Houston's ugly utility lines

[sidegate]

I certainly hope not. Centerpoint wouldn't pay for it with pixie dust. They would pay for it my damn money. Now get off my lawn.

It's fair to assume your tax dollars defrayed administrative costs associated with the City pursuing the billboard companies to remove billboards. Do you consider those dollars well spent?

[memebag]

It's fair to assume your tax dollars defrayed administrative costs associated with the City pursuing the billboard companies to remove billboards. Do you consider those dollars well spent?

No. I like billboards. See this post.

[westguy]

No. I like billboards. See this post.

If you're driving you shouldn't be looking at them.

[capnmcbarnacle]

If you're driving you shouldn't be looking at them.

As has been mentioned, new neighborhoods don't have the poles. An old neighborhood that doesn't have them is downtown. The similiarity is that the utilities can be buried when the entire infrastructure is being constructed or revamped. When an entire block of downtown is being redone, and the streets are being redone, you can bury the wires. If you take lower Westheimer as an example, I can't see the utility company burying the lines absent a reconstruction of the road itself. Even then, you have blocks with numerous business that need to have cables buried and redirected. Think of a business where the electricity runs overhead from the street to the back of the building. If the steet cable is buried then the new supply has to go underground - under or around the building - to the back. Absent and entire block being redeveloped I don't see how it is practical. I'm about to have my line buried from the easment at the rear of my house. We're talking thousands of dollars for them to bury those lines for 40 feet. I would love to see these lines go, but I don't think it is practical unless it is undertaken during major repairs to the roads or other infrastructure.

[sidegate]

No. I like billboards. See this post.

Remarkable.

[MetroMogul]

Most new construction IS placed underground. Your complaint however, is not about new subdivisions with unsightly poles. It is about 90 to 100 year old neighborhoods with unsightly poles. You are asking why the utility company won't rip out thousands of miles of perfectly good, functioning power lines, and dig through established neighborhoods and streets to place them underground. And, the answer is quite simple....exorbitant cost that no one is willing to pay.

I understand wishing the poles weren't there, but to ignore the astronomical cost to retrofit a neighborhood and continue to ask why it doesn't happen strikes me as pretty silly.

But Reeeeeeeeed, the poles are just sooooooooooo ugly! Just offset the cost of the burial by raising electricity bills across the board! Who cares if a struggling single mom and 5th ward can't afford her bill NOW! I want to be able to look outside of my prefab, cardboard, cookie cutter townhouse and be able to leer and curse at the poor family in the shack next door WITHOUT those unsightly telephone poles!

I hereby decree that all future powerlines go under ground.

Since there is an ordinance against future billboard construction let's do the same with these pathetic & unsightly (and dangerous) power lines. Wait until next big, bad hurricane they all coming down people!

Just like they did the last few hurricanes huh?

[MetroMogul]

I don't agree. I notice ugly power lines all over town, all the time. What I really hate are those enormous silver poles... I don't know what they are, but I think of them as the Super Power Lines. I don't understand why some areas have these... I just now drove by some on Ennis by TSU.

I think it's sad that we just accept these as part of our landscape. We give up so much for the conveniences we've come to need... stars are another example. Can't see stars anymore most places. They are lovely in Vermont, however. Okay, my mind is definitely wandering. Better get back to work...

*Smacks forehead*

Only in America.

And I just realized this is like the THIRD topic I've come across about concerning the "blight" of utility poles on this forum.

[N Judah]

Yeesh, out of all the topics on this board, THIS is the one that results in the "what about the poor struggling moms in the 5th ward" defense? Give me a break. Oh please.

[houstonmacbro]

But Reeeeeeeeed, the poles are just sooooooooooo ugly! Just offset the cost of the burial by raising electricity bills across the board! Who cares if a struggling single mom and 5th ward can't afford her bill NOW! I want to be able to look outside of my prefab, cardboard, cookie cutter townhouse and be able to leer and curse at the poor family in the shack next door WITHOUT those unsightly telephone poles!

Just like they did the last few hurricanes huh?

Well, I am glad in my neighborhood I don't have to look at them.

[MetroMogul]

Yeesh, out of all the topics on this board, THIS is the one that results in the "what about the poor struggling moms in the 5th ward" defense? Give me a break. Oh please.

Yeeesh, out of all the problems in this city, we have three threads floating around about telephone poles. Bear in mind you actually have to crane your neck and focus on them to even appreciate (or hate) their aesthetics. I guess that's why there's so much traffic in this city; John and Susy Yuppie are too busy gagging at the site of telephone poles and how to get rid of them to focus on the task of driving.

And yeah, I brought it up. It makes sense. You have people whining about burying utilties, aware of the immense cost of actually doing it and still clamoring for it anyways. You know damn well that the cost will be passed down to the customers, and not just the run of the mill, vapid, "urban professional" who is revolted by the site of these poles along with sagging jeans and the Mexican flag, but also people who struggle to pay the light bill as it stands now. Why should the poor have to pay for the ridiculous requests of the rich? There's alot of backwards, borderline offensive thinking on this forum.

[20thStDad]

I don't mind them, they are part of the city. When I lived in a duplex in Hyde Park, on nights I hung out on the porch I could see rats go across them on the other side of the street. It was great. I was drunk.

[memebag]

Well, I am glad in my neighborhood I don't have to look at them.

I don't think anyone has to look at them. Some folks like looking at them, some masochists don't but force themselves to look anyway. Everyone else just ignores them.

[webdude]

The traffic lights hanging on wires and flapping in the wind look worse than those slanting poles. I supposed I don't have to look at them, but I don't want to cause any accidents.

As for the poles, perhaps the least they could do is make sure the utility poles are straight and not tilting at all different angles?

[RedScare]

I don't mind them, they are part of the city. When I lived in a duplex in Hyde Park, on nights I hung out on the porch I could see rats go across them on the other side of the street. It was great. I was drunk.

I sit on my BACK porch to watch the rats on the power lines in the Heights. Great fun. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, a possum was skulking across the lines. I couldn't stop laughing at how worked up the dogs got over that.

Oh, but power poles are ugly. Bleh!

Well, I am glad in my neighborhood I don't have to look at them.

Just a hunch, but I bet your neighborhood has all the garage doors in the front of the house.

[memebag]

As for the poles, perhaps the least they could do is make sure the utility poles are straight and not tilting at all different angles?

OCD much?

[sidegate]

How are areas improved? By people moving who give a rats how their neighborhood looks and replacing people who don't. The method of payment is not relevant to the substantial issue and its spirit - they make the place look like a dive.

[RedScare]

I give a rat how my hood looks....AND I don't mind power poles. The money I saved not burying power lines has gone into improving my home. I think it would be safe to say that it is your OPINION that the power poles make a place look like a dive. MY opinion....confirmed by my home's value....is that they do not.

[N Judah]

Why should the poor have to pay for the ridiculous requests of the rich?

I don't know, can't you say that about almost anything that improves quality of life?

[houstonmacbro]

Just a hunch, but I bet your neighborhood has all the garage doors in the front of the house.

Is this supposed to be a veiled dig or putdown or insult to my neighborhood?

[20thStDad]

You know, I never thought about it until I read this thread, but where I used to live (Hyde Park, couple different places), the lines were in the front. In the Heights we have these nice alleys, or at least servitudes where alleys once were, and the lines hide back there. I think I like them in the back better, but clearly I don't care much if I just thought about it. Only thing that can be a pain is when they work on the lines they might block my driveway. Oh well, at most I have to walk half a block during the few hours they are there. Not a big deal. I much prefer this to them digging up my alley/driveway every time something needs upgrading or fixing.

I would prefer that we take this imaginary money to be used burying lines and use it on building rail transit from my house to my job...another imaginary project...

[MetroMogul]

I don't know, can't you say that about almost anything that improves quality of life?

Removing telephone poles improves quality of life? Good grief.

[houstonmacbro]

Removing telephone poles improves quality of life? Good grief.

Some people think planting trees in the median strips improves quality of life. It's all relative.

[pestofan]

The traffic lights hanging on wires and flapping in the wind look worse than those slanting poles. I supposed I don't have to look at them, but I don't want to cause any accidents.

Hard to decide which is the biggest nuisance: all the wires, Santa bum, or the misuse of palms and meatball shrubs on the same property.

[houstonmacbro]

Hard to decide which is the biggest nuisance: all the wires, Santa bum, or the misuse of palms and meatball shrubs on the same property.

I know that intersection! That's on Richmond right!

Ick!

[rsb320]

I know that intersection! That's on Richmond right!

Ick!

It looks like Richmond and Chimney Rock.

[MidtownCoog]

What about the birds?!?

Why y'all gotta be hatin on the birds?

[Subdude]

Yeeesh, out of all the problems in this city, we have three threads floating around about telephone poles. Bear in mind you actually have to crane your neck and focus on them to even appreciate (or hate) their aesthetics. I guess that's why there's so much traffic in this city; John and Susy Yuppie are too busy gagging at the site of telephone poles and how to get rid of them to focus on the task of driving.

And yeah, I brought it up. It makes sense. You have people whining about burying utilties, aware of the immense cost of actually doing it and still clamoring for it anyways. You know damn well that the cost will be passed down to the customers, and not just the run of the mill, vapid, "urban professional" who is revolted by the site of these poles along with sagging jeans and the Mexican flag, but also people who struggle to pay the light bill as it stands now. Why should the poor have to pay for the ridiculous requests of the rich? There's alot of backwards, borderline offensive thinking on this forum.

Why should the poor have to pay for the ridiculous requests of the rich?

Simply to indulge our idle whims.

I'm not quite sure what it is that is offensive about the topic. I'm sorry, but a profusion of overhead lines is an eyesore to many people. If you choose to cast that as some elitist thing then fine, so be it, but it is still a valid topic of discussion. Yes of course the cost would ultimately be passed down to customers, but if the distribution business is regulated the burying and cost pass-through can be done very gradually over time. Other cities have managed it, and as mentioned once the lines are buried there can be cost savings.

Btw, I hate that ugly word "yuppie". "Bourgeois" is much nicer.

[Subdude]

Aesthetic issues aside, wouldn't a policy of burying utility lines whenever possible have helped minimize all the power outages from trees falling over on the lines?

On edit, Centerpoint is on saying that they were able to maintain power downtown and in the Medical Center because those are the two areas with underground lines.

[editor]

Aesthetic issues aside, wouldn't a policy of burying utility lines whenever possible have helped minimize all the power outages from trees falling over on the lines?

On edit, Centerpoint is on saying that they were able to maintain power downtown and in the Medical Center because those are the two areas with underground lines.

Unfortunately, people have very short memories. Once the sun starts shining and the lights come back on again people will balk at the cost of burying power lines and make bogus claims about them being unreliable.

[TheNiche]

Unfortunately, people have very short memories. Once the sun starts shining and the lights come back on again people will balk at the cost of burying power lines and make bogus claims about them being unreliable.

The cost issue remains. How much do you really want to pay to ensure uninterrupted service in the event of a natural disaster? It makes sense that the Medical Center and a few large business centers would afford it, but it still is very expensive for neighborhoods without critical need.