cottonmather0

I drove down there yesterday and saw what was going on. Surely they're not going to eliminate the canopy of trees? That would be absolutely horrible.

Ok. I get that. I did not mean to infer that the residents commuting in from the Katy area did not want the freeway. But residents at a town hall meeting expressing their interest in having a freeway widened or even voting for a represenative that supports it, especially on a project of this scale, had absolutly nothing to do with actually planning, funding, or decision to build it or not. That was already written in stone and well above the interest of commuters.

You are the one that implied that the residents got the freeway widened for their SUV's. That my friend is wrongheaded

Alright alright not everyone in Katy drives an SUV. You win. I'm not going to belabor this point anymore as it's veering so evermore off topic.

Oh, not the evil SUV card. I suppose you are not enjoying the eased congestion on I-10. Somehow I missed the news flash that the residents of Katy petitioned for a wider freeway and got it built too.

Someone is not dealing in reality.

Oh, I love the freeway. It's great. But an ad hominem argument isn't the point.

To the surprise of few, a plan to almost double the congested Katy Freeway and to speed funding for the project with a toll road down the middle scored a hit at two town hall meetings this week. A show of hands Tuesday during a meeting at Hayes Elementary School in Katy -- where residents who work in downtown Houston face a 60-mile daily commute -- indicated strong support for freeway expansion, by whatever means and the sooner the better. The toll-road idea was an overwhelming favorite at Thursday's meeting, which drew about 500 residents to Memorial Senior High School, itself located just a few blocks from the freeway.

But one audience member's assertion that "we need more trains" also drew enthusiastic applause -- along with a few boos.

The two public meetings were hosted by U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston. A third meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Cypress Falls High School, 9811 Huffmeister, in northwest Harris County. At both of this week's meetings, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels explained the toll road plan and the Texas Department of Transportation's current widening plan. Both Eckels and Culberson answered written questions from the audience. Culberson, who made freeway congestion a campaign issue last fall, was lukewarm to a suggestion at the Katy meeting that rail transit be part of any mobility solution for the area's far west side. Culberson said most suburbanites need their cars to get to their jobs and he decried heavy rail's $40 million-per-mile construction costs.

Link

In 2001, Culberson and then-County Judge Robert Eckels unveiled plans to speed the widening with cash from the four toll lanes. Culberson definitely wanted no part of rail on the Katy then.

On March 23, 2002, he was quoted as "dumbfounded and furious" to learn that Metro had asked the state to reserve space for rail in the project, which was on a fast track.

"Metro will rue the day they slow down one spade of dirt or one concrete pour," Culberson said.

By then, TxDOT spokeswoman Janelle Gbur said, the only way to include rail would be to "substitute for some other component," although she said some room could be squeezed out by reducing the shoulders.

So why not have the toll lanes and give up something else?

After all, the design called for 18 lanes in all, growing to 20 or 22 when you include turn lanes at intersections.

Culberson said he would fight the conversion of even one lane to rail. Metro settled for beefing up the overpasses to carry light rail trains in case the public ever wants them to.

Link

Truth be told, I would vote for Culberson if I lived out there, but not because he wanted the freeway widened. Nonetheless, lots of people did vote for him on that issue, so I think the point is made.

I can't remember who the congressman was in northern Fort Bend back then. It's Ron Paul now, but I think that's recent and that it used to be Tom DeLay, who also is on record in support of widening the freeway.

Truth be told, I would vote for all of these guys if I lived in their districts (I am in Queen Sheila's district right now and I drive a big pickup truck, fwiw), so I'm not trying to be critical of them, but to say that the people who lived out there aren't the ones who wanted the freeway widened into Houston is just wrongheaded.

So by that do you mean go on the freeway and then get off on the exit and go back on to the freeway and repeat..?

I haven't tried it on the new sections inside the beltway, but it works outbound, particularly at Dairy Ashford where there is usually some backup. My inlaws live at Eldridge and quite often it's easier to exit at Dairy Ashford and stay on the access road, then reenter and stay in the "exit only" lane to Eldridge.

Boy, between this thread and the toll road thread, the entitlement mentality displayed by some Katy drivers is nothing short of stupendous.

Hey, they got the Katy Freeway widened for their SUV's rather than implementing some sort of mass transit solution, so don't act so surprised.

I'm glad somebody gets it!

Use the roadways all you want. Just make safe choices for yourself.

Do Texas laws allow bikes on freeways/tollways/interstates/whatever you want to call it? It seems that if folks are entitled to ride their bikes down a road like Fry road in Katy then they should also be allowed to ride in the left lane of Interstate 10. It is their right, right?

The government can prohibit particular types of traffic on any road. In general, bikes aren't allowed freeways and expressways like the Loop or Memorial because people are supposed to drive fast and unobstructed.

The problem with many Houston (and Katy) drivers is that they drive like that on every road and get mad when something gets in their way. I live just off of W TC Jester here in Timbergrove and the speed limit between I-10 and 610 is 35 miles per hour. At all hours of the day 1 driver in every 5 goes down that road at 50 or above and I would say up at least half of all drivers crest the railroad bridge going 50. There are lots of bikers going over that bridge, too, going to and from the bayou trail, and most drivers get mad at the bikers because the bikers cause them to slow down. If they were actually going the speed limit, they wouldn't have to slow down as much in the first place, and I suspect the complaints on this other road are similar. People are wanting to drive too fast in the first place.

Referring back to the Heights Robber thread, I happen to like it when the cops park at the bottom of the bridge. Don't speed and you won't have to worry about it. Not to mention that speedtraps also catch lots of offenders for other crimes, too. Works for me.

I have never been on the same side of an argument with Red. This is sweet!

I would much rather get a ticket for some antiquated law that favors pedestrian safety over that of cyclist than be a nuisance on a public road without a bike lane.

Two points here:

1.) Pedestrians deserve to be protected, too, and bikers coming speeding up behind someone walking slowly on a sidewalk is very very dangerous to the pedestrian. I don't see what's so antiquated about that.

2.) If you ride on the sidewalk, then those "2 tons of steel" are less likely to see you and more likely to just turn in front of you. It's happened to me on a bike before and it's not fun.

Cyclists will continue to lose respect with drivers if they maintain they can break the laws of the road to fit them.

This, however, is correct.

Another case downtown Houston, out to dinner with my wife. My light turns green as I start to go a couple of feet into the intersection two cyclist fly right threw the intersection, I have to brake. I give them a honk to get their attention and throw my arms out shrug my shoulders like what gives.

well these guys part ways and one of them comes bearing down on me from the rear, chasing me down. he nearly catches me at the next light banging on the rear class of the suv. when I accelarate he is right there giving us the finger shouting at my wifes window. (I keep going and blow it off) dude was like 6'5" and would have kicked my ass, I didn't need that.

(link here)

You might be interested to know that in the cycling world there is actually controversy over increased/improved bike lanes. Some very vocal people feel that bikes deserve to be on the streets and that supporting bike lanes tacitly endorses the idea that bikes don't belong/aren't safe on regular streets.

Amen to that.

I considered riding my bike to work a few days a week but after observing the car/bicycle interaction on the route for a few months, I let it go. Even leisure riding around is more effort and dangerous than it's worth to me. Until I move elsewhere, it's in storage

A few summers ago when I still lived in Bellaire I rode my bike to work 2-3 times a week to work downtown. It was absolutely exhilarating riding in heavy traffic every day and was some of the best exercise I have ever had. Of course, I stayed off of the busy roads as much as I could, but in some places, particularly in the afternoon coming out of downtown, I couldn't avoid traffic (West Gray and Dunlavy were the worst parts) and I just put my head down and rode. One thing that I learned as that if I always obeyed stop signs and traffic lights (on the busy streets) and signaled my intentions and rode like I was driving, it wasn't that bad at all and I got pretty comfortable with it. It seemed scarier than it really was before I actually did it.

The safest place a cyclist can be is in the middle of the lane of traffic. If it's safe for him to let cars pass, then he should, but he's not obligated to if there isn't sufficient room (look it up) and he has as much right to use the road as do the drivers and if cars behind him think that he's going too slow, then boo hoo.

It chaps my hide to see helmetless jackasses riding their bikes on the sidewalk and just ceding the road to the cars. A sidewalk is a terrible place to ride a bike - it's dangerous to pedestrians and to the cyclists - and if more bike riders rode responsibly, they wouldn't need bike lanes in the first place. As it is, most cyclists are afraid to get on busy roads and most drivers think they're not supposed to be there and aren't used to interacting with them. Similarly, the idiot bike messengers downtown who run stoplights and go the wrong way down one way streets also give cyclists a bad image and makes drivers predisposed to disrespect everyone on a bike.

I'll give the benefit of the doubt that the OP is worried for the safety of the cyclists and not just complaining that they shouldn't be there in the first place. If there are bad drivers and it's an unsafe stretch of toad, the cyclist is responsible for his own safety, but he has as much right to be there as the cars. If there's not much of shoulder or room to let cars pass, then the cars shouldn't be passing in the first place. The speed LIMIT is not the speed MANDATE. I realize that this is a fantasy and most idiot drivers will then do their best to pass anyway, but if just one or two drivers got thrown in jail for killing a cyclist or two through reckless driving that kind of behavior would likely stop.

Does it smell like plastic in here to anyone else.. or is it just me ?

Yes.

One thing I remember about my last trip to Europe was all of the ads on Sky News and the BBC for Qatar Air. I haven't seen one yet on Houston TV but there have been quite a few print ads in the Chron and the HBJ.

I don't think I would ever have a reason to go to either Doha or Dubai, but I'd love to check out one of those flights someday.

Holy Crap!

I'm going to make sure I'm locked and loaded for the next few days until this guy is caught. How awful.

We did have those signs a few years back and then they got changed to "left lane is for passing only." I have never seen them anywhere but on rural interstates, though.

The only problem with either solution being that people all have their own definition of both "slow" (ie it's all relative) and "passing" ("I will be passing that car a mile ahead of me soon enough, so why not just stay in this lane until I do?")

People who don't know how to properly drive on a freeway are a major cause of accidents. I'm not talking about speeders or weavers or aggressive drivers, I'm talking about the people who can't be bothered to get out of the way of everyone else and thus become a hazard in their own right.

We have one. It was already here four years ago when we moved in and the next door neighbor says it dates from the mid 80's. They installed the metal shakes directly over the cedar shakes, which you can see up in the attic.

Aside from being dirty and needing to be painted these days, it still works just fine and our air conditioning bills in the summer are really low, anecdotally I would say 20-30% lower in the summertime compared to what my friends with similar sized houses says theirs is.

Niche is right about the rain noise, it can be pretty loud, but it's also kind of cool.

The downside is that you can't go up there and fart around like you can with a shingle roof for fear of damaging it when you walk around. Similarly, if you do any work that needs a hole cut through the roof (like a new water heater or stove vent), you have to find someone who knows how to do it properly as most repairmen and contractors don't. I also had to put my satellite dish on a pole in the backyard because it couldn't be mounted on the roof.

No idea on the expense of the install, since we didn't pay for it in the first place.

The key plot point is that a "normal" dude from the present goes to sleep for 500 years and when he wakes up he is the smartest guy in the nation of idiots.

A lot of it is kind of goofy, but the underlying premise is so close to fact that it's scary.

If you're in Montrose, I would recommend Harmony Electric on Yale. The owner's name is Dennis and he is very easy to work with.

http://www.harmonyelectric.com/

I am talking about the iron work circled in the photo below. I need to replace mine - I pulled them off when I replaced the soffit and the porch ceiling last month. The ones in the picture were rusted at the bottom and broken in a few places on top. I thought they were structural, but they were already loose and didn't seem to be supporting any weight (they were essentially hanging from the top), so I haven't been in a hurry. I just think the porch looks better with them there. I took the old ones to the scrap metal yard and the guy there called them "pig iron" and said he didn't have any use for them so I left them out for heavy trash.

Where do I buy these things and what are they called, officially?

greenboard would be fine there.

I concur and I have never even heard of putting anything but greenboard on the ceiling over the shower. Putting concrete board up there would be really hard to do, I think.

BTW - you shouldn't use greenboard for the walls of the shower, but it sounds like you already know that. And normal sheetrock is fine for the rest of the ceiling away from the shower.

Drop Dead beautiful.... ok if you say so. The few times I have seen her and her Husband, Hulk, Her face is all botoxed out, for a woman not that old, yikes!!! Yet you make a valid point.

I will concur that she does a competent job reading the news, but "beautiful" she ain't. She looks like a blowup doll.

Many residents in Garden Oaks/Oak Forest/Shepherd Forest have lived in the area 30+ years and are supporting the Quiet Zone effort. We know the tracks were there first but there are more trains on the tracks (20-30 a day now) as the City of Houston and the Port of Houston expand. Federal law provides for Quiet Zones and we are requesting one pursuant to that. A Quiet Zone will improve the quality of life for many residents in the area. Garden Oaks is not alone in requesting a Quiet Zone...there are 12 or so pending applications with the City of Houston.

I think his point is that the quiet zone movement is a relatively recent phenomenon. Sure, there have been people there for a long time, but I would bet that while the old timers support the idea it wasn't one of them that initiated the effort. Bellaire and West U (and River Oaks) have been built out since the 40's and before and they didn't get a quiet zone there until the whole teardown movement started 10 years ago and wealthier new residents moved in. I know because I used to live in Southdale - the old timers in the bungalows just considered the trains another part of life - it was the new people who were complaining.

Not that any of that matters as I still think it's a good idea.

I think this is kind of goofy. One the one hand, yeah it's cool that I might be able to find a parking place near the courthouse, but on the other, if someone is paying to be there and is willing to walk back and forth, why shouldn't they be able to do that?

I don't know why the city keeps letting these evil choo choo companies swoop in during the middle of the night and lay down these tracks to disturb the peace of those that have lived there for a year or two!

No kidding. I understand their concerns and a quiet zone isn't at all the same thing as wanting the tracks removed, but many many people in this town have no idea just how long the train tracks have been here. Those in particular - the BNSF line to Corsicana - have been there since 1901. The tracks in Sugar Land that people down there like to complain about are more than 150 years old!

BTW - I support the quiet zone here. We are about equidistant between the UP line down south along Washington and the BNSF line in Garden Oaks and we can hear both pretty clearly on most nights. The Eureka Yard is also pretty loud, too, but I keep hearing rumors that it is indeed about to go away.

I was at the Bunker Hill HEB tonight and the girl bagging my groceries - in paper - asked the checker if there was any more meat to go into the meat bag!

I have been driving out of my way to shop there for a while now and after tonight I am done with Kroger on 11th.

Maybe they have a mortgage on all of the plastic surgery and can't afford to walk away from it.

I don't watch Channel 2 but the few times I did stop by looking for news information, Wendy Corona was quite competent as an anchor.

I just saw this, too, and am confused why they wouldn't get rid of the pompous overbloviated (I made that word up) deadweight instead. Geez. Wendy at least smiled more than once a day

But Lauren is still staying!

Anyone here have an opinion? This is a federal law that was passed last year as a reaction to cheap Chinese toys but was written so poorly and broadly (and interpreted by the CPSC as such) that it's going to drive many domestic manufacturers of high-quality children's products - products that have never had a problem with hazardous materials in the first place - out of business and leave the companies that can afford to import cheap chinese crap as the only companies that can also afford to comply with the law. Talk about irony!

Here is a summary of what the problem is:

Heres an example... if a bib maker makes 10 different styles of bib, with two fabrics on each bib, velcro, and heavy weight sew in.. she must have all 10 of those bibs tested, at the $100 a pop (or more) and if she sews a different style, even using the same fabrics, THAT must be tested. EVERY time she makes a new batch, they must be tested.. even if they use the same supplies. She must also PERMANENTLY label her items with the batch number, so consumers can know when it was made and what batch it came from.

If a dress maker who makes children's dresses sews 20 different dresses, in 3 sizes each, she must have ALL sizes of all 20 dresses tested, even if they are made of the same fabric. Thats 60 tests. And dont think this doesnt affect ADULT apparel makers too, because it does... how many of you have 12 year olds who wear "adult" clothing? Not all 12 year olds shop in the junior section.. so adult clothing manufacturers will have to take extra precaution to ensure their products are never marketed to anyone under the age of 12, it goes so far as to say they cannot APPEAL to children under the age of 12. The law STATES that.. how can a dress maker ensure their product doesnt appeal to a child under the age of 12?

Small businesses CANNOT absorb the costs of this, they will either close their doors or raise their prices.. or stop selling items for children under the age of 12. We all buy our products (materials) from retailers here in the US... surely if those products (materials) were tested that would be good enough, right? No. The finished product must be tested, regardless of the materials being safe.

And one more.

My wife and I are having to shut down one of our businesses (that sells handmade swaddling blankets) because we cannot afford to comply with the law as written - our suppliers already test and certify that the fabric that they ship to us is lead and phthalate free, but this law won't let us rely on their tests and would require us to retest our products all over again after manufacture.

Don't get me wrong, I think keeping children's products free of hazardous materials is good and necessary, and I would be very happy to do a bit more paperwork to keep track of my suppliers' safety documentation and the like, but this law is a stinker.

Yeah, I know it happens all over town, but this is our fifth New Year in this house and I have never heard it here in our neighborhood like it was last night, that was my only point.

My wife kept saying, "that's a machine gun!" and after a while I quit disagreeing with her. Maybe it wasn't technically a machine gun, but there was certainly something fully automatic amid all the revelry last night.