VicMan

I knew that but you did bring up a valid question. If Houston was to raze countless numbers of slum apartments (and Houston has plenty), where would these people go? Will the goverment provide them housing? Where would they build it because no communities outside of Houston would allow it. 

If the City of Houston had a campaign to raze slum apartments, occupancy rates at existing apartments across the metropolitan area would increase.

Then there are the unincorporated areas adjacent to or near the city limits, like Aldine, Mission Bend, Westfield, etc. Harris County has no zoning, so people have less recourse in case a builder wants to build apartments.

Sugar Land's zoning is set up to only include a small number of apartments.

CDeb, I'm thinking unincorporated Harris County, to the northwest, the north, and the west, would absorb former Gulfton tenants. There is no zoning in unincorporated areas.

So if we demolish thousands of units in Gulfton, where are those people supposed to go. I suppose the right-thinking progressive answer is "Sugar Land."

Sugar Land's zoning prevents large clusters of apartments like you see in Houston and unincorporated Harris County. Even if it gets public transport, I don't see how Sugar Land would change.

Naa. No public transportation in SL. Alief area maybe? Greenspoint? Of course Greenspoint is just as bad if not worse.

I don't know what the before or after picture looks like with the schools, but it would strike me as odd if DISD intentionally knocked down apartment complexes and built new schools without eliminating capacity elsewhere. HISD's circumstances probably differ.

The Villas at Vickery, the complex that was torn down to make way for an elementary school and a middle school, had 900 apartment units and commercial properties. In 2004 the owners of the stores said that the landlord cheated them out of rent that they had paid that they were unable to use: http://www.dallasobserver.com/2004-05-13/news/tossed-out/

I do not believe that DISD closed any schools in North Dallas during the years of 2004 and 2005.

I especially dislike the suggestion that apartment complexes be demolished and replaced with schools. If you decrease the neighborhood population, school enrollment will also decrease, eliminating the justification for new capacity.

As a note, this is exactly what happened in Vickery Meadow, the Dallas version of Gulfton. A few complexes had been bulldozed to make way for schools.

All Weingarten did is chase away good tenants.

I just hope that Alamo Drafthouse gets into the former Bookstop.

Marksmu: In many cases the point of driving is to transport your passenger from place to place.

You said: "I also think its much safer to talk on the phone than it is to have a passenger in the car...any passenger, any age, any level of driver"

That doesn't make any sense. A driver can carry a passenger and still put his or her full concentration on the road. You do have to watch out for whether a discussion with a passenger takes too much of your attention (which is why the State of Texas limits the number of passengers certain teenagers can carry), but that is not something inherent in carrying a passenger. However talking on a cell phone or texting while driving inherently takes attention away from driving.

Please do not be overconfident in your own skills. Remember that you need to drive the car, and answering a cell phone will impede your ability to drive a car. If you have a passenger, let him or her answer.

I dont disagree that it is safer to not talk on the phone, but I also think its much safer to talk on the phone than it is to have a passenger in the car...any passenger, any age, any level of driver. A person with their talking and body movements is much more distracting than a person on a hands free phone. Let alone a parent with a kid they are trying to get safely out of the car to school with all the things they are supposed to remember to take with them that day.

So I guess we should ban passengers in cars too...or better yet, force each individual passenger into a sound proof containers, so the driver is completely isolated from any distraction they may encounter. Banning a cell phone is that ridiculous.

And I am absolutely as safe as I think I am. I am a slow driver around town b/c I drive a big truck, which gets bad city fuel economy and cannot zip and weave, and cut through traffic even if I wanted too...I have not been pulled over, or received a ticket since I was 20 years, old - 9.5 years ago.

Doesnt matter anyway, I wont stop talking on the cell phone, same as the bad drivers wont stop speeding...its just a money grab.

Whenever there's a passenger in the car and my cell phone rings, I make the passenger answer the call. I agree with Redscare. The driver needs to focus on driving the car, just like the pilot of the airplane needs to fly the airplane.

And the site is blocked from web.archive.org with robots.txt, so we can't see what it used to be like.

Shame on the webmaster for doing that.

Also there are parts of Texas City in the La Marque school district.

Unfortunaetly J.A.S.O.N, I agree with VicMan but, I would put Public Housing more in La Marque than Texas City. I see the strides in building a better communtiy in Texas City, but not in La Marque.

Maybe in the rest of the country, soccer isn't relevant - But Houston is part of the exception due to the high Latin American expat population.

As soon as soccer becomes relevant in the US. Keep waiting...not yet...

Watch out for these. Two high profile ones right now in other areas. The developers of these low income places basically get huge tax breaks for building crap places that kill the neighborhood. It's completely illogical.

I would imagine many of them will go in either unincorporated Brazoria, unincorporated Fort Bend, unincorporated Harris, or in Houston, near Pearland. AFAIK Pearland's zoning restricts the amount of space that multi-family housing can use.

Look at the zoning map here: http://gisweb2.ci.pearland.tx.us/mox52/pla...x52_if_frameset

The TABC is the most fascist organization that was ever created. Nothing they do suprises me.

How is the TABC authoritarian?

I think what he meant by "Houston" was "Houston ISD"

Likewise what is meant by "Katy" here is "Katy ISD." In terms of the actual City of Katy, the only comprehensive high school (Katy HS) in the city is on the list.

I can only speak for myself, but the freedom to live off campus was a primary factor for me going to UH instead of a different second-tier school.

Many universities that otherwise require freshmen to live on campus allow people who live in the university's metropolitan area to commute from home. I bet UH may require first year people who do not live in the Houston area to live in dormitories.

Furthermore, it's located in a terrible part of town, and the university hasn't been very successful in mitigating the effects of living in such an undesirable area.

UH seems to be at a crossroads between a totally run-down part of town and several well-kept areas. It's like a patchwork quilt.

I know HP's actually on 249, but it is still a part of the greater northwest Harris County area, which is centered along 290. People work in the U.S. 290 area, so the area deserves transportation solutions as much as the inner city does. I was referring to the first paragraph of his first post in the thread.

VicMan, look at a map. HP is on 249.

DrFood is just making observations and coming to a conclusion. I happen to have done the same about this congressman last year during the Hurricane Ike recovery. Culberson drove up to a group of National Guardsmen handing out supplies at Tully Stadium. Asking what he could do for them or if they needed anything, one of the guardsmen said that they could sure use a hamburger. Well, he got on the radio and made a big deal out of these men not being taken care of and acting as if something unpatriotic was going on. He pleaded on several radio stations for food to be brought to these first responders. The guy was clearly using this opportunity to campaign. BTW, so much food was delivered to these poor guys, they themselves became overwhelmed and the whole seen became disruptive to the task that they were directed to do. They had to ask some organization to come get all of the food and take it to some place that could use it, for they were not set up to hand out food. Relief organizers were confused as to how this happened. Thank John Culberson, the grandstander.

Speaking about DrFood's comment, many businesses now have operations in northwest Harris (such as Hewlett-Packard on 290). Also the Pakistan consulate is over there. In other words, not everyone in NW Harris commutes long distances.

Continental Airlines should aggressively pursue the naming rights to the Dynamo Stadium. The airline had been named the official airline of the Dynamo: http://ro-a.redorbit.com/news/business/128...namo/index.html, so there's no conflict of interest regarding another airline. - Continental could, at some point, get more revenue by getting the naming rights. It makes sense since CO is based out of Downtown - also CO flies to many Latin American countries and could advertise its brand to the futbolistas from Texas to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

BTW the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ used to be the Continental Arena. Maybe CO could recycle that name for the Dynamo stadium.

The GOOD news: I was told one of the major public housing units was totally destroyed. Galveston had one of the largest allotment of public housing for a city of it's size in America. NO public housing units should be built or repaired in Galveston.

Yes, the public housing should go to the burbs (La Marque and Texas City)

If it's in Garden Villas, the " school information" on the HAR page is dead wrong.

Garden Villas is zoned to Houston ISD (Garden Villas ES, Hartman MS, Sterling HS)

OK, I give up on whatever technicality you're arguing here, but Edwards ("Regal" now I think) uses the west side of the structure and people who work in the Koch building on the other end of the block park on the east side of the exact same garage that is directly connected to their building via walkways. I have visited there before and I know people who work there today. I'm not going to go anymore off topic than this. Cheers.

Edwards and Koch DO share the garage, but AFAIK there isn't a separate side thing. The elavators for the Edwards and for the Koch are on opposite sides, though. AFAIK the workers park in that garage during the day, while the theater patrons use it during the night.

Don't forget to use the FBISD school zone locator to determine which homes are zoned to which schools: http://zonemaps.fortbend.k12.tx.us/edulog/webquery/

FBISD also has maps which show the attendance boundaries of various schools listed here: http://www.fortbend.k12.tx.us/cmf/default....ion=parentlinks

In many rapidly-growing areas, school boundaries may shift like sand, so keep that in mind when you buy your home.

And to remind these dolts to take a class on how to lock car doors after they park them.

And also to check how their automobiles or the automobiles they drive lock; some cars can be locked automatically, but others (older and/or more inexpensive models) must be locked manually on all sides.

Unfortunately, due to the way these school zones are drawn, they have large geographic areas on the Southside of FM 1960.

That will still be true in terms of the middle and high schools.

The elementary school zones will change.

* Starting around 2009: http://www.springisd.org/docs2/ccrd/Map%2008.pdf

* 2008: http://www.springisd.org/docs2/attendance/AllElem.pdf

So this will affect the following elementary schools straddling FM 1960:

* Ponderosa will lose all territory south of FM 1960 to Helen Major (Sugarpine) and Bammel ES. It will take new territory west of Kuykendahl from Reynolds

* Reynolds will lose some territory west of Kuykendahl to Ponderosa and lose some territory south of FM 1960 to Helen Major. Ponderosa will gain territory from Beneke and Thompson

* Bammel ES will gain territory south of FM 1960 from Ponderosa

So Ponderosa no longer has territory south of FM 1960, while Bammel will now have south of FM 1960 territory and Reynolds will continue to have south of 1960 territory.

So what does Spring ISD need to do next?

* Build a school South of FM 1960 to relieve Bammel ES and Reynolds.

* Build more elementary schools and one middle school east of Interstate 45

Spring ISD named new schools. The new middle school is "Dr. Edward Roberson Middle School, A Math, Science and Fine Arts Academy" (opening August 2009 in the former Westfield 9th Grade Center).

The elementary schools are:

* Ralph Eickenroht Elementary School - Opening August 2009 at 1525 Grand Point Drive.

* R.J. Hoyland Elementary School - Opening August 2009 at 2200 Wittershaw Drive.

* Gloria Marshall Elementary School - Opening in 2010 south of the Birnamwood subdivision

* Helen Major Elementary School - Opening August 2009 at 16855 Sugar Pine Drive.

http://www.springisd.org/default.aspx?name=feb09.5new

Circuit City scheduled the Sharpstown store for closure - but now the whole chain went under anyway. http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories...12/daily54.html

So what's next? Who will occupy the empty storefronts?