VicMan

In this case it was a waste of time to protest this Wal-Mart, knowing everything stated earlier in the thread. s3mh, please don't promote jousting at windmills. Please don't promote Don Quixote-ism.

Knowing that Houston is not a Spring Valley, and that it is not a Helotes, and knowing that all of the evidence points to the development being 100% within the law and regulations, it would not be possible to oppose this Wal-Mart.

1. It is never a waste of time to advocate for what you believe is best for your community. Plenty of Walmarts have been defeated across the country, including two recent examples in Helotes and Spring Valley.

2. You don't need a lawsuit to stop a Walmart. This development has major problems with traffic and drainage. If the City is held to its promise to "hold the developers feet to the fire", the development may not happen in its current form. But if everyone just walks away and leaves it up to the City, the favors will come pouring in for the developer and Walmart and everything will be rubber stamped. If people are vigilant and organized, then the City may have political cover to put their foot down and take real action that may reduce the size of the Walmart, which would probably send them packing.

3. Any attempt at reform will be shot down by the deep pocketed developers. But, if people make developer's lives very difficult every time they come up with a tower or supercenter in a residential/urban neighborhood or whatever stupid and irresponsible development they will come up with next, then developers may see some sort of reform as a better way to do business than to have to deal with all the ill will, delay and expense that comes with each land use fight.

Well, yes, marketing is marketing and it's not likely that a high name chef will locate in a strip center.

Having said that, I've had great food in non-chain restaurants located in strip centers. Try visiting Chinatown sometime. Plus sometimes people do want KFC, Arby's, etc.

I think the point is that the developers are nuts if they think they are going to get "local boutiques and chef driven restaurants" in a strip mall anchored by Walmart. Just imagine the phone call:

Developer: Hi, Monica Pope? How are you? I heard you might be interested in opening another restaurant in the Heights area?

MP: Sure, what is the development like? Who is the anchor?

Developer: Oh the development will be very nice. Landscaping, green buildings, etc.

MP: So there isn't an anchor?

Developer: No, there is. It's Walmart. But it is a new urban concept with lots of browns!

MP: (click)

This whole "boutique/chef driven restaurant" talk is nothing more than PR to try to fool people into thinking that this development will be a benefit for the Heights. This development will fill up with the usual junk that follows Walmart around.

Spring Valley successfully resisted Wal-Mart.

Yeah. Spring Valley is a separate city from Houston, so Spring Valley can do that.

Clearly opposition to the project doesn't see it this way. Walmart is hosting a community meeting and hiring PR gurus, so certainly they see some kind of threat. They have been kept out of other communities in Houston and all over the country. The fight for a lot of these people is real.

Where have they been kept out of in Houston? I know Wal-Mart has been kept out of New York City, but that is a city with zoning and more restrictive laws. Houston has no zoning. This may still be a PR issue for Wal-Mart, but the store is going to be built.

However, it seems residents of that area and the surrounding communities are not willing to settle.

If they aren't willing to talk to Wal-Mart and ask them to build the store a certain way, they are out of luck.

I remember when there was an HEB store IN THE HEIGHTS. And what happened? People didn't shop there so HEB tore it down and someone built (another) bank with a reserved parking space for each and every one of its customers.

How many years ago was that? Things can change, and what is once unattractive may become attractive, or vice versa.

Thanks to the presence of Orbitz, Travelocity, and other comparison websites, the behavior of many customers is to pick the lowest fare no matter what. Accordingly that's the direction that the market went.

Continental could still give perks to people who are in the OnePass program, rewarding customer loyalty and making the people who always comparison shop among different airlines pay for certain extras.

If they would do a survey I think they would find that the vast majority of folks would prefer they just keep everything included in the fare and raise the fare a bit. No one likes being nickel and dimed to death.

Even though there have been new charges across the board, I still like to fly because I anticipate very lovely destinations in front of me. If I was taking a redeye every week, flying would get old. But because I only fly occasionally, to me flying is still special.

Walmart of the sky.

Probably one of the reasons why I hate flying.

$5 on each airline, SW has Finlandia and Cont has Skyy. I think they both use Mr. and Mrs. T Bloody Mary mix.

Thank you for clarifying! So Continental already has bloody marys, but they aren't free.

Speaking of tomatoes, a Cafe Express tomato soup, salad, and bread meal might be a good fit for the buy on board program. Also the airline should make sure that any burgers always come with ketchup on the side.

Both Continental and Southwest have free bloody mary mixes - I'm not sure how much it would cost to add alcohol to the mixes.

Maybe they need to serve Bloody Mary's in lieu of food. 

And salty. I know a lot of processed food HAS salt in it, but those noodles have salt and TASTE salty.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/science/news/article_1539215.php/Tomato-juice-irresistibly-good-at-32-000-feet-experts-confirm says:

"The researchers at Fraunhofer IBP came to the startling conclusion that reduced cabin air pressure enhanced human taste receptors for salt, sugar and tomato flavours, which are scarcely noticeable on the ground." - Perhaps this means that the ramen for airplane consumption could be made with less salt?

Perhaps they could just put Maruchan Ramen Noodles on board and still provide it free. That stuff is way cheaper than a wilted lettuce sandwich.

Continental might provide ramen as an option, but still ask people to pay for it. Air Canada has ramen as one of its snack options. http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/onboard/dining/na/onboard/snacks.html - Air Canada charges $3 CDN for each ramen pack.

The airline should offer ramen on shorter buy on board flights as well as longer ones.

Keep in mind that airline food has to be frozen and reheated in a microwave. That's a large part of why its so bad.

That's part of what I alluded to in the phrase "The food recipes will have to be prepared differently as airline food preparation is special" - While that is true, airlines have been finding ways to get around the reality of having to use a microwave and the fact that human taste buds act differently.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/science/news/article_1539215.php/Tomato-juice-irresistibly-good-at-32-000-feet-experts-confirm talks about why people like drinking tomato juice on airplanes.

The same article says: "The findings also showed that certain meals taste better under reduced-pressure conditions. Asian dishes were tastier to the test subjects than were the standard 'chicken or fish' airline meals. The scientists determined that chicken and fish dishes tasted bland under cabin conditions. They recommended those dishes be cooked with more herbs and spices."

It sounds like Continental could do well if it has BOB options with the Kim Son brand.

HAIFers, which of the following Houston chains would be a good fit for an airline buy on board service?

* Cafe Express/Taco Milagro

* Beck's Prime

* James Coney Island

* Pappas Family Restaurants (any)

* Luby's

* Goode Company (any)

* Kim Son

And of the ones you want, what menu items would you propose?

The food recipes will have to be prepared differently as airline food preparation is special and human taste buds react differently in the air, but hopefully Chelsea would be knowledgeable enough to duplicate the experiences of these chains as faithfully as possible.

In regards to the legroom, if someone tries to book specifically an exit row seat in economy, under most circumstances he or she will be charged. Also I believe a Pappas location has a location inside of Terminal E - I'm not sure.

This is a really good idea. And don't several of the Houston chains operate in the new terminal already?

I am sad to see them ditch their meal service. It was the one thing that made me fly them over other airlines (honest, I am not just saying that).

Anyhow, I also thought I heard somewhere that they are going to be charging extra for additional legroom. WTH?!?

In this USA Today article http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=83427.blog:

In Central America, Continental says it will keep free meals on routes to business-heavy markets like Mexico City or Managua, but that routes to leisure destinations like Cancun or Puerto Vallarta will be subject to the new meal charges.

So the airline will keep food on some Latin America flights, even though they are under six hours.

Unless it's over six hours, I doubt they'll continue free meals in coach, even to Guatemala City. I can also see them getting rid of the dinner options on the Houston-Lima flight for coach passengers.

Poor Gordon Bethune... He built Continental back up and his "Work Hard, FlY Right" campaign was pure genius. Continental has stood apart from the pack for years. Now, like the other legacy carriers, they seem to be caught up in the race to the floor.

Continental was trying to hold on to the freebies (it was one of the last to apply 1st checked bag fees, and it is the last to drop free food) - but the U.S. domestic market has changed to a point where price is the main determining factor for selecting flights.

It started with outsourcing commuter flights away from ExpressJet.

Are you referring to when Continental spun off ExpressJet into a separate company? Or are you referring to an increase in the share of ExpressJet flights? Or are you referring to Continental deciding to allow Chautauqua to be a regional partner?

Continental is rarely the cheapest option. In the past though, they could offer certain things that made you feel like it was worth it, and yes, a free meal can go a long way. Consider this... you're flying from Guatemala City to Boston on Continental but your connection is way too tight and immigration is backed up so you can't manage a meal in the terminal. In the past, you'd be guaranteed two light snacks for free without hassle on your 8 1/2 hour journey. Now, you're gonna have to whip out your credit card in midair and spend $7 for Twizzlers, peanuts, and other trash and be told it's a "meal."

The airline will likely consider Guatemala City to be a "business" international destination, so the free food will remain on that flight. The international destinations in North America that get mostly tourists will have the paid meals.

Also Continental could possibly introduce good buy on board options (on other forums people said they like Virgin America's, seen here: http://www.virginamerica.com/va/travelInfo.do?pageName=meals&rightBar=food_and_beverages_right_bar ) - Also one could have additional options available that would have to be booked before the flight

Some buy on board programs have some "hot" options available - I would like to see Continental have some hot options - Perhaps they can only be purchased in advance over the internet so the airline knows how many hot meals that it has to give out.

For breakfast:

* Pancakes with maple syrup and small sausages

* Breakfast tacos with ground chorizo

* Ham and cheese omelet

For lunch and dinner:

* Carne asada tacos with Chili con queso and Mexican-style hot sauce

* Vietnamese bahn mi sandwich with spring rolls

* Cheeseburger with french fries or potato chips

* Chili con carne (no beans) with tortilla chips

* Potato soup (hot) and salad (cold)

Continental should be able to distinguish its own product and make more money at the same time.

Cold options (cold sandwiches, snack packs, cereal packs, etc.) could be purchased during the flight. I would like to see cheese and cracker trays with plenty of grapes.

So, what should be on the menu?

I have looked at other buy on board programs, and there would likely be salads and sandwiches available.

Another idea would be for the airline to offer free meals to people who hold OnePass statuses. That way people who built up status still feel like they are getting something extra.

I do wish Continental did what Hawaiian Airlines did and offered free meals in addition to extra buy on board options.

Maybe what Continental should do is try to sell distinctly Houston products (food products from Houston area chains and/or specialties from the Houston area, such as fajitas, Vietnamese sandwiches, etc) on flights to and from Houston. I also thought of the idea of including chips and salsa with meal packs as kind of a Tex-Mex touch...

What ever happened to the Brown and Root building out off of West Belt? The one with the weird silo looking things. I thought this location was supposed to be the eventual location of all the post Halliburton/Brown & Root merger remnants.

AFAIK Halliburton owns that one.

Municipal annexation doesn't lead to increases in crime. Urban development patterns, which are seeping into the unincorporated areas, do influence crime levels.

Why would you hope so? For those of us who live in the area, it would be an absolute disaster. We already have a crime problem that's just barely manageable. If the area is annexed we'd have no police coverage whatsoever. As things stand now, it's all Precinct 4 can do to keep things in check. The area east of I-45 would become a free fire kill zone.

Didn't this development save the Clinton Drive facility? Or is KBR trying to get rid of it anyway?

See Page 2 of this Energy Corridor report. See page 3 of this TMC report.

The data is all sourced from the Census Bureau's LEHD program. Google it. It's not user-friendly, but you can run your own reports on the Greenspoint District if you wish.

That was interesting stuff. Thank you!

I'm not surprised that people live near where they work. I can see people in Spring, The Woodlands, Kingwood, and northwest Harris working at the new Exxon campus.

Employees tend to distribute themselves in the suburbs nearest their place of employment. For instance, most Energy Corridor employees live out west. Most TMC employees live south and southwest. Data actually exists to prove this, and I've seen it with my own eyes.

Are the sources available to the public? I would be interested in seeing the data and to see which suburbs are the employment bases of which districts.

There are a bunch in the loop but the Hardy toll road will solve the I-45 problem

In addition the employees who are in the loop can work in the Downtown offices, which will remain open, according to the HBJ article.

However the headquarters of UPS and Home Depot are not in the Atlanta City limits. UPS is in Sandy Springs, and Home Depot is in Cobb County.

I think the reason why there is a disparity in the height measurements is because there are many ways to measure a building's height.

* Do you include only what is above ground, or do you include what is below ground too?

* Do you include the antenna in the measurements, or do you not include it?

* Do you measure up to the last floor with office, retail, and/or residential space, or do you go beyond that?