zaphod

Whatever. Houston isn't so different from anywhere else. Even in Portland and San Diego where light rail has been considered a "huge success" its not like TOD magically appears the week after the lines open. And those cities still have issues with bus service cuts and maintaining ridership/mode share, despite their rail investments. In PDX their Max Yellow Line is approximately the same age as the Red Line and its still not really built up. Only in the last few years during the economic recovery has there started to be new stuff along it. As for stuff turning it's back on the tracks, well there is a Fred Meyer(NW equivalent of a HEB) along it that flanks a station but doesn't necessarily open to it-it opens to a parking lot... IMO, the nice thing about the light rail is that it doesn't run on diesel and go 5 mph in the right lane like the buses used to, and that in the long run steel wheel is a bit more efficient and durable. I thought that was the real reason they built it? Made the Med Center a little quieter and less polluted.

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?

Why did Safeway vanish from BCS and Texas in general? It seems like in other parts of the country, Safeway's are ubiquitous.

The empty bank at the location of 717 University has a chain link fence around it now.

bunch of crap. In any case, would it be such an awful use of tax money if the state bought some narrow parcels and put in public access ways? In other states it's how they do it.

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.

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?

I dunno, maybe or maybe not. I wasn't around when Aquarena Springs was still a tourist trap and Schlitterbahn hadn't supersized, but after going to college at Texas State its still a fun quirky place. The rivers haven't gone anywhere and are still public parks, and you see all kinds of people enjoying them. New Braunfels has probably only become more fake german over the years, Gruene is still a place, etc. The university in SM has grown and maybe the student culture is different than what my parents said it was back in the early 1980s but name a place that hasn't changed in 30 years. Personally, I'd say Beaumont or Midland-Odessa. Those places had all-to-short golden years in the 1950s to the early 1970s and today they are pretty ewww. Midland has an abandoned downtown with empty skyscrapers and the Golden Triangle's refineries are rusting. Really despite Texas being a rapidly growing place with a robust economy I'd hate to be marooned somewhere like that, unless you worked in the oil field in which case you'd have a job no problem, it would no better than living in Michigan or Ohio IMO.

I was watching tonight's KBTX 6 PM news and they reported that the closed Albertson's shopping center at south College and University Drive will be mostly demolished for an infill type student apartment building. I can't find any online articles about it yet, but I will post as soon as KBTX puts this evening's stories online and I can find any site plans or announcements from the developer. Apparently It will be called the "The Stack", appears to be 4 or 5 stories, will have ground floor retail and 2 levels of underground parking, and have about 400? units. Apparently it won't actually cover the whole center, but rather end at Hurricane Harry's which will remain.

Yeah, I went by it one evening and there were cars in the parking lot and a few floors did have lights on. Part of the building is hollow though if the sun is behind it. I don't know why tall buildings are so cursed in this town. I'd love for College Station to have more of a "skyline".

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.

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.

I used to hate that thing but now the design has really grown on me. Maybe its because stuff has changed so much in the last few years. Back when Frost was the newest and tallest "modern" building, I wanted it to set the tone for the rest of the skyline-no boxes, only towers with spires and plenty of ornamentation. Then all the new stuff got built and gave Austin a different kind of skyline. The 360 and Austonian began to appeal to me more once I saw their appeal.

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.

Its been a while since it started, but the old 6-story College Station Inn by George Bush in the Kohl's shopping center is being redone. Anyone know what the final plans for it are? For a while I thought it was being torn down, then they started painting it and building a new masonry stairwell on the end of it. A new hotel I assume, but what?

Today the whole thing is open, right? You can now turn right while going north on Wellborn to go west on 2818 with the final ramp opening up. The cool looking train, which appears to be a generic low-floor streetcar 3D model the design firm probably uses in other videos, is just an artist's depiction to illustrate how the existing railroad tracks will go over the road. It probably does not represent anything that is likely to be operating on that line in the near future, unless of course commuter rail does pan out. Also, I wish Simcity(well the good ones in the series) looked like that. Maybe CitiesXL, but I don't have it.

I wonder if this could be taken as an opportunity. While Houston has been growing rapidly it seems to me like it hasn't seen any truly brand new growth areas emerge in like 15 years. Trends have in development have changed since then, and we might see some new suburban node spring up out there as well, right?

I am a student majoring in urban planning /minor in public admin, and in one of my classes we had a discussion about the history of Stafford. As you are all aware it is a unique municipality, with its own school system and a large sales/commercial tax base in contrast with its small population that allows it to provide public amenities with zero property taxes and a low sales tax. I have always been semi-familiar with the area, my mom grew up in the Fondren Park subdivision off Airport Dr. and technically in Missouri City and visiting family involved driving through or making a run to the grocery store, etc. Anyways, perusing google earth I noticed for the first time a place marked as "Fifth Street, TX", which apparently is unincorporated Fort Bend County and Stafford's ETJ. It begins right across the road from the Stafford schools/city hall complex and goes until the subdivisions off Cartwright in Mo. City. The community has a fairly low median household income of 29k, and per capita income of 9k. It is 90% Hispanic or Latino. Basically a low income enclave. What's its history? How did it not get annexed by either Mo. City or Stafford and why were so many trailer parks built in the area? I'm curious if anyone here has any knowledge of local history?

I wonder what the best way would be to charge the condo dwellers with harassment would be?

There are sidewalks already if you look at the plan/map and google

well the second ramp is under construction, didn't anticipate that I'm trying to get a vision for what this will look like off paper. On the eastern side of Wellborn will that be a raised berm with the ramps, correct?

I lived part of my childhood there, in the early 90's. I can't imagine much beyond the mall being there, the growth is crazy. Honestly though while The Woodlands is very nice, aside from the trees I don't think it is any special or to be emulated. It's like any other suburb of its era, bearing a resemblance to the Memorial area, IMO.

I think everybody's right. AFAIK people with disposable income spend it on things that are currently seen as "trendy" no matter their race, though statistically most of these people are white for various historical reasons we all know. However, that's changing which is a good thing. Anyways assuming this scenario, the East End wouldn't market directly to white people so much as those of a certain age and income bracket. Gentrification is another story

These days the only thing cooler than being a hipster is hating hipsters.So its also ironic, because hip is all about irony. Actually, then its doubly ironic. Ack, I'm confused by all the irony now. Trapped in an infinite irony loop! No, Austin and Portland really do have neat stuff, but so does Houston. The only problem is the cynical and apathetic mindsets some people have. Not only is it negative but it leads to the though that many of the city's great features are no more than happy accidents.

I decided to post because I just went to visit some relatives in Spring Branch and noticed all the random train tracks around the Hempstead Highway and Blalock/Kempwood areas. It's hard to tell if they are active or dead-it probably depends on what's occupying the commercial and warehouse space in the industrial park. I'd look for indicators like if there's any kind of hardware around the switches or how shiny the tops of the rails are. Those tracks were just one of what used to be a ton of customers along the westpark ave tracks back in the day. There must have been hundreds of miles of industrial tracks around suburban Houston. One I just recently thought of was how tracks used to run parallel to the Beltway around Hammersly Blvd at one time, I remember seeing the overgrown tracks as a kid. There must've been some kind of industrial plant back in there that got rail service.