IronTiger

Not if you live in Houston, for starters. I've heard of a kid named Denver, but he lived in Tomball (in the 1980s, no idea where Denver is now). A middle name might be more acceptable if you're bent on the idea, and it would be a fine name for a dog (naming a dog "Jack Daniels" is fine, a baby, not so much). The real question is what your wife thinks of it.

What the Downtown area really needs is a rework of the exits/entrances and get out of the antiquated 1960s ways that they were set up. Now, I hate comparisons to another city, but there is a project that they're doing that would be beneficial here (Houston) as well. Asterisks have been used to hide references, but the point still remains. Those are all very good goals, and what's not feasible is trying to trench the Pierce Elevated (part of the reason why the 59 trenching worked was relatively few bridges, trenching the Pierce would involve closing off roads), rebuild substantially parts of the system underground (friendly reminder: the Big Dig was NOT an example to do things), or removing the Pierce and replacing it with a surface grade road. Rebuilding exits and interchanges to modern design standards will work wonders for congestion. For starters, the exit to 59W from the Pierce makes no sense since that's really an exit to 288S, so you'll need to make an exit (left hand) to 59W. That's why the exit that currently terminates at Pierce/Bagby (at a five way intersection, no less) needs to be the main exit to 59W. Meanwhile, 45S to 59E is ALSO an inner entrance. If that exit was replaced with one that entered on the outside and not merging with 59E until AFTER the Chartres exit, that's another problem solved. The way that it's set up now is that you can't exit Chartres if you were coming from 45S anyway. The 59W to 45N (Pierce Elevated exit) needs to be widened and reformatted so that part of that traffic IS the 288S exit as well, which would prevent confusion over at the other end. Since 288S is formed by the southern exits of 45N and 45S, and expecting drivers to make their way over to 59W, the logical solution would be to add in real ramps from the two on-ramps that actually lead to 59W and not 288 serving as some sort of collecting exit. Coming in from 45S means you have to jog a few lanes over to get to the 59W exit in time, which was one of the big problems of 610/US-290. A lot of this problem stems from the creation of 288, which didn't actually open until 1980, and the design wasn't done until about the rest of freeways were already opened. As a result, it doesn't flow as well as the other freeways, which were done in the 1960s but at least make sense as far as design conventions. Extending 225 would've also made the freeways more complicated, and arguably really not that necessary in the long run since it was designed to supplant the Gulf Freeway, which was widened in the 1980s (in that portion, prior to that, it was a dated and inadequate pre-Interstate highway).

I can't say whether I think that would be a great idea or not (adding another highway seems iffy at this point and probably diminishing returns at this point) but I really like the thought you put into it.

I think a combination of some of the things suggested could work wonders for the Pierce: a more inviting exterior, better lighting, a night market, and a reworking of the exits/on-ramps.

I can answer that one. Wings-N-More (which also apparently dates back to Wings-N-Things, get back to me later about that one) actually was two companies: "Mark Dennard's Original Wings-N-More" and a franchised Wings-N-More based in Houston. A year or so ago, the franchised WnM all became BreWingz, which is either because Mark Dennard pulled the franchise or the franchisee wanted to expand beyond Houston (I've heard both ways). The Wings-N-More in The Woodlands (as do the ones in my neck of the woods, of course) still operates because it WASN'T one of the franchised ones. And, on that subject, the original Wings-N-More in College Station was a Sambo's.

Yeah, I did catch a glimpse of that. I saw "83" in the topic title, so I assumed it was the 1980s, and then was somehow basically allured into thinking that it was far newer than it actually was since they formatted it like every other article they've posted...and...... Anyway, it makes sense now that they would bring up fern bars at all.

Well, politics might be a bit of a sticky situation, since it might someone into a frothing rage and there's a high chance that everyone will agree (though there are a variety of important non-partisan issues that don't involve that sort of thing) As for "maturity", you might just run into the right group of people to play Cards Against Humanity. (Mature? Depends on your definition)

I can't believe I read through most of that article before realizing it was over 3 decades old.

Houstonia Magazine of course isn't great, mostly because it's written by a bunch of bloggers masquerading as journalists.

You know, even for people who aren't active followers of a religion (and/or once-a-week Christians) consider church to be something social. Since atheism doesn't have an analogue to churches (no "Houses of Reason" or somesuch), it is rather fitting that there's independent groups.

I think that would relieve problems on the Pierce and make the whole intersection a whole lot less confusing is rebuilding the 45/59/288 interchange. You've got three highways, two junctions, and a part where the two highways run concurrently. If the exits to 59 from the Pierce got off much earlier, you'd have a chance at relieving part of the problem. Rather than terminating at a five-way intersection at Pierce and Brazos, that exit that split off from 45 much earlier can instead by widening the exit to Bagby/Pierce and continue underground at three lanes where one goes to 59W, one goes to 288S, and one to 59E.

That sounds to me more like a social/drinking event (if bars aren't your thing) with a consistent crowd, because the only other thing that's coming to mind is some sort of hackneyed A.A. parody ("Hi, I'm Bob. I've been an atheist for 13 years, and I'm proud of it." All: "Hi, Bob.")

I think there might be something to that effect, at least descriptions of it on the Chron. The situation was VERY sticky, the voters didn't vote for the monorail plan as proposed by METRO, which had 5 Whitmire appointees who were ruling 5-4 on everything, and Lanier and another candidate ran polls to show most were against the plan, and when elections came around, Whitmire got about 20% of the vote.

I thought that name was supposed to be temporary?

Well, if I recall correctly, the guy that got rescued was the foreman (or at least one of the guys above your basic worker), who, in what would turn out to be a monumentally ill decision, ran up with a fire extinguisher during his lunch break, unaware that the small fire had grown to a point where he could not return.

I still think my "column painting" idea isn't a bad one, with the columns together making a truly unique art experience. Better lighting will help show these columns off. A night market could do wonders, as well and create a cultural gathering place as well as a shelter from any rain. Westpark also had a lot of ROW west of the Loop. I believe METRO still holds the other half of it and can put commuter/light rail there.

Yeah, parking lots rule! Association fallacy, though there might be another one as well.

Oh, so there's no mass transit anywhere, nor sidewalks, nor bike lanes. For what it's worth, they are building sidewalks so it would be possible to walk the entirety of contiguous Bellaire (I think that's what I read somewhere, at least). Sidewalks are a tricky issue, as in most cities, it's the homeowner's responsibility to take care of them, and if the city does get involved, there's always complaints about cutting out shrubs and trees. There are plenty of major roads in Houston without sidewalks, but those are mostly outer loop. But since you don't seem to be concerned with the outer loop (and I can pull up posts to that effect), why is that an issue to you anyway?

I remember having the idea of building 45 on the railroad line, if the area hadn't gentrified a bit, that would've been a preferable option in 1997, which could've also entailed widening and straightening Interstate 10 in that segment. Of course, it would've been a massive multi-year project instead of closing three lanes of the Pierce, fixing it up, and doing the other three lanes. If a private organization sponsored the takedown of the Pierce and financed studies to actually take the load off (rerouting traffic on ramps and Interstate 10 isn't gonna cut it), then I could see it happening. For the theoretical money it would take to demolish the Pierce Elevated, I would wager I wouldn't be alone in saying that I'd rather see it go to mass transit.

Under-performing? It's over capacity as it is. While I agree that's not the focus, how is that "under performing"? I don't think the Pierce is the reason why there's needs to be subsidization. It's very hard to get new construction in formerly run-down areas: developers have tended to prefer suburbs because they're cheap to build in, and every downtown in America has struggled in some way or another. If you want to raise land values and make the area nicer, get rid of the bus station. That bus station is the sole reason why the nearby McDonald's has a bad reputation. If it's a homeless problem, they will move out. Besides, the homeless problem isn't as big of an issue as it was in the 1980s. Surely that's not a valid reason to tear down the Pierce, is it? Homeless people? Yeah, but the Pierce also carries north-south traffic, which is why detouring around curvy areas and ramps seems like a pretty poor idea at best. Well, first off. The main part of the Pierce Elevated that everyone complains about takes about 11 half blocks, and throw a few more blocks it somehow divides and you've got about 6 new blocks total. There are well over a dozen surface lots in downtown already, and the most likely scenario will involve surface lots taking over where the Pierce was, and there's a chance that the loss of the Pierce will result in depressed commercial land value. If you believe that the "induced demand" effect will reverse with the loss with the Pierce Elevated, there's even greater reason to believe that, since adding new freeways will raise C land values. Furthermore, while I agree that 1960s land planning was not the best of strategies, METRO didn't fund the HOV lanes. METRO was created by the state, and those HOV lanes were done with federal transit money, which is why METRO (and bus lanes in general) were given a voice and a compromise in the Katy Freeway rebuild.

The term "axis" isn't used in good context in American history and government, whether the Nazis, Mussolini, and Japan, or the Bush-era nuclear weapon suspects (North Korea, Iraq, Iran), which aren't exactly our friends, and with the old apartments totally gone (and marred with that big fire), it's a great time to rename.

Some of the things I was proposing earlier, without saying anything against rails. I don't think anyone wants to call the entire concept of rail an "obsession with living in the 1800s" nor was the intent. With one HAIFer in particular taking an absolute hard-line against the Pierce and believes himself to be a visionary, the "obsession" was just rhetoric mocking the world he idealizes with no freeways and a heavy reliance on mass transit. That's not saying that was called for (despite the idea of tearing down the Pierce with no adequate replacement), but it's a problem. One of the biggest issues we can work with is a metro-wide solution. Houston is more than the Inner Loop, the metropolitan area extends beyond Harris County, and the entire region includes even more detached locales.

Do they know for certain? That's what I heard, but they're doing an arson investigation anyway.

I agree, we should replace the Pierce with a 6-lane parkway. Well, a true parkway wouldn't have dozens of stoplights and I don't want to interrupt the grid. A sunken parkway would have too many bridges and plus there's that thing where it comes into 288 anyway. Plus, all that construction would interrupt the light rail, so let's make it elevated instead. That it. That's what we could replace the Pierce with.

I'm curious if they'll redesign to have a bit more set-back from the graveyard (the thing the woman complained about, a day before the whole apartment complex burned to the ground... ) or rename it. The garage is another issue--I would say that because the reinforced concrete was compromised in the inferno, it's not as well rated as it used to be, so closing off the upper levels would probably be recommended and still be considered safe. I'm not sure how much redundancy was put in for parking spaces, though.