Jesse

A growler is typically a 32 or 64 ounce resealable glass container (other sizes too maybe). Typically used when you want to transport >1 pint but <1 keg of beer somewhere. They sell them at many places that offer beer on tap - Whole Foods has them, Hay Merchant, and sometimes restaurants with an onsite brewery (outside of TX though, right? someone correct me - I think the beer laws in this state are kinda funky. Maybe it's just Harris County). You can usually buy a growler for $5-$10, and refill them for about the same, depending on the beer. For example, I have a 32oz growler from Whole Foods on Montrose. The growler cost me $6 (one time fee), and I can take it in and get a refill of various TX beers for anywhere from $4-$15 on any given day (they have ~8 beers on tap). I take it home, drink it up, wash it out, and take it back for a refill another time. Some places offer a growler exchange program so you don't have to wash it yourself. Think about it this way - it's the beer drinker's version of a refillable propane tank :-)

Wow, we're down to nitpicking grammar, huh? I figured his use of the word "your", followed by his quoting MY statement, indicated he was talking to me. But let's let him answer. Not sure why you jumped in, Niche. I wasn't talking to you. Still waiting on Red's response. And yes, I would LOVE to hear you back up YOUR statement with facts. When have I made non-credible statements about "my fight"? Please provide evidence. You're so good at brushing off others when they don't back up statements with facts. So let's see them. When have I not been credible? (that's directed at you, Niche). And, for the record, I said "I would argue THE fight isn't over". Not my fight. I never mentioned my fight. So why are you? I was taking issue with Red's logic (again, why am I arguing this with you? Regardless...). He said he fought the historic ordinance for a year. Which I respect. He then said "his current activities", suggesting he was still actively involved in raising awareness, and working towards his goal, even though the ordinance passed. Some would argue the fight was over once it passed. But he is continuing his work. He's still fighting. Good for him. My point, which some clearly misunderstood, was that although the initial fight to prevent Walmart from entering the neighborhood is over (presumably they've signed a lease by now), there could still be ways to delay/prevent/obstruct the opening. I don't know of any. That doesn't mean there aren't any. Some people are actively looking into it. My point is that any efforts right now, that could prevent/delay the opening would still be considered a 'fight'. Once the doors open, the fight would be over. But until then, I don't see how the battle is lost. Much like how Red is continuing to fight, even though the ordinance passed. capisce?

Huh? I haven't talked about trees. Please explain.

I would argue the fight isn't over until Walmart opens their doors

was this not obvious?

Well, kinda. Greenspoint is accessable through all of those roads, but for the ExxonMobil buildings, you're looking at a few hundred exiting I-45 from Rankin Road, and the rest exiting Greens Road (90% East, 10% West) Beltway 8 drivers only exit Greenspoint Drive - there are no XOM buildings on Imperial Valley or East of there. Hardy Toll Road drivers have to exit onto BW8, and then again can only exit onto Greenspoint Drive The new campus will have I-45, Grand Parkway, and that last exit off Hardy (I forget the name). Plus a likely entrance on the West side of the campus from the new neighborhood. I agree with you though... it won't be pretty, at least at first. I for one am very interested to see what kind of car/van/bus pooling options they provide, especially to inner-loopers. I think the company recognizes that anytime you bring that many people together in one spot, you're very likely to have traffic issues

Actually with 13,000 spaces I'd wager there are >13,000 employees. Or at least the capacity for such. Building >1 spot per person is purely wasteful (nobody can drive 2 cars at a time, obviously), but there are always people out of the office on vacation, sick, travelling, in training, carpooling (ie: spouses and neighbors), riding a motorcycle, handicapped parkers, being dropped off by a spouse/neighbor, etc.

0 to 10,000 employees? Wait a second. Is everyone forgetting the few thousand employees already in Greenspoint? They have employees in at least 8 buildings there already. The 9 miles between Greenspoint and the new campus is not going to make everyone sell their house and move - a vast majority already live in The Woodlands, so you're looking at a net change of zero people coming out of the 'burbs and onto I-45. A majority of the rest live inside the loop, and they're looking at an added 7-10 minutes on the highway. Since so few people are coming Northbound already (reverse commute), you're still not looking at any net influx into the Woodlands (they'll all exit at the new campus, or even take Hardy up and just get off from there). Right now there isn't any slowdown on I-45 going Northbound until you get to the Woodlands flyover. There is zero traffic backup from XOM employees on the Greenspoint exit ramps at any time of day, and those ramps are far smaller than the ones near the campus. Now, let's talk about the downtown office and the research center (Greenway plaza): A surprisingly large amount of people commute from the Woodlands to the downtown building and Greenway. Maybe a few additional cars coming out of the Woodlands to the new campus, since some of those people take the HOV bus currently. Same with the research center. People who live inside the loop and work there will now commute Northbound, so yes, a little bit of added traffic getting off I-45 at the new campus. People who work at the energy corridor building out I-10 already live out there, so they'll either be coming North, or moving to the Woodlands or Spring Creek. Speaking of Spring Creek - isn't that development going to be West of I-45, next to the campus? So those people won't be on I-45, they'll enter the campus through one of the 4+ entrances. My point here is that for the employees already in Houston, very very few will be moving, and even few will be dramatically changing their commutes (most will be getting shorter, in fact). The company is very actively looking at carpool/bus/vanpool options for higher employee density neighborhoods, so that should help the congestion a bit too. The larger issue is the ~2000 employees coming from other cities (Fairfax, Baytown, etc). Who knows where they'll live - I'm guessing the Woodlands and Spring Creek area. They will have a traffic impact, though as Redscare said, it's not like they're all going to appear overnight. One more note - XOM employees generally get to work between 6am and 8:30am (some even earlier). So you're looking at 10,000 people (eventually) spread out over 2.5+ hours, across multiple entrances, from multiple directions. To think that XOM didn't plan for this is to not understand how XOM approaches projects.

RedScare - our disagreements aside, that's a brilliantly relevant and funny clip you linked to

Buildings won't be taller than 6 stories

Happen to know about the big pile of dirt across the street, at Rankin Road and Kuykendahl (SE Corner)? They're digging fairly deep, so some of us are thinking a gas station (for the tanks)

My head hurts

If true, that is ridiculously cool

As a sidenote, my wife made a good observation this weekend. We were coming up Heights from Washington, and I remarked that they were extending the gravel trail from the Heights Blvd median along the new Walmart/Strip center area (between I-10 and Washington). She said, "well, that's stupid, because you have to cross from the trail, across Heights to the East or West sidewalks, and then cross back over Heights to get to the median again around Koehler/2nd street". She was right - there's a bridge across the bayou on Northbound Heights and a bridge on Southbound Heights, but nothing in between except open air and a 50 foot drop. No way to extend the running trail through there, and the Heights bridges don't have sidewalks on the inside lanes. See here: http://g.co/maps/gvrgx It was a very astute observation

I guess repaved. When they were doing Shepherd I remember they stripped off the top 1-2 inches, grooved it, then laid down the asphalt. Yale (or the half of yale that's now gone) is all the way down to dirt - looks like 10-14 inches below the existing "road" (I use that term lightly, you'll understand if you've driven on it). Ironically, they're progressing with the strip center - some kind of SuperCuts or something put up their sign in the past few days. They're probably accessing the storefronts from the Heights Blvd side, since you sure can't get there from Yale.

Thanks!

I know, repaving roads can be a significant undertaking. It's just frustrating because the works seems to have stalled out over the past 2 months or so. The East side of the street is ripped up, and they haven't done anything to it. It's just a big pit. I think I'm far enough away from Washington Ave to avoid the zombies. Some have been known to make their way all the way up to White Oak on Friday and Saturday nights though. That is worrisome. If they do demolish the bridge, can zombies swim across the bayou? Hmmm. I can't remember a zombie movie where their aversion to water was addressed.

Can we get back to talking about how they've f'ed up Yale St so badly (between train tracks and I-10) and how it doesn't look like they'll be fixing it anytime soon? I mean really. The new strip center is done and ready to go, but you can't even get to it, let alone drive on that side of the road. Heights is inexplicably down to 1 lane going NB from Washington, Yale is down to 1 potholed and hazardous lane, and Shepherd is a parking lot because of the I-10 ramp construction. /vent. I don't even care about Walmart anymore. I just want to be able to get home at more than 3mph

There are 2 huge buildings (warehouse style) going up on the East side of I-45, a few hundred feet north of Rankin Road. Both buildings are 1-2 story, with large curved roofs. Very large surface lots. I've been thinking a car dealership (or two), but am wondering if anybody knows more details. -Jesse

Don't know who to call, but make sure you're getting pictures of the whole ordeal

There's also the ever popular Foscam models. It's a pretty sturdy outdoor IR camera, though you need a power source nearby. Most models are wireless too. http://amzn.com/B00426FEL8 Motion sensing preferences can be set from the configuration page, and it can email you, upload images to a FTP site, etc. I would say that setup requires a decent level of technical knowledge about networks, port forwarding (if you want to access the camera from outside of home), etc.

I'm no businessman, but running out of beer at a place called 'beer island' is never a good sign. Hell, running out of beer anywhere is never a good sign. ;-)

Were they open long enough to create memories?

http://www.houstonheights.org/newsletter/index.htm#ConsMap Plus the Woodland Heights one just about covers the whole area.