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Original Timmy Chan's

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Everything posted by Original Timmy Chan's

  1. Original Timmy Chan's
    Obviously tan colored buildings are a another of Aggieland's "traditions". I do like some of the ornate stuff, though. I didn't see the ornate buildings on my tour of A&M in HS. Of course, I cut my tour short...I knew A&M wasn't for me within 5 minutes on campus.
  2. Original Timmy Chan's
    Gee...this doesn't sound familiar at all... Washington Ave and the Montrose maybe? Back when the Westheimer Street Fest was shut down a number of years back, folks were making the same complaints about new residents changing the character of the neighborhood. Helps explain the "3rd Ward is not for sale" signs too... Ehhhh...what would we do if we couldn't complain, right? It's the most basic human right, right?
  3. Original Timmy Chan's
    I don't have a clue. I believe one nearby said "Midtown Investment Group" or something like that, but I don't know who the builder was. If it's one builder, they're not advertising who they are. Well, not matter how many builders, they're not advertising who they are. They're just here and there around the neighborhood. FWIW, a couple years ago I remember seeing a ton of "Texas Colonial Homes" signs leading to the Foster Place neighborhood, between Scott and Cullen.
  4. Original Timmy Chan's
    I believe Sims Bayou construction is a joint effort between Harris County Flood Control and the US Army Corps of Engineers. Construction is complete downstream (east) of 288 and has proceeded upstream (west) of 288. My understanding is that the construction will lower the floodplain elevation by as much as 5 feet in the vicinity of 288. That's a HUGE amount. Downstream of 288, the floodplain is now within the banks of Sims Bayou for the most part. I imagine the same will be true upstream of 288 as construction is completed. The reason that new developments look muddy is because of the disturbed soil that washes into the streets...once the ground is revegetated, you won't see all the mud in the streets. FWIW, I live just inside the loop at 288, in South Union. It's a quiet, safe neighborhood. It's rough around the edges, with some abandoned homes, condemned homes and vacant lots, but on the other hand, it's ripe for redevelopment. In fact, I'd guess there've been 10-20 new brick homes built here in the last 2-3 years. You can get a new 1500-2000 sf home here for around $110k-$125k. It might be worth looking into. There are also other options inside the loop...Scott Terrace, Washington Terrace, 3rd Ward, and then you've got the East End. I find all these neighborhoods to be safe, unless you're slinging coca and pi$$ someone off. Unless you're dealing or stealing, you should have nothing to fear.
  5. Original Timmy Chan's
    I think what Trae was trying to say is, a lot of PV students stay in Cypress. It only takes 10-15 minutes to get to Prairie View from Fry Road. At least that's the way I read it. And there's never a time when sentence diagrams are interesting. That **** got me kicked out of Honors English in 6th grade. Well, that and the whole "reading books" thing.
  6. Original Timmy Chan's
    The building will be for graduate students. It will incorporate 10,000 sf of retail in addition to the 1,000-bed residential component, so it will be a "mixed use" development.
  7. Original Timmy Chan's
    I find the area quite habitable. It's definitely underserved by retail, but quite habitable nonetheless. It's very convenient (0-10 minutes) to enough retail outlets (Gulfgate, Pearland, Meyerland, Midtown, Galleria) that the lack of retail in the immediate area is not that big a deal. There is definitely a good amount of vacant land in the area, but it's still home to tens of thousands of people. I would say that it's very habitable, and in fact, the available land would seem to make it a profitable area as well. I know there are new homes going up in every neighborhood around us...South Union, Foster Place, Riverside Terrace, Scott Terrace. That ain't for charity! BTW, closer to the original topic, I noticed this weekend that there is finally some construction activity on the old Ranger Motel site. The site has been cleared, and I believe there are some utilities in the ground. Steve's Cafe, a Vietnamese restaurant, just opened up next to Guy's Meat Market. I haven't eaten at that location yet, but I've been to the one on Scott Street at UH a number of times. It's not the best I've ever had, but it's good and definitely convenient.
  8. Original Timmy Chan's
    They "disconnected" Calhoun from Elgin back in the early 90's when I was at UH. I don't believe Calhoun will ever connect directly to Elgin, due to the geometrics of Spur 5. There is an "internal" street that connects Elgin to Calhoun through the campus. I am curious to see if it is improved in the coming years, once Cullen is closed to vehicular traffic. Once Cullen is closed, that narrow drive will be a major circulator around campus. I don't know if I'd say that side of campus is ugly...just barren. However, I understand that side of campus is vastly improved from the olden days when there was a slaughterhouse by the railroad. Some old-timers have told me that was not a pretty smell. Of course, that's going back to the days when the Y-Building was "state of the art".
  9. Original Timmy Chan's
    I think I know which townhomes we're talking about here...just outside the Loop at Buffalo Spdwy? Although it's not considered a "hot" or trendy area, I love the location. It's very convenient to the Med Center, Galleria and Downtown (all within a 10-minute drive). In addition, the OST/S. Main area has really improved over the last 5 years, and it's oftentimes the most convenient place for us to do all our shopping.
  10. Original Timmy Chan's
    Yeah, but how many $$$ per student do UT-Austin and Texas A&M get from the state (INCLUDING THE PUF $$$), compared to to TSU and UH? Those schools get a lot of extra $$$ that no other state school gets (I'm talking many tens of millions per year).
  11. Original Timmy Chan's
    The biggest deficit number reported in all the TSU stories is their $54 million deferred maintenance cost. However, as Isaiah Carey reported on Fox 26 last night, TSU is not the only state school with high deferred maintenance costs. Apparently the State Legislature keeps telling state universities that there is not sufficient state funding to pay for these maintenance items. Here's a sample of the deferred maintenance numbers from several state universities: UT-Austin - $85 million Texas A&M - $63 million TSU - $54 million UH - $37 million UNT - $18 million Funny that we haven't heard any reports of UT-Austin or Texas A&M regents losing their jobs over these numbers. In addition, it was reported that TSU's Athletics program is running a deficit of $2 million per year. News flash: TSU is FAR from the only school in the country whose athletics dept is in the red. It's reported that there are maybe 15 NCAA Division I athletics programs (out of more than 100) that actually make a profit. Obviously TSU is not alone in losing money on sports. I wish my alma mater, UH, only lost $2 million a year on athletics. While I agree that TSU does need an great improvement in its leadership, I think a lot of this is hyped just because it's an HBCU. Most importantly, the ones who suffer most from all of this are the hard-working students who are trying to better themselves and have little to no control over the management of their school. I think the general public is equating the fiscal mismanagement of TSU with the quality of a TSU diploma, and that's unfair. My wife is currently a TSU student, and because of, or in spite of, her TSU education, she already has job offers from 2 of the nation's top 5 accounting firms. [/proud husband mode]
  12. Original Timmy Chan's
    Where's the outrage about the "white" colleges? Texas A&M undergrads are 79% white, 3% black. TSU is 85% black, 2% white. (based on total enrollment...couldn't find stats for undergrads only). Sounds about the same to me...No one's trying to shut down Texas A&M, even though it's a "historically white college". Why do we need these "white" colleges? Fact is, both schools are slowly diversifying. I'd get over the black school/white school thing and focus on TSU improving its financial stability. Of course, if TSU got to share in the PUF like A&M does, finances wouldn't be a problem. I'm more interested in breaking up the financial discrimination of the PUF...we have a system of "haves" and "have-nots" in higher education in Texas: the UT and A&M systems are the "haves" and every one else is a "have-not".
  13. Original Timmy Chan's
    You're talking about the Brio Superfund site. It's at the corner of Dixie Farm Rd and Beamer...quite a ways from the "Black Hole" that's the subject of this thread. The subdivision adjacent to the Brio site was condemned and cleared in the late 80's and early 90's, but as I understand it, homes are popping up on that same site now. I haven't been out that way for a decade or so, so I can't confirm it. I know a guy that designed the original subdivision, and he's pretty ticked that they're building another subdivision there after all the lawsuit hell he and his company went through back then. In addition to the subdivision on one side of Brio site, there was a baseball/softball complex on another side of Brio. My sister used to play ball there as a kid...we always jokingly asked if she kept her mouth shut as she slid into 2nd base...our guess was "probably not".
  14. Original Timmy Chan's
    Wow...that's a lot more cleaned-up than I remember it. Notsuoh was not as well-decorated or organized when I last went. It was just chaos everywhere...and I liked that.
  15. Original Timmy Chan's
    I wasn't born at St. Josephs!
  16. Original Timmy Chan's
    Or better yet...how about these big developers paying their fair share of the highway improvements! After all, isn't it their developments that are causing all the freeway capacity issues?!? Why does the general public need to pay for freeway improvements to serve developments that are NOT profiting the general public?!? I won't cry if the developers pay their share of freeway improvements and only get filthy rich, instead of filthy STINKING rich!!! Of course, the cost of the freeway improvements would have to be passed on to the homebuyer, but isn't that fair? After all, those homebuyers are the ones who need the freeway improvements, so why shouldn't they pay the bulk of the costs of improvement?
  17. Original Timmy Chan's
    Correcto. The pedestrian bridge over 610 is still there, though. That was always cool to walk across to the movie theater...
  18. Original Timmy Chan's
    The following summarizes the UH Master Plan and is copied from the link above: We
  19. Original Timmy Chan's
    I live in a wood-frame house. It's over 60 years old. 60>20 To be fair, I will admit there was termite damage on one wall of the house when we renovated. We had to replace SEVERAL 2x4's!
  20. Original Timmy Chan's
    The modern umbrella was invented in the late 1700's. No intelligent student would survive in Houston without one in his/her bag.
  21. Original Timmy Chan's
    They're not exactly "way off campus". The latest dorms were built on Calhoun at MacGregor, just one block away from the Towers. Before that were the Cullen Oaks and Cambridge Oaks on Cullen between Wheeler and MacGregor, just one block (or less) away from the Quadrangle dorms. When I was at UH, I always parked over by the Quadrangle (because I had friends on campus who lived in the Quad and at Cambridge Oaks, and because it was near impossible to find a parking spot near the Engineering/Architecture/Music buildings)...but walked across campus to the Engineering Buildings. It's about a half-mile walk, and it never took more than 10-15 minutes. I never once took a shuttle in my 5 years at UH. I doubt they could have been any faster than walking, when you include the wait for the shuttle. The new dorms will be built "in campus", between the Engineering, Business and Law buildings. I think UH's "sprawl" has reached its peak...there's no more room to grow out. From here on out, the campus will be filled in (mainly in existing parking lots), and parking garages will be necessary.
  22. Original Timmy Chan's
    I usually find that if I spend more than $5-$6 at a taqueria, I've overeaten. A couple of tacos and a tostada are a good meal for under $5.00.
  23. Original Timmy Chan's
    Too true... I'll admit, I voted FOR the new pro stadiums whenever they were up for a vote. Since that time, I've soured on pro sports. I could care less now whether they stay or go. I've given up on going to Astros, Texans and Rockets games. The atmosphere is sterile, and prices are insane. UH now fulfills all my football, basketball and baseball needs. Games are more exciting, crowds are more energized, and I just enjoy myself better at UH games...even when we're losing. If I had it to do over again, I'd vote against taxpayer subsidized pro sports stadiums. UH and Rice don't get any help with stadium improvements from the taxpayers, why should the pros?
  24. Original Timmy Chan's
    That being the case, why don't pro sports teams have to pay for their own stadiums too?
  25. Original Timmy Chan's
    Well, the Dynamo had exactly ZERO sellouts...why do they merit a new stadium? Especially one that would be footed by taxpayers? The Dynamo's best-attended game was their first game: 25,462. They drew 23,107 for the conference final. UH had 3 games this year with better attendance than any Dynamo game: Grambling State - 27,302 Oklahoma State - 28,260 Southern Miss - 31,818 And we do that without all the free press that the Houston Dynamo garners from the Chronicle and local TV and radio. [/cranky Coog fan mad at the media]
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