IronTiger

I went to Galveston in 2012 for a relative's wedding. It was cloudy and windy for a good part of the trip, and everything was run-down and fairly ugly. Even the historic building where they were having the wedding was clearly starting to fall apart, and the Strand was just nothing like it was even four years prior. There were a couple of touristy gift shops and a head shop open. Shops along Seawall Boulevard included things like "Bad Boyz Tatu". I can admit that in Houston, "old downtown-style buildings" and original houses do tend to have a short "shelf life" but it all depends on what neighborhood you're in.

Slick may have made a fool of himself on the HAIF (I know I have before, but I got better) though I think he does have some point in preserving buildings. But let's face it--there is a "functional lifespan" to a lot of these things, and some judgement must be taken in sentiment and architectural uniqueness. Astrodome? Yeah, I'd love to see it saved. Prudential Building? No tears shed from me. Here's another thing: preserving buildings takes money, which is in short supply for civic entities. You seem to have a bit of scratch yourself, Slick--why not use your monetary clout to help save one of your favorites?

http://www.yelp.com/biz/bhojan-houston'>The restaurant gets decent reviews on Yelp. Honestly, I just don't see the SW Inn and the Bhojan being owned by the same people. I'm guessing that a long time ago, that the Roadrunner Inn (the hotel's former name) was built long before Sugar Land had any clout and was a decent hotel with a restaurant inside. As the hotel declined and the neighborhood deteriorated, the owners decided to lease out the restaurant space instead of closing it entirely. http://www.swhouston.com/'>Southwest Inn's website, which despite pretending like it's the equivalent of a Days Inn, DOES mention the "Indian restaurant" inside.

I hate slideshow-type articles (meant for page clicks) and especially hate how sensationalist most try to be. Data aggregation can be a wonderful thing—but it often creates misleading press. Let's take an average fictional neighborhood--"Linden Oaks". The streets are lit at night, children play in the playground, people aren't assuming that their houses will be robbed during the day, and so forth. Maybe even lower middle class, but by no means the worst place in town. Stan More, a resident of Linden Oaks, stabs his wife in the middle of a heated argument. Two streets over, Ella Lee and Rocky River are on the couch cuddling and Rocky has sex with Ella, except she didn't ask for it and didn't like it. Police are called, and arrest Rocky on charges of rape and Stan on charges of murder. This is data aggregated and flags Linden Oaks as a place where rapes and murders happen.

Where was Bhojan in relation to the Southwest Inn? Was it inside the hotel? For some reason, I can't imagine a motel/hotel that is completely run-down as to have permanent residents and a huge crime problem, yet still have enough clout to rent out its restaurant space.

I read that back in high school, and although interesting, there was a lot of BS that I didn't believe one second of.

I've found from real examples that one lane generally equals to two bike lanes (more or less, since each have widths--plus or minus a foot makes a huge difference in bike lanes). So I looked up Westheimer in its narrowest point, 2 lanes eastbound, two westbound. In that case, we can do the "College Avenue" treatment, and convert that to one westbound, one eastbound, a turn lane, and 2 bike lanes.

No need to triple post, Slick, Editor defended criticisms and steered the topic back to normal. In reality, I think you'll find results disappointing, as HAIFers do not, in fact, represent a good cross-section of Houston.

More importantly, besides ripping off comments and articles instead of defending his arguments when people call BS on it, Slick fails to keep in mind even trip generations. The Woodlands now has multiple major office buildings and campuses--if I live, work, and shop in The Woodlands, am I a suburban leech who needs to move to an inner Houston apartment?

I was going to respond to that before I realized your post was quoted wholesale from an article from a condescending, violently anti-suburban blowhard. I'd like to see his credentials in American-Middle Eastern relations. ...seriously, dude—you just quoted three editorial pieces on the issue, it doesn't make it true. If I copy-and-paste three articles on conservative policies, does that automatically make it true and everyone else is just kidding themselves? Of course not! But that's the same type of stunt you're pulling now!

So do buses... Except in the case of streetcars, you can't sit tight while another bus comes up (and buses don't break down as often), you'd have to get out and push. Actually, before the automobile, only the very wealthy had homes outside of town (remember, downtowns being dirty, old, crowded, run-down, etc.). The automobile enabled people who weren't quite as wealthy to have similar luxuries. How is this a bad thing? People live where there's jobs, and often live in cramped and run-down apartments. Have you actually ever interviewed a small fraction of these billions of people who live happily in these apartments? To me, this sounds like the "happy slaves" nonsense that the pre-Civil War South tried to promote.

I got the impression that when they said "dozens of people are now homeless" on the news instead of talking about the guests that were unfortunate enough to stay there overnight indicated that this wasn't a normal hotel (some of the first reports I read made it sound like the restaurant was attached to the hotel) Guess now it's confirmed... Was the Roadrunner ever a nicer place?

The streetcars are just another facet of romanticization of downtowns. They were often filthy and cramped, and if the 1920s College Station-Bryan interurban is anywhere close to a barometer, streetcars broke down with depressing regularity.

I haven't seen a thread on this tragedy. If there is, could someone direct me to one? If not, I seem to remember recalling that it started a restaurant...based on Google Maps, this looks like Rhojan, but I haven't seen mention it of it on news or the website?

The problem is the light rail, which can't be fixed. Personally, with Macy's closed now, the tunnels that run under there and connect to the building should be demolished and have -get this- an underground light rail station!* It's possible with engineering not to have it fill like a sieve during rains (Editor once said something supporting this), and Main Street could go through successfully there. * slight fake enthusiasm They recently closed off a small segment of road (College Main) in College Station, but outside of allowing some extra outdoor seating for bars, seems now emptier than ever, even after dark. I'm surprised that the military surplus store hasn't shut down, though the sushi restaurant is only open after dark now.

For some reason (and this is perhaps a similar scenario anyway), I'm imagining the scene from Up in which it reveals in the present that Carl's house is surrounded by office towers and high-density, upscale buildings.

Handy Andy was a San Antonio-based supermarket that was (nearly) killed by H-E-B. H-E-B Pantry was the concept store that they had. Dunno when that entered Houston, maybe early 1990s?

Have you tried contacting local archives and/or libraries first?

So in that trip to Houston I took a few months ago, I got a chance to cross the Braes Bayou, seeing that it was essentially a wide drainage ditch with bike lanes along the side. Knowing that at one time the bayous were *not* encased in concrete (White Oak Bayou was quite different in the 1940s), I was wondering if it would be feasible to restore a bayou in Houston to a semi-natural state, and use it specifically for relaxing tubing runs. Another thing that seems a wasted opportunity is how downtown is so close to Buffalo Bayou, yet there's nothing taking advantage of it. Maybe a full "riverwalk" would be aping San Antonio, but there's parking lots and jails instead of restaurants and shops that directly come up to it. Not a lot of cities have waterways that run through the city like Houston does, and it should be taken advantage of, not treated as a tolerable nuisance.

In terms of the flood of new bars, I was reminded of Northgate--once numerous shops and restaurants, now mostly bars, due to high rent. And no, the area didn't become a whole lot less dumpy during that time.

Naming rights can get tricky, A&M heavily reconstructed Olsen Field and renamed "Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park", except that because the Olsen Field is not found on the exterior of the stadium now (can only be seen if going down Wellborn, and only then only one way), the Olsen family was unhappy that the family name wasn't prominently displayed anymore. We'll see what happens.

What is that huge industrial thing with a http://goo.gl/maps/6XyZb'>circular railroad spur at Katy-Hockley Road and 290? From http://cherrycompanies.com/cherry-opens-another-stabilized-material-plant-in-northwest-houston/'>online reports, it's a "pug mill", which kind of makes sense, given the piles of material (sand?) at the facility, except both Google and Bing put 9929 Katy Hockley Road far south of the site. So...anyone know what it is? I know it appeared just a few years ago...

I would say it's more like bacteria, as viruses don't replicate by themselves, and bacteria can easily multiply on a medium (sorry, just took a class in bacteriology)

Did you actually witness it, or just see the aftermath?

So, I was re-ordering the pictures of the old Albertsons on my blog, which closed in 2011 but opened in 1991 as a Randall's. I realized that when the store opened, it did not sell beer or wine! I wondered if it was originally the coffee bar or the gourmet pizza counter of the original store, which got me wondering... Does anyone have any picture of Randall's in Houston before their sale to Safeway?