mollusk

I routinely use public transportation for that last stretch from the airport to my destination when it's a viable alternative. BART in the SF area has cars with a similar layout and available room to what we have with our rail, and I generally don't have a bit of trouble - not even the stink eye from my fellow passengers for taking up too much room. A few years ago BART was extended to SFO, where it has a station in the international terminal w/ connections to the others via the internal train system. Currently one uses airBART, a shuttle bus, to get to the Coliseum Station from OAK, but an automated rail connector is due to come on line this year.

This would be a great alternative. All the security folderol, plus the usual to and fro to the airports, has made it so that the choice between flying and driving between Houston and Dallas is a push from a time standpoint.

I am guessing/hoping that the North Loop frontage road stops are a bit of a safety check until people get used to having a train coming through. I didn't notice any crossing arms at that intersection, as there are where the line splits apart just south of the Wheeler station and at the South Loop frontage roads (though to be fair, people will figure out any number of ways to run into big things).

This thread has given me a terrible earworm - the "who put the hop in shopping" jingle from ages ago.

The Gulf sign was hardly alone - we also had "T E N N E C O" across the top of its building (now El Paso), Bank of the Southwest on what is now 919 Milam, Central Bank (still there, sorta), Conoco (complete with weather ball)...I'm probably skipping something or another.

Downtown already has Dominos (and several other better pizza options), plus chicken and burgers galore. There is a CVS in the 800 block of Main... granted, it closes early. For big grocers, Randall's a block south of the Pierce Elevated and a couple blocks from the rail station would be an option were it not for its Safeway - driven death spiral; go north and there is a big Fiesta at Fulton and Quitman a couple blocks from the North Line, just a couple stops past UH Downtown (which, with the closure of the Studewood Fiesta, is getting more Anglo-fied since Woodland Heights types are now going there). The walkable infrastructure for much of the day to day stuff is there, all that is needed is residents to get them to keep later hours. What IS lacking are places to buy clothing and blenders and such. And a dry cleaners - there's gotta be one closer than Midtown, I just don't know where.

The Onstead family sold out long before Randall's started to go downhill. The chain was owned for a while by KKR, who also bought Tom Thumb in Dallas. That's about the time that beer and wine sales started. Eventually KKR sold out to Safeway, who tried to use their same business model yet once again...with predictable results.