VicMan

The headquarters of United are in a different building (77 West Wacker), so they have two buildings in Chicago with two separate leases. I don't know which one expires first, but I know they occupied 77 West Wacker before occupying the Willis Tower.

I wonder if Continental is moving the HQ to Chicago as a concession to the "United" side to make the United side of the merger feel included? Maybe 5 or 10 years after the HQ is moved to Chicago, when the leases are almost up and the airline merger has been thoroughly digested, the airline could decide that it wants to move the HQ back to Houston (maybe this time in a newly-built corporate campus by Bush Airport?)

United itself wants a "fortress" hub in Houston where it is dominant, and the airline will be willing to defend it. Firstly, American already hubs Dallas. It will have no interest in trying to open a Houston hub. Secondly Delta hubs at Atlanta to the east (Delta used to hub Dallas, but it closed its Dallas hub). However Delta could replace Air France on the Houston to Paris route if the airlines agreed to let that happen, because Delta and Air France share revenue on transatlantic flights.

Other districts are growing since the population of Houston, particularly families, is spreading out. Also HISD is shrinking because of gentrification. It is a natural development.

American Airlines has naming rights to multiple stadiums (one in Dallas, one in Miami) - So United could easily do the same.

In the other thread I brought up the idea of the new United buying the rights to the Dynamo Stadium. I think it would be a good way to make up for the loss of the HQ.

Or we can say "Hey United, we have a nice new (Dynamo) stadium under development. Could you please get the naming rights to it as a little make-up present for us? Thank you!"

Even though the new airline will no longer have its HQ here, I don't see how it would not continue to support Houston institutions. The airline will have Houston as a major hub. The arts got hurt by Enron's withdrawal because Enron full-out collapsed. I think a good way for United to make up for this is to get naming rights for the Dynamo Stadium.

United's corporate headquarters is also leased. United's flight simulators are in Denver. What buildings does United own in Chicago? How many of them are at O'Hare Airport? How many buildings are owned by Continental at Bush Airport? BTW Continental's corporate headquarters is also leased. CO leases space at two buildings.

I agree that money is among the most important aspects of keeping a state of a city afloat, and Arizona may not have considered how trying to enforce this law could hurt state finances. As you know, the City-Data forums have a lot of the people who supported the Arizona law talking on the illegal immigration forum. I liked your point, so I decided to start a new thread on City-Data and quoted a snippet of your post: http://www.city-data.com/forum/illegal-immigration/964575-will-trying-enforce-new-law-bankrupt.html#post13990781 So let's see the pro-Arizona law crowd explain this one.

The airline is of course still going to hub in Houston no matter what. Houston is an important part of Continental's network, and it will be an important part of a combined airline's network. The airline is not under any circumstance totally leaving Houston. The issue is the corporate headquarters. If Continental's headquarters go, "We will find someone just as nice, or probably nicer, to take your place." will not happen in the foreseeable future (in terms of airlines, anyway) - In terms of other companies, maybe, but they may put their headquarters in locations other than 1600 Smith.

The problem with US Airways is that it has two groups of pilots bickering with one another, and so the problems that face US Airways would carry over to Continental if the airline acquired that carrier. And American Airlines and Continental have redundant route networks. Dallas is to Houston, Newark is to John F. Kennedy, etc.

They feds may not allow the opposite pattern to happen. The merger of Delta and Northwest was completed when Bush was still in office.

The Continental pilots could veto the ATI. Also the Obama administration (not as friendly to mergers as the Bush administration was) is in charge, and Eric Holder, the head of the US DOJ, is sympathetic to unions. So we still have a lot of time before anything is finalized.

I would also suggest contacting city politicians and urging them to try to offer better deals to Continental/United than those offered by Chicago. Obviously the Texas state government and the city government are struggling to keep the airline, but it wouldn't hurt to suggest ideas and/or encourage them to match Chicago.

No. US Airways was located in northern Virginia, while America West was in Phoenix.

The idea is that the CO management will be in control of the new carrier. If the union issues and logistics can be merged with few problems and infighting, and if the finances of both carriers are okay, then as long as the CO management is in charge, the carrier will be okay. The prevailing idea is that "United" will be the new name of the carrier anyway. Remember US Airways and America West? The America West management team became the leader, and the HQ moved to Phoenix, but the carrier used the name US Airways.

In the case of Montrose, likely many do. In the case of the Heights, maybe for the elementary schools. In regards to the other two, I doubt that many families come for the zoned schools.

Sometimes the value of the kidnapping is worth the risk of encountering complications and exposure. When the Israelis tracked Adolf Eichmann to Argentina, the Israelis could have easily had him killed. Instead the Israeli government decided to have him captured and put on trial. A book about the case describes how complicated the surveillance and kidnapping plans were, and how many things could have gone wrong. Also the Israelis had a hard time smuggling Eichmann out of Argentina. The Mossad made it work, and Eichmann was put on trial, convicted, and hanged in Israel. If possible the US government needs to do the same with Al-Awlaki.

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. 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.

1. Which report from the CIS says that? and 2. The Southern Poverty Law Center harshly criticizes the CIS, accusing it of being part of a John Tanton-led nativist lobby - http://www.splcenter.org/publications/the-nativist-lobby-three-faces-of-intolerance/cis-the-independent-think-tank

Elder's statement does not have the word "illegal" in there anywhere.

The housing should be at a reasonable distance to the person's place of employment. 1. Yes, a Sunnyside house would be good for someone working in the Med Center or the Port of Houston - However I believe that all areas of town need to be addressed by these funds. The funds to target the Medical Center area can be used in Sunnyside. But the question is where should funds for far west Harris be allocated? 2. Which properties in Alief are in a poor condition and are eligible to be fixed with the funds?

In many cases people who have cars who do not rely on public transportation still have it available in case they need it. In the cases of people who do not own automobiles, they likely will not able to count on having an automobile from a friend or relative available every day of the week or when they need it.

The point on the derelict properties vs. new developments could work if the derelict properties are in proximity to the proposed new developments. In this case, I'm not sure how many derelict or severely under capacity properties were in proximity to the proposed low income site. If a low income individual wants to live near the intersection of I-10 and the Grand Parkway and work in area businesses, it would not make sense for him or her to move into Sunnyside, even if the property in Sunnyside was rehabbed.