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Montrose Boulevard Improvements


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Not perfect (a bit ambiguous on where bikes are supposed to go between 59 and Dallas), but definitely a nice upgrade. Montrose and (especially) Westheimer really need to have wide, high-quality, continuous* sidewalks. 

*continuous as in, continues at sidewalk grade across the street at intersections with side streets, like this: https://images.app.goo.gl/5M4KnAehYXjBc5tc8

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On 12/10/2022 at 4:56 PM, HoustonMidtown said:

exciting for Montrose and Houston for sure!!! this has been a long time coming...i truly hope they keep some art installations or make room to have some kind of rotating art in the medians or "something" to keep the Montrose of old alive 🙂

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23 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

Damn all we need is LW and UW to get rebuilt and we will have some awesome walkability in the core of the city

I honestly don't understand how Westheimer is still the way it is. I feel like it should be the priority in this city. Don't get me wrong, I love this project for Montrose Blvd, but I feel like at this point, Westheimer is WAYYY worse and needs to be prioritized. 

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56 minutes ago, bookey23 said:

Did anyone attend this meeting? Was there any notable information that wasn't covered in the slides?

I did, the north portion Allen Pkwy to W. Clay St. will be first since all the water travels toward the bayou and because of the timing with the Ismaili center which will finish sometime in '24. They are also working in coordination with public works so the two projects can work together.


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1 hour ago, dbigtex56 said:

I wonder how they'll fit a 6' sidewalk between the trees and the townhouse.
How did this place ever get built? 

That house was apparently built in the 80's. The narrow lot there was created when Montrose was extended North from Westheimer. Prior to that, the street was named Lincoln Here's the block book map for the property. which is Tract 23A AE1997_17-18_0311.jpg

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14 hours ago, Ross said:

That house was apparently built in the 80's. The narrow lot there was created when Montrose was extended North from Westheimer. Prior to that, the street was named Lincoln Here's the block book map for the property. which is Tract 23A AE1997_17-18_0311.jpg

How old are these block books/when were they printed? I have one for my house and the pages look just as ancient.

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10 minutes ago, clutchcity94 said:

How old are these block books/when were they printed? I have one for my house and the pages look just as ancient.

1940's maybe? I've never seen an accurate date on them. I too would love to know. They are a super useful resource.

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14 hours ago, Ross said:

That house was apparently built in the 80's. The narrow lot there was created when Montrose was extended North from Westheimer. Prior to that, the street was named Lincoln Here's the block book map for the property. which is Tract 23A 

Hmmmm so lincoln?  I wonder what the back story of naming that particular street was? It seems a name like Lincoln would be bestowed on a large Blvd.

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25 minutes ago, trymahjong said:

Hmmmm so lincoln?  I wonder what the back story of naming that particular street was? It seems a name like Lincoln would be bestowed on a large Blvd.

US Presidents. There's Grant, Lincoln, and van Buren from East to West. Given the way Houston developed, there's all sorts of weird stuff like this. It happens other places too. 

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1 hour ago, editor said:

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas:

 

See it here: https://maps.apple.com/?ll=36.277666,-115.142954

Las Vegas has the worst street names of any place I've lived.

Hmmmm That's why I've always thought Naming streets should have been my true calling........

a set of encyclopedia Britannia

 
a dictionary

a thesaurus

a sense of humor

and a southern dry wit

"naming streets" would have become an art form .

 

 

 

Edited by trymahjong
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2 hours ago, editor said:

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas:

 

See it here: https://maps.apple.com/?ll=36.277666,-115.142954

Las Vegas has the worst street names of any place I've lived.

What, no Pumpkin Spice Boulevard?

They should name Las Vegas streets after the mobsters that built the casinos and hotels - Siegel Parkway, Lansky Avenue...  

Edited by mkultra25
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33 minutes ago, mkultra25 said:

What, no Pumpkin Spice Boulevard?

They should name Las Vegas streets after the mobsters that built the casinos and hotels - Siegel Parkway, Lansky Avenue...  

Bugsy Segal Court

Many of the main streets are named after the casinos that are, or used to be on them: Sahara, Desert Inn, Flamingo, Tropicana, Rancho and such.  The main secondary streets are named after performers: Liberace, Mel Torme, Elvis Presley, etc.

I used to drive home through the three-way intersection of Frank Sinatra Drive, Dean Martin Drive, and Sammy Davis Junior Drive.

My boss lived near here:

Screenshot 2022-12-16 at 5.15.52 PM.png

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10 hours ago, trymahjong said:

Hmmmm so lincoln?  I wonder what the back story of naming that particular street was? It seems a name like Lincoln would be bestowed on a large Blvd.

Considering that it was named less then fifty years after the Civil War, I'm surprised they used that name at all.
The large blvd.s (at least downtown) pretty much stuck to Confederate generals and early Texas heroes. Lincoln might not have felt comfortable there.

 

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"Officials with the Montrose Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone are seeking feedback on plans to make street and drainage improvements along Montrose Boulevard designed to make the road safer for pedestrians, cyclists, motorists and public transit."

https://communityimpact.com/houston/heights-river-oaks-montrose/transportation/2022/12/15/montrose-boulevard-target-of-52-million-street-improvement-plan/

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This has to be one of the most exciting projects I've seen in a while on this forum. Sure, we can get nice developments here and there, but projects like these really bring different parts of Houston together.

Ever since I moved into the greater Heights area in 2012, I learned to bike around all over the city to get to where I needed to go. One of the biggest challenges was always going north from the Heights down to the Montrose area and vice versa. Sure, there's the bayou connection near the Waugh bridge and several others but it wasn't exactly a straight shot. I always wanted to just go on Montrose but the sidewalks in this section are atrocious. Totally broken up, too small so you always have to go into the grass for dog walkers, overgrown grass... the list just goes on and on, it was never a pleasant experience.

I truly feel like this improvement is going to tie together these two areas and make it easier to cross from one side of the bayou to the other.

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9 hours ago, Triton said:

I always wanted to just go on Montrose but the sidewalks in this section are atrocious.

This is definitely a welcome change for us bikers. Once they finish this, the next item should be fixing the bikeability on Studewood/Studemont underneath i10 and between i10 and Memorial. If you're trying to bike to Montrose, that stretch is equally treacherous.

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14 hours ago, Triton said:

I truly feel like this improvement is going to tie together these two areas and make it easier to cross from one side of the bayou to the other.

I am afraid I don't share your optimism. I think this will greatly improve the pedestrian experience on Montrose Blvd, but other than the MUP from the south side of Allen Parkway to W. Dallas (and keep in mind, the W. Dallas lanes don't start until Waugh), I didn't see any bike infrastructure in the plan?

I am all for the pedestrian improvements, and providing (preferably a few) comfortable bike routes from Montrose to the Heights would be fantastic, but I just don't see that in this project...

The combination of a wide bayou flanked on either side by highway-lite arterials (hiways?), and (particularly north of the bayou between Jackson Hill and Sawyer are (in my opinion) the main issues with Heights-Montrose connectivity, and I don't see how this fixes that...

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8 hours ago, 004n063 said:

I am afraid I don't share your optimism. I think this will greatly improve the pedestrian experience on Montrose Blvd, but other than the MUP from the south side of Allen Parkway to W. Dallas (and keep in mind, the W. Dallas lanes don't start until Waugh), I didn't see any bike infrastructure in the plan?

I am all for the pedestrian improvements, and providing (preferably a few) comfortable bike routes from Montrose to the Heights would be fantastic, but I just don't see that in this project...

The combination of a wide bayou flanked on either side by highway-lite arterials (hiways?), and (particularly north of the bayou between Jackson Hill and Sawyer are (in my opinion) the main issues with Heights-Montrose connectivity, and I don't see how this fixes that...

I saw a bit of the presentation explaining the updates, and have the impression that bike lanes will be provided on streets that run parallel to Montrose (such as Stanford).

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38 minutes ago, dbigtex56 said:

I saw a bit of the presentation explaining the updates, and have the impression that bike lanes will be provided on streets that run parallel to Montrose (such as Stanford).

Stanford is already an excellent bike route from Woodrow St up to Allen Pkwy. Dedicated bike lane would make it even better.

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23 minutes ago, clutchcity94 said:

Stanford is already an excellent bike route from Woodrow St up to Allen Pkwy. Dedicated bike lane would make it even better.

Stanford is the road I always rode unless it was really early on the weekend then I would brave Montrose heading northbound.

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