AtticaFlinch

"...But wait, that's not all! If you call within the next ten minutes, I'll throw in another pavilion at NO ADDITIONAL COST to you! Order now!"

The Greyhound station is a magnet for transients. Until the Greyhound is moved, homeless will continue to congregate in Midtown.

Relax. I wasn't calling you a liar. And, if it came across as such, please accept my apologies. I thought you were just another one of those people irrationally in love with conspiracy theories, but it appears I was wrong. You're right, next time I should do more than just a tiny bit of Google research. The link to the FOIA FBI page from the page you linked is pretty cool. It's amazing to me how much is blacked out in those odcuments, even 40 years after the fact.

It seems to be just downtown too. The rest of Houston is fine.

After just a tiny bit of Google research, I've found the Malcolm X connection to be completely bogus. Marcus Garvey (not X) participated in a summit (not a meeting) about race relations (not about disrupting the civil rights movement) in Atlanta in 1922. The controversy came after Garvey said the KKK were better friends to blacks than most whites because the KKK were at least honest about how they felt. Edit: The X/KKK link is even more suspect considering Malcom X insisted the KKK killed his father. Those would be strange bedfellows indeed.

I don't buy it either. Malcolm X and MLK weren't enemies even though they fundamentally disagreed on what the Civil Rights movement should accomplish and how they should go about trying to achieve their goals. It's true Malcolm X didn't have a ton of respect for MLK until the end, but that had far more to do with MLK's adherence to non-violent protests and er... questionable moral reputation than anything else. X didn't hate King, and he wouldn't have tried to undermine his efforts, especially by secretly partnering with the KKK.

Houston: twelve days without a couch in the middle of the freeway.

The Lone Star Saloon is directly across the street from the Days Inn. Just throwin' that little nugget out there.

That second photo is odd, and I've just realized why. They completely redesigned the freeways and the areas outside downtown. The actual downtown part is Houston, but the rest of that rendering is somewhere else entirely.

I always assumed he was the owner, not just a waiter. He's still at the new location, or at least he was a couple months ago. He's got an incredible memory. I go in that place every four to six months at most, and he remembers me every time.

I've only been to the new location once. There was something warm and comforting about the old place that isn't there in the new place. The new location is just so... clean... that's not the right word.... It's hard to put my finger on it exactly, but I can see what kylejack is saying.

What a great location! And it's so convenient to everybody's second favorite CVS too!

Niko Niko's has good food and large portions, but the seating is claustrophobic. It's worse than the coach seats on an airplane. Personally, I prefer Biba's One's a Meal for my Greek fix. The seating situation is much more comfortable. I remember hearing once before that Niko Niko's was planning on building a second floor to open up the seating a bit. Any truth to that rumor?

Are you freakin' kidding me? I was there last night, buying beer, and because nothing jumped out at me (I guess I missed the display) I settled on my old stand-by of Shiner. That's disappointing. Do they hide it in the back? Must you have a password to get a stocker to to let you in on the stash?

Streetwalkers, sure. But remember, as I wrote earlier, I once lived two blocks from this joint. There used to be hobos who'd visit the apartment Dumpster daily, looking for glass and aluminum and other recyclables the residents (I being chief among the lazy) were obviously too busy to sort. I would assume those guys had to live somewhere, and where better than an empty building? According to the photos on that one other thread, the River Cafe beats the crap out of living in the Savoy (and it's a helluva lot closer).

Good point. I guess it could also be to get the hobos out of the neighborhood.

At one point, I lived two blocks from that restaurant and never once noticed it. I walked by it all the time too. If it's slated for demolition, does that mean something will be done with the property? I can't imagine anyone would spend the money to tear that place down even if it was unsafe. It's only a single story building, it wouldn't really hurt anyone even if it collapsed. Something must be going on.

We can turn the Dome into a giant indoor seascape, filling it with sharks and whales and sea anemones. That way, when people say, as they inevitably will, "Galveston sucks," we can direct them to the Astrogulf. The train goes right to it, and it's near the middle of town. No more pesky 50 minute drives!

I've said before (though not here) they should turn Westheimer/Elgin and Alabama into one-way streets beginning at Weslayan, with Alabama heading into town and Westheimer/Elgin heading out. It would spur further development on the underutilized Alabama and would remarkably reduce traffic jams at the less wieldy intersections. The only problem would be in redesigning Weslayan to handle the additional traffic at the split. Then we can put as many midrises in Montrose as we want.

As long as Disco Kroger and Aladdin are allowed to survive, I'm cool with whatever they do to the intersection. Frankly, I'd love to see that unsightly strip mall disappear, so long as Half Priced Books is moved somewhere that's still convenient. The Spec's is sorta redundant considering the big Spec's is only about a mile away. I've yet to be impressed by 369, and Quizno's and Papa John's could easily and cheaply move to a different location. I just hope that if a midrise complex is built there it's allowed to complement the neighborhood instead of being an out-of-place cookie-cutter yuppie complex.

I've wondered the same thing about this intersection. Some businesses that have recently closed had survived for decades there. It's sad to see, in such a vibrant neighborhood, that the intersection that's essentially ground zero Montrose would have so many shuttered buildings. The Blockbuster strip is at only half capacity, with the Half Price, the Spec's outlet, Quizno's, 369 and a Papa John's on the back side. I wonder if the intersection is in for a mid-rise reimagining a la Kirby and Westheimer.

Again, they've retrofitted an underpass at Studemont, Yale and now that I think about it, Houston Ave. Studemont stays busy, but neither Yale nor Houston really warrant the underpasses, so economics and traffic flow are probably not the biggest reasons for getting this done. I can't fathom why Yale has the underpass, but neither Heights Blvd, Durham nor Shepherd have it. Also (and again now that I think about it), if they were to build any tunnels from the Galleria area to the innerloop bypassing the train tracks, it would make much more sense to do it on Richmond and San Felipe. There's already considerably less traffic that would be displaced by the construction, and the land is considerably less congested with development currently. But, if this wasn't built on all three roads, including Westheimer, I could foresee the residential neighborhoods separating the streets would become high speed racing paths as impatient people would try to avoid waiting by taking the backroads to get around the train. There is no good solution unless it's a complete solution.

It's been done at Yale and Studemont before. The only problem I see with it, besides the construction making me take an alternate route to and from work, would be making room if side lanes are necessary to access the shopping centers, which I would imagine they would be. I think, as the innerloop continues to get denser, either the tracks will need to be abandoned or a tunnel will need to be built.