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zaphod

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  1. zaphod
    In other news, I didn't realize the Deluxe Diner was becoming a Chimy's Cerveceria. Nice. Fatburger and A1 tutoring and Herbert's have all moved on, and the bank is now almost torn down. Still, that's a small footprint for the proposed buildings going up. I wonder if Taco Bell or Citibank will remain or if one or the other will eventually close too?
  2. zaphod
    The empty bank at the location of 717 University has a chain link fence around it now.
  3. zaphod
    Wow, is that for real? So that will be on the site of the old bank, across the street from Taco Bell? I wonder how much if it will spell the end for the strip with Jin's and Lippman's, or if that will remain. The architecture isn't too bad, especially near the bottom. It could do without the round crowny thing and I'm sure it's a real dog from the rear though. But beggar's can't be choosers, it will be awesome to see so much go up on University. It looks way better than the Plaza.
  4. zaphod
    Oh well. The Plaza isn't really a skyscraper. I also wonder if it truly is the tallest building in the city sometimes or if that is a myth. The Eller Building with its antennae included looks taller, at least to me. Does anyone have a official source for its height?
  5. zaphod
    If something bad or undesirable happens outside their window, they will probably be pissed and feel entitled to stop it. Contrast that with "not my problem" if it happens in someone else's neighborhood.
  6. zaphod
    I used to work in a Hastings and it was clear they are really trending away from being exclusively a book and video store to something else as a response to technology. Our store got a HUGE new section selling everything from T-shirts, guitars and music gear, memorabilia, etc. They even had skateboard decks. To add this they dramatically shrunk the DVD area. They had a lot of stuff you'd find in a Hot Topic, or perhaps a more family-friendly version of Spencer's Gifts. Most of this merchandise would appeal to teenagers or college students. To me this makes a lot of sense, as Hastings as a chain is really prevalent in smaller cities and towns like say, Clovis, NM. They'd have no other bricks and mortar competition selling this kind of merchandise in places like that. Compare this to your typical Borders. Whole floors of dead tree. Books, books and more books. Expensive newly printed ones like you wouldn't spend money on if the local Half-Price had it. Its where you go to kill time when you are shopping with someone of the opposite sex who wants to look in another mall store you find boring, but not actually buy anything.
  7. zaphod
    Interesting, my cousins lived in that neighborhood over near Ella and Louetta, and went to the schools you listed, but we were all born a decade after you. When did that area north of Louetta start feeling less "exurban"? Who knows, Google Earth's 1970s-90s imagery shows a progression of new subdivisions along Kuykendahl up to The Woodlands. Its kind of like, at some point in the 1970s the Houston metropolitan area reached its maximum northward geographic extent(up to about Conroe) with isolated subdivisions way out in the middle of nowhere, and since then most of the growth has been filling in the spaces in between.
  8. zaphod
    There are sidewalks already if you look at the plan/map and google
  9. zaphod
    except that would be rad I was thinking about Downtown Vancouver, BC. The west end is a strange mix of towers and little victorian apartment buildings and houses. That's definetely not a cheap or blighted area, I doubt high rises are hurting it.
  10. zaphod
    Exactly and they don't necessarily have to be directly on campus anyways. That could be a solution for the old Albertson's. After all it's right across the street. How cool would that be. You'd punch through the E-W streets that currently end there and sort of integrate with everything else. That and perhaps all along the area take the parking lane from University and replace it with a wider sidewalk with trees. Since this new area would also servce the function of the old married student housing across college main that barracks stuff could be demolished and that land could be assembled with the other tract as one gigantic plot of empty, buildable land right in the middle of town.
  11. zaphod
    Well back to the original post, the proposal was really just a people mover between campus and parking facilities. When you think about it the whole idea is ridiculous because you are spending a fortune to only feed the problem, that is too many people driving. For a fraction of the cost of a tram+garage structures, expand the bus system so that people don't need to park on campus in the first place. I think a couple of public(not TAMU) bus routes that use bigger buses that carry bikes and go around bi-directional loop routes on the major streets would work great here. A few of the stops the big roads could use little pull-off areas for the buses to stop and there would be covered bus shelters and adequate signage. I've seen this in Boulder near the CU campus. Though they have the advantage of being part of Denver's transit system and don't have to worry about funding....
  12. zaphod
    eh, you know what's funny though is in Madison, WI and Boulder CO they have both made serious proposals for trains at points in the past but it never made sense. Trying to think of other precedents as well. Had College Station built denser like those cities with a student neighborhood like west campus in Austin, and if perhaps Bryan had a bigger more business-like downtown, and if everything from the hospitals to the mall had clustered more in a central area, then who knows. I agree this area punches below it's weight in terms of the urban environment, we have no tall buildings, but then again houses here don't cost $482,000 like they do in other college towns. To be realistic though it would even in that case make more sense to go with some kind of rail-like BRT that they have in Eugene and are building in Fort Collins, where sleek electric/hybrid buses run on a guideway of sorts inside the landscaped median and stop at covered stations. Of course then also my dad always joked that in the 1970's they could've built a airport-style people mover.Maybe we could go raid Las Colinas and steal their crazy little monorail thing in the middle of the night and bring it here. All we need is a giant helicopter.
  13. zaphod
    I guess because one would expect to see something like a more serious public bus system beyond the TAMU shuttles before you would propose something like that. If there really is a need for capacity you could use those bendy buses or simply run more regular ones. Oh well, I had a crazy dream once where Bryan had a light rail, and a downtown with smallish high rises like they have in Lubbock.
  14. zaphod
    Cool, I have a recent one of those (2007) plus one I found in my dad's old crap dating to 1986. It's way cool seeing the names of developments in that era, including a lot of sites platted for malls that were never built. Williamsburg and Tang City malls? huh?
  15. zaphod
    Unexpected...
  16. zaphod
    cool! Ive never seen one where the user can actually physically move the thing around! as for the tunnels and why downtown doesnt have streetlife, maybe that has more to do with the fact that houston doesnt have a lot of people LIVING downtown?
  17. zaphod
    isnt that golf course the only free one in the entire area oh well, i dont like golf anyways...
  18. zaphod
    heh, looks like the pooh's sign is gone.... this wouldnt be the old tinsleys would it: oh yeah, while i was out, i got some pics of the Hebrewmobile
  19. zaphod
    yep, thats it... i'll be driving by that place today, i'll check for ya.
  20. zaphod
    hey, while on the subject what did gumby's pizza used to be? the exterior looks like it was a taco bell, but inside it doesnt really look like it. Pepe Taco perhaps? Also, is that rusty old sign with the dog on it over by the Hobby Lobby center from pooh's park? i just noticed it today...
  21. zaphod
    And the worlds largest mall is also a white trash mecca. There is a SEARS for gods sakes. Not quite the image the Galleria wants. NO CINEMAS. the largest mall(s) are in china buddy...i dunno, are there sears/lots of trashy white people in donggsan? seriously though, what about one of those artsy movie theaters? that would be something new and it wouldnt attract lots of spoiled 14 yr olds with credit cards...
  22. zaphod
    ROFL just curious, do mattresses even float? it wouldnt matter he'd still do it though...
  23. zaphod
    maybe its built on an ancient indian burial ground?
  24. zaphod
    Its good that they are renovating it instead of tearing it down. GP+parking is HUGE, you know its nearly a kilometer from the entrance at greens road to the parking spots that edge up to the ramps for the BW8/45 interchange.(measure tool on google earth)
  25. zaphod
    Houston has DD! Yay! now i can get a big bag of munchkins finally.
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