The Great Hizzy!

I agree. I've always said that about commercial revitalization concerning retail downtown. Given the market and the preponderance of the type of people who are downtown at present, a good mix of both the traditional chain and the original concept would probably be a good starting point. Name recognition is important with certain consumers, be it for good or bad. Once that crowd begins to permeate and congregate, they'll eventually expand their interests to the non-traditional outlets and "spread the word" so to speak. Even so, the longterm success of HP will greatly depend on DT's ability to attract a critical mass of residents, who will make the area more of a neighborhood, just as the people who live in Uptown, Montrose, Rice Village, Upper Kirby, et all have made those areas all encompassing neighborhoods.

You know, I also like H-Town Man's suggestion of Houston Green(s). Certainly not a generic "named after" moniker and probably has the ability to endure. Midway Gardens has a nice ring to it as well--at least, in my feable mind,

If the heat index for one is hotter, then it doesn't matter anymore what the humidity level is (the heat index is the final product, not the humidity, which is a more of a pre-agitator of the final product). At that point, the body is reacting to the heat index. The humidity will affect the heat index, obviously, but if it affects are only to where the resulting index is still less than the actual heat index of someplace else, then "someplace else" is, by definition, hotter. Not that I'm arguing a perception. It's how you feel. I'm just saying, from a biological and meteorlogical standpoint, the higher heat index is always the hotter consideration with regards to your body. Anyway, a more specific point is that I don't see how anyone in Texas east of, say, San Angelo can even bother to try to make some notable difference between their summer heat and the heat here in Houston. Who gives a damn if on one particular day your lower humidity reduces your heat index by one or two degrees below Houston's. Are you really that grateful? Does your quality of life noticeably improves?

LOL. Maybe you two could merge concepts and offer the first "Disco Snow Skiing" facility in Texas (if not the country).

Glad the interview experience went well for you. Hope things work out for you.

I just realized that you posted Westheimer PARKWAY and the Grand. I was thinking you were talking about Westheimer Road (FM 1093 or the Westpark Tollway). My reaction would've been, "Wow! It didn't take long for developers to discovery this intersection." I still say you'll have a grocery store/shopping plaza at that intersection soon. Grand Lakes, Cinco Ranch, Seven Meadows and others are selling fast and the population is going up by the dozens every month.

On my eyewitness travels through the whole of New Orleans back in May (not just the entertainment and tourist districts or the Garden District), I was surprised at how much basic "cleaning up" was still needed and how badly so many neighborhoods, even middle class neighborhoods, seemed to be deserted and/or gutted. While there may be a number of residents who have returned to the city, they are there with a very big burden on their shoulders and a lot of inconveniences with which to deal. Not having streetlights or stoplights. Still not having 100% reliable water service. On going issues with vandalism or loitering in nearby residences that have not yet seen the return of their residents. While crime in the city is down overall, some areas are just as dangerous now as ever due to some of the new characteristics of the neighborhood: more isolated areas with a greater number of empty buildings, lack of streetlights, a NOPD force that still isn't able to mobilize like it used to, and a city that has had to hold back on some city services (for example, maintenance of the city's website is even more sporadic now). So it's a challenge for some who are still/back in the city. In other words, there's been some progress since last year but the amount of work still needed is jaw dropping, especially when you consider the vastness of the areas that need that work.

Years ago, in the late 80s, I had a cousin who graduated from Bellaire High, and her family lived in RT, so there may be something to it. I wouldn't know for sure, though.

While I'm not sold specifically on Comfort Park, I do agree in the let's keep it simple idea. I've always thought it odd that the city didn't have a major park named after Roy Hoffheinz so I imagine he would be a candidate if you were to want to name the park after some notable figure in the city's history.

I still have my doubts about Seth Wand but he has looked decent in his time out on the field over the first two preseason games. Spencer had a couple of miscues covering his assignments (picking up the wrong guy) but also had some very impressive blocks. The right side (that is, David's weak side) is also very interesting. You hope that at some point this season, Eric Winston's recognition of blocking schemes and the like improves to the point where he can be ready to fill in if Wiegert doesn't work out long term. As for Donovan McNabb and "running QBs"... I don't think Donovan's been a prototypical running QB since about the 2003 season. For one, he's a lot heavier than in his first five years in the league (and slower) and he's become a lot more sensitive about injuries since he suffered a fairly serious one towards the end of the 2003 season. His running style is a lot more defensive than explosive, that's for sure.

One thing that is consistent about TxDOT: when they and their contracted firms start construction, there's often a mess. Parts of the completed Kell Freeway look similar to the Grand Parkway out in Katy with the median and the sporadic trees/shrubs sitting in them.

^^^ NO county funds? I have my doubts but even so... the developer, private that is, either feels really confident about the project in order to finance it 100% or something else is in play here.

The goal is to look like Boston or New York before someone kills themself. Pay attention.

West Eight is probably your best bet. At the least, they've begun construction on parts of the project. If it takes off, highrise residential might eventually come along.

Isn't the plan basically to extend Memorial through the northern tip of George Bush Park and connect with Kingsland Blvd? I've been hearing about this in pieces since 2000.

Drew Bledsoe is to running what the Yugo was to luxury cars.

Carr still shows that he's a bit unsettled at times in the pocket and doesn't recognize blitzes as well as he should (this is his fifth year). On the one blitz where he was almost sacked, every blocker picked up his blitz responsibility and the free man who came through was David's read, and it took him too long to recognize it. I liked that he settled down, however, in the second quarter and made a string of quality passes to both Putzier and AJ, but I'm hoping that he'll eventually develop a bit more confidence in his line and bit more composure when a blitz is coming, because teams are certainly going to blitz the Texans' offense until proves that it can handle them consistently. As for David, not only does his recognition of blitzes need to improve but so do some of his throws under pressure. He had two very makeable completions in the first half that he missed because he wasn't settled under pressure. It happens, sure, but the rate still needs to go down as far as David's concerned. As a QB, you're gonna take a hit while throwing from time-to-time. You need to stand in there and follow through else you've basically gotten hit for nothing. Anyway, other than that and our bad secondary play in the second half last night, lots to be excited about. The running game looks great. The first team defense looks great (Mario Williams was in the backfield two or three times in the second quarter), the linebackers have been very impressive (Greenwood is definitely a better 4-3 backer than a 3-4 one) and the wide receivers and tight ends look like real weapons. I don't see how you don't keep Lewis as your #4 or #5 receiver at this point. Also good to see that Rosenfels will be at least as good of a backup QB as was Tony Banks. Hopefully, he won't be needed, but even so... he looks capable of running the offense competently.

LMAO

Not bad at all.

I apologize for answering in addition to Red but I think given the relatively short distance to the TMC and downtown from Fannin South (and Smithlands), there would be a limited draw of commuters parking along METRO Rail because at that point, the commuter is essentially where they need to be. If you're talking providing parking regardless of transit use to give the commuter the potential option of having to wrestle with TMC or downtown parking (and add a discount), then that's a possibility but then METRO would need to come up with the additonal funds to buy land in order to create said parking. Anyway... in future alignments and corridors, I would agree that, yes, expanded parking for a line connecting NWTC to Uptown, for example, would be good. Expanding the Hillcroft Transit Center to incorporate more parking (a challenge, given the location) would also be a good idea. But if you need to offer parking for stations that are essentially right down the street from where the commuter's ultimate destination is, then I'm not sure public transit is being properly utilized. The commuter will have spent far too much time in their car at that point to gain any real benefit. I think one of the biggest potential benefit of the current line is to Fort Bend County if they ever get around to the commuter rail line that was mentioned as part of METRO solutions. While the Chronicle did the imfamous time/benefit study between cars, buses and the LRT from Missouri City/Sugarland, they assumed that the LRT's current was designed as is to serve Fort Bend County when in fact, it was designed to eventually linke with commuter rail, would THEN be of time benefit to the commuter. But anyway...

Miami's club scene is vastly overrated. Vastly. Good, yes, but certainly nothing that you haven't seen more or less, in Houston. In fact, I would rank Sky Bar and the Red Cat above any jazz bar in Miami, and that's no small praise. Miami has great techno clubs. Their Hip-Hop club scene is prominent but it sucks because there's so much tension there. Also, Miami's two primary night club districts--South Beach and Coconut Grove--are hard to access, especially South Beach. The City of Miami Beach doesn't offer good public transit and MDTA isn't a popular means of transport for people who live in Miami proper who wanted shoot across the Causeway. Still, there are some gems, and with all the tourists, those areas are never "dull". I would say that Houston's club scene is more similar to Los Angeles' than Miami's but I could be wrong. Los Angeles is huge.

Exactly. If you were to drive along the elevated portion (SB) of the Eastex/Southwest Freeway as it passes downtown and look to your left, you can see a growing mass of new construction stretching from about Canal Street south to I-45. As for Old Chinatown... I wouldn't call it a dump per se but it certainly is a shell of itself relative to the upkeep of the infrastructure and the number of establishments still in business. New Chinatown is freakin' Disneyland in comparison--for better or worse. Strippish in nature but I'm impressed with the economic activity and expansion going on in that section of the city.

'Coog is right. The Fannin South lot is a special situation and is the ONLY lot in which there is a fee. Their (METRO's) other 26 P&R lots are free, and the following locatinos have routine capacity issues, to the point where METRO police actually has somewhat ignored illegal parking: Southpoint West Bellfort Northwest Station Until the last two years, before METRO added nearly a 1,000 new spaces, you could add Addicks and Kingsland to that list as well. Addicks was especially bad. FTR, Northwest Transit Station is also a location with a decent number of parking but still with serious overcrowding issues. Not all transit stations offer parking so this is somewhat of a non-apples-to-apples comparison. BTW, the Smithlands lot is owned by the TMC and a permit is required to park there.

Typically, a vacancy rate below 14% is when developers/investors feel a CBD can withstand a new tower, especially in a market the size of Houston's CBD. I figure there'll be a freeze on all of that until we're around 13.5% or lower. Houston's vacancy rate was as low as 12% before the most recent towers went up at the start of the millennium.

Good job. The GRB picture was a nice surprise.