Ringo3Khan

"In all seriousness though, the tax credit units are priced such that only Class B- or C apartments would face additional competition. And since y'all don't have much of that (if any) in the Egypt submarket, it's not so much that any apartments get undercut...it's mostly that the area becomes accessible to more households that previously couldn't afford it."

Its Magnolia; I seriously doubt there is much if any Class B- or C apartments in the area but I haven't been there to check. Yes, it makes the area more accessible to more households that previously couldn't afford it. Therein lies a large part of the problem. The households it makes it accessible too can't afford the automobiles and fuel necessary to make the commute to anywhere else for jobs. And there's no mass transit available in the immediate area. R

Realistically speaking, it doesn't matter. We're all adults here; we know what the bottom line is and why this is going on. Its social engineering. What isn't mentioned is that it has had a significant depressive effect on property values all across northern Harris county and South Montgomery County. There may be no stopping it but it is resulting in further unecessary sprawl and its contributing significantly to the growing perception that buying a house in areas subject to constant transition is anything except a good investment.

Oh, this is truly rich; just googled on the location. I know quite a large number of people who sold out of Spring to move to Magnolia to escape the crime/blight and wrecked school system problem that's been built into Spring over the last 10 years and now.........................this! Have to believe they'll be building up in Brenham next.

I used public transportation for years; quit about 2005. It just isn't safe anymore. And it isn't just the system's buses or trains that don't "seem" safe, its the having to be on the sidewalks. Another reason I think we've seen what I've perceived to be a drop off of use is that one of the most popular routes were the park'n ride routes. After they started putting in MetroRail, they quit adding buses to the Park'n Rides. The last few times I tried riding the park'n ride to Spring, (there's a couple of options), I ended up having to stand; today, its largely SRO on every evening bus outa downtown. A friend of mine used to ride the MetroRail downtown but he saw a friend of his clubbed for his wallet one evening on one of the stations and having suffered head trauma, he's now in a wheelchair. Its a shame really, especially as we careen toward $4.00 a gallon gas. We got fed up with the crime in Spring, sold the house and moved to a gated apt. complex near the office building where I work.

It's definitely not just you; my wife and I have had long discussions about this phenomenon/problem. My observation has been that nothing has been the same and/or as good as things were then. To imagine that Houston actually had a living, breathing, vibrant downtown and had had one since the turn of the century is quite remarkable. I can't quite imagine what the future holds and at my advanced age, it really doesn't matter but I've got a feeling that for Houston.............the future is that of the old, Downtown Port Arthur Texas.

I can't help but think that life and america will never feel like that again. Growing, so many new things every year, cultural changes, and people with a real positive outlook that they can make things better for themselves. Today just feels so cynical. Or maybe it's just me.

Correct, she didn't see it. After the wreck she's heard asking her passengers, "Was that light green?" Watch the video a few posts up.

Oops; well, that sort of fits in with my rule of, "if you have to ask..........it wasn't". Then again, I've never timed the yellows on that line; I know they've shortened the yellows at the red light camera intersections, (I know because it's quite obvious); but I don't think this is a red light camera intersection.

Blind corner? How does that explain cruising through straight through a red light that turned over ten seconds earlier? The tree limb is not obscuring the light.

It probably doesn't if that report is true and the cameras seen on t.v. would seem to so indicate; the deal is that if your making that split second decision and making a judgement by doing a left/right scan to see if you can make it through on a yellow, it can be difficult at some of the intersections because you have to be near into the intersection to actually see anything down the line of intersecting traffic. That's why I stop on yellows at a lot of those intersections. If that light was red for ten seconds, she must have been speeding or simply didn't see the light.

It's been around for 20 years, vs 5 for us.

I'm sure when it opened that there were as many accidents as we have had, on a ratio of cars/sq mile. meaning, if they have 10 cars/sq mile, and we have 100, I'd expect us to have 10x the incident rate.

anyway, my point is, that in 15 years when rail is more abundant in houston, and people have become used to driving around with it, our accident rates will be down too.

I've been wondering about all that; the newspaper has gotten so eratic in their reporting I can't make head nor tails of what's going on with Metro but based upon the snippets of news I hear on the T.V., I get the impression that Metro's construction schedule may be much delayed. They seem to be having some serious budget issues. I work in the Galleria area and have heard reports that the area merchants on Post Oak, (they featured the owner of Kenny & Ziggy's Deli) are mounting serious opposition, fearing they'll meet the same fate as so many DT merchants did during the construction phase.

As to the bus wreck; I have to drive down there quite a bit and can sympathize with the Driver to some extent. One of the problems I've noticed is that at some of the intersections, it's almost like a "blind" corner; they mentioned this a.m. that because this is the second crash at that corner that they're now looking into the issue of a tree limb obscuring the view of the lights/intersection.

Not Midtown, but here's one tale of Bronx Bar allegedly discriminating: http://blogs.houston...internetexp.php

WOW, that's almost so weird as to be unbelievable; I'd almost go and watch the action from the outside just to see if it's really true!

They'll get their license pulled once TABC get's wind of it.

I've only known of one bar, way north and I won't mention the name because it's changed with new management, that successfully, (sort of) pulled this off. They had perfected a technique where they would "spike" the drink, then do a drag out/beat up in the parking lot and call the cops who would arrest the apparently out of control person that wasn't wanted at the bar. It worked for a while anyway, but as you might imagine, their business fell way off because "sane" people didn't want to be around such behavior. So, the then owner, who made a habit of drinking at his own establishment, watched his business dry up and ended up selling the place back to the guy he'd bought it from at a significant loss.

Moral of the story? The Bar business just isn't for everyone.

I have not been to Antique since this thread started because I take such allegations seriously.

As a service to the continued deterioration of your liver and the liver of other drinking HAIF'ers, I'll let y'all in on a little secret; it's not in Midtown; it's downtown on Market Square; and if you go to that particular bar, (you guess the name), that's run by the sister of the founder, (the bar is named for the founder); which said sister also owns a wine bar on Market Square, (too much information-it's a give away now), and you manage to go there during the daytime, 11:30~2:00 when the "regular" bartender is on duty, (she's been out sick quite a bit lately); I can assure you that every drink is, well.......very strong!

What does douchebag refer to? That is one of those "i know it when I see it but can't put it to words" type of things. Maybe this will help.

http://www.youmightbeadouchebagif.com/

o.k., I got it; new term, same "creature"; back in the day when I was a young man, i.e., before the war, (you pick the war), these people were called, variously, meatheads.......jerks......pimps and more recently, wannabe's.

An illustration to add to your explanation:

Arrgghh, I know that guy; he's the one I accidently on purpose spilled a drink on and then accidently on purpose knocked his drink over when he bent down to wipe himself off.

I haven't been to a place that would admit this creature in years.

That's Midtown for ya. The island in lower Midtown and a handful of localized bars are all that remains of the douchy-free zone.

This thread is doubtless dead, but I've puzzled through it three times in disbelief, puzzling over the real thrust of the issues discussed here. I'm left to question: what's the term douchy refer to? I get the impression that some of the localized bars are actively discriminating on the basis of color? (that's illegal the last time I checked). Or is the idea that many of the bars appear to be snobby and are turning people away on the basis of some dress code? I are cornfused here; don't get it. How could any bar establishment in Houston expect to stay open if it were discriminating on the basis of race?

If the poster's concerns were legitimate--and they aren't because the obligations that the City would have to provide for aren't worth the value of his/her property taxes--then it'd mean something that you're wrong on this point. They don't receive HPD service and pay for all their own infrastructure through a MUD. Also, the City is not above annexing strip centers without annexing neighborhoods, so their sales taxes already go to fund the city services that they aren't using all of.

Not getting annexed, actually, is sort of the worst of all possible worlds for the people who are against it.

I'm forever amazed at the annexation/anti-annexation arguments. The amount of mis-information relative to the awesome sum of experiential evidence is somewhat stunning. I think the problem is that the pro-annexation crowd can't get over the myth that those who live "in county" somehow manage to receive "free" services from the COH that the residents of COH pay for but aren't compensated for. Whether or not the concerns alluded to are legitimate isn't something I can validate; it's a topic that arose in the thread. It's possible that the COH might see that again, the low property values wouldn't compensate them for the services they'd have to provide and do one of their "strip annexations" up the feeder of I-45 to take in the Exxon office park.

What I find somewhat amusing is this thought that we get the benefit of HPD without having to pay for it as though HPD was a benefit. HPD is the problem, not the benefit. Or to put it another way, we get the benefit of HPD being virtually non-existent in the form of roaming criminals who eventually run afoul of the law in the County jurisdiction. "Getting Annexed" means that we get what they got in Kingwood. Fire and Ambulance service that can't find the residences and Barney Fife, three half days a week in a Blue & White who sees it as his job to pass out tickets to the unsuspecting on Kingwood Blvd. It would be hilarious if it weren't for the fact that there have already been reported deaths of people waiting for bambulance service, (I have a friend who lives in Kingwood who will regail anyone in earshot of the horror stories). What actually happens is that once an area is annexed by COH, it's as though it's been roped off. Emergency calls are bipassed by Sherrif and PCT. 4 because HPD/HFD are now seen as first responders. So the only way around this is for those neighborhoods that can, continue with the same contract constabulary service they paid for before Annexation, but..............for whatever reason, and I suspect it's turf war problems, the response times go way, way up. If you really want to see the benefits of annexation.......take a trip to Willow Brook mall. It's not Westwood yet......but it's getting there fast.

Having said all that I don't have a dog in this hunt; I only live in Spring because the house is paid for and with only a few work years left there's little reason to move. Upon retirement, we'll sell the place and move permanently to the Hill country. My hope and prayer for those of you who live in COH is that one day, maybe, (but I won't hold my breath), you'll get a Mayor that will see services as a priority and not a problem.

I hope so.

Why would you hope so? For those of us who live in the area, it would be an absolute disaster. We already have a crime problem that's just barely manageable. If the area is annexed we'd have no police coverage whatsoever. As things stand now, it's all Precinct 4 can do to keep things in check. The area east of I-45 would become a free fire kill zone.

The Houston ETJ encompasses The Woodlands and a fair bit of southern Montgomery County. link

Also, Klein isn't a municipality. And the proposed location is a tract of land right along the Harris/Montgomery County border, just on the Harris side.

I live in Spring, east of 1-45 and east of the Tardy Hole Road; we've been quite worried Houston will do an annexation; this will pretty much seal the deal, but we'll have sold out and be gone before it happens, or at least I hope so.

How come it is I cant see the pictures? All i see is a tomato over and over again. Nice tomato

...and you don't want me driving y'all crazy.

you da man, thanks!

I remember someone saying whatever would be built there was gonna be "big." Hmmm...

Other than that, I'm not real sure what to say. It isn't horrible but it's not exciting either.

"It isn't horrible but it's not exciting either"; my thoughts exactly; another angular glass structure.

Like someone else said, I have a very much love/hate relationship with Houston. I grew up here from 1961~1966; left in 5th grade when my family was transferred overseas; came back in 1973 and went to University here and to Law School. There's an awful lot to like here, but, by the same token, I feel like it's closed in on me; the overcrowding is obnoxious, the freeways are outa control. I might like it better if I could live inside or near inside the Loop but I'm stuck in Spring, (my wife, now a grandmother won't leave Spring). There's been so much change here, so much outa control development it's gotten pretty nerve wracking and frankly, the crime is outa control. We don't sleep very well here anymore. Our retirement plan is the hill country region. I will say that of all the cities I've visited/lived in in Texas, Houston is the most affordable and the best laid out, (IMHO). But the "feel" of the place has turned hostile. We feel beseiged.

http://www.tsha.utex...s/FF/hrfvg.html

In the 1920's a group of Creole Blacks of French and Spanish Louisianan heritage founded "Frenchtown."

Yet I heard the neighborhood gradually merged into the Fifth Ward.

So... are there any traces of Frenchtown left?

I'm trying but this forum isn't terribly attachment friendly.

O.K., well.........that worked. There appears to be some really wild discrepancies about where Frenchtown actually was. I read the article above and worked on Google street view around Des Chaumes and Lelia. It's amazing how vacant this quarter of the city really is; mostly vacant lots and "'40's" vintage houses, (my guess); note that the open storm ditches, i.e "bar" ditches rather than covered storm drains. There's talk here of this being in the 5th Ward? I associated this area with the "3rd" ward, but I could be wrong about that. If I can hit on anything definitive, I'll do a photo shoot of the area. The "Church" on Sumpter appears to be much closer to the rail yards depicted on the Google map and I noted that the "hand drawn" map centers on Staples, but so far, I'm not seeing much in that area of any historical interest.

Now, it seems to me that the "confusion" about discrepancies may have been my own. I struck gold on Kentucky street, (see attachment), and am now thinking this probably is the "heart" as it were, of the matter.

3210 Kentucky.doc

So far, in terms of "new" development; I'm not finding what I'd expected to find, except "out" of the area on Liberty Road, i.e. the Louisiana "Shot gun Double". My wife's family is from New Orleans, and the "double" is very popular becuae it works out first for extended family and then as rental property for retirement purposes.

3402 Jewel at Des Chaumes.doc

I think construction costs have decreased since last summer.

I am curious about how adaptable this light rail system would be in the future... would it be possible, as the city becomes more dense, to transition segments of light rail underground?

First I'd be surprised if the city becomes much more dense anytime soon. The economy isn't projected to skyrocket and my most recent analysis indicates that occupany downtown/midtown is actually dropping even as new units come on line. We're just one more round of layoffs from another '80's style real estate bust in Houston and as we've seen in the past, since most people are here only because their jobs are here, there will be a huge exodus out of the city to other places offering employment opportunities.

Underground in Houston is virtually impossibly costly because the water table is only 5 to 6 feet below the surface. The result would be that one would have to literaly encase the line in a huge steel pipe to stop the tunnel from being flooded.