samagon

Some things have changed, they did get running water in the 1980s.

Up until I moved out of Alief a few years ago, you had to go between 15-20 mph over the posted limit if you wanted to catch most of the greens, but you'd still catch a high number of red lights along the way.

Likely all this means is that they don't want to run the jails, and will bring in a company to handle it. privatized jails, etc.

am I reading this right? They can't throw anything at a cyclist cause that's prohibited, but if the cyclist isn't in a bicycle path, or breaks another law (running a stop sign) the driver can use that as a defense of their actions? He ran a stop sign, so I threw a bottle at him. oh, well, that's fine!

I think making the park and ride more efficient for travelers, and getting more people to those lots via local bus circulators more efficiently as well. if the city is insistent on buses over rail, then the city needs to fix the streets so they don't grow potholes from heavy vehicles like buses, as was mentioned above, fix the lights so that as buses approach they get greens when they are moving.

now there's an idea, imagine if there were an app that sucked GPS data from a metro bus, and showed each bus as a dot. not only could everyone watch random buses just idling in random places, but we could watch them skipping their routes and driving down residential streets not designed for buses to travel. most importantly though, I could see that a bus is 5 minutes from my house and leave to catch it.

Just because that's where the line terminates, that doesn't mean it's the destination. By this logic, everyone riding on the current red line had a final destination of UHD.

I never took a statistics class, but my understanding is that it's a 50% chance, because rather than going against 2 other towns, we're going to go against one other town that isn't picked for the superbowl bid from the previous year. based on the article, it looks like we've got a strong chance of winning, since Fla isn't spending money to make the stadium better, it will likely be SF beating Fla, then us beating Fla.

And bring Jean Michel Jarre for the first concert.

Shoot, I'm sorry, I should have been more clear that my response was tongue in cheek. I'll probably go to pot belly, they have pretty good samiches, probably won't go to Starbucks though. There's better coffee to be had in this town. Chipotle, moo, my personal preference is mission, for no other reason than I like their corn and the cilantro ranch. And next is freebirds cause I like their pig.

This is the biggest tragedy of suburban lifestyle inside the loop since they built a walmart near the heights.

I don't know, when you just say park, it does sound really boring. But, when you say vines and ivy, and lots of hanging plants from the superstructure (how awesome would it be to have trees floating in the air where the hanging speakers were, for example), you start getting into something that would be absolutely unique to Houston. And with the right lighting on everything, this would be an amazing night time spot.

Guess I should have been an architecture student or something, I had this idea years ago. Doesn't mean I don't like the idea any longer, it would be an awesome way to memorialize the stadium.

I used to live in Alief, so I spent quite a bit of time on Westheimer between highway 6 and the beltway. There are few roads that are safe for cyclists out that way. Not for any reason other than the amount of traffic. I get what August is saying, cause the first thing I think of when the word cycling and Westheimer outside the beltway. I see a picture of the nonononono cat in my head. The only cycling I did when I lived out there was every few weeks I'd toss the bike in the car, drive to the trails, and go ride the trails on the bayous. unfortunately, there are so few people that cycle and so many cars on the road, first people don't know how to react when they approach a cyclist, which is dangerous, and second because there are so many cars, you're more likely to come into contact with the very small percentage of driver that is militant against cyclists, or just doesn't understand the need to exercise caution. I'd say even considering the chance of being hit by someone pulling out of, or into a parking lot, the sidewalk is the safer place to ride. Which brings me to an aside, I would start participating in CM again if they decided to ride on the west side of town, rather than an area that really doesn't need awareness raised on cycling.

cross your fingers for the 3rd in the loop walmart? yeah, I think townhomes might not be the highest purpose of the land, but it's better than the current state.

I'm not worried about Houstonians boasting, frankly we've always done it, and for good reason. This town is great. What worries me is that people are going to start taking our boasting seriously and start moving here with their own ideals of how Houston is nice, bu could be better if only some things were changed, which ironically, were the things that we boasted made Houston so great. Just as with any culture, there are subcultures to even hipsters. I think one of these subcultures of hipsters is what makes them so hated by all. It's the not the hipster that hangs out in coffee houses and smokes parliaments, or rolls bugler, and wears second hand clothing because it's cheap, or bought a bike on craigslist and converted it to a singlespeed because it's cheaper than buying parts to fix the derailleurs. It's the hate filled hipster that thumbs his nose at anything that isn't hipster, looks at a bicycle that isn't a fixie and calls it crap for whatever reason, and ironically couldn't be any less hipster despite having some sunglasses with neon colored frames. They're certainly the minority, but they're also the most annoying, and so get more attention. They're also the same group who will pay attention to articles like this and decide that Houston sucks, while the real hipsters merrily ignore some writer's opinion and continue to enjoy Houston for what it does offer.

Sidewalks aren't built for riders, they're built for pedestrians. There's a lot of very limited view entry and exit points from parking lots. A pedestrian can easily stop if a car comes out into the sidewalk (not seeing a pedestrian approach because of the limited sight lines). A cyclist going 15-20mph on a sidewalk where he can't easily see a car (and also the car can't see him) would end poorly if a car is pulling into traffic at just the right time. As unsafe as I think Houstonians make it for cyclists on the road, they're a lot safer there, than on the sidewalks. Personally, there's very few sidewalks that I feel safe riding my bike on. As far as the rules on the books, I do see plenty of cyclists on sidewalks, and I also see plenty of cops drive right by them. I think the cops are probably familiar with the laws regarding this, but I also think they realize that there's better ways they can spend their time to make our city safer, or at least there's other tickets they can write to make the city more money. So you probably shouldn't worry yourself over a cop pulling you over for riding on the sidewalk, and worry more about cars going into and out of the parking lots that are attached to these commercial areas.

I hope Ed is only tabling turning the area into a parking lot, not demolition. I think there are still plenty of things they can do with the dome, and certainly I think a lot of Houstonians are at a point where they believe demolition isn't a bad idea. That being said, it would be just like Houston to demo and put in a parking lot. No, lets shake that history and get to a point where we do something purposeful with the land, even if it is a greenspace dedicated to Houston sports history.

March 31 is the cutoff. Thanks for posting by the way. Apparently, the option you select on that page just creates a form letter, so if you select the wrong one, you just edit it to say what you want. For instance, I selected "I live near Richmond and support it" and change it from "I live near Richmond..." to "I live near the Eastwood Transit Center (the eastern terminus of the proposed University Line)..."

Reading articles like this about where younger people want to live based on what is available is like watching a fish flop around in a boat.

with all the 2 letters from 2 word things, I was assuming it was going to be HoMe

I thought about mentioning that, plus taxes (not sure how OK vs TX is though). I'm sure it's cheaper in OKC to hire the non-petrochemical-engineer, or non-geologist, but it's convincing the engineer and geologist to move to OKC (which commute times, amenities, and things like what you mentioned would play into) and looking at expenses involved with sending people to Houston for various technology conferences (OTC, etc) multiple times a year. But then you get into all the companies that offer support, technologies and hardware to these companies that have offices in Houston, or do their manufacturing in/around Houston (NOV, Maverick, Honeywell, etc). It's a lot easier to just drive 30 minutes to a live meeting than to fly, or have a conference call/webex. Now that UH has the energy research park, I imagine it's like a farm system for oil companies to cultivate the student body there to slip into their systems (or could be).

http://www.shell.com/global/environment-society/ecomarathon/events/americas/schedule.html almost here again, for some reason I look forward to this event as much as I do the art car parade. I guess I just geek out over anything with a motor and wheels.

In defense of OKC, it is very near one of the largest (the largest?) pipeline hubs in the USA in Cushing OK. Other than that? I struggle to find other factors that would endear OKC in the hearts of oil companies.

does that mean the astros are too big to fail? I figure after the last 2 seasons that can't be it...