Ion District In Midtown

[wilcal]

21 minutes ago, BEES?! said:

I need to go find the thread where it was posted, but I’m pretty sure the inner loop population is higher now than its original peak in the 60s. The page posted above was as of 2010. Since then there has been a lot of construction ITL. I think it hit 500k as of the most recent census.

I can't find the exact post, but @Houston19514manually tabulated the numbers inside 610. It went from 454,102 to 504,489 for 2010 to 2020 census.

[BEES?!]

3 hours ago, wilcal said:

I can't find the exact post, but @Houston19514manually tabulated the numbers inside 610. It went from 454,102 to 504,489 for 2010 to 2020 census.

Yes, that was it, I believe

[august948]

12 hours ago, samagon said:

that picture of the inside the loop population is pretty useless without context. it's based on US census data (since it's every 10 years) so they should be able to provide some demographic context, and I mean specifically around age, and number of people in a home.

it doesn't change the actual numbers they provide, but it would add some context to help us unpack the single data point into some meaning.

right now it can be used to infer whatever anyone wants it to infer. if you want to show that inside the loop (ITL) isn't popular, all you need to do is point at the numbers and say 'see!'. if you want to show that ITL is more complicated you can say 'well, in the 50s and 60s all those homes were filled with baby boomers who were growing up in the homes of their parents, in the 70s those baby boomers moved out of the loop and had their own families, but the number of working age people who might take advantage of a more robust transit system inside the loop has probably grown since then.

so yeah, not too helpful, that data.

I'm not trying to infer anything from that data, just point out that without any further context, it's not at all valuable to show, or use as a means of proving a point.

Agreed.  Another piece of information that adds context is how the much population of the metro area outside of the loop has changed in the same time span.

[hindesky]

[jmitch94]

16 hours ago, august948 said:

Agreed.  Another piece of information that adds context is how the much population of the metro area outside of the loop has changed in the same time span.

Okay? The comment that spurred all this was someone saying that living in the core of the city isn’t desirable any more. It can be desirable to live both in the core and in the suburbs, they aren’t mutually exclusive. 

[wilcal]

2 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

Okay? The comment that spurred all this was someone saying that living in the core of the city isn’t desirable any more. It can be desirable to live both in the core and in the suburbs, they aren’t mutually exclusive. 

Exactly. Some people like eating at Olive Garden and some people like eating at restaurants. 

[august948]

2 hours ago, wilcal said:

Exactly. Some people like eating at Olive Garden and some people like eating at restaurants. 

Exactly.  Some people like eating at Mai's and some like eating at good Vietnamese restaurants.

[august948]

4 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

Okay? The comment that spurred all this was someone saying that living in the core of the city isn’t desirable any more. It can be desirable to live both in the core and in the suburbs, they aren’t mutually exclusive. 

Agree, but desirability per se isn't easily measured.  Population growth in a geographic area is.

[004n063]

24 minutes ago, august948 said:

Agree, but desirability per se isn't easily measured.  Population growth in a geographic area is.

But if you're comparing the 96 square miles within the loop (or, really, the ~50 square miles where the bulk of the development is happening) to the ~9,900 square miles of the Houston metro area outside of the loop, that's not really apples-to-apples either. If we are talking about the pace of construction within particular areas/neighborhoods on a per-square-mile-basis (which, given the financial risk involved in construction, certainly seems as fair a measure of "desirability" as total population growth compared between areas that differ in size by two orders of magnitude), or, ya know, price, it seems pretty clear that all of the most desirable areas are either inside the loop or immediately outside W610. 

 

52 minutes ago, august948 said:

Exactly.  Some people like eating at Mai's and some like eating at good Vietnamese restaurants.

 Asiatown and Gulfton are definitely food capitals, but let's not pretend Mai's is even close to being the best Vietnamese in Midtown, let alone the loop...

[editor]

Thank you to @hindesky and others who are trying to keep this thread on topic.  Let's try to get back to that again.

(No, I'm not faultless here.  And I thank the people who called me out on it.  Sometimes I lapse into "Grumpy old man" mode.  We're all human.) 

[BEES?!]

I have an on-topic question. What sorts of greenspace is planned for ION? 

[samagon]

On 8/6/2022 at 5:32 PM, august948 said:

Exactly.  Some people like eating at Mai's and some like eating at good Vietnamese restaurants.

Mia's is great for that 3am experience, but overall, if you want good Vietnamese food, you go to Huynh over by the soccer stadium.

[004n063]

3 hours ago, samagon said:

Mia's is great for that 3am experience, but overall, if you want good Vietnamese food, you go to Huynh over by the soccer stadium.

Thiên Ân & Pho Saigon are also worth a shoutout.

 

Also, I personally love that the topic of this thread has now become Vietnamese food in and around Midtown. 

[clutchcity94]

12 minutes ago, 004n063 said:

Thiên Ân & Pho Saigon are also worth a shoutout.

 

Also, I personally love that the topic of this thread has now become Vietnamese food in and around Midtown. 

RIP Cafe #13 on Milam. They had the best shaking beef in the city before they abruptly closed.

[79ta]

On 8/7/2022 at 5:46 PM, BEES?! said:

I have an on-topic question. What sorts of greenspace is planned for ION? 

I'm sure there are better pictures out there but here's what I found. It looks like there's a plaza in the center.

 

You can see part of the plaza here

[BEES?!]

Thank you for that! Looks great

[samagon]

12 hours ago, 79ta said:

I'm sure there are better pictures out there but here's what I found. It looks like there's a plaza in the center.

 

You can see part of the plaza here

this second image, I think, is showing the intersection of Caroline and Wheeler, looking into downtown. so the greenspace we see is that of the expected cover for the intended below grade freeway.

from the top down it looks like the plaza is on Fannin halfway between Wheeler and Eagle.

as an aside, the width of that median still makes me salty that the bike path from Hermann Park up into midtown wasn't built on Caroline. so much ROW and they forced bikes onto a sharrow on Austin.

[august948]

22 hours ago, clutchcity94 said:

RIP Cafe #13 on Milam. They had the best shaking beef in the city before they abruptly closed.

Pictures from yelp show it served on a bed of french fries.  Did they really serve it that way?

[clutchcity94]

10 minutes ago, august948 said:

Pictures from yelp show it served on a bed of french fries.  Did they really serve it that way?

 Yes- it was delicious. Came with rice as well.

[004n063]

13 hours ago, samagon said:

this second image, I think, is showing the intersection of Caroline and Wheeler, looking into downtown. so the greenspace we see is that of the expected cover for the intended below grade freeway.

from the top down it looks like the plaza is on Fannin halfway between Wheeler and Eagle.

as an aside, the width of that median still makes me salty that the bike path from Hermann Park up into midtown wasn't built on Caroline. so much ROW and they forced bikes onto a sharrow on Austin.

Yeah, the fact that street redesigns don't automatically include proper bike lanes in 2022 is pretty infuriating. I live in Midtown and use the protected lane on Austin all the time...to go to Downtown.

 

Not really useful at all for intra-neighborhood trips apart from Retrospect.

[iah77]

11 hours ago, 004n063 said:

Yeah, the fact that street redesigns don't automatically include proper bike lanes in 2022 is pretty infuriating. I live in Midtown and use the protected lane on Austin all the time...to go to Downtown.

 

Not really useful at all for intra-neighborhood trips apart from Retrospect.

Maybe not everyone wants a bike lane on every street...? There are literally two walkable  streets with no car access on that design.

[004n063]

3 hours ago, iah77 said:

Maybe not everyone wants a bike lane on every street...? There are literally two walkable  streets with no car access on that design.

I didn't see any car-free streets; that helps some. But the point of a bike lane is access; if there is a street that is inaccessible by bike, that'a an accessibility issue. Right now Fannin, San Jacinto, Travis, Milam, and Smith are all extremely hostile to people on bikes, and Main isn't exactly ideal. That's a huge swath of Midtown with no north-south bike access. 

It's a pretty simple thing: if you can get somewhere by car, you should be able to get there (directly) by bike. 

[hindesky]

[Houston19514]

On 8/10/2022 at 11:44 AM, 004n063 said:

I didn't see any car-free streets; that helps some. But the point of a bike lane is access; if there is a street that is inaccessible by bike, that'a an accessibility issue. Right now Fannin, San Jacinto, Travis, Milam, and Smith are all extremely hostile to people on bikes, and Main isn't exactly ideal. That's a huge swath of Midtown with no north-south bike access. 

It's a pretty simple thing: if you can get somewhere by car, you should be able to get there (directly) by bike. 

FWIW, streets do not need to be car-free in order to be pedestrian-friendly or successful urban zones.  The history of car-free pedestrian malls in various downtowns across America suggests the opposite might even be true.

Edited August 12, 2022 by Houston19514

[Urbannizer]

https://realtynewsreport.com/medical-giant-joins-ion-innovation-district/

At the Ion, Houston Methodist will build out a space at the Ion modeled after Houston Methodist’s Center for Innovation Technology Hub in the Texas Medical Center.

Expected to open later this year, Methodist’s Tech Hub at the Ion will occupy a 1,200-SF space which will first be used for informational and educational programming, networking with fellow tenants and entrepreneurs, and participating in on-site mentoring and pitch competitions.

[arche_757]

Was expecting a big non-Houston company to be a part of that announcement.  Typical click-bait headline.

[mattyt36]

19 hours ago, arche_757 said:

Was expecting a big non-Houston company to be a part of that announcement.  Typical click-bait headline.

Only 1,200 sf, too, the size of a 2-bedroom apartment.  Sounds like they're building out a glorified conference room.

Edited August 13, 2022 by mattyt36

[arche_757]

Hardly worthy of an announcement.  Guess things are slow if this is news worthy for Ion.

[august948]

13 hours ago, mattyt36 said:

Only 1,200 sf, too, the size of a 2-bedroom apartment.  Sounds like they're building out a glorified conference room.

This is how big companies sideline someone who's annoying but too high up to fire outright.  Corporate equivalent of Siberia.  😜

[hindesky]