Original Timmy Chan's

I occasionally try to catch Channel 26's sports, because Mark Berman is always two steps ahead of his competition with regards to breaking local sports news...and because they seem to be the only local station that covers UH (and Rice) athletics. Side note on Mia Gradney...I saw one of her reports while flipping through channels a few months back, something on fashion or swimsuits or something. What made me stop was seeing her standing next to the models. You wouldn't know it from seeing her behind the desk, but she must be at least 6' tall! If she's not 6' tall then the models she was standing with must have been full-blooded Cajun women!

To answer your question first...call traffic attorney David Sprecher 713-639-2600. Now, a question for you...was this an Officer Garcia by any chance? I got the same two tickets last year, plus an illegal lane change, in a single incident. When I met the attorney in court, I was told that HPD has "ordered" their traffic cops to issue more than one citation for everyone. Don't know if it's true...here's my story: I got ticketed for speeding (70 in a 60)...by a cop who was at least 10 cars behind me. Not 10 car lengths, but 10 cars between us (plus the distance between the cars). He had to be at least 200-400 feet back. I was fully aware of the cop and had the car on cruise at 65...so I knew he was wrong about the speed. I got ticketed for following less than one car length...the only place I did that was when traffic was stopped where I entered the freeway. I don't follow less than one car length. And I was curious how the cop judged my distance from at least 200 feet directly behind me (same lane). I got ticketed for illegal lane change for not signaling...Absolutely impossible. I am obsessive about signaling, it's an automatic response. I use my turn signal to pull into my driveway at home, and I use my turn signal to pull into my parking spot at work. It's just subconscious. Anyways...I hired Sprecher (can't remember the price; approx. $200-$300 total, but much less than the tickets) and to make a long story short, I had all 3 charges dismissed. Took all day in court, but it was worthwhile. Me and another guy were the last two cases left in the court, both with the same cop, both the exact same charges. After talking to each other, our stories matched, almost to a tee...just going opposite directions on the same freeway. Turns out the cop admitted to Sprecher that he hadn't clocked either of us, just "estimated" the speed from a distance. If he admitted to lying about that, how can you trust him on the other charges?!? Anyways...I don't understand the how or why, but everyone with an attorney got off...worst case seemed to be deferred adjudication. Sprecher doesn't like to settle for that, but others seemed willing to accept it. He wouldn't accept deferred adjudication for me, and kept fighting all day until the charges were dropped. It's a big scam, if you ask me, but it works. I hate that the end result appeared to have no relevance to my actual guilt or innocence.

It's important to have vision, but you shouldn't stray too far from reality:

Like it or not, "open natural space" doesn't make much $$$ for the owner. At least use it for farming or ranching. And...developers wouldn't be developing land way out in BFE if there weren't willing buyers. I don't understand the desire to live out there, the desire to have a "new" home in the burbs, but apparently I'm in the minority. Fact is, if there are willing buyers, there will always be somewhere there to cash in. Similar to crack dealers.

I don't know about all counties, but Harris County has the right to fine you daily until you get in compliance. I don't know if it's EVER used in anything but in the most egregious cases, but they can make your life bad. From my perspective, floodplain is the biggest issue...getting your slab or floor elevation (and electrical and mechanical equipment) above the floodplain elevation. Doesn't guarantee you won't flood, but the floodplain was established there for some reason, so you'd be well advised to take the warning. Not to mention, slab/floor elevation can make a huge difference in flood insurance rates. If you don't take the warning, you could cost yourself hundreds of dollars per year in additional flood insurance premiums. Also important to keep in mind that just because you're NOT in the floodplain doesn't mean you're safe from flooding either. It could be that there is a floodplain there that hasn't been officially recognized or mapped there, or there could be some other local drainage issue that would not be picked up in a floodplain analysis (typically an undersized inlet or inlet blocked with debris that can't be foreseen). If you're building on acreage, spend the extra $$$ and elevate your slab/floor AT LEAST 1-2 feet above the ground, even if there is no floodplain. When the biblical floods come, you'll be relieved that you did. Other than that, my understanding is that Harris County doesn't have any building code requirements. For just a single residential lot, you'd be looking at floodplain permits, driveway permits, and on-site sewage facility permit (aerobic sprayer) if you're not connected to a public wastewater system. No other codes for structure, plumbing, electrical, etc.

DON'T TAKE AWAY MY DREAMS!!!

Worst part to me is having to water my damn yard. I HATE watering my yard in a city whose annual rainfall averages about an inch of rain a week (50" per year). I've watered the yard twice this week. The alternative is what happened to me last summer when I didn't water, and ended up with dead St. Augustine. I suppose a better alternative would be to replant with buffalo grass. I wonder how bahia grass would look?

If you're in the floodplain, most counties have varying levels of regulation for building in the floodplain. Most counties require compensating mitigation storage for fill in the floodplain, with minimum finish slab elevation criteria.

You all complain too much. If the next mayor will just take my advice and "Legalize It", you'll all forget all your problems...as well as forgetting where you were going with that story. As RedScare pointed out, it's "good for asthma"...which means we can step back from costly pollution measures that could drive our prime industry out of town. Also, goats love to play with it...so we could diversify our economic base with goat ranching. Doctors smoke it. We'll keep expanding the TMC...with THC! Once we legalize it, they will advertise it...look for all those hot NYC ad agencies will be heading for Downtown H-Town. Only downside I foresee: it's good for umara composis.

I've had some good breakfasts at Taqueria Mexico. Not far away on Telephone is Tony's Tacos...I've picked some decent tacos there too, breakfast and otherwise. They seem to have improved from when they first opened a few years back. A NON-favorite restaurant would be Spanky's Pizza. I don't see the appeal of that place. I'd honestly rather have Pizza Hut. I'll second South Philly Steaks if I haven't already. Great cheesesteaks. Mandola's Deli...haven't been there in years, but I bet the lasagna hasn't changed a bit!

You gotta admit that the HEB on Scott and OST is somewhat better than it was as an HEB Pantry. But yeah, despite it being the closest big grocery store to us, we don't go very often...maybe 3 or 4 times a year. On the plus side, the lines at the Frenchy's inside are WAY faster than the ones up the street at the original Frenchy's. We do most of our shopping at the Kroger's on OST at Cambridge. I've always been a Kroger's guy...I grew up with it. Conversely, I've never been able to stomach being inside a Randall's for very long. I guess that for the longest time I had no need to go in there, since they didn't sell beer or smokes. I probably shop at the KG Food Store on Tierwester just as often as Kroger's...but just for a few things like cokes, a few produce items, some GREAT spicy boudin, canned goods, snacks. It's a 5-minute walk from the house, so it's good for a $10 or $15 grocery trip. For full-on grocery shopping we also hit the SuperTarget on South Main sometimes. It took me a little getting used to, but I've really grown to like a lot of their Archer Farms frozen foods. Very interesting variety. We do hit the Gulfgate HEB sometimes too. I really like the store, I just wish there were fewer people inside it! Maybe I only hit it on weekends or something, but everytime I go, it's tough to maneuver around that store. The selection is light-years ahead of the HEB on OST/Scott, though. In general I really like HEB's, and if there was a full-size one closer than 5 miles, I'd hit it all the time...but the old HEB Pantry Foods are pretty crazzappy.

Yeah, I don't think I'd do well with this plastic stick. Reminds me of what they were saying about the spacewalking astronauts who were trying to remove all those screws on the Hubble...they compared working through the spacesuit to working with boxing gloves on. I don't think I'd be very successful at wiping my rear end with boxing gloves on. I think it's much less messy to use my hands than some other foreign object.

When I was a kid, Brown Sugar's was on Kleckley behind Almeda Mall...pretty much right across the street from the Bracewell Library. They moved sometime in the early 90's (I think?) over to a strip mall on the Gulf Freeway feeder...close to Bizarre Bazaar. I think I only ate there once when I was around 10 years old. Don't recall the meal (25 years ago), but they must do a decent job, cause they're about as old as I am.

I think the names are cheesy too, but have you ever tried to name streets? If you haven't, try making up a few names, then look in the index of the Key Map to see if someone else hasn't already thought of it before. That being said, just when you think every possible combination of "River", "Prairie", "Hills", "Stone", "Green", and "Park" has been done before, here comes a bigger and better combination. Sincerely, The Original Timmy Chan 12321 Northwest Green River Prairie Hills Park Circle Houston, Texas 77021

What I'd like to see is a gigantic concrete-lined channel. Think Brays Bayou, but without all the trees and jogging trails. Lots of chain-link fences and guard rails along the edges. Hopefully the channel wouldn't be required to follow the curve of the dome...I much prefer straight lines (and 90-deg angles if possible) to anything with a curve. Maybe that's just the engineer in me. You asked how to deal with it "if it's possible." You should know that ANYTHING'S possible, with enough time and $$$. Actually I wouldn't think that the runoff would be too terribly bad. 250 acre-feet is really not a frightening volume of water...HCFCD has built many detention ponds that exceed that size. For example, the basins at Art Storey Park hold somewhere in the range of 3,400 ac-ft of water (or put another way, that's about 700,000 dump truck loads of dirt.) I think the cost of drainage would be relatively minor in the scheme of things for this project. Think of it this way...if you were going to go develop 0.785 square miles (500 ac) of raw land, you'd be required by HCFCD to store at least 275 ac-ft of runoff anyways (0.55 ac-ft/ac). That's just a standard minimum requirement by HCFCD...and developments exceed that minimum requirement pretty regularly due to various site conditions. In any event, I don't think you need to worry about drainage for this project. Don't think we'll see this in our lifetimes. Seems pretty silly to me...but maybe they made a better case for it in the TV show.

Should have shot the perp in the back to protect your neighbor's property. It's legal now, you know?

As far as I know, the Quadrangle dorms and Towers dorms were developed by UH. Cambridge Oaks = partnership between UH/Century Property (1991) Cullen Oaks = partnership between UH/American Campus Communities (2000) Bayou Oaks = partnership between UH/American Campus Communities (2003) Best I can tell from a quick internet search, UH is developing Calhoun Lofts and the new freshman dorms on Wheeler on their own. So, it appears UH has tried both methods, and apparently has decided to go it alone. Maybe their experience has been that they're better off developing on their own? I don't know... I have a friend who graduated from UH's biochem program...he's now a successful television reporter in California!

Not a thing wrong with putting the Davis Mountains on the license plate. I think this is an improvement over what we have now.

Not even close to secure, in my mind. The legislation hasn't been signed by Rick Perry, and he seems to have a particular grudge against UH. Once the legislation is signed, then it's up to the voters of Texas to pass a Constitutional Amendment in November to allow for the Tier One funds. And...like I said, most of those Tier One funds are being taken from a fund that's already supposed to benefit UH and Texas Tech (and TSU, TSU, SHSU, SFA, etc.) and it's going to be opened up to be shared by UT System schools that are already funded by a different, vastly larger fund. That's why I said, although UH will stand to benefit, we're just robbing the poor to pay the rich.

The other eligible institutions are UT-Arlington, UT-Dallas, UTEP, UTSA, UNT, and Texas Tech. That's a lot of UT System schools, who are already sharing in the $12 Billion PUF funds that none of UH, UNT or TT have access to. Also...read the breakdown below of the $680 million "Tier One" funding. The bulk of that funding ($425M) would come from the HEF fund that was supposed to be funding the non-PUF schools. So basically we're stealing from the poor (HEF schools) to give to the poor AND the rich (PUF schools). On top of that, the Lege says UT-Austin and A&M-College Station are eligible to share in $126 million of the Tier One funds. Those schools already get an extra $400 million a year from the PUF! As a UH alum, I'm happy to see UH POTENTIALLY get access to greater funding...but I don't like the way Texas is going about it. http://www.star-telegram.com/local_news/story/1413474.html Tier 1 The Legislature has set up a $680 million package that would allow seven state-designated "emerging" universities to become the next major research institution. They include UT-Arlington, UNT and UT-Dallas. The funding would be set up as follows: $425 million. Voters will be asked in November whether to redirect money in the state Higher Education Fund to creating Tier 1 institutions. To compete, a university would have to spend at least $45 million a year on research and be designated an emerging institution. It would also need to fulfill four of the six criteria: Award at least 200 doctorates a year; be recognized for scholarship and research; have an endowment of at least $400 million; have high-achieving freshman classes; have a high-quality faculty; and have excellent graduate schools. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board would define the criteria, such as for a high-achieving freshman class. $126 million. Research University Development Fund. The seven emerging universities and UT-Austin and Texas A&M can compete for this matching money. The money would be awarded based on how much money the schools spend on research. $80 million. Texas Centers of Excellence Fund. Money would be awarded based on the number of at-risk students enrolled, graduation rates and degrees awarded to students majoring in math, science, engineering, nursing and other high-need fields. $50 million. Texas Research Incentives Program. This program would be open only to emerging universities. Grants would be awarded based on the money a school raises for research and faculty recruitment. A school that receives at least $2 million would get a 100 percent match; a school that receives between $100,000 and $999,999 would get a 50 percent match.

Better than the polk salad I could offer!