august948

 Would love to see TSU and UH work together to promote some sort of retail/dining/entertainment district along Scott St. to compliment the light rail.

As demand increases inside the loop, that may happen organically anyway.  In a few decades we might be looking at "Heights South" in the area.  You'll know we're there when Walmart tries to build and get's picketed by RUDH.

Always love to see articles talking about Houstonians/Texans not paying taxes.

 

Have they seen our property tax rates? 

I get the impression these articles are frequently written by young freelancers just out of college and living in apartments on either the east or west coast, having neither visited or, god forbid, having lived in Texas.

And yet the suburban fringes of the metro area continue to march onto the Katy praire.  And the house prices there can range upwards of $550k.  Surely that kind of money would buy something inside the loop?  Why would you spend half a million dollars on a house that requires you to drive everywhere?  I've heard Dr. Klineberg has a noted urban-centric bias.  I don't know if that's true or not, but sometime what people say and what they do are very different.  I'm inclined to trust what they actually do rather than survey results.  When 47% of residents start moving into smaller houses in the urban core and leave the suburban McMansions to rot, then I'll give greater credence to such a survey.

 

 

 

 

This is certainly not the conclusion drawn from the Rice Kinder surveys over the past few years. Since the 2013 pdf doesn't seem to be working with Chrome, here are some statistics from the 2012 report (percentages have only shifted slightly; there have been no statistically significant changes in opinion over the past year):

 

 

 

 

 

This is a scientific survey of the entire Houston metropolitan area – all ten counties. There is clearly roughly half of the metropolitan population vying for denser, less auto-centric lifestyle options in Houston – yet it's obvious that only a sliver of the metro population actually has access to these amenities, which explains why there is such high demand for inner-loop housing and a continuing debate over expansion of the rail network. It's definitely not a small demographic desiring these changes in how Houston views transportation.

 

I'm curious why you chose the 2012 report when the 2014 report is available...

https://kinder.rice.edu/content.aspx?id=2147485300&blogid=306

The trends seem to reverse themselves in the 2014 report.

Of course, but you won't know that without having alternate modes of transit in place, so saying everyone in Houston prefers to drive because everyone here drives is disingenuous when we have no decent alternatives besides busses for people outside of 610.

Well, number one I don't think i said that everyone in Houston prefers to drive.  My point earlier was that the most telling votes people make are with their feet and their pocketbooks.  If anything even close to a majority put mass transit high on their lists of requirements when they choose where to live, the loop would be far more crowded than it is.  But, that's not where they are moving and there isn't a whole lot of pressure being put on the powers that be to get it going.  There's been some talk about rail bias here, but the reality, I think, is that there is also significant mass transit bias.  Many people would prefer to sit in their own car than rub sholders with the hoi polloi on a bus or a train.  Those folks tend to look first to the suburbs because it fits their lifestyle and preferences.

Number two, and this is why I brought up NYC and San Francisco earlier, even in places where there is a significant mass transit prescence you still see an overwhelming preference for driving rather than taking the train or the bus.  So, is it disingenuous to draw conclusions from the examples of cities where mass transit has been built up much more than it is here?  Should we assume that Houston is somehow exceptional in that way?  If we build rail, the majority will decide to get rid of their cars?

Number three, is the bus, particularly the P&R bus, not already a decent alternative?

I think he means people drive S

as opposed to take mass transit. If there is no decent mass transit in place then of course everyone is going to drive, but that doesn't necessarily mean driving is their preferred mode of choice.

Conversely, if there are decent mass transit alternatives, but people choose to drive anyway then wouldn't that be their preferred mode of choice?

This. Plus, saying people drive a lot when there are minimal viable alternatives is disingenuous.

Oh yeah!  I forgot people don't drive in places where there are extensive alternates, like NYC and San Francisco.  Oh, wait a minute...nevermind.

Happened to drive by this evening and the skeletons of the buildings are visible well above the construction fencing.  They've got a webcam here...

http://www.earthcam.net/projects/olivermcmillan/rod/

I don't think they'd commit to that specific of a time range unless they're pretty confident they'll hit it.  Before it was a year or a season (Fall 2014), nothing more specific.

Well, what I found interesting is the Tokaido route is 320 miles and has 17 stations.  Houston to Dallas is 240 miles.  Not quite as far, but far enough to have some intermediary stops. Proportionately you might fit in 12 or 13 stops.  From what I understand is JCR also runs both non-stops and station hoppers on the line.  So, it's entirely possible, perhaps likely, there will be multiple stops.

Just looking at a map of the Tokaido Shinkansen (JR Central's hsr route from Tokyo to Osaka), they've got 17 stations in all, 3 of them in the Tokyo area.  Seems likely that they would include multiple stops in a large city then, maybe at least downtown and IAH or the Woodlands, depending on where they can run the right of way.

Rumour has it that towards the end they stopped posting bad user reviews for restaurants that paid to advertise on their site.  I know that happened to a review my wife wrote and have seen comments from others to the same effect.

Metro says both lines will open week of Christmas...

http://blog.chron.com/thehighwayman/2014/07/two-new-metro-lines-scheduled-for-opening-in-december/

Well what about creating a drainage system for the bayou itself, rather than the bayou become the drainage? I know it's a tight squeeze compared to most of Buffalo Bayou. How about having huge drainage channels under the banks of the bayou and would open up and allow more flow?

 

Something along the lines of this...

Running under the banks to not only beautify the bayou, but also help out with flood control.

 

I know it's a pie in the sky suggestion, probably too expensive and grandiose to ever even happen. But it's an idea to help bring the bayou to more of a natural look and feel for everyone that sees it or walks/rides the trails.

 

Edit: Don't ask me where they would dump out, I don't have time to come up with that... yet.

I have no idea on the engineering feasibilty, but could the bayou water be directed to a treatment plant to help with what I'm sure is going to be our growing need for water as the population increases many millions?

And not a peep about it from RUDH since Walmart openned.

Looks like Whole Foods is moving into the space vacated by Randall's at Westheimer and Wilcrest.

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2014/07/whole-foods-to-open-new-store-on-westheimer/

They'll be moving from a smaller space across the street.

^Also, if you *add* Port of Houston + Port of Texas City + Port of Galveston together the tonnage is clearly the biggest shipping port in the Western Hemisphere (passing up the Port of Louisiana).  The Port and TMC were possibly the best things to ever happen to the City of Houston - very forward thinking by our former civic leaders.

 

The "boom" is on going and will carry over for a few years in a number of areas, but like bachanon mentioned the region will take years to absorb all the new residents and retail required.  We may see a sharp decline in commercial highrise construction (no doubt) but that doesn't mean all architectural activity will dry up - far from it.  I still think Downtown/Midtown will continue to add people like crazy once all these residential projects finish up and the demand for goods and services increases making both neighborhoods the hottest around.

That reminds me, the Panama Canal expansion is set to be completed in 2015 and that's expected to bring a lot of business and jobs here as well.

http://www.chron.com/business/article/Panama-Canal-expansion-means-big-changes-at-Port-2080267.php

They talk about it as a game-changer since the big container ships can now sail directly here from Asia instead of having to offload on the west coast.

 

Two words sum up what the Panama Canal expansion means to the Port of Houston: game changer.

When the $5.25 billion project is complete in three years, the historic passageway connecting the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea will be able to accommodate much larger ships.

For the Port of Houston, the bigger trading lane will allow some larger ships sailing from Asia to deliver their containers here instead of West Coast ports.

 

Big retailers prepared

In anticipation of the canal expansion, big box retailers Home Depot and Wal-Mart Stores have built distribution centers in the Houston area. They can import everything from sofas to nails to their Houston warehouses by sea and then send those goods to other U.S. destinations by truck or rail. And more of these huge warehouses may follow.

"Where the flagship big retailers go, the secondary and tertiary retailers go," Dreyer said.

A 2002 labor shutdown on the West Coast also convinced many shippers and retailers to diversify to other U.S. ports.

Could that be a bottle of Miller High Life dad's drinking?

speaking of density.  i've been saving addresses of new high rises on google maps.  notice the line between waugh and allen parkway to the museum district.  curious isn't it?

 

https://goo.gl/maps/KHepC  (actually, i'm not sure if the saved places will be there for everyone.  let me know if not and i'll try something else)

Not there for me.  Would like to see it, though.  Maybe you can post a screenshot?

LA has a growth boundary on the west side, but the town sprawls for 80 miles to the east....

 

Houston will densify.  Its densifying now.  In 26 years I'll wager the Loop will be a lot denser than what it currently is.  Why?  Because of the want for living in a city for some - not all - but some residents.  If we add 6+ million (as we're projected to over those 20+ years) then why not see the Loop add the additional 400,000 ?  What is Katy going to be a city of 300,000?   Sugar Land a city of 500,000?

No doubt it will be denser, I'm of the opinion, though, that the densification will be more gradual and spread out than it is in LA, SF or Chicago.  We've got no shoreline to crowd onto.  I'm also of the opinion that much of the future growth in the metro are will center around various edge cities.  We may become (if we're not already) the leading example of that.  So you may get a dense, sparse (relatively), dense pattern as you go down, say, I10, 45, or 59, etc.

I notice ole dad's getting the ac put in his window.  The kid's will just have to make do with the open window.

Just had a conversation with some coworkers who think the oil boom will last another 3 years. After that...

 

What does that do to the Houston economy? Should we expect all growth to cease? Does Houston's livelyhood truely rely completely on oil?

Just curious on why they hold that opinion.  Are they in the oil business?  I've gotten the impression that fracking has just gotten started and there's still a lot more to be done before it plays out.

Don't get me wrong I'm certainly glad the area is improving.  I just don't much care for the linear "Energy Corridor"

 

Brenham is the larger town (I think).  If not, it feels larger.  It also has a college and is sort of a reasonable distance between Houston and College Station.  I like both towns and know that eventually they'll have their fair share of Houston commuters who drive in to Cypress/Cy-Fair or Westchase/Energy Corridor/Katy.  Its coming.

In retrospect, I had forgotten about the new grand parkway connection between 290 and I10.  That puts commuters from Brenham in the energy corridor pretty easily.

Well, I'm talking about 6, and then 26 years from now.  I'm sure surface streets will be reworked in some areas between now and then.

 

Additionally, if Houston densifies similar to say... San Francisco or denser parts of Chicago or LA, then we can assume the population will "bulge" in certain areas.  Add to the idea that transit options will be available by then (be it LR, subways or even better run bus systems) to ease vehicular traffic, and I think anything is quite possible.

 

Realistically surface streets can handle nearly constant traffic - like NYC or Beijing.  Constant gridlock is in Houston's future whether we like it or not, it is in some ways already here during working hours on certain roads.  Its just part of being a really big city.  I've come to accept it, though it is quite tedious at times.

 

Also, by 2040 more of the neighborhoods throughout town will be necessity have all the "needs" you could want within easy reach.  Sure there will still be trips to Montrose or Galleria or other places on ocassion (not unlike suburban enclaves currently experience), but most of the city will have services/goods/businesses within a reasonable distance to alleviate the need to sit in a car in July for 1.5 hours.

 

At least that is how I see things progressing.  This is particularly true if we do indeed grow to the "bigger" proposed population size of 14-15 million.  I'll see if I can dig up the website and pdf from the City regarding long term growth patterns and what we can expect.

San Francisco, Chicago and LA all have hard barriers to growth on at least one side, which tends to promote densification.  We don't really have that here so I don't think it will ever get that dense.  I'd guess that we'll see denser developments spread out fairly evenly, though maybe with a north and west bias, both inside and outside the loop, interspersed among single family homes.  That trend is already visible in the energy corridor.

 

How those traffic study results are interpreted I'm sure are dependent on who is building where. Realistically though, how much traffic can areas between the Galleria area and Montrose really support? It's not as bad as trying to get from Dairy Ashford to BW8 on Bellaire on a Saturday or Sunday morning (so much fun), so it can hold more for sure.

If you've doing that drive recently, it's because of the widening of Bellaire.  I've been driving up and down it for the past 15 years and it's no big deal.  But maybe I have a greater tolerance for traffic.  I'd say the Galleria is worse on any given Friday or Saturday night.