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IronTiger

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Everything posted by IronTiger

  1. IronTiger
    Living in a smaller town, the major roads that do exist (at least four laned, say) all either have commercial establishments on them or links into side roads. Very rarely are there houses that are on the major roads, and if they are, they're very old. But in Houston, roads like Memorial, north part of Kirby, Richmond near 610, and maybe a few others...they all have really nice houses on them, certainly expensive ones (even not so "fancy" ones, ones that are expensive to own). One might guess that they pre-dated the major road and that may be true, but houses in that situation usually become dumpy until they're cleared out or converted into a business (I mean, there are a few 1950s-era houses along 290, at least for now). And yet, homes keep their value, even though you can't turn left in, left out of them. First off, is this is a phenomenon unique to Houston? (I haven't seen this sort of thing elsewhere) Secondly, is there a real good reason why? (or is the first reason just good enough?)
  2. IronTiger
    A lot of people tend to moan and groan about "why did we tear down our downtowns for parking lots?" but what is often missing is why they were torn down. For the most part, it wasn't "to create new parking", a lot of it (I know this was the case in Cleveland, and likely others too) was because those buildings were simply abandoned, creating blight, much like an empty strip mall or two. Parking becomes a placeholder, not an ultimate destination: that's why you can see on some blocks where buildings were originally. That's why parking becomes the prime choice for building again...and we are seeing that in Houston.
  3. IronTiger
    The strip center is lot of commercial lost...will there be a retail component at all?
  4. IronTiger
    Yeah, I agree that some of the areas look a bit not to my taste, but I think it's a pretty solid plan. I can't believe that people hate the Texas theme so much that they would rather have it canned then built. The "nearby home values will drop" statement seems more like an excuse than for altruistic reasons. The big question: will they sell alcohol at the park?
  5. IronTiger
    Got pretty run-down
  6. IronTiger
    I know that in the case of Six Flags Fiesta Texas, they actually ended up building really nice residential and a large outdoor mall relatively near it. And building a theme park based in the state that it's in isn't too unusual, I mean, California Adventure was built, for instance...but given the troubled history of that theme park, it's not the best example to bring up.
  7. IronTiger
    The loaded rhetoric found in the video aside, I wonder if there are any "large" cities in the U.S. that kept many of their low-rise turn of the century era buildings in downtown. That type of thing can be found in small towns in Texas (et. al.) and even if it's not bustling, they at least put up a good attempt at keeping the buildings and some signage. Of course, they don't put up big skyscrapers, but you win some, you lose some.
  8. IronTiger
    I don't know if this is an "allowed" posting, but I wanted to share my blog in more detail than my sig can. Basically, it catalogs the history of the buildings in College Station-Bryan (advertisements and photos both) to tell a complete story. Many items were chains from out of Houston like Randall's or Wolfe Nursery. I've done TAMU buildings like the MSC or Dulie Bell Building (RIP). Shopping centers like Townshire or Manor East Mall. There's also more old restaurant-related stuff than you can shake a stick at (nearly half the posts feature restaurants some way or another). If you live or lived in College Station-Bryan at some point in the past, I encourage you to check this out.
  9. IronTiger
    Yeah, the "We CLOBBER big city prices" was popular too (that I remember). They had a pretty sweet spot set up, build a massive car dealership in the middle of nowhere and attract to TWO major metropolitan areas. Too bad the industry caved in. I wonder what they're going to do to the spot as it continues to deteriorate.
  10. IronTiger
    And that would make sense, since that McD's was built from the ground up in 2000, one of the first rebuilds of old 70s stores (the first two McD's locally were torn out and rebuilt some time ago)
  11. IronTiger
    Astroworld definitely wasn't a first class theme park toward the end.
  12. IronTiger
    I already did post my "Red Line South" plans earlier, so I'm going to tend to elaborate on that. I'm of the opinion that a good light rail plan should work with a good road plan and not against it, so I'm going to also include road connections. Basically, we tear down the concrete plant or whatever south of Kirby and extend it. Meanwhile, the light rail goes OVER the railroad, Holmes, and NB Fannin and becomes sunken in the Fannin median (not affecting lanes or turns) until it eventually goes underground. The second picture is to show the interaction of Kirby and Reed because I'm a big roadgeek and wanted to show how that intersection would work. Kirby, of course, goes straight down to Airport Blvd., finishes up to Orem, and eliminates Anagnost as it connects to Beltway 8 at last. But we're focusing on the rail for now.
  13. IronTiger
    Ah, never mind. I thought you were implying the McDonald's was built in the early 1970s, which it wasn't (and was about to bring up that it was built in '88, with a Chronicle article and HCAD backing it up (the building was razed in 2012)
  14. IronTiger
    Well, since indie films are starting to pay attention to Houston, it might do well on the indie circuit, but who knows.
  15. IronTiger
    I think I read that the two level McDonald's in the Uptown area was built sometime in the mid 1980s. A few years ago, it was leveled (even though it had been renovated relatively recently) for a standard one-level McDonald's while a high rise was built next door. As for Houston restaurants that are old, I remember reading in an article about the San Jacinto Inn that the late 1980s (due to changing tastes more than the recession) was when a lot of the old-line restaurants were purged (a similar "event" happened in Bryan-College Station, though less dramatic). Prince's still survives in one form or another, though I doubt any original locations...and Felix Mexican Restaurant survived all the way up until 2008.
  16. IronTiger
    The area is a former industrial site and it shows. It's on a dead-end road next to a railroad with no walkable retail anywhere nearby. It certainly doesn't feel like the way the Inner Loop's ought to be, but then again, what does?
  17. IronTiger
    OK. I'm sure they meant 610 in all seriousness.
  18. IronTiger
    Considering it seems to be a ways off from Interstate 10 (on Old Katy Road, dead end portion, if the result from Google Maps is anywhere close to correct) and Interstate 10 is sunken at that point, really good eyesight! Maybe you mean 610?
  19. IronTiger
    The ones near my house (near being a relative term, of course, they're pretty visible) are yellowish but those aren't mercury vapor. Mercury vapor is being phased out (probably banned, but not sure) and typically takes on a greenish hue.
  20. IronTiger
    Zuider Zee Seafood Inn? They had those in Houston, too?
  21. IronTiger
    Well, see, that was torn down something for else. Sometimes they never seem to redevelop. Near that old Texaco, there was ANOTHER gas station just near it at Senate and 290 (southeast corner). Unless that was the Texaco previously mentioned, because there were two gas stations: one at the southeast corner of Senate and 290, one at Brittmoore and Hempstead Hwy.
  22. IronTiger
    ^ You're missing the point, the idea was to actually try to DRAW things out. Like, how would they retrofit the HOV lanes into rail? "The only thing you can not do is simply describe it in words!" which you just did. Anyway, here's my plan: It involves leaving the Uptown Line as BRT (in the other transit thread, my goal involved removing about half of the stations in the Uptown line, because I felt it would be too slow) but decided to leave them in for this one. This transforms the moribund Northwest Mall as part of a centerpiece for a great mixed-use transit center with HSR stops (more on that later), rail (more on that later), and also the extended BRT. Problem is Northwest Transit Center just isn't good for rail, even if you did work to have the train slowly back into it, and that would be a pretty kludgy way of doing it. Here, while the pedestrian crossing just goes under the street (yes I know Hempstead Tollway might come through there, maybe we can get it canned or moved), the BRT goes much deeper, under both the Northwest Mall and 610. There's probably a lot of wasted space, but to put it simply: Ground Level - Commuter Train, parking Elevated Level - BRT, HSR (maybe) edit: oops, forgot image...
  23. IronTiger
    Eww, I can still see the seams for the facade they put up. How tacky.
  24. IronTiger
    Any work on this site? Still a blank lot according to Google Earth.
  25. IronTiger
    That's nothing. That Ella/Gulf Bank intersection is finally seeing some action since the "stubs" were built in the late 1980s (if not earlier). As for road diets, I'm rather ambivalent to it depending on the case. Adding a left turn lane and using the leftovers to make bike lanes? Sure. Actually restriping a useless lane (or otherwise unstriped lane) to a parking lane that doubles as a bike lane? Absolutely. Restriping a road without stripes to properly designate bike lanes? OK. [Note: in general, though definitely not always due to varying widths of these types of things, I've found one bike lane = half of a regular lane] I'm probably more open to this since it doesn't necessarily ruin roads like street running light rail does.
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