Ethanra

Sorry one more thing. Do the cities up north and in CHicago have huge shopping malls like we do. IMO with memorial city sugarlands mall etc... why would people have to shop in DT even if they built retail their? Maybe our big malls in every community outside the loop hurts the possibility of DT retail.

I always have heard Denvers DT is very nice and has a lot of foot traffic. Why doesn't Houston? That seems the focus point question of this thread. I know DT to me has always been about buisness or the wonderful theatre district. Why else would someone come to DT. The night life has just started in the last few years. When I use to go out I remember Shepeard Plaza being the hot spot (10 years ago). SHopping and retail would bring some action. With the galleria and its surrounding shopping boutiques, as well as the village their is no need to invest $ in to DT retail for a new buisness. Theis other locations are already established. I'v always thought when Houston was exploding 20 years ago it would have been wonderful if all the housing shopping and offices of the galleria area from woodway to richmond was built to fill in DT throughout Midtown it would have created more of a Northeastern city fill. By that I mean more walkable areas where people lived shopped and worked. IMO I think its just to late for a brilliant DT with the galleria already established the way it is. The only hope I see for DT houston is the new rail line which woulf connect some of theis vital areas. Sorry if none of this makes sense I only have a few min to type my opinions. Side note- People do have very bad images of Houston from that other site that velvet were talking about. Houston is a strange city, u really have to live here to understand how great it really is. In my line of work I go to new homes daily and I would say majority of the people came here with a negative attitude but after a while fall in love with this city.

True about seein it any ways, seriously though I heard once that it was almost called "Houston" but the year when the soap started the Cowboys won the super bowl and started to become "Americas Team" so the people in charge thought "Dallas" would be a better sale then "Houston". Is their any truth behind this? Thankyou

Where is the rail yard project in the east end. That looks nice. Also has the city going to start the buffalo bayou project and/or is all that in the drawing approved and/or construction going on right now. Thank you

Dry heat that has caused 18 deaths in their recent heat wave? June to Sept. heat and humidity is not so pleasent. You get use to it or you adjust your day/Nov. to May the weather is perfect except when it does get down to the 30's a few times it does feel very cold, cuts right through you.

So what is the next step of this stage of rail? When do they break ground? What is a time table? Thankyou

How did you get to Allen's Landing? My boy and I usually go to herman park to hang out. Do you know of any other cool places that are in the city core, like this that are nice walks.

Does this include your car note? If yes I can see Houstanians spending 20% of their income on transportation. Houston citizens followed by Dallas have the highest average car notes then any where in the U.S. (article in the paper last year) A lot of households have more then one car as well. $550 car note, $150 insurance, $300 gas and maint a month sounds about right on a $50,000 income. No car note then insurance and gas on a $25,000 income is a about 20%. Hell I know people that have car note well over $1,000 dollars a month. Some people spend more money on their car then their house.

Dallas is known as a very racist city. It does a very good showing off the very nice areas but behind the scenes it is very racist, trashy, and crime infected.

You're right I don't know who u are, it was a stereo-typical ignorant statement u had and now you are pulling the "Do you know who I am" card. No one said Houston was a hot bed for Hollywood stars. It has its fair share, (Renne Z., Patrick Swayze, Dennis and Randy Q., Hillary Duff off the top of my head this morning.) Which city really is a hot bed? Who Cares? Hollywood stars come from all over the country. For example Johnny D. is from Kentucky. C.O. your comment about just covering one block aggrevateed me, I don't know why, maybe because of its negative sound to it, I apologize. The walk wasn't going to include only Hollywood stars, (in my first post it was going to include all persons that have contributed to Houston some way, from famous doctors (DR Red duke), to architects, sport figures (George Foreman, Carl Lewis, Mary Lou R.), succesful local buisness men (matress mac), etc...) Their would be no problem covering that distance. U could us local sport celebrities by it self to cover that distance. Thanks for letting a interesting topic turn so quickly.

another stupid ass ignorant statement Between your comments and 713 to 214 comments, you 2 say some dumb ass comments. Get a clue

Your kidding right? Maybe in the burbs, but do u go inside the loop. Upper Kirby, the village, montrose etc..., people walk all the time, maybe not as much as up north, i wonder if the 100 degree summers have anything to do with that. Even some communities in the westchase area or china town people walk all the time. Maybe not the main avenues, but the side side streets thier is a lot of activity people walking to the store or the neighborhood bar or eatery. Also actually i don't see to many huge suv's just the soccer moms out in the burbs. Nothing wrong with it its safe for the family. What a stupid ass ignorant statement. People like you who make dumb ass comments usually live in the 1960/Hwy 6 area. Get around a little bit.

might be working on a project similar to Hollywoods' stars. They say it would run a long main street from DT to the TMC. Does any1 have an opinion on this. IMO I think it would be great to have stars of famous Houstanians or even better hand prints in cement. It would have a sense of civic pride. Not just celebs but contributers to the city like DR Red Duke. In Hollywood, on the stars they put a symbol to reflect what the person did, like a producer chair etc... Here we could do the same and have a medical symbol for DR. Red Duke, microphone for beyonce, basketball for Hakeem or for the 94, 95 Rockets. Please does any1 have thoughts about this. How could some1 encourage this project to city hall and give their thoughts about it to city hall, Thankyou Who are some of your famous Houstanians that you would like to see on the walk of fame? Earl Campbell, Nolan Ryan, NASA, Patrick Swayze, ZZ Top, Hillary Duff (LOL) etc... Thankyou

7000 cars less = 2 billion dollars Hardly worth it I didn't mean anything else, I just meant i feel most lr lines are a waste of money. Thier has to be a better way. The lines a i mentioned above I can get it, maybe? Look at Dallas lines, It cost tax payers 10's of millions of dollars a year for what, a fancy toy. Thier ridership decresaes by the month. Don't u think that will happen here? Maybe I meant why should I pay my hard earned money to run stupid ass trains through the east end and north side for people who for the most part don't contribute thier fair share of taxes. At least if they are going to build this giant toys it will be in area they can recieve some benefit from it. Sorry to sound like such a jerk-off but this topic angures me and at least this forum will listen and respond politely. Thankyou One more thing, if u can't handle the traffic move closer to work. Thats a great thing about houston is that the traffic in the burbs are worst then the city core. Also they are plenty of great affortable communities located close to the several buisness didtricts. Hell I live on gessner, briar forest area and can get to DT in 20 min during 5:30 rush hour. U just got to find a good route. 7000 less cars will not improve traffic dramaticly. Can't afford a car or hate driving in traffic, Ride the damn bus it stops at every main bus stop hourly, or take park and ride on the HOV lanes.

Do people realize that rail cost billions of dollars? Who do expect to pay for all this. Don't you think that money can be used towards hiring more teachers, libaries, more police officers (exspeacially since their will be a shortage soon) etc... Sure LRT look neat and serve a purpose but not what they cost. I can justify the Main Street Line. It runs through the heart of the city, it helps attract more conventions and activities between DT and Reliant Park. I can see that line paying for it self (with out going into detail). The next lines should run from the airports to DT and the Galleria area through Greenway plaza to DT. I can see how that can attract buisness (once again not going into detail). I always that a elevated train of some sort down Westheimer from the belt way would be effective to, maybe? Commute Trains from the burbs are needed IMO people would ride them to work and it wouyld encourage them to atten city events more. Saying all this I got a consp. theory. Does any one think the plan that was laid out during the elections, was to attract the poorer ends of town to vote yes. Do you think the more wealthier ends of town would have voted yes to this plan. if the lrt were running through their areas. By saying this I mean most wealthier people enjoy their car and wouldn't ride lrt. ( i said most not all, so no1 argue about this and say u would, your only one person out of millions.) Also I mean most conservatives are against LRT and voted against lrt. They like keeping their money they earned and not spending tax money. So all of this the city needed a vote Yes so thats why they had the original plan to trick them for voting yes thinking it would run through their part of town. The poorer end maybe would haved voted against it if the original plan was this plan since they would have not rode it. Also why sould people who pay more taxes pay for a line that runs throug parts of town who pay virually no taxes. Sorry if know of this makes any sense. Feel free to ask questions and I'll make any of my opinions more clear. One last thing does taking 7000 cars of the rode clear up trafic in Houston? Is their a study or fact about this. Thankyou

What is the next step for the city? I mean what needs to be done for the construction of this to begin? When? I like this phase I plan a lot better then the old one. It sounds like the current leaders are taking thier time to make sure things are done correctly and put in the most efficient areas. I can think of other cities that rushed with mass transit and have horrible ridership numbers and thier completed projects lose tens of millions of dollars a year but still like to brag about thier system. Its about time mass transit is on the way to a city this size in area and pop. but I am glad our current leaders are taking that extra time and research to do it right.

I drove to huntsville the other day for work and was wondering is it considered in houstons metro? What is considered the metro area? Also what is our metro pop. as well as the # of buildings Houstons metro has? For example does Galvestons buildings and pop count in our metro. Does the Woodlands? I know on most list FW Arlington and Dallas get lumped in together. One last question I know Houston has approx. 600 sq miles. but is that misleading? Isn't Lake Houston, the ship channel, 3 airports (including ellington field) the flood plain around eldridge and bear creek in the city limits? Just wondering, Thankyou for your responses> side note<>Greenspoint really makes no sense to me of how or why it was developed.

Bro, calm down. I just said more millionaires per capital, not the top 400 wealthiest people. Look at SF they have more people in the top 400 but look at SF unemployment rate and the economy of SF, its not that great. If you want to throw some fact act that has not a thing of what i posted, how about the number of fortune 500 companies in Houston and the number in Dallas.

First of all I think constant bickering between Dallas and Houston people is funny. Both cities are brilliant cities in their own way. But I did read some where while doing a paper for a class that Houston does have more millionaires per capita then any othe cities in the U.S. Also it is on the pace to be the wealthiest city in the world by the year 2015. One more thing, I do have friends in the FW and Dallas and both say Dallas people do not like to be include in with FW people. They act like FW is a cow town or not "cool" enough. Dallas people sure are quick though to include FW when it comes to population, # of building, or money. IMO Dallas has a lot of great things but is basically one big suburb and is one of the most over rated cities in the U.S.