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Texasota

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Everything posted by Texasota

  1. And it's perfectly fair to criticize an organization's priorities and not just accept their claim that this was their only option. This could have been the kind of project o generate good publicity AND donations to make something better possible, but I'm not aware of any attempts to do that. In an earlier post, you said they were in the "business of saving souls," but no, they're really not. They have responsibilities to the community in line with their status as a non-profit AND as an organ of a major church. If they are, in reality, in "the business" of anything at all then they have failed that responsibility.
  2. The concrete lips are pretty filthy as well. I imagine a final exterior cleaning will wait until after they finish closing it up, installing the storefronts, fixing the canopy etc.
  3. I refuse to believe that Monty Large is a real person's name. ...but yes, I agree.
  4. Eh, there's no need even for that. More than half the block is a surface parking lot; a well thought-out infill building could slot in there nicely without touching either the church or the apartment building.
  5. Most developers are (understandably) conservative and tend to continue doing what has worked for them in the past, which, in Houston, generally was not mixed-use.
  6. Mark Davis' first sentence freaked me out, but overall this at least *sounds* good so far.
  7. Maybe they should pay taxes if they don't want public input on what they do.
  8. They also could have kept the Clayton facade and built something completely new behind it. Or, hey, just build something new that isn't hideously ugly. The idea that this monstrosity was their best option is absurd.
  9. I mean, these are intended to be relatively affordable. And maybe let's hold off on rendering a final aesthetic judgement until they're actually finished. Finish materials, signage, etc, especially for the GFR (!) will likely make a huge difference.
  10. For some reason I find this comment funny coming from someone with "Tuscany" in their name. At least we seem to be mostly past the whole "Tuscan" phase...mostly...
  11. honestly i would argue for widened sidewalks instead.
  12. They could have at least saved and braced the facade, and then just built whatever they wanted behind it.
  13. Well, yes, but it's not downtown... (To be clear, I do still like it, but more as a catalyst for the area in which its proposed)
  14. Huh? It's a great area. Right on the edge of Montrose, in the more built-up part of Midtown, walking distance to the red line... It's a pretty fantastic location.
  15. No ire dude. I just happened to notice the garage in that picture right after posting in the other thread. But speaking to mollusk's point, a school is very different from an industrial operator. Why did HSPVA *just* start building downtown despite the high cost of land? Why are there any public schools in any CBDs anywhere? I'm not going to say that UHD absolutely won't sell this lot, but I would be very surprised.
  16. Yeah, the annual membership makes a huge difference, and, again, it's hard to get a feel for what these systems are really like from the Houston BCycle system as it exists now. There just aren't nearly enough stations for it to be terribly convenient.
  17. I wasn't mimicking anybody - I was referencing the Lyric Center garage thread. And no, I don't really see UH Downtown selling - that building is not very old and their location is increasingly going to be marketable to students for them.
  18. Um, I don't think those classrooms are going anywhere. Oh hey, there's a standalone garage with retail. And it's terrible.
  19. That's giving a *lot* of credit to parking garages, and it's really only true of a few of them. It's more true really of towers with integrated parking garage bases than of standalone or after-the-fact garages. And of course, the best street presence downtown is Main Street, largely because it has the largest collection of historic buildings with street-facing storefronts. Even the newer buildings either have integrated garages or, like the Skyhausen, pushed their garages to the back. The only exception I can think of is the standalone garage at Main and Rusk.
  20. Why not both? I actually think it's useful to think of bikeshare as somewhat distinct from having your own bike, though they both benefit from the same infrastructure. Bikeshare, at least when it's fully built-out, has one big advantage: no planning ahead is required. You just hop on, drop it off, and never worry about that particular bike being messed with or stolen, or where to lock it up, or having it with you whenever you need it. It's really not a replacement for owning your own bike; it's another option for short to medium distance trips (like Uber, bus, light rail, or potentially even walking) that you can take advantage of without having to plan ahead. And yes, it can also integrate incredibly well with longer-distance transit. Maybe you take park-and-ride in from somewhere in the greater suburban hellscape, but the bus drops you off a mile from your office. You jump on a BCycle and you're there in no time. Again, this is all predicated on there being enough station density that you never have to wonder where the nearest station is or worry that there won't be a station close enough to your destination, but, assuming that level of density, bikeshare can be incredibly convenient.
  21. For some reason I immediately envisioned an actual little girl covered in soot, urchin-style.
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