IronTiger

See, in the case of the much maligned University Line, I think it would be the best, since bridging over 59 would end up demolishing buildings and messing up Richmond, not to mention the fact that the light rail would end up stopping at lots of stoplights anyway--going from Weslayan and Westpark Road to Edloe and Richmond would have less jerky curves than what was previously proposed, and then it could use the old "Westpark ROW" the rest of the way, solving (most of) everyone's worries. While a full "spider-web" network is still pretty unrealistic, it does reopen a lot of corridors for ideas. I was thinking that a subway wouldn't be possible not just because of the proximity to sea level but softer ground that makes it unattractive to build. Subways aren't possible in say, Galveston.

There's a ton of light rail discussion on HAIF to browse through (and half of those are blaming politicians), but is there a reason why subway hasn't been discussed for the Houston region? Dallas has over three miles of subway line paralleling (and going under!) a major highway, which feels really great for a city in the South. And because there's only one station (connected to an office building) and it is only for that section, it doesn't feel grimy and depressing like New York City subways are. Is it because Houston's traditionally non-rail attitude won't even consider subways, or is the ground physically unstable?

A cluster of townhomes would take home lots of money for somebody, or even some sort of 4-5 story apartment building--it seems rather chic now to tear down a 1970s/1980s era Inner Loop apartment complex and replace it with a denser, more modern, upscale development.

I'm a bit surprised that the city doesn't have some sort of ordinance blocking things like this--and not just crosses but also similarly sized things: after all, didn't the city ban roadside inflatables (car dealerships, etc.) in 2009? Seems like I remember reading about that, and they went away within months.

Read the article on Bubba the Roach. That makes me sad that they destroyed the sign. Wish they had mothballed it at Sparkle Signs, where I've been seeing that old McDonald's sign every time I drive by there.

Yeah, I think unions are not as big a deal as people make them out to be. Particularly, Walmart gets a lot of flack for being a non-union store, but so is H-E-B, and most people will agree that H-E-B is a better store than Walmart overall, and treats employees better. I kind of find it strange that Safeway raised prices (or at least kept them high). At least in the 1980s, Safeway seemed to be more middle-market competing head to head with Kroger. In 1990, Kroger and AppleTree tied for second in the market share (at 14.5%, Randalls was first at around 27%, which now seems unthinkable now).

Yes, the other reason is an enormous neighborhood revolt backed with lots of money...

The whole thing is a bit farcical--I remember in 2008, seeing the "Stop Ashby High Rise" signs for the first time all up and down streets in the Museum District. My cousins explained the controversy and site, Maryland Manor apartments, that the building would replace. Five years past, I'm in the same area, and all that's occurred is that the apartments are an overgrown lot. That's it. Five years of yellow signs and all that has been done is demolishing an aging apartment complex. Truly strange--though I attribute part of its delay with a recession that set in during that time.

Yeah, MMP incorporates a train station in its design and the parking lot is on an old railyard.

Giant crosses are pretentious, obnoxious, and bring out the radical atheist in some people.

Surprised it didn't count total acreage. Between Memorial and Hermann, those are both large parks that the city enjoys.

No, just an obsessive Houston fan from the "far northwest exurbs" (College Station), though I've been to Houston and surorunding areas many times in the last past 15 years or so. The Northwest Freeway corridor certainly has been altered in the last decade.

One of the things that is important to note in preservation is that buildings in Galveston (especially homes) are subject to humidity damage, which tends to degrade them faster than normal.

Yep. Nearly every inner loop apartment complex that's relatively recent. Before it burned down in a spectacular fire a week or so ago, Axis Apartments (their website is down for obvious reasons), I believe it was pushing the whole "upscale urban living" angle, which isn't unique.

Well, although that obnoxious horse mascot is nowhere in sight ("Lasso's Corral" must be the kids area), I can't get over the over-Texas theme. While I'm fine for a certain area of the park (at least there appears to be a Mexico-themed area) being all Wild West style Texas theme, I'm not fond of the theme of the rest of the park. They could crib some design cues from Epcot to make an Asian-themed one, maybe some sort of faux "big city" theme. The "howling wolf" rock reminds me too much of the California Adventure bear (Disney's theme park), in fact, the whole thing reminds me a bit of that theme park, and not in a good way. It also seems too far away from Houston--over six times as far away from downtown as Astroworld, and twice that of even Magic Kingdom in Orlando.

Would you judge me if I said I was a bit fond of them? New avatar even references them (sorta) (Also, there is definitely a level of obnoxiousness/pretentiousness--while not a giant cross, Community of Faith off of 290 has this "boomerang" shaped cross and an extremely bright and large display screen)

Spring Branch and Downtown are different, that's what I'm trying to say, and they have advantages and disadvantages. Spring Branch has some okay areas and less okay areas, and some of those areas give it a bad reputation. Downtown's urbanism gives appeal to some, Spring Branch's less urban areas is trying to appeal to those who want to live a fairly suburban lifestyle (Protip: some of the yards of suburbia aren't very large at all) while having a dramatically reduced commute time. Depending on where you live, you could easily access a variety of supermarkets and other stores including IKEA, Walmart, the Bunker Hill HEB, the Villages Kroger, Home Depot, Lowe's, Costco, the 290 Randalls, and more.

The difference between Spring Branch and Downtown are many. Spring Branch has long been a state of decline, has been traditionally been more suburban, and hamstrung by being a heavily industrial area (at least Spring Branch East). Spring Branch needs to advertise, but Downtown does not.

According to Swamplot, the SunSpree Resort hotel (operated by Holiday Inn) will be rebranded soon and renovated, and certainly did look a bit rundown. In fact, according to my resources, it was the "Galveston Beach Hotel" until late 2005 (did they even do any renovations?) What will be the next name of the hotel? Anyone know?

There's a parking garage under Discovery Green? Gee, I don't even see where the entrance is. Now can I see why, at least, a lot of the existing park was ripped up instead of added to. At least they saved most of the trees.

It looks like on Google Earth, the pre-DG park had parking lots, some sidewalks, and bisected by Crawford (before it became a promenade). My 2007 Key Maps book says they are referred to as the "Houston Center Gardens".

Hmm...what if the Downtown Aquarium was moved to the large parking lot adjacent to Discovery Green? That would provide an anchor to the area and make it even more of a destination.

Maybe direct on/off ramps? The main problem is that there are way too many interchanges in that stretch over a relatively short distance. Between 69 and 10 (less than 4 miles): Memorial, Woodway, Post Oak Boulevard, San Felipe, Westheimer, and Richmond Like maybe have Post Oak Boulevard not interact with highway traffic at all, and instead have it go over, with traffic redirecting down Post Oak Park or Post Oak Blvd., and/or blast Post Oak Lane down to Post Oak Blvd. so that Woodway could pick up the load. Enh. It'd be complicated, for sure.

Yes, my fear was that most of them have been scrubbed, which could've occurred to a road widening, or more commonly, a highway widening. My new avatar references the widening of the Northwest Freeway, which is in the process of rebuilding most of its interchanges (Beltway 8, Little York Road). My new avatar refers to the Wendy's at Northwest Freeway and Beltway 8...

Right. Which brings us back to "What is there to do downtown"? There's the observation deck and the tunnels, both of which are kind of cool but those aren't open on weekends. There's no museums, those are downstream in the Museum District.