IronTiger

I read voting YES means that light rail funds basically disappear and everything that isn't under construction will be cancelled. Truth to that?

The developments don't seem to be going too well. Campus Pointe has been approved but has gone nowhere yet: the old College Avenue Apartments are long gone. The Rise at Northgate (717 University) is slowly building but not yet a symbol in the skyline (and no leases signed). Legacy Point is stopped: the Stack is stopped, the demo on Albertsons stopped; and the Plaza redevelopment isn't due until 2013 at the earliest. Still an empty lot.

So I read Editor's piece on the "Best Worst Block" of Chicago, and I thought it was pretty fascinating, that such a place like exists today, especially with the Men Only flophouse. I'm wondering if there are any similar areas in Houston: areas that really haven't been updated in years, and with a bit of imagination, you can place yourself back sometime in the 20th century without leaving the year 2012. Knowing Houston's track record with the "tear it down" mentality with little unscathed (alas, even the Alabama Theatre was butchered), I'm not so sure. My adventures in Houston last year were a pretty interesting experience--I got to see a bunch of neighborhoods I had not seen before--but I am curious of the large city located just an hour or so outside my home.

I'd like to add an addendum to my original post about the bridge, which I know this much: it's an old bridge, and probably could not withstand the additional traffic on it. Like I said, I listed the potential reasons why there's an outrage to begin with and no one has said anything. Yale Street Bridge was built in 1936. If it's such a safety hazard as the local media claim it is, then close it off and rebuild it. It's already limited to lighter cars only right now. If it's an architectural masterpiece that needs to be preserved, then care should be taken to shore it up and reopen. If it's costing the city money to do it either way, make the developers pay for part of the cost. I'm fairly neutral on the subject, but please: what's the real controversy?

I can't find any good maps of the tunnels, either, just buildings they connect to. I'd like to know more about this if possible--please keep us informed.

So what's the controversy with the bridge anyway? I mean, Yale Street Bridge, from what I understand, is an old bridge that probably can't stand the weight of trucks. So instead of re-routing it, why not just demolish and rebuild the bridge? If the fact is "it would disrupt traffic", the trucks would've been going an alternate route anyway under the anti-Walmart crowd anyway, and cars could take the same route as them. If the fact is "it's an architectural relic that would get demolished in the name of Houston Progress", then care should be taken to shore it up while keeping its distinct looks intact. Alternately, create another bridge right next to it designed for trucks and stuff, so that it doesn't even disrupt normal traffic. Has anyone considered that?

I know that near 610 and 290, there's abandoned parts of the Bayou that aren't so easy to determine by eye, but going back to the 1940s (Google Earth, of course), you can see where it went.

By the way, the point about Kmart was about how some posters much earlier in the thread were complaining how Walmart was going to destroy the local stores and their way of life, as if such a thing had never happened before. Kmart came and went, and although I had no knowledge of HAIF in 2002-2003, I imagine that there were no joyous sounds from the rooftop (or rather, board) that the monster had been felled and people could return to the way of life they had before.

Here's what I don't get: When I went to Houston (the Heights, actually) in December 2011, I noticed there was a "Restaurant Depot" on 18th and T.C. Jester on the White Oak Bayou. Further research showed this was a Kmart until 2002-2003. So, my question is, why are people making a huge deal of the Wal-Mart (a few blocks south of the Heights, plus a highway between it) but (to my knowledge, at least) never complained about the Kmart as much, a few blocks west of the Heights, without a highway separating it?

I know it was a Kmart after Venture (late 1990s-early 2000s), as Kmart bought a load of their stores, but because of the age of the center, and the timing of Venture (early 1990s), something else had to come before Venture, so the "chain of chains" would be ??? --> Venture --> Big Kmart --> Burlington Coat Factory

Bit of a late response, but thanks! I've been poking around in Houston a bit more, and exploring that strip center which has the Burlington and now seems to have come back to life (Joe V's where Service used to be), but the strip center appears to have been built in the 1980s, of which Venture wasn't a part of Houston then, so the Burlington was originally something else. Another discount store, perhaps? Not Woolco, but perhaps an early Wal-Mart, perhaps a Sage?

I agree with Niche (for once?) simply because that as much as people talk about it, the "post-automobile world" is just not here yet and won't be for years and years to come. Unless you dwell exclusively in the Inner Loop and have an apartment about a block away from the LRT, your work is on the route, and the local Kroger/Randalls/H-E-B/Fiesta/what have you is also within walking distance, it's just not very economical. There's a reason why light rails never break, say, 2% ridership in terms of city population: it doesn't go everywhere. Roads do. Even the New York subway breaks maybe 50% of the population, and that's a huge number.

Hey: I was just looking for stuff on AppleTree, and I found one location that was scheduled to close in 1994 because the store had been sold to Kroger, and Kroger already one of the block. The problem is that the address doesn't seem to exist. 13642 W. Montgomery Road is the name, and Googling it only pulls up another Chron article on some sort of tampered Sudafed, also at that address. But when I plug it into Google Maps, it's a blank, barren area near where Tomball Parkway's terminus is. Going to the "past" in Google Earth just is fields. So what happened? Where is 13642 W. Montgomery Road?

I've been hearing some anti-Vancouver stuff lately--companies pulling out, and it just not being a great city. Frankly, I think "world-class" is a pretentious term thrown around that people attach to whatever city has the best looks.

Humanism? Romanticism? Tax rebates in the form of Beaver Nuggets? I thought this was about the next light rail line.

Oshman's was located in Houston, had the first SuperSports USA location in Houston, and I think I remember reading in the Chron that the Oshman's name would be phased out for good (circa early 2006?)

So the Price Busters/flea market was in the 610 location? I guess that makes sense.

I had a chance to visit a Trader Joe's in Knoxville recently: it had only been open for a few days, and although crowded, checkout was smooth and we were able to find what we needed (mostly).

Houston DID have a Busch Gardens in the 1970s, but it failed to last more than a few seasons.

What is on the other side of the river, anyway? It looks like a hotel. Meanwhile, the Floyd Casey Stadium is so much less popular these days that they cover much of the end zone seats with tarps. A new stadium solves this problem how?

I wish they were in full color, possibly HO scale (actually, that would be huge--and VERY expensive). Either way, too expensive for me.

I liked the second (there were two) "Panoramic Texas" license plates. If I recall correctly, one of the proposed 2009 ones was even worse than the one they picked.

Part of the problem that people don't seem to take into account is that some of the freeways that were removed were practically unchanged since the 1960s and 1970s and were woefully out of date to begin with, and usually redundant (in almost every case, the freeway was never terribly busy, and the nearby roadways and highways were reconfigured for better traffic). Houston invested has too much into its freeways (I-10, US-59) to make it really worthwhile. New Orleans, on the other hand, could benefit from freeway removal. Syracuse won't even do a study of I-81 for another five years, the result will take even longer. Having New York state's biggest shopping mall (think on par with The Galleria in terms of square footage) won't help that either.

Years ago there were plans for a strip center right at Grand Parkway and 290, next to the outlet mall, anchored by H-E-B. I wonder if that will ever materialize.

What you COULD do is do a deposit. About three cents do a 5 cent deposit on aluminum/carbonated products: return the product, get 5 cents. This seems to work, because 5 cents doesn't seem like all much. Michigan has 10 cents, which just encourages illegal activity (smuggling cans across the border), trying to rummage through dumpsters, and not much money gained (everyone returns them). I can imagine why D.C. use has them going down: part of the reason is D.C. isn't really a huge shopping area. There's ONE Target in the district, no Walmarts or Kmarts.