arche_757

How many cities DON'T have highways (interstate/multi-lane divided freeways/etc)? Name me 1. And I mean larger cities - 50,000+ in population and large regional hubs of commerce. Nationally. And those trolley lines were unreliable nationally. What is your argument? I think we see eye-to-eye on the subway issue, I don't understand what you're trying to argue about?

Interesting article about Cape Town's planned system. Worth a look for those who have interest in this sort of subject. http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/03/limits-bus-rapid-transit-cape-town-case-study/4968/ http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/irt/Pages/default.aspx

Houston had 70+ miles of trolley lines pre-1910 (or thereabouts) - so they actually existed pre-Skyscraper. Light Rail or Rapid Transit doesn't create anything... it does allow for different development ideas than when it does not exist. Highways don't create sprawl but the certainly make it possible. Don't kid yourself about that!

Interesting. That's a Wal Mart and not a Supercenter right? If so this may be Wal Mart's next move into urban areas. Goodness knows they have the money to do this - all over! Of course where in Houston would one really expect to find this?

It's a sort of catch 22 isn't it? Without enough density it is hard to have high transit ridership. However, without transit that density will never really come about. That's the problem. I wonder what the population density is along the Red Line? It isn't the 10,000 sq mi (or 25,000) where it succeeds is that it connects major hubs that have that density (if only during the work day). Similar to if you connected UH/TSU to Uptown (and the intersecting points). And I think your comment is more to the point on Subways - less Light Rail? Yes? I think it has been established that it would be doubtful Houston would ever have a true subway like the Tube or NYC's Manhattan based trains, more than likely we may see a subway line through/under something like Greenway Plaza or maybe under the 1 mile or so around Uptown the remaining track would be above ground.

I suppose I just skipped right over the "bus" part! So ...erm.... moving on? Sorry Indeed transfers are bad and if possible should be limited to two - at most. Anything more and its a time waster. And Texas A&M while larger than UH - is not in Houston. UH students would use a rail line in the same way Med School students use the Red Line. While I was a student IF I had a chance to take Light Rail versus the task of finding a parking spot on campus (and paying $105 a year to park - back then) I would. I would have just gotten the cheap lots and opted to ride the train most days. I know many students who lived in an area where they could either park n' ride or simply walk to a station would do the same.

^To each their own RudyU. Some on Jeopardy would have that look in trying to scale things out of their head. Its a gift.

^ I'm curious about said overpass/underpass IF either of them are built, and there is an existing heavy-trunk line running above/below just how scenic and walkable could that one intersection be? Seems that the community isn't quite thinking things through about having walkable neighborhood. There is a reason Highland Village doesn't continue west of this train tracks! NO ONE would want to cross them. Either way - Metro needs to get this finished. The Red Line North is a joke of an "update/extension" compared to this line. I think it will be transformative to the East End in ways we can only now dream about. Meant to add: Please enlighten me if I am wrong about the walkability of this neighborhood at the intersection of the heavy-trunk line. Thanks.

I agree that using transit is something of a hassle, but it also allows you to text/facebook/read a book/work etc. without fear of running your vehicle into something. I've not commuted for work, but when in DC and Germany for leisure and vacation I found great enjoyment out of reading while on the train(s). Certainly not hard to do. At best in a car you can audiobook, but that's not really like reading. When I worked Downtown I had the option of walking 4 blocks to work from the Red Line, or walking 5 blocks from the Parking Garage. Guess which one I preferred? I preferred the light rail. But driving does offer flexibility for those who need it. I've no doubt that some of the lines will beat and some come under the projected ridership (Red Line met the ridership numbers of some much more distant numbers in the first year). Again - I think some here in the city are discounting just how quickly Houstonians would use a system put in place. That said we still need commuter lines to the suburban cores at some point - sooner than later.

^Agreed. And Agreed... My point wasn't that Peak Oil is when we run out - I think a large number of people think of it in that manner. My point was we will reach a level eventually (maybe far from now, I'm not an expert so I can't tell you) where the costs are too high for the consumer. American's can't really pay $6 a litter per fill-up right now. We drive more then Europeans and our transit system is antiquated. Peak Oil is going to come differently for us than it will for Germans or Japanese or Indonesians. Places like Houston ...or, well, anywhere that's NOT the old Northeastern cities the "Megalopolis" as its called will suffer if prices get astronomically high and stay that way. Oddly enough I think it would be a boon to small town Americana. We would go back to having the need to have access to everything possible in towns that are more than "X" number of miles away from bigger cities. Odd how things are cyclical. But this is moving well away from the discussion at hand.

Well, there are some townhomes replacing older apartments here and there. Indeed there are negative drawbacks to gentrification - certainly - but my point was that townhomes do add some density. Are they ideal? Not really, though we should start to see more midrise buildings geared towards ownership if the number of people (and cost of living) inside the Loop continues to increase. I don't agree either about spending $20 billion on a single line, unless that line stretches in a loop around the city (some how)... in other words it would have to be a more than "run of the mill" line. While density isn't in place yet, I feel that some on here are underestimating ridership in Houston. Look at the Red Line south.. Numbers there are great for the size of the line, and it does connect two major work hubs, but the majority of those riders ride to some transit center I'll wager. I think a subway/above ground line running down Westheimer (for example) from Downtown (some way) would work and would draw large amounts of riders. Everything in NYC is adjusted for the costs of doing business there. LA for all its glitz and glam is still pricey but not quite NY prices. So that makes sense, but it would still cost more (even if the cost of living was the same) to build in LA than in Houston due to earthquakes.

Yes, but to counter that point about townhomes not really adding density... single family home: occupied by 1 family same property with 6 townhomes on it: occupied by 6 families Yes a Midrise would have more residents (assuming a 4-6 floor building would have upwards of 20 families), but they also need parking and in Houston you have little access to the transit you need for something like that in most places- Midtown or the Museum District not withstanding. And developers willing to spend that kind of money on a mid rise can simply build 40-60 townhomes and make more money off of those being sold than off of a midrise with rentals or condos. Honestly what surprises me more - is that there aren't more developments with townhomes that have rooftop terraces? Or apartments for that matter. Granted I realize a lot of places utilize the roofs for a/c units but still... There is a townhome complex 4 floors with a terrace that presumably had great views of the city off of Hazard or Dunlavy. Always thought those were cool.

Well, I guess we should go back to simply having nothing or rundown single family homes (emphasis on run down) in those lots in Midtown or Washington Ave or Rice Military? I mean - its either midrises or highrises since townhomes aren't really worth the trouble apparently? And I'm only 145 miles from Welsh Ave.

Because the Museum District is a more diserable address for someone who has 400,000+ to spend on a 1,200 sq ft condominium on the 25th floor. I disagree, Houston is urbanizing the way it ought to, but it is unfortunately so spread out we are seeing places like City Center crop up 18 miles from Downtown when in another city that development MAY have happened in a place like Midtown. The Townhomes may not be the best solution, but they are a solution - a sort of modern Row House. Its a typology that's taken firm hold here and if that means older neighborhoods that used to be run down (that were originally pretty nice to begin with) will get more attention and grow up into working neighborhoods (over many years) then that is the course it must take. And also, we ARE seeing a lot of mid rises around town in the form of 5-8 floor "high end" apartments. These may in the coming years be transformed (in places) to condominiums if the demand is high enough? Who knows? I would like to see more small mid rises proposed around - namely in Midtown, but I guess that's just out of the question until more residential comes to Downtown (which it is). Once that area starts to really urbanize as a 24/7 environment then you will see Midtown get more high density developments. That and people in Houston LOVE yards. Never over estimate that people young or old like to have at least a little plot of grass below their feet.

I thought we were supposed to double? Besides, think back... 1960 to today (roughly) that's 50 years. Imagine the changes in this country since that time. Peak Oil/Energy will happen eventually... perhaps the "peak" won't be when we reach the end of our supply, but rather when events external or internal cause prices to skyrocket and force the hand of many metro's to adopt better transit planning. Maybe I'm being too far thinking? And to your point, yes Houston probably won't be the density of NYC in 2050, but if its the density of Seattle (and we are what 2+ million larger already) then that's huge! We won't need the City of Tomall (for example) to have its own subway/light rail, but it will likely need a connection point somewhere along the way to the overall system of the metro. And my point wasn't so much about density as it was about cost of land. There will come a time when Houston's not quite as affordable as it is/was. That will force some people to perhaps shift their idea of a "suburb" much further afield. Maybe never to a Victoria (I grant you that was extreme example) but probably to Huntsville, Brenham and maybe even Beaumont at some point. Houston isn't hampered by much in the way of growth boundaries except the Gulf of Mexico and its inlets and bays, but there is a distance away from any of the urban cores people would be willing to live - in a purely suburban environment (like Cypress say for instance or the no-mans-land between Sugar Land and Katy) - and an actual "working" town. Also, we have little idea about what 20 years will bring us. We may witness in the next decade (God Forbid) a massive hurricane that so shapes the direction of Galveston County (and other bay counties) that those people are FORCED to reimagine where they will need to live, and live safely out of harms way. So that may see a rapid shift away from southern suburbs and towards the core or more northern suburbs. Point being - maybe we won't be as spread out as some think at that time? Time will tell.

Look, comparing NYC to Houston is silly. New York is an amalgamation of cities (called boroughs) and did not become the "great" city that it is today overnight. In fact it took centuries and to think otherwise is fallacy. It was also founded in the mid-1600s by the Dutch, grew in importance under the Union Jack and kind of became the US's finacial capital after the Panic of 1819 (though I could be exaggerating that events importance - thought prior to that event Philadelphia was a sort of commerical capital for the country) and the complition of the Eire Canal. Add in the "joining" of New York City and Brooklyn (two seperate towns in their own right until 1898!) and the fact that NYC was the immigration hub for the exodous of Serf Class Europeans in the 1850s-1900s and OF COURSE its not only bigger, but also more important. Houston, which is MUCH younger still needs to do a lot of maturing and the realization that while we do need to work on any number of issues (major and minor) in this city, we can't just do so over night. The implementation of a transit system here is a major point to address. We have the start, perhaps not the "backbone" but a piece of the puzzle. What needs to happen is people need to realize two things: 1) Rapid Transit doesn't "end" freeway congestion, it helps give people a different means to move around. 2) Houston WILL HAVE TO HAVE more than it does. In fact in 20 or 30 years we will need Light Rail, Commuter Rail and probably heavy rail to far off places like Brenham/College Station/Wharton/Victoria etc. where we WILL have people who commute to work from. Sounds crazy but it will happen. Already does in the east, so it will eventually happen here when property becomes so expensive there is no where for some people to go but far, far away and hope there's a system in place that will allow connectivity. Maybe it will take 50 years, but it will happen eventually. if that makes any sense?

To be fair, Atlanta built a commuter system decades ahead of us. We on the other hand had a MAJOR economic crash just at the time the city was near/at the stage to beging some sort of transit system. That decade wounded Houston and set us apart from a lot of other cities in this country. Don't worry, there will be a day when Houston has a transit system and an intermodal passenger terminal.

^I thought that project in Atlanta was no more?

I thought there were going to be other kyack kiosks further upsteam? If only the BBMP could have had some grand plan to remove/relocate the city jails?! Unfortunately with the Criminal Justice Center across the Bayou from them it seems like a prospect we may not be able to address again until 2030 or some other later day.

^I can't see an architectural model that big being fudged and wrong. Now a rendering will be (and I've done it) skewed to make things look a little sexier. Models are almost always to scale and accurate - particularly when that size and for such a public ceremony.

Yeah, I'm including both. Still, Atlanta has some nice projects. And remember folks - potential or planned doesn't mean anything until dirt is being moved and a crane is put up. How often have we seen "potential" buildings not come to fruition in the past? Very often.

Wow! They might as well build something completely new with that level of "renovation"! How can this even qualify as "historic" after this? - Not to be a debbie downer... but I've always felt like this one particular project on the Buffalo Bayou Master Plan was weak. How many visitors do you actually think will use this center? And why would many from Houston use it? You can simply access the bayou at any number of points around town. Which don't mistake my question - I LOVE what the BB people have done and are doing, but always felt underwhelmed by the Sunset Coffee Building from day one (years ago).

I'd go with the model being the more accurate as to what actually gets built.

The Mods need to seperate things here into two different topics.