samagon
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Posts posted by samagon
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we just got power back this afternoon. I checked the CPE outage site when we came back up, we were among the 25000 lucky few who had to wait nearly a week (and some of them will have to wait a week, or more).
I get it, we were residences only, and only 30 of us, and significant damage to the line in numerous places.
oh well, I had needed to get a generator anyway, it runs on propane, so I'll get a kit to make it work on NG, and easy peasy for the next extended power outage.
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why isn't this being paused for review by our traffic engineer mayor?
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15 hours ago, hindesky said:
Houston officials approved the sale of a slice along White Oak Bayou to state highway officials for the planned rebuild of Interstate 45, arguing the deal was inevitable and provides the best assurances a popular hiking trail will remain.
The sale, approved by City Council on Wednesday, hands the site over to the Texas Department of Transportation. The land is needed for the $11.1-billion-plus redo of I-45, near where it splits from Interstate 10. Houston is selling TxDOT a slice slightly below three acres in size for $261,000.
maybe the college kids will go occupy that land?
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the windows downtown, it wouldn't surprise me if they were sucked out by pressure.
the wind was consistently blowing from the west to the east in front of my house, and I'm not that far from downtown.
so if the wind is blowing from west to east, then it makes it seem to me that any debris would hit on the west windows.
winds measured in most areas were around 100mph, and downtown, where you get the canyon effect, it wouldn't shock me to hear the speeds were up to 150ish, and indeed a low pressure area sucked all the windows out.
it would be really cool if there were a building that had barometers on all sides of the building, to measure pressure differentials.
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maybe the city should get rid of the ridiculous rule that bans advertisements on public transit, create more income streams.
I for one would love to see the fun advertisements that Pusch and Nguyen could come up with.
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4 hours ago, editor said:
For reference, here's what freeway caps look like elsewhere. I picked a few in Seattle, because those are the ones I'm most familiar with:
(Sorry about the "crazy old man having a stroke" random text styling. I just want to fit in with the rest of the thread.)
this is confusing.
although, I think Houston already has one.
maybe if we give all the ROW over the below grade area to the RR we can guarantee they will be capped and put to use?
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compared to Dallas, everything in Houston is (or should be) twice as big.
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3 hours ago, s3mh said:
In the video, Abby Kamin says that the developer of the new Target on Shep is threatening to pull out if the project is delayed. Whitmire says something about the redevelopment of the Sears property in GOOF, which is not part of the redesign.
Going from 11 ft lanes to 10.5 lanes would seem on the surface like a reasonable compromise, but it is really a huge waste of money just so Whitmire doesn't have to admit that he was wrong. The lanes on the northern segment are already 10.5 feet. Redesigning 1.5 miles of road to make lanes six inches wider is a massive waste of money just so the mayor can have his flex moment over new urbanism. Not a single motorist in the history of Houston has ever slowed down even a fraction of a MPH because the roadway narrowed by 6 inches. I would venture to say that the average driver would not even be able to tell the difference between 11 ft and 10.5 ft lanes. The money that will have to be spent on getting new designs and engineering and time lost to go back to the drawing board just so the mayor can stick his fingers into a shovel ready project that had no opposition is money that could go to build sidewalks in Denver Harbor.
it represents a ~5% difference.
go through a doorway that is 36" wide and then go through a doorway that is 34" wide. one of them is going to just feel easier to go through. you can't really tell there's a difference, but it's there and you do feel it, and you are going to take more care when you are going through the 34" doorway.
same in a car. with 132" wide lanes vs 126" wide lanes.
the brain is a kooky thing.
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this is good news, not great, lane width is one of the things that encourages the speed that drivers choose to go. drivers naturally want to drive slower when the lanes are more narrow, and they want to driver faster when the lanes are wider.
but then, just having a more narrow road overall will help too.
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in case anyone is confused about what it looks like when a party commits money to be used as a cap park for another project that is just as embroiled in controversy....
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On 5/11/2024 at 12:02 AM, august948 said:
You're welcome. Times two.
thanks for quoting Matty36, I wouldn't have seen his post otherwise.
his comment is just hilarious. many of us have been saying over and over, until someone comes forward and commits their money into the cap parks, we should expect no cap parks.
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1 hour ago, 004n063 said:
...a poll would probably tell you that the majority disfavors reductions in car lanes (and probably any construction project along their commute, for that matter)...
I agree with most of your other statements.
I do think that a poll worded simply "should we reduce lanes" would absolutely be a no vote from all but the people who don't own a car.
on the other hand, I think a poll worded simply "should the number of lanes on a road match motorists needs" I bet everyone would vote yes, because all they think is that this means someone is going to put in 50 lanes so every car can get through the light on the first cycle, when in reality it means that there will be a traffic study, and if there are too few cars for the number of lanes, then one of the lanes goes away.
which is why we end up with such weirdly worded questions on ballots.
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6 hours ago, s3mh said:
Phase 2 of the Shep/Durham rebuild gets $40 mil from Federal grants, $20 mil from TIRZ funds and $10 mil from City of Houston.
If this project was such a gross misuse of funds, Whitmire should just shut it down and hold a press conference to announce where the funds will be spent instead. But that is not what he is doing. He is still greenlighting the project, but forcing a huge redesign because his donors are relics of City Hall politics from the days of strip malls and urban sprawl. ...
I would presume if there is any material change to the plans that the federal level would have to re-approve it for grant funding.
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18 hours ago, hindesky said:
what a spastic blend of offerings.
not in a bad way, well, I guess we'll see, but that's just a very odd jumbling of flavors to adorn the same menu, I mean, if you 2 couples going out on a date night, someone wants a cup of gumbo to scratch their Cajun itch, someone else wants a nice chicken fried steak, the third wants eggplant parm, and the last one wants a perfectly cooked flounder, well, it looks like there's a solution!
are they going to make garlic bread, cornbread and southern style dinner rolls? what kind of sides are on offer? mashed potatoes and white gravy, green beans, collard greens, coleslaw, fries?
I wish them well, and I hope (unlike other restaurants in the same location) they last long enough for me to go more than once.
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1 hour ago, hbg.50 said:
Yeah, I reject that theory…a bit too sinister for me. Heck, SJL scared so many people, who didn’t contribute to Whitmire’s campaign?
it's still the simplest answer, and the conspiracy theory just takes a lot more steps.
we're all theorizing at this point. so you can believe what you want, and I'll do the same.
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21 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:
And even TxDOT signed off on the redesign
so did Whitmire himself!
"The reconstruction of Shepherd and Durham are critical components of the transportation infrastructure for the City of Houston, the Houston-Galveston region, and ultimately, the State of Texas," Whitmire wrote on June 24, 2019.
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16 hours ago, hbg.50 said:
What's his motive @Triton?
I know you asked Triton specifically, and not the whole class, but it seems to me that the simplest answer is usually the right one.
that he's appeasing the people who donated to his campaign.
I mean, sure we can get all conspiracy theory about why he would go from having this stance in 2019:
"The reconstruction of Shepherd and Durham are critical components of the transportation infrastructure for the City of Houston, the Houston-Galveston region, and ultimately, the State of Texas," Whitmire wrote on June 24, 2019
to the stance he has now where he wants to stop the project after half of it is complete, but simply, donors speak loud.
and to be sure, he doesn't care about Jane VanSanten's $4 contribution, it's more the $30,000 donation from TAR, $20,000 from HPOU, Cobb Fendley, ACEC Houston, or feel free to investigate his donations for yourself. https://www.transparencyusa.org/tx/candidate/john-whitmire/contributors?by=electionAmount
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2 hours ago, hbg.50 said:
It’s normal when a new regime comes in to pause and reassess existing projects. Have any of you ever worked in corporate America? My company would reorganize every 5 years.
Put the brakes on all the drama and overreaction and wait patiently for the new plan. Stop all the “Whitmire hate.” It won’t get you anywhere but labeled a special interest activist.putting a project in the planning stages on pause is one thing. walking back a project that was 99% completed is something completely different. as is deciding to stop a project that is so far down the tracks that phase 1 is nearly complete and they are planning to break ground on phase 2 later this year.
18 minutes ago, hbg.50 said:Didn't Hidalgo put the brakes on Astrodome renovation plans after she beat Emmett?
Seriously, it happens all the time.
41 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:IIRC, Mayor Turner halted the Bush Airport international terminal expansion plan in its tracks shortly after taking office.
where were either of these at as far as planning and design?
so far as I seem to understand from this thread, this Shepherd project was funded and ready to break ground. in fact, phase 1 is nearly done right now, and phase 2 was supposed to be started later this year.
any Astrodome renovation plans were still in the stage of going from a conceptual idea to designing details.
I'm not sure where the Bush expansion was in relation to breaking ground, but I would be shocked if it was a certain way down the tracks.
the University line for METRO being stopped where it is makes sense to me, yes, there was a lot of money spent, and designs being done, but it wasn't so far down the tracks that phase 1 was nearing completion, and that phase 2 was going to break ground later this year. contextually, that's where this is.
imagine the i45 project, they get segment 1 99% done, then, as they are planning to start groundbreaking for segment 2, someone just steps in and decides unilaterally to stop it.
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ugh, you could have at least hidden the rake you used to bring the leaves over to the drain!
:D I kid.
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On 5/4/2024 at 5:25 PM, 004n063 said:
It seems to me that the thread is reacting with outrage at a rapid spate of major actions that pull back on most of the few crumbs of progress we've managed to put together over the last ten years. I would call that outrage justified, not hysteria.
outrage, excellent, we should should be.
some of the connections though, they seem to conjure images.
the problem with venting outrage by making some weird connections that probably don't exist is that they end up changing the subject away from what it should be, which in this case, mobility.
I'm not even sure if METRO has been discussed on this page?
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On 5/2/2024 at 1:05 PM, BeerNut said:
It's like everyone forgot about when St Arnolds had their original place with no air condition.
it's true!
I also remember choosing not to go between June and October.
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1 hour ago, __nevii said:
It is — Republicans are cowardly and scared that they are losing their grip regarding state political control. Lots of GOP led positions in Harris county swept by Democrats in 2018 onwards. They are trying every trick in the book to destroy urban areas/make living conditions miserable such as to drive out left-leaning people (who tend to like well-functioning urban environments). This is their dying grasp in attempts to wrestle back power.
That is why they are trying to control elections in Harris county. That is why they took over HISD. That is why they are attempting to push I-45.Now, the only thing that will complete this theory is whether or not Whitmire is "in on it" regarding the Republican agenda. Is he a "lackey" of Abbott, sent in to Houston because the state leaders knew that no Republican would win a city race? Or, is he simply a "useful idiot?"
But the wrinkle, is whether or not they truly drive Texans out of the state. Stuff at HISD, I-45, etc might only merely drive Houstonians into suburban counties, or to other cities in the state at best. If the voters themselves have not changed, then popular elections like governor's seat will remain unaffected.
at least the crazy conspiracy theories aren't all just coming from right wing extremists.
i45 expansion is being pushed by HGAC outer counties that want to increase their tax base. plain and simple, the only way they can do that (at least as they see it, and with as little investment on their part as possible) is to get TXDoT to make connectivity better for them.
I know plenty of teachers in HISD, aside from very few schools, the district was in horrible disarray. does HISD failure help to further the goals of Abbot and his voucher system, absolutely, but HISD failed all by itself, unless it had been infiltrated by republican spies that made it fail.
Whitmire would not be mayor if SJL hadn't run, was she convinced by a republican spy to run for mayor because they knew that would result in getting people to go vote for anyone other than her, which just happened to be Whitmire?
at the end of the day, the loss of the University line is kind of disappointingly predictable, even without Whitmire involved it wasn't moving anywhere on a timeframe that showed that the leaders wanted to see it successfully built, it was more of a political posture of "look at me, I support this thing, I am all about urban design and multimodal transit options!" when it fact, it was money being spent on a project that always seemed to be 10-15 years out.
I guess on the plus side the East End residents don't have to worry about an overpass in their neighborhood.
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is there a transcript of the interview?
The Langley: Residential High-Rise At 1717 Bissonnet St.
in Going Up!
Posted
moving fast now.
when do the 'opponents' to this start removing their yard signs? certainly once people start moving in the yard signs will be seen as targeting the residents?