bobruss

I was a member of the original group of stakeholders who worked with Guy Hagsttette on the Cotswold project. It was initially planned to turn one of the northern most east wets streets into a waterway. This was shelved but everything else was built as planned. There were three issues which altered the downtown while Cotswold was being built. The metro rail line with water feature on Main St.. Every north south street from Smith to Austin were totally rebuilt, and it was found once excavation started on Prairie next to Cabo's in the test block, some of the water lines were still made of brick which they hadn't planned on replacing and ironically they had to remove the remnants of the old trolley lines. Everything else including signage, trees, parking and lighting were finished as originally planned. It was a very interesting chance to see things from behind the scenes.

Good Question, and do you need a valet?

Yeah, but a bad driver in an eighteen wheeler with a load of pipe can sure put a halt to your commute also. I don't think Metro has ever shut down its buses because of a strike.

I get really tired of people who live outside the loop and get their feelings hurt or suggest that people who live inside the loop are insensitive to their concerns. That is not my objective and as I stated earlier I think the outlying areas have received their share of the transportation money. We should have a more intelligent dialogue and not get down to name calling. We're all in this together as a city. Everyone has a choice to live where they want and I'm certainly not trying to make judgements, but when you say that Metro needs to do more your really barking up the wrong tree. Some of the areas that it would certainly help to have mass transit for commutes don't even participate in funding Metro. Some aren't in its jurisdiction and would be better served by the county. I also never suggested that in its current situation is Houston anything like the more densely packed eastern cities where these type systems were built early on and the cities have grown around. But I'm not talking about Houston today. I'm talking about creating a climate and infrastructure that will allow for that kind of growth, in the future. And that future might be fifty or one hundred years from now. That seems to be the problem I see with most of the arguments that people make on this site. You would think that the educated followers of this subject would be more in tuned to thinking outside the box and way into the future. Unfortunately that is not the case most of the time. If the county spent more of its money on transportation issues in the area you are taking about and less on remodeling a structure ( the astrodome), maybe you would see some improvements in those areas. I thought Ed Emmott, was on the right track when he was discussing using the existing rail lines for commuter trains which would connect with the outlying stations that Metro is building in its inner city rail system. When I was young I lived off Gessner in spring branch. At the time it was the edge of town. I know what living in the burbs is all about. I just don't think this forum or any other on this site needs to lessen the rights of either area, but to work in concert to make the whole work together. Whether we like it or not we're all in the same boat, or bus. I just think that the inner city needs the grease right now. Also as a sidebar to someone who said the govt. shouldn't be throwing money away, we'll that's just not very intelligent. So much money is wasted in areas that really don't help most of us and if we fail to keep up with infrastructure we will become stuck in a quagmire.

I'm not saying that either Metro or some of the outlying communities don't need to work on plans to help diversify the transit opportunities for people in all areas of this city, but those outlying areas have been given I-10 reconstruction , the beltway system and now the grand Parkway along with the new plans to rebuild 290 and 288. There still spending millions on I 45 south. Billions and billions of dollars have been spent outside the inner city on transportation. Metro has developed a great HOV and tollway system to help speed up traffic. I'm just saying that if the inner city becomes unworkable because people can't move it will hurt everyone in the long run. I don't think you can turn most of our streets into ten lane thoroughfares like they did on the I -10 expansion. We just don't have the room to put that many cars on the road inside the loop.

I'm glad you brought up the sprawl and the Grand parkway. I find it interesting that Mr. Culberson has no problems in destroying wildlife habitats, and natural water retention areas that help keep flooding down, creating more sprawl, which really doesn't help us get a handle on oil consumption, and taking peoples properties to build this next layer of growth yet he is unable to understand the importance of the inner cities need for a mass transit plan that actually does something to abate all of those issues. I have talked in forums to Mr C. and he just is not a very open minded person nor does he really get it when it comes to urban issues. He would do Houston a service to either step down or go back to what he did before he stuck his pointed nose into the cities business. He just doesn't get it.

After watching what happened in the late 70's early 80's with the downtown building boom, and hearing reports of a similar building spurt I really think the speculative talk about supertall skyscrapers,and the supersizing of proposed buildings is a little naive. Sure I would love to see a really well designed 80 story building on the vacant lot on Milam in the heart of town which once was the proposed site of the Southwest Tower competition. Realistically, I don't think that is going to happen. Developers are more conservative now and the city has developed too many other areas, the Galleria, Energy Corridor, the Woodlands, to name a few, that have taken up much of the sq. ftage. and the excitement of building everything downtown. My hope is that the Chevron Tower, the Skanksa Building, the Marriot Marquis, and possibly the Hines or Linbeck properties are developed along with the Hines Market Square condo tower, joining the already in progress Finger condos at Minute Maid and the sky space tower across from the Houston House. Throw in the other smaller convention center hotels and HSPVA, and I think everyone should be very excited about this cycle of downtown development.

Look, I know that a lot of people especially those that live in the suburbs and are faced with hour long commutes don't understand or want to hear about the mass transit plans for the inner city and I don't expect everyone to hop on board a train once they're running. The rail lines that are open, opening and planned, will form a system that will give a relief to some who want to ride and whether those naysayers will ever step foot in one doesn't matter because those that do will take cars off of the streets, which are becoming overburdened. And that's before this new crop of multi mixed use developments being built all over the inner city are even finished. I shudder to think of the traffic jams along Richmond, West Grey, Dallas, and in the Galleria. I know it took a while for development to start building along Main, but look at it now. Developers have to be educated just like everyone else and I think we are seeing some of that happening now. I promise you that in a shorter time than most think once all of the lines are finished including and most importantly the University line this mass transit system will become the new frontier for Houston development. To finish with one of my favorite lines "Rome wasn't built in a day", but if we don't plan for the future it can sure take a lot longer. Example: Go over to that wonderful heaven on earth Austin, Texas, if you want to see gridlock. Just because they were determined to keep out growth and to not develop their infrastructure in the 80's when they should have. Their traffic is much worse than ours.

Can you share the email address? whotels@starwoodhotels.com Sure here it is along with a copy of the message I received. I know its a very generic kind of answer but it does mention several times that one is coming sometime. Thank you for your email to Whotels.com. W Hotels is one of the fastest upcoming hotel brands and is looking to expand our locations. We have several hotels opening soon all over the world. We currently do not have one listed for Houston opening yet. Please keep checking our site for a location coming soon near you. Mr. R. , thank you again for your interest and we hope to bring a W hotel to Houston soon. Should you require additional assistance, simply reply to this email. If you prefer, you may chat with us online or we can call you. Please fill out our customer service feedback survey and let me know if the customer service you received today met your expectations. Best Regards, Heidi Pearse Specialist, eCommunications Department Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

I think that if the project gets built it will be the game changer this part of town needs. The market square area is poised to develop into an upscale residential enclave where the performing art district rubs shoulders with the historic district. The diversity in restaurants is finally starting to attract more interests and now that Market Square park has finally found its heart it will be a magnet for growth. Just like what Discovery Green has done for the east side with continuos programming of activities and dining, market square will Attract more and more development.

Has anyone contacted The W, or I believe they are actually part of the Starwood group. I sent an email just last week to a contact address and had a response from one of their representatives who said it is Something they are considering but was vague about a time frame. I think the more who contact them will make them more aware of the interest. I mentioned the friends who plan visits here always ask if we have a W, yet? Those kinds of things peek interest. Perhaps others will follow.

One has to remember we're building this for the future. A time when several more million people will live in a city that will be hard for many to comprehend. Some actions might not seem logical right now but will be the backbone for our future growth and development. It's vital to develop every form of mass transit now in order to be able to handle the density inside the loop that will come. It would be a shame for a city with so much going for it fail to take advantage of these funds and let them go somewhere else. While we have this new support in Ted Poe we need to rally support. I've watched Houston grow for over fifty five years and I've seen the first freeways built and the question of funding those early projects weighed heavily on local voters. Well they seemed to take hold and look what happened. We now have a very large multi- nodal metropolis. Most of that came through that freeway system. Now we need to focus on mass transit inside the loop.

Not to bore anyone, but I read some of the earlier texts and there was a little confusion abot the different shows. Looney town which my father hosted was the show with the money tree where kids would go on their birthday and grab for pennies. Also you used the Looney bucks on Looney Auction to bid for prizes. Looney Town came out of the Bert Lynn show and featured puppets from outer space and had a theme song. It's time now for Looney Town and you can bet were ready set to go. Silly little theme song written by our next door neighbor at the time who a lot of old time Houstonians would remember for his jingle for Utotem- You tellum you totem. Or his Dixienauts, who used to play at the Astrodome. Next door to him lived another old Houston T.V. Celebrity named Lee Gordon, who did commercials for the YMCA, and next door to him lived Tom Reiff who was station G. M. for KPRC, and next door to him were my Godparents Marrietta and Bob Marich who had dinner theaters and actually she and my father had one of the earliest T.V. shows on Houston T.V. It was sponsored by I think Lightcrust flower and ran on Saturday afternoons. They did slapstick and sang with a live orchestra, between commercials on the feature movie of the week. Just to keep things straight.

I just found this site and was intrigued by the current discussion. My father was Captain Bob on KPRC in the late 50's and 60's. He actually had 3 childrens t.v. shows. The first ws Looney Town and that was a rival show that competed in the same time slot as Kitirik. He also had a show on Saturday Mornings called Today is Saturday which was formatted like the Today show on NBC. He had guests like John Wehrler from the Zoo and cartoons and science films. He had another show on Saturdays which someone earlier was confusing. It was called Looney Auction and you did collect looney bucks from Carnation milk and the rainbo Bread company. We used to ride around in the Isetta. He used that for promotions and parades. The picture that was shown was not of his car. His had a big white admiral cap on top big plastic eyes and a smile painted on the front so it looked like a face. I hadn't thought about this in a long time. I used to get kidded at school about all of this but it had its perks. Rodeos circuses concerts parades celebrities. We got to meet every star that came to town for the rodeo or T.V. stars appearing at channel 2. Quite a crazy time.