IronTiger

Yeah, some Bing images are weird. If I zoom in or out in a weird way, things change. Hey presto, the Macy's on that department store turned back into a Foley's sign! I don't know if they'll delete the older images permanently.

Well, I'm disappointed. The title thread states "Have Developers In Houston Finally Learned That Urban Is Better?" yet there's no relevant links, and you didn't even list why urban is better than the alternatives (suburban? rural?). I'll give props to you for not mentioning Atlanta, though.

Great, so that means two more "intersections with parking lots" to keep up with Olsen. Bah.

Well, yellow lights are supposed to be at least three seconds long, longer for faster roads (up to 6 seconds for 55MPH roads), link. If you think that the city has been short-changing yellow light times for profit (which has been known to happen in other cities), go out on a street corner with a stoplight and time when the yellow lights are. Also, in terms of red-light runners: I don't know if it's different in Houston, but most of the time, the red light cameras caught people who were trying to turn "right-on-red" and didn't come to a full enough stop to "satisfy" the cameras. To sum it all up, the whole situation was like setting up a bug zapper and finding it only kills harmless insects, not the ones you want to kill.

How can it be illegal to have an election over red light camera removal? When College Station voted against red light cameras, it was the same company (American Traffic Solutions) and I believe it was even under contract. Well, the city voted in favor of discarding the cameras, and they were gone in a few months. And a federal judge blocked Houston because of some technicality in some supposedly illegally-repealed ordinance? What's that all about?

I've heard on MyBCS that the Chinese place that occupied the place where the thrift store is (on Wellborn Road near Luther) was called Shirley Ping's. Does that sound right? I remember being in it a long time ago, but don't recall the name (it closed in the mid-1990s). An even-more-unconfirmed rumor is that the building shared occupancy with a *** bar (called Astropides) back in the 1970s/1980s. (EDIT: Apparently the site doesn't like the common three-letter word for "homosexual", the one that starts with G)

Upon further discussion with other people, I have come to the conclusion that the reason light rail was shown instead of freight was because that the 3D program simply doesn't have freight rail programmed in, so they used light rail (closest equivalent) instead.

Excellent. A high-end steakhouse is brewing its own beer in-house in CS, and a BJs is opening soon near the mall (but does that count?) There is a bill in the Texas House that will allow small microbreweries (St. Arnold, NRBC in CS) to sell beer on site. The main antagonist in this case, of course, is AB-InBev, who claims the bill will "discriminate" against large breweries since they brew more than the smaller ones (and thus are subject to limitations). http://blog.chron.com/beertx/2011/05/ab-inbev-gives-hb602-a-case-of-the-hiccups/

Well, she recently made a public apology which sounded like her lawyers convinced her to (a lot of people didn't buy it). Her bond is set at $1.1 million, attorneys want to lower it to $50,000. But she tried to flee the country at least once. I'm surprised there's even an amount.

There was a rather sizable topic about this in another part of HAIF. I suggest it be merged.

It's too bad none of those commercials are dated (as in, with years, they ARE dated in the other sense). The "White sale" one definitely looks like from the 1980s.

Cool! I submitted two routes: a park & ride from College Station to the Northwest Transit Center, and a commuter rail line from Cypress to downtown. Unlikely, but I think both would be neat and take stress off NW Freeway.

Have the developers attempted to court some sort of discount store or grocery store in it? Just think...a prototype "urban" Walmart, or maybe an H-E-B with vermaports. It has potential.

Noticed that Google updated its imagery in Houston to January 2011, instead of January 2010. Didn't get a chance to really browse around too much, but I noticed - someone had carved out a path in the old Astroworld - CityCentre looks complete - More of the former MKT railroad/Heights Bike Trail paved - You can see some barrels north of downtown in prep for light rail work - some of the more exurban areas, like from Katy to Hempstead, have gotten new imagery...2011, not blurry Didn't get too much of a chance to check it out, but looks good. I also tried to look for a thread that would be appropriate to put this into, but couldn't find one, really

It's easy to spoof a name when commenting on a Wordpress-based blogs, but less easy is an email address. I imagine that it wouldn't be so hard for the justice department make Swamplot cough up the hidden email addresses, would it?

Oh, geez, just noticed the light rail. In real life, those lanes with the light rail would be the freight train line, but possibly leaving the existing crossing intact (with the underpass just provided for through access for those westbound, notice there are no "curling exits" like University and Harvey Mitchell. Alternately, those train cars could be someone's commuter rail dream. Austin has a commuter rail that resembles light rail, except it runs on regular freight lines and is powered like a regular train. Unfortunately, however, College Station just doesn't have the existing railroad infrastructure to build such a thing, because the reason Austin's commuter rail exists was a semi-abandoned track running into downtown, and additional parallel freight lines. Here in College Station, we just don't have that same luxury. On the issue of the 2818 overpass, it seems to be going along very well. The old detour road is now a single-lane entrance ramp, with the entrance ramp to replace it currently being built. Giant highway light poles are being erected. Jones-Butler is being brought back up to level, with the "other" Jones-Butler closed and without access (the pavement, however, has not been removed). Also not removed is the concrete plates of the original crossing.

I agree the birthers are trying to grasp at straws to get Obama out of the White House, and they are, well, idiots. However, I still have to wonder why this nonsense had gone on for about a year before Obama produced a birth certificate.

@citykid09: I've noticed a lot of Atlanta comparisons in your posts, whether it be something like this or Atlanta's mass transit and how Houston should be more like it. Your posts try to make it sound like Atlanta is the greatest city in the south. But I've also heard a lot of bad things about Atlanta, much more than bad things about Houston. Why do you want Houston to become more like Atlanta, anyway?

Ah. I think we are talking about different things. Anyway, here's what I saw on Google Earth, at least, I THINK it was an amphitheater. Sure looked like one (see attachment). For reference, here is what looks like today: http://maps.google.c...007671&t=h&z=17

Does anyone have any information on an amphitheater that was on the west side of the island, just off of present-day I-45? I saw it in Google Earth, but only found maybe one reference on the Internet...

I saw the address last night, and thought it would make a great drinking game to take a swig every time Obama said "I". Seriously, however, what does this all mean? It's not like airport security is going to go back to pre-9/11 levels.

Remind me the primary reason they want to tax full sugared soft drinks again: something that can be taxed to feed starving budgets, or a heavy-handed government attempt to lead healthier lifestyles? Either way, it seems like grasping at straws.

Wait, never mind, I found an Auchan commercial on YouTube for the original 1988 location, which has the facade. All right! (I would edit my post, but HAIF doesn't allow editing)

OK, it's a bit of a long shot, but I want to get a picture of the Beltway 8 location as an Auchan (reason being partly for a SimCity project), but how would I get around to that? From what I've read, it was a pretty big deal, and I'd be surprised if there wasn't a single photo from the occasion. But how would being the best way to get to it? Email the Chron, or email the Houston library?