htownproud

have any of you ever lived in a city with real rail? rail that is actually used for something other than football games and the rodeo. for that matter, have you ever taken the rail in this city at a time other than that? there so few people on those mini-trains. if you think two rail cars is the equivalent of true rail, then there is no point arguing with you. that said, with such warped views of the economic implications of the houston rail system, you would be perfect to run metro or this city.

while im in favor of rail, the houston light rail system is a joke. how many people does one of our mini-trains hold? Shoving people in, you are probably still not too far north of 100. And because of how the stations were built, we won't be able to add additional cars to move more people. more importantly, the line on Richmond will cause awful traffic for the major roads that it crosses--as others have pointed out, making people wait for mutiple signal lights so the mini-train can come through the intercetion is assine. the rail should have been heavy rail and should have been elevated. the proposed system is not well thought out at all--likely the result of trying to appease too many interests, but dumb regardless. in terms of business, i think that all business along the route will be hurt except for possibly businesses by stations. if you are a business anywhere else on richmond, your store just got a lot harder to get to for 50% of the public. any comment that truly good stores won't be harmed is total b.s. even the best stores run on tight margins (do you think that store owners just mint millions or something?). making it permanently harder for 50% of the people to get to the store (and a few years of making it nearly impossible to get to the store at all) will harm even the best business. i doubt the business will go downtown. they were never downtown and it is too far away from many of their customers.

Does anyone have any info on what is being proposed at the SE corner of Montrose and West Dallas? There is a notice of variance sign up. More town homes? As an aside, can someone please post a link so you can see what type of variance is being proposed at a particular property? I couldn't find anything like that online, but I assume it exists. Many thanks.

this would be great if it was true, but they haven't be doing anything noticable over there in years. i'll believe it when i see it.

why shut down businesses if people are parking legally? and if someone's in your driveway or parked illegally, get them towed. it's that simple. and if you live an apartment and can never find parking, then ask for a reduction in rent or move. the businesses in the area have just as much a right to use their property as they see fit as your landlord. i don't like that the duplexes near me bring extra people into the area and that someone from those units is almost always parked in front of my house, but i accept it and don't try to have the duplexes condemned. frankly, ziggy's, et al. should have never had to worry about the stupid parking ordinance in the first place.

I live in the neighborhood and just hate that my neighbors dislike bars and restaurants within walking distance. if they don't want those sort of establishments near them, they should move to the heights or outside the loop. it would be a real shame to lose these places.

Fairly certain you guys are talking about the same building.

While that may have been true before, the downtown IAH express makes no stops between the stop across the street from the Metro downtown transit center and IAH--not even a second stop downtown.

midtown apartments are currently at a high occupancy rate (e.g., Post is near 100%). obviously with Camden coming online, there will be excess capacity for awhile, but in 15 months who knows

interestingly, one of the three pictures of "Motrose" on the APA website is from Stanford accross from the Channel 11 building, so it would appear that the APA considered Montrose to be more than just the intersection of Westheimer and Montrose. http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/neighborhoods/2009/index.htm#M

FWIW--I think the heart of Montrose today is Hyde Park and Montrose. Pretty hard to say with a straight face that the bungalows just on the other side of Gray less than half a mile away aren't really Montrose (especially when the neighborhood is only one of two neighborhoods listed above as "Montrose").

two problems at that intersection: (1) the traffic (which has already been mentioned), and (2) the Covenant House and halfway houses behind Kroger/Specs. The latter brings all sorts of sketchy people to that corner, and I'm not sure that a developer wants to make a huge investment with the likes of most of them hanging around.

in general the streets you are talking about have mostly commercial structures around them and are surrounded by much more of a grid than Washington. partons to downtown austin bars can park in the mid-rise building parking lots, some of which are multi-level, or in the surface lots that are a few blocks away from the main drags (i.e., 4th or 6th) in either direction. there are also several hotels that are within walking/rickshaw distance that provide additional foot traffic. washington cannot incorporate any of these advantages.

that picture from napperville is just as hilarious now as it was when it was posted months ago. up in huntsville and most other small texas towns that are way outside of a big city, they have town squares--and guess what you can park on the street like that. that is the commarison you are making. washington will never become very urban because it is not on a grid. (personally, i think Midtown or East down ultimately will become much more urban than washington--again, the grid.) that said, washington could have stretches of it that loosely resemble highland village or river oaks shopping area (or more likely, an upscale 1960).

this is truly upsetting. i live a few blocks away and love that this area is finally becoming a truly walkable area. having previously lived in chicago and new york, i can tell you (although I'm surprised that I need to) that parking is an issue when you live in true city. if your apartment doesn't provide parking, and you don't want to pay for it otherwise, then you are often stuck driving around looking for places or walking a distance. this why people pay premiums for apartments with parking. im shaking my head at this unfortunate development.