samagon

right you are, my apologies for not reading that! This would be ironic if they are conducting nefarious deeds, Google maps says crime stoppers of Houston is right there @ Main and Anita...

I know the answer to the minimax question. It was a grocery store chain, I think based in Houston.

Any street names? Intersections?

it would be neat if the buildings would coordinate with the sports teams. For instance, Baylor when they win a game, the light one of the buildings gold, and green for a loss (IIRC) they have a lot of green during football season, but it would be neat to have something like that, with all the different color options they have.

indeed, welcome!

Is the opposite true? As Red says, the point is about the restaurants rights (and then your and my rights to choose where to eat based on what a restaurant caters to). I don't think this would be as far reaching as you imagine. I compare a lot of things to Irvine Ca. as I've spent a fair bit of time there. For all of the laws that there are in Ca. and Irvine, there is no law banning dogs from restaurant patios. Do you know how many restaurants actually allow dogs to be on the patio with patrons? Less than here in Houston where it is illegal. So it isn't like a person who doesn't like eating in the same area as dogs would no longer have a place to eat peacefully on a patio, it would simply be that some establishments would allow it, while others still wouldn't. What I think needs to happen is not an all or nothing kind of deal, but a softening of the law to make a process for a business (restaurant, bar, or cafe) to have a license to allow leashed dogs to sit on the patio, if you don't buy a license, it's still illegal, but if you do buy a license, it's legal, but there are extra things the health inspector may check for on his visits, such as: are there special bowls for the dogs; are the waiters washing hands after each visit to a table with a dog; are all dogs being kept on a leash and out of walkways (IE under the table); things like that. The restaurant would probably have to get more expensive insurance too, to cover for a higher calculated risk. this would work out for everyone, city gets more money, restaurants get to choose, and you and I also get the right to choose.

it is byoh, bring your own hookah.

ha, that's why the first thing I do to any car I own is get obscenely loud horns. aside from not using my turn signals religiously and using speed limits as more of a guideline, I do tend to follow the rules like no turning, or one way streets, or things of that nature, it's just good manners. I'm not afraid to use the upgraded horns to make peoples ears bleed when I am inconvenienced by their law breaking either.

I don't see how peanut allergies are analogous. Some peanuts in a friends food aren't going to cause someone at another table to break out in hives, but an allergy to dog dander, or whatever could very easily cause someone at another table problems. Granted no one has offered to cut down all the trees cause I'm allergic to tree pollen, or even gone through and created a law that says they can't have trees in neighborhoods, or anything else. Anyway, there is no real reason I can think of, other than allergies that a person would be against pets outdoors. There are leash laws and such, not every place would allow dogs, not every place wouldn't.

I don't know, maybe it was the time of day, the route I chose, or that I was completely unprepared for road work in the area (I didn't think to look in this thread cause it only mentioned signal work, not the entire street being replaced). I wasn't prepared that I couldn't make a left onto yale, among other things, it was frustrating. probably since I know about it, I can plan a route that goes down a different street.

no way they'd charge you to watch, they'd be happy to have people watch. it's actually really interesting to see, and to meet the people who play these games competitively. professional sports players play because they get paid to do it and it is their means of surviving, but people who play a sport like air hockey, or lasertag (of which people do play competitively, and the team from Houston has won the national title twice, that is worth it's own thread too ) competitively, they do it because they love it and they know there isn't any money in it. They want to share that with anyone who is willing to listen, or watch. heh, it can be a bit awkward if you end up talking to the person who is a little too enthusiastic and can't recognize that you may not be as enthusiastic, but for the most part, you could walk through a mall and never recognize them as living an alter ego life where they own an air hockey table and practice every night after dinner instead of playing world of warcraft, or watching tv. here's the website for all things air hockey http://www.airhockeyworld.com/home.asp I would assume there are probably a few people on HAIF that played competitively at one time and were good. oh, and I bought the DVD, my friends and I will probably get a kick out of it. I am imagining "The King of Kong" but for air hockey instead.

replace the word dog with child. I was in a restaurant the other day, some kids were running around, their parents were not paying attention (but I assume knew what their kids were doing, that would extremely irresponsible if they didn't), they bumped into a waiter carrying lots of food fresh out of the kitchen (hot), if the waiter had lost his balance, that food (plus the heavy glass plates) would have been everywhere, possibly hurting other patrons, etc. you know what happened? the parents didn't even notice, or care. Unfortunately the waiter didn't tell his manager (or if he did the manager didn't have the kajones to tell the parents to control their kids or gtfo). I think based on that, all children should be banned from restaurants, regardless. pretty ridiculous yeah? A well behaved dog is more acceptable (in my opinion) than a poorly behaved child, but as a culture we are willing to accept that kids running around in restaurants is ok, but a dog leashed, but a bit rowdy is out of the question. All because we sympathize with parents, and it isn't our place to stand up and tell them to control their kids (but we feel we can do so with dog owners creating ridiculous laws that feign to be because of health and safety). I guess my point is, that as with a restaurant and children, it is up to the owner (or manager) of the restaurant to tell a patron to calm their child down, or ask them to leave for the benefit of everyone else in the place, it is my duty as a patron, if I don't like the behavior that the restaurant puts up with to choose not to go back to that restaurant. It also should not be out of order for a restaurant to have a rule that no one under a certain age is allowed in their restaurant, I may be more inclined to go their than take a chance at a place that lets just anyone with kids in. Just because I don't agree with how families raise their child doesn't mean the government should outlaw them from restaurants. replace child with dog in the above statement, and that is exactly what we're talking about. don't forget babies can't even control their own bowels, at least dogs can do that, so as far as cleanliness (and possibly smells I have to put up with) , dogs have that over babies.

In June or July they do the us open air hockey tournament. Go watch, don't need to play. It is not football, and you don't have to be as in shape as a golf player even, but the level of hand eye coordination required, speed, anticipation of your opponent, etc surely make it a sport. I haven't played in a few years, but was ranked the #1 amateur in the nation at one point. I couldn't hold a candle to the best, or even someone ranked as a professional, even at my best. But it's just like anything else, if you have no perspective, it's easy to judge.

having been a boyscout, and having been in and out of that building on a few occasions when it was the headquarters of the Sam Houston Area Council, I think it's awesome they are going to keep some of the history in the name!!

I seldom even notice them.

probably easier to just ride a bicycle everywhere in midtown and just blow the stoplights

they could always bury GRB too.. You know, since I jumped off the deep end in this thread about 2 posts ago, they should just redo the whole 59/45/10 interchange into a MASSIVE roundabout. thinking about this more, it's a perfect solution, it would kind of suck if you are coming up the gulf freeway and want to get on 59 south, but since it would be just a bunch of cars going counterclockwise anyway, you have double the freeway capacity. not only would it likely be the worlds largest roundabout (and most heavily trafficked), but it would be the worlds first fully underground roundabout that doubles as a storm sewer!

it is possible to catch a red light at every intersection at the wrong time of day.

this would certainly give east downtown more credibility as being part of downtown. they could also double as storm sewers when we have apocalyptic floods. and when the demise of cars comes eventually, they can be turned into regular sewers.

I was going off the assumption that the costs to stop and go back to the way things were would cost more than continuing on, so it would be silly (and I was making a big assumption that the city wouldn't be silly) to say "oh gosh, we lost funding, lets just cover all these holes and forget this ever happened" I mean, when you break it down, the money (whether it comes from national government, local government, or bailing out Metro with more local funding) is still going to be traced back to our pockets.

A lot of people think of downtown as being inside the 59/45/10 triangle, anything outside of that box, is outside of downtown, anything inside of that is downtown. Just like The Heights used to extend almost down to Washington, and now it stops at i10. If you want to get really formal, we can call it 3rd Ward, but I bet they would rather be associated with the East End than 3rd Ward.

where was that post/thread that funding was being removed for LR? easy go, easy come? glad to see there's a push to keep the funding, I think it's pretty obvious that the rails are going to keep going in, it's just a question of how much is paid for by local, state, or national government.

yeah, I was thinking about all of those places when I was writing, it just feels like the volume of projects is picking up, or maybe it's just that there's more buzz around what's going up currently.

I drove down it this weekend, probably before they had switched lane configurations. I'm going to keep watching this thread and won't return to the Heights until construction is concluded (partly for my own convenience, but partly to ease congestion).

good idea. I've been to munich 3 times, once when I was 10, didn't enjoy it so much, once 2007, and then again last christmas. here's some pics from the 2007 trip.. http://www.samagon0.com/euro_07/Munich/index.html I didn't enjoy it when I was 10. I enjoyed the hell out of the place both times, and I'm going back this September for Oktoberfest. There really is A LOT to do there. Whether you are a beer drinker, architect fan, car fan, history buff, art fan, they have it all. And they have a HUGE Christmas market, if you can bear the cold weather and go in December (was close to 0 F when I was there). Anyway, all of that and when you order beer they bring it to you by the liter. Awesome place. I don't see how this bar will live up to its namesake.