samagon

People, whether of a certain generation or not that want to take public transit will do so. If they have a bad enough experience, or enough bad experiences, they will explore other options. A lot more kids now choose not to get a car in high school, or even college, when it was a priority for people all the way through the early 90s that they have taken drivers ed by 15, and own a car on their 16th birthday. That's absolutely a fact, but don't let that fool you into believing that they don't eventually wake up to the realization that as soon as they get out of college it's very impractical in some places to not own a car. Those that persevere, still if they have bad enough experiences, they will end up in a car. They will be the first to abandon that car again if things change, and others will follow.

Houston's economic growth will slow, no doubt, it will very probably level off. But the reason the price is dropping is because the USA isn't the only place that has these unconventional deposits available now. http://oil-price.net/en/articles/oil-price-drops-on-oversupply.php Where is the equipment to access these reserves going to come from? Make it themselves? No, they are going to employ (are employing) companies based in Houston that know how to build and design the equipment necessary to accomplish their goals. Except for Transocean, those guys moved to Switzerland. But anyway, they'll commission a company that knows what they are doing to build the components, and it will be shipped from the port of Houston to wherever it is needed. Look at companies like Cameron Drilling, Schlumberger, or any other company in Houston. They aren't exxon, or chevron, or the guys doing the production, they are the guys who make the equipment they use to do the production. Not to mention all the energy trading that happens in Houston. Not to mention all the pipeline companies that are based out of Houston. All of this means that we aren't going to recess any time soon. Based on the amount of oil that's been found, maybe not in our lifetimes. This assumes Ebola doesn't take out the entirety of the population of India and China along with a large chunk of Africa.

the difference between 1980 and now is that the USA is producing nearly as much oil now as it was at it's peak in the early 70s (10 million barrels per day). The USA is producing more oil now than it has for the past 28 years. Until US oil production slows again, Houston's economy won't slow either (at least not as a result of energy).

cimarron, catera, they are destined to continue making the same mistakes. I'm not entirely sure who makes these decisions, and in what world they can possibly conceive that it's a good idea. Okay guys, the cadillac brand is starting to be seen as a good brand again, let's dump some poop on them and see if they even notice!

BMW hasn't followed their naming scheme for years, almost decades. For someone who appreciates their heritage, it's sad.

why would he take off his shoes and belt? My heart goes out to his family. I have no remorse for the jumper though, suicide is about the single most selfish thing a person can do, I understand they aren't in a right state of mind, but they leave behind family, friends and other loved ones that will always wonder if there was something they could have done to keep this person they love in their lives.

I guess it depends on how far you want to travel for it. Matagorda island is amazing, once you get away of what's left of the WWII airstrip, it's desolate and beautiful. You can walk for miles on the beach and see no one, or maybe that's just been my good luck. Sam Houston National Forest. Hell, even Brazos bend, or Stephen F. Austin state parks.

hurricanes and tornadoes aside, don't they get one or two snow storms/hard freezes a year?

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bloodsport are both on Netflix. As far as guilty pleasures go, not sure you can feel any more guilty than you would after watching either of these.

Maybe Beyonce will buy the land and make it her next knowles apartments.

just found this article regarding aldi's and trader joes: http://ericaswallow.com/2009/03/25/aldi-and-trader-joes-siblings/ to sum it up in a facebook relationship status: it's complicated.

Canino's is beyond awesome.

I've heard weird rumors for the past few years of a walking path connector between ERP and the main campus going under, or over the railroad switching yard and spur 5. Has anyone else heard this, and if so, is there any more information on where it will be located?

They certainly will have to deal with the traffic that their opposition to rail bought them. I often cut through their neighborhood getting from 59 to Richmond, exiting Newcastle and going down Lancashire to go west down Richmond. It's just easier. ROW is tight, but no tighter than in other places they've made it work. I think linking Greenway to the light rail should be important, so even if it didn't go farther, it would be good if it went at least that far. If there was a commuter rail from sugar land (or Richmond/Rosenberg, or hell, just go all the way out to El Campo), maybe the terminus could be at Greenway, and you make your way to other parts of town via the light rail and buses. Even if they didn't do that, it would be cool to have at least the eastern portion of the University line to help tie stuff together. From eastwood transit center (or a little farther up to connect into the green line at harrisburg) to the main street line would get a lot accomplished and it could still be expanded later.

But they do have various different soda pop and potato chips, true no CocaCola, or Pepsico (Frito Lay is owned by Pepsi) products. But hey at least at Whole Foods you can branch out and try some hand bottled strawberry/kiwi soda thing paired with some artisan baked cucumber chips. At Phoenicia I'd have buy some random spices to rub in my armpits when I'm out of deodorant. I'd like to see a Central Market, rather than WF, Target, or Aldi (which they'd never do, Aldi is owned by Trader Joes, and they only put Aldi in 'cheaper' areas and TJ in the more 'high rent' areas). CM makes more sense (to me at least) than WF, cause just like there's the Target on Sawyer, there's the WF down Allen pkwy, which is very close.

I think that the majority of people don't use that argument though, vocal minorities on both sides have brought it up though. So there is that.

These reasons are fairly minor, at least in my mind, compared with the benefit of having the rail go directly down Richmond (especially if you factor in cost of the diversion). I think though that if you were to find some television reports where they actually had interviews with people who lived in the neighborhood, things like "the rail will be too loud" and "we just don't want that coming through our neighborhood" would be heard. While I doubt anyone ever said "I don't want THOSE people riding through my neighborhood", it was fairly clear that the ticki-tacki nimby hate was just that, ticki-tacki nimby hate.

I guess it all depends on how one defines 'full' grocer. Myself, I take that to include not just all different foodstuffs I would want (meat, produce, dairy, etc.), but odds/ends I need. Toothpaste, paper towels, deodorant, tooth brush, etc. I don't like to have to go shopping for just one single $2 item, and if I were to use Phoenicia, that's exactly what I'd have to do.

I'm surprised you can't find anything. The neighborhood was definitely behind the move of the line from straight down richmond to being diverted to go down westpark. The neighborhood was littered with yard signs when the rail line was being looked at.

It's not just the person that probably shouldn't be operating their vehicles that fast, a lot of the vehicles on the road are not well maintained by their owners and probably shouldn't be driving 65+ mph, let alone even be on the freeway. blown out struts, brakes not sufficiently maintained, etc. I mean, I know the state inspection is supposed to cover the safety of the car, but all they really do is make sure the lights and horn work and emissions pass/fail. otherwise, they could care less. I personally am not against the speed limit on the freeways in the city being 55mph. it does reduce pollution (of all varieties), everyone will get better gas mileage, and people will have more reaction time to avoid incidents, especially in as tight of space as we all have to maintain. Most trips around the city I'd say on average a person is on the freeway for 10 miles of the overall trip. the difference in time between those 10 miles at 55mph vs 60mph is less than a minute difference (54.5 seconds). as you bump the numbers up by 5, the differences get even smaller. for example, the difference in that 10 mile journey between 60 and 65 mph is 46.2 seconds. 65 to 70 is 39.6 seconds. Is that minute worth the added safety and a less polluted environment to live in? My answer to that question is that for the short distances that we drive on average in the city, going fast really isn't worth it. It's fun and exhilarating to go fast, but there's plenty of high performance go kart tracks around town (35+ mph go karts) that are far more exhilarating (sitting 2" off the ground with naught but a helmet at 35mph is actually more exhilarating as going 70mph in any car).

I guess I really do appreciate modern art, cause I think each of the areas posted have their own beauty that sets them apart. But then, I also find the sterile cleanliness, perfect symmetry of everything and just the absolute orderliness in a place like Irvine California unnerving. It is in no way organic, and while yeah they have trees and plants, every single one of them seems to be tended daily through some city code, all of the trees are of a specific height, and distance. It's so... clinical as to ruin the actual nature of it. Houston, no matter where I go, it has an organic feel to it, even the areas with fewer trees and the only green is the wanton grass that is growing in the cracked sidewalk. It has the feel that everything just grew where it was, because that's where it was able to take root. Even out in the ship channel, pasa-get-down-dina, la porte, all that stuff, all those tubes and lights, and conduit, it's so straight and confusing, it looks like one of those knotted balls of yarn, untangling it you feel like you're solving one of life's basic mysteries. You know there's a pattern to all that stuff, but not in a million years (at least not without some serious engineering degrees) could you figure out how it all fits together.

I don't use the beltway (or any of the tollways really). More to the point, I stopped using them when the backroom decision was made to continue charging tolls once a roadway was paid off, which is not what was voted for.

I really like this photo.

I generally go somewhere between 60-65mph. I yell and scream at people who aren't going at least that fast, and yell and scream at people who expect me to go faster. The red mist descends when it's time to merge.

wha??? There are plenty of 4plex and 8plex apartments over here, lots of bungalows, and a metric ton of garage apartments. At least once you're out of the 'eado' section of the east end. eado is basically turning into (or has already turned into) midtown v2.0, keep going east down Leeland, Harrisburg, Canal, or Navigation, turn into a neighborhood street (any of them) and you start seeing these types of things.