Oh...snap! HEB is behind it all! Makes sense...they sell both wax paper and tin foil. It's all just a plot to increase sales in the baking supply section.

http://www.fbi.gov/sanantonio/press-releases/2014/virtual-kidnapping-extortion-calls-on-the-rise

Justin who?

It's years. And they're nowhere near being finished. Even once they get the segment east of the beltway done, they've got pre-construction going on west of the beltway to near Dairy Ashford. They did beautify west of the beltway in recent years a little (in the medians).

I guess I'm inured to some of the things you mention since that's common all over the Houston area. Plus I've found that some of the best food is served at hole-in-the-wall, run down places in exactly those types of cheap strip centers. That also pretty much describes most of Bellaire Blvd where the food is outstanding and the shopping is, to say the least, interesting.

I haven't researched it, but is there something in the voting patterns for the Houston area that makes the candidates think one or the other has a lock on our vote?

Wait a minute. In that stretch of road you've got the original Pappadeux's, Chacho's, House of Pies, a Barnes & Noble, REI, Texas Art Supply (nearby on Voss), Fogo de Chao, and numerous other small restaurants and bars. There might be better stretches of road around, but that one's not the armpit.

There have been too many of a similar vein to recount any one. Usually it has to do with a freeway shutdown due to an accident. When that happens, sometimes impatience gets the better of me and I end up going the long way around on another freeway or try to make it through on surface streets. Later on I usually figure out that I could have just sat in traffic and been better off. On those few occasions when I really act sensibly, I pull over to a watering hole and wait it out. Seriously, though, Rita is the one that really sticks out in my mind. And we were lucky. It only took us 6 hours to get to Austin.

Rita.

You could try buying a de-humidifier.

That's just a vicious rumor put out by the wax paper industry.

This one has a hidden rfid that is read by sensors the city has secretly installed all over town so it can track us all.