Montrose TIRZ

[MrFubbles]

Whoever spearheaded this project I need to shake their hand. It's perfect

[hindesky]

33 minutes ago, MrFubbles said:

Whoever spearheaded this project I need to shake their hand. It's perfect

The people who provided feedback comments to the engineering company Gauge had a lot to do to make it a better fit for the neighborhood and it's users.

[kennyc05]

22 hours ago, hindesky said:

In person meeting about Phase I of Montrose Blvd reconstruction. They have the money, plan to start the bidding process towards the end of the year and would like to start construction in the 1st Q '24 after the Houston Marathon.

All those new trees 😍

[TacoDog]

There is a petition going around with a protest on Sunday to save the live oak trees that will be cut down with this project. 

[trymahjong]

Yes, I've heard about the petition.

 

"save HistoricMontrose  Blvd Oaks" seems a persuasive battle cry.

 

I am an advocate of tree canopy.
But I drive Montrose Blvd daily.

I'd like to hear from others who view those trees daily. Those trees from Clay street to Allen parkway.

I wonder who actually counted the number of trees involved in the first phase between Clay street and Allen Parkway?  Are there really fifty trees? Are all of them Historic Oaks? What about those spindly crepe myrtle trees- 

Centerpoint will always  lop off the tops of trees under power lines? Seems it would impact tree health.
I notice the impact of drought and disease on these trees. Climate change means, means more droughts and more heat.

I for one find it hard to see half dead trees with their roots covered by concrete.

The proposed conduit pipe that will be installed is 12 feet wide.  The proposed new sidewalks will be five feet wide. There will be a bike lane.....That will impact the health of any tree that is close to construction.

This project is going forward. IMO some of those trees, if saved by this petition, will die a slow death during reconstruction.

 

[hindesky]

https://39932149.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/39932149/Montrose Blvd Project Update Memo_Sept 2023.pdf?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=276366062&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8j_RO9ny83-gxya9XIOMJJrtuDLgsK8oI2X1m35Gf3qpTJ9udAE2HusROqtpEyalwDQRuZuyjhnaVgYrAqJj37bIMyjg&utm_content=276366062&utm_source=hs_email

[004n063]

On 9/29/2023 at 7:43 PM, hindesky said:

https://39932149.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/39932149/Montrose Blvd Project Update Memo_Sept 2023.pdf?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=276366062&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8j_RO9ny83-gxya9XIOMJJrtuDLgsK8oI2X1m35Gf3qpTJ9udAE2HusROqtpEyalwDQRuZuyjhnaVgYrAqJj37bIMyjg&utm_content=276366062&utm_source=hs_email

This is a tonal masterpiece. 

[trymahjong]

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/montrose-petition-save-oak-trees-18397218.php
 

Guess a hundred or showed up-- a few council members.....seemed peaceful.

 

I'm wondering if anyone changed their prospective...........

[X.R.]

I don't really understand how people who live on or near the affected streets think those streets in their current form are condusive to a neighborhood. As of now, they are car-centric thoroughfares. If Skanksa attended a meeting to make the street more human friendly, keeping in mind that developers in Houston are typically supportive of better car infrastructure, and said yes they like it these people need to understand how rare that is in Houston (ahem, Midtown Whole Foods). 

Feels very much like the stuff that went on in the Heights over the bike lanes, with a few hundred grasping for straws to prevent change...for the sake of preventing change. 

[hindesky]

https://houstonlanding.org/boots-on-the-ground-pitting-trees-against-sidewalks-in-montrose-creates-a-false-dichotomy/

[Houston19514]

2 hours ago, X.R. said:

I don't really understand how people who live on or near the affected streets think those streets in their current form are condusive to a neighborhood. As of now, they are car-centric thoroughfares. If Skanksa attended a meeting to make the street more human friendly, keeping in mind that developers in Houston are typically supportive of better car infrastructure, and said yes they like it these people need to understand how rare that is in Houston (ahem, Midtown Whole Foods). 

Feels very much like the stuff that went on in the Heights over the bike lanes, with a few hundred grasping for straws to prevent change...for the sake of preventing change. 

We could tell it was just complainers doing what they do. The tell was in the "headline" claims.  (1) Most of the trees being removed are spindly, unhealthy and have been butchered to keep them out of the electric lines (2) the dishonest "headline" that the trees are being removed to widen the sidewalks, when even the complainers surely know this is much more than just widening sidewalks (3) and of course no mention of the new boulevard that will have new trees or (4) the fact that there will be many more trees planted than are removed. One guesses that a lot of people signed that petition based on misinformation (to put it as nicely as I can).

This reminds me of a question:  does anyone know if they will be burying the electric lines as part of this project?

Edited October 11, 2023 by Houston19514

[trymahjong]

I've been yakking away about this project with very little success.

one thing no on mentions- a 10 foot wide conduit pipe to deal with water flow  will be installed under Montrose Blvd- no matter if    the trees are left alone or removed.

So 10 foot wide probably in 12 foot wide trench placed 14 feet below surface? What could be the impact be on those existing trees every one is yammering about..... well certainly nothing good.

[hindesky]

Pretty large crowd for the in person meeting.

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

Just got the email with the new PDF.

https://montrosehtx.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Montrose-Blvd-Project-Presentation–10-16-2023.pdf

[trymahjong]

https://montrosehtx.org/news/

[trymahjong]

Decided to stay parked at home during the freeze. I did some back reading of older threads. I have lived in Montrose 20 years.

the TIRZ plan improve Montrose Blvd has gotten lots of back-and forth-back-forth about the trees along Montrose.

 

no one seems to wonder about the "telling" of Montrose history through art placed along the Blvd.  🧐

I'm wondering what is that going to look like........what kind of research did the artist do?.......is there enough distance along Montrose Blvd  to tell  that story? What exactly will that story be? 🫤

questions.....questions...questions........

 

[j_cuevas713]

It still amazes me how much pushback there is from some residents. I even saw some comments about how "nobody walks on Montrose Boulevard anyways so just repave the road and leave the trees alone." Well no $h*t nobody walks on Montrose Boulevard, it was built it to be as hostile to pedestrians as other major thoroughfares in this city. In the grand scheme of things, what does the Montrose TIRZ benefit from doing bad work? Plus the amount of trees will double along the boulevard. 

Edited January 20 by j_cuevas713

[trymahjong]

At least the TIRZ represents monies generated from Montrose businesses goes toward improvements of Montrose itself.......

I always thought COH treated Montrose like an in law's adopted step child

COH never seemed to approve any CIP project- now that improvements are being done....people ( not necessarily residents) are so crabby.

Really, I just want more protection from flooding, a safe, shaded canopy ( from newly installed trees) to bicycle and walk.

if you remember that magic bus COH bought that was suppose to be able to produce an algorithm that determined which street conditions were worse and rank them? Uhhuh- that  was a bunch of hooey! Not one street within Montrose; made  the top ( fix the worst first) 20 list.

 

[hindesky]

I attended the meeting in person. Large crowd showed up, guesstimating there was a 50/50 mix of people that spoke for and against the project. Those against only cared about the trees that will be removed to build the project forgetting that there will be a 3 trees added for each one taken down. All those against it were 95% old white women "Karens". They learned about this project very late in the process and are the most vocal minority against it. Several for it showed up with this poster in favor for the project (the Quiet Majority) to counter the against signs littered throughout Montrose akin the anti Ashby tower of terror. Who knows if they even had the permission of the property owners about whether they could post their signs or not.

 

[bookey23]

Gauge Engineering released a 3D rendering of the proposed Montrose improvement project! 

 

 

[hindesky]

The Karens don't care about the 10' shared path they said a 6 ' path would be sufficient. Obviously they are not bike riders. One loud Karen only cares about the Toucan at W. Clay only because she lives on Marconi St. and it would impede her travel options. Another topic brought up was about adding trees around the bus shelters which they said will be looked in to. The shared path bridge over Allen Pkwy on the east side will be paid for by the Downtown TIRZ since the Montrose TIRZ 27 boundary ends at south side of Allen Pkwy.

[004n063]

6 hours ago, hindesky said:

only cares about the Toucan at W. Clay only because she lives on Marconi St. and it would impede her travel options.

Imagine defending that left turn.

[hindesky]

The late to the game loud minority is protesting on Montrose Blvd. near W. Clay St. and using the trees that aren't coming down as their prop to get people to honk for their cause. Reminds me of Rudy Giuliani using what he thought was the Four Seasons as a prop but instead it was Four Seasons Landscaping.🤣

 

There are zero trees north of W. Dallas St. on the section that will be renovated but the project will add many.

[trymahjong]

Of course this stuff was covered by chronicle............"160 year old trees....predating the cemetery "......according to their arborist.......

Montrose TIRZ is another one of those civic meetings I try to attend-- for years and years now.

Five years or so ago, antidotes about that cemetery were talked about when this project first got started. ......not exactly sure why this tree was so close to entrance by that wall --after it was built  and tree got big, cemetery asked COH to cut it down-- roots began  to cause wall to lean.....

TIRZwanted to just leave west side of that part of Montrose untouched when the plan first was planned-- COH said No!

years of public meeting held  by TIRZ to get plan finished and presented to COH and yup- COH approved plan.    But from the very beginning the protesters trashed on TIRZ as the bad guy in all this- but COH is the real power. Why didn't protested start with COH when they had all yelling to do? I just don't understand.

[004n063]

15 hours ago, hindesky said:

The late to the game loud minority is protesting on Montrose Blvd. near W. Clay St. and using the trees that aren't coming down as their prop to get people to honk for their cause. Reminds me of Rudy Giuliani using what he thought was the Four Seasons as a prop but instead it was Four Seasons Landscaping.🤣

 

There are zero trees north of W. Dallas St. on the section that will be renovated but the project will add many.

The Chronicle's reporting on this and METRORapid have been particularly bad. They haven't been great on NHHIP either, but these two have really stood out as almost Click2Houston-level lazy.

They need an infrastructure-beat reporter who is actually interested in infrastructure enough to want to learn more about projects and their contexts than whatever it takes to fill 700 words.

[j_cuevas713]

So as it stands, those against the Montrose Boulevard plan are winning. No trees will be removed, no lane reduction, and 6ft sidewalks for most of the stretch and 5ft in others. There will be no sidewalks installed near the cemetery to Allen Parkway. This mayor doesn't care about what you think unless you're over the age of 60. 

[j_cuevas713]

Let me make everyone aware that a town hall meeting will take place next month. I'll give more details when I hear more. I encourage everyone to show up.