IronTiger

There were a bunch of 7-Eleven stores in College Station-Bryan. They left in the early 1990s and sold everything to E-Z Mart, which kept the Slurpees and other stuff, at least when they first split off. Later on, the chain pulled out and the stores went to different owners.

OK, I must be wrong, because I stumbled upon this, so the structure I was looking at just south of the Hampton Retirement tower was NOT the McDonald's discussed here. This was demolished just in the last couple of years. No wonder I couldn't find anything in the old archives about it being razed.

I read somewhere that the post office was designed to BE a train station. Would've been pretty sweet when they did the Red Line to make that a transit terminal (bus/METRORail/Amtrak) but alas...

I'm pretty sure that the local university library has Post microfilms as well, though they're not very well indexed. It's a shame that's it not available on the Internet anymore. I think I read somewhere on this forum that the 1990s is when Astroworld really started to deteriorate, and by the time they tended to correct the problem in the early 2000s, it was too late.

It briefly became a Houston Garden Centers location, which was the last use of the property. I read somewhere that it was created from leftover dirt from 1970s constructions projects. Whoa. I knew The Heights was not a great place prior to gentrification, but that's really telling. Might have to do with the MKT railroad. My dad spent a few years in The Heights when my grandfather moved there sometime in the 1960s, and at that point, The Heights would've been still affordable to live in on a blue collar salary.

Don't they have uniforms of some sort?

With my new Houston Library Card and my ability to remotely access Houston Chronicle archives, I've found out all sorts of neat things that don't exist anymore in Houston, such as that two-level McDonald's in Uptown, Fiesta, the life and death of AppleTree...well, those are mostly stores and stuff because that's what I've tended to look up, and the fact that most of my 1990s Houston nostalgia is only from freeways (sad, ain't it?) I made this thread for discussion of Houston in the 1990s, although photos/ads would be great. A number of things from the 1990s in Houston have all been but forgotten...remember Wolfe Nursery? No?

For 290, there are plans to have some HSR ROW set aside. As for 288, there is enough room in the median for an HOV lane and space for light rail (and since there would be no stops until Pearland, it needs less ROW than others)...but they don't consult with me for highway plans. As for other modes, I think that the highways have done their work, and expanding them to their limits wasn't in vain, and unless Houston wants to do some rather unpleasant upheaval in doing a new inner-city highway ROW entirely, highways are no longer the future. On the other hand, it vindicates any arguments like if we had focused on rail corridors we would be in a better place. Although it would've been pretty cool to have commuter rail run up and down 290 or 59, if money went towards that INSTEAD of highways, traffic would be WORSE overall today.

There was a building at Post Oak and Hidalgo built in the 1970s, modified sometime between 1989 and 1995, and torn down between 2004-2005. I believe I've found the opening of this mega McDonald's in the Houston Chronicle.

With all that said, I agree that once 45, 290, etc. widen, there's not going to be a lot left in terms of highway capacity without demolishing all-new ROW.

Admittedly, this is done by a libertarian-based foundation (just to show you where the bias is) but I think a 26-year study is a remarkable effort and is almost a full generation in city planning. link here, Chronicle What do you guys think? It does address the pains of widening freeway (specifically mentioning I-45, though other highways are feeling the crunch) Does this confirm what you thought all along or was it a terribly flawed piece? I myself think that while the power of highways aren't to be dismissed, there's still something to be said for transit. Also, our bus systems would be a lot smoother ride if they fixed the roads--Richmond Avenue in particular was a disaster when I went last week to Houston.

Actually, it DOESN'T cover Katy, it cuts off just west of Mason Road.

Is Stop N Go even around anymore? I mean, I've driven around in the Houston area and seen more of the same gas station brands in CS (Citgo, Shell, ExxonMobil, Valero, Chevron) and in terms of convenience stores, most of them were generic, except for "Timewise", which is the only common one I've seen.

I honestly think that bike lanes are death traps, as far too often they're too narrow (my standard is that a golf cart should be able to fit in it, but that's just me), and suspect to cars turning in and out of driveways and streets. A wide 6' sidewalk should do the trick, or just try to get a buddy or two to go with you to increase visibility. It also depends heavily on the traffic on the road.

Ha! I never noticed that. Definitely not construction workers, but I can't tell if they're homeless or just guys without enough things to do.

With the EBT system problem, Walmart should have chalked everything to a loss, paid the government for funds owned (it's Walmart, they should have enough to pay for it) and back to business as usual.

I suppose that with The Fresh Market taking over all but one of the Rice stores, any trace of the old L&C has been obliterated, presumably with extensive renovations.

There was a thread on this already (merge?) but today it was added to things like Google Earth, regular Google Maps, and applications that use Google imagery. For some reason, the new imagery makes me a little depressed. No Macy's...they clear-cut the area at 290 and 1960...more mansard roof McDonald's gone...290 demolition has begun...and the imagery cuts off at around 99 and 290, so you can't see the new interchange there.

That's too bad. I heard Critical Mass (at least Houston's) was one of the "nicer" organized bike rides in terms of controlling traffic, as in many other cities there are too many "events" which tend to involve mostly militant jackasses who think the rules of the road don't apply to them.

So, are they gutting and renovating it for other purposes, or is it going to be a surface lot?

At times, the video did seem pretty slow. In the case of crossing the 610 frontage roads, they are lights, which can be timed better. In the cases when the original Red Line was built a decade ago, there were all sorts of problems, like people turning left into the train. (watch "Metro's Greatest Hits", for such follies). I haven't heard of too many problems with the extension yet.

FWIW, when the Interstates were built they had far less interchanges than they do today (many roads went under or over). Maybe there would be less traffic overall if they didn't build as many...

That was enjoyable, and the 4x speeding created all sorts of fun effects, like the incomprehensible squeaking that was once announcing the stations and which side to exit on, and the rapidly flashing stoplight warning sign (at about 3:00). Does it only make the horn when it approaches a "traditional" crossing (i.e. crossbucks and gates?)

Uh, no. I think he was making a point to say that Lanier was not the criminal you make him out to be (does anyone who blocks rail-based transit for any reason NOT a person to be vilified in your eyes?) Not quite sure. From this PDF it looks like the frontage roads of 99 and 290 would intersect at grade, with said railroad crossings (as described above), then 290 going over these (which as far as it looks has not happened yet), with 99 going over that. Right now, we only have four of those orange ramps. The purple is going to be an HSR line (if I recall correctly), or at least its right of way.

I found an article about Lewis & Coker. The Lantern Lane Shopping Center did have the last Lewis & Coker. Another 1997 article states that Rice bought the last store (the grocery store, not the university), closed it on May 20th, 1997 and reopened it a day later. It would last, of course, until 2013. Such a conversion suggests that Lewis & Coker was at least a mid-line grocery store.