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Houston19514

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Everything posted by Houston19514

  1. Houston19514
    Excellent point. I would not trust anything from Channel 11. They are an embarrassment.
  2. Houston19514
    I'm pretty sure they do adjust schedules for the rodeo, at least after the concerts.
  3. Houston19514
    ?????
  4. Houston19514
    Yes, but he's moving to Houston. (And he will be CEO only until 2013, when the RRI guy will take over)
  5. Houston19514
    The HCHSA does not own the Astrodome, nor does it have any debt related to the Astrodome. Nobody had even dreamed of a sports authority at the time the Astrodome was constructed. Harris County built the Astrodome and has always owned it. The debt that remains on the Astrodome is not from its construction, but from the remodel and addition of seating capacity sometime around the mid-80s (not sure about the exact time-frame, but it was to keep the Oilers from moving to Jacksonville). I am pretty sure the debt is being paid by Harris County general revenue, not by any dedicated revenue source (such as hotel taxes).
  6. Houston19514
    The Wortham Center
  7. Houston19514
    RedScare got it right. Highway 6, take a deep breath and relax. Read the talk of "closings" in context and I think it's pretty clear they are talking only of closing the crossing of Harrisburg, not blocking right turns.
  8. Houston19514
    The spot has been taken. At the time of that photo, they apparently had not yet moved in, but had obviously done their exterior build-out. It is Woodlake Travel (I think I got the name right).
  9. Houston19514
    No store has closed. Not sure what you're talking about.
  10. Houston19514
    I wish they would give it back its rightful name.
  11. Houston19514
    Are you serious? THAT is what you were talking about? For some odd reason I thought you were talking about current light-rail plans... you know, the topic of the thread. And I thought you were talking about applications being denied by the federal agency, not by a congressional budget action. Quite a different sort of animal there, and not at all what your statement suggested.
  12. Houston19514
    None of that is terribly relevant to your statement that "They applied [for federal funding] and were turned down." Show us some evidence of that.
  13. Houston19514
    Actually, no, the alpha, beta, gamma rankings have nothing to do with transportation or television networks or, amazingly, major airports (but fwiw, for purposes of global connectivity, Atlanta's airport wouldn't give it many more points than we would get for IAH anyway, our international traffic is pretty close). You are mixing apples and oranges. The discussion you quote from Wiki is in the context of defining the generic term "global cities". The alpha, beta, gamma rankings you raised at the beginning of this thread are from the GAWC studies, which discusses in the next section of your Wiki link. Here is a quote from the GAWC section of your wiki link: "The roster was outlined in the GaWC Research Bulletin 5 and ranked cities based on their provision of "advanced producer services" such as accountancy, advertising, finance, and law" EDIT: The GAWC studies have since added insurance and management consultancy to the list. That's it. That's all that is considered in compiling the alpha, beta, gamma rankings.
  14. Houston19514
    That is flat-out 100% false.
  15. Houston19514
    Here's an idea, CityKid, how about you try reading up on the study just a bit? Trust me, Atlanta's little subway has nothing to do with it. IMO these rankings have received FAR more attention than deserved, no doubt in part because of the rather grandiose labels the researchers put on it. Their thesis is that the "global-ness" of a city can be determined by how many offices a city has of "global service firms", e.g. accounting firms, advertising firms and the like. Companies that actually produce products are not considered. Internationally known medical centers, nope. Actual international trade, completely irrelevant. Thus you have the very odd and ridiculous result of Houston, with one of the world's largest ports, the eighth largest international air gateway, the third largest consular corps in America and the extraordinarily global oil industry ranking as only Beta-. The study shows what it shows, and that is nothing more than which cities have big concentrations of accounting, advertising, banking & finance, and law. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/group.html
  16. Houston19514
    Glad to see you're still around CityKid. I presume you'll be favoring us soon with your list of the "plenty" of buildings "we all know" are going up in NYC and Chicago that are taller than our Chase Tower? Or have you just decided to drop that and move on to other specious comments and arguments?
  17. Houston19514
    and for training, I believe.
  18. Houston19514
    Who really gives a flip about "proposed" buildings, especially in the current economy? Exactly NONE of the buildings you are concerned about (at least outside of NYC) are currently under construction. Almost none of them will ever be constructed, especially among those in Philadelphia, Miami, San Francisco, Boston, etc. Any chance you could provide a list the "plenty" of buildings "we all know" are going up in NYC and Chicago that are taller than our Chase Tower? and fwiw, the Devon Tower in OKC is now planned to be 908 feet, not 925.
  19. Houston19514
    To clarify, what the story says is that Omni is no longer involved, so an Omni hotel is not happening, but it is completely unclear what the other partner (and owner of the property, Songy Partners) plans, if anything.
  20. Houston19514
    Here is the noncompete language from the Toyota Center letter agreement: Prior to and during the term of the NBA Club's lease of the Arena, the Sports Authority and the City, shall not, directly or indirectly, finance, subsidize, provide any incentives for, or otherwise assist any venue, including the Compaq Center (except as provided in the preceding section), which could compete with the Arena for events of a type appropriate for the Arena and generally targeted at audiences in excess of 5,000, except for the GRBCC (and any expansions thereof), Enron Field, the new Rodeo/Football stadium, and school and university facilities and except for other facilities while the same are being used during the Olympics or Pan-American Games or similar events, which the Parties agree are not and will not be considered in competition with the Arena.
  21. Houston19514
    Run for the hills! It's a blood-bath, I tell ya'. ;-)
  22. Houston19514
    What are you talking about? The event will be in January, not July. Further, while Boston and NY are clearly more known for their marathons, Houston's is plenty-well known in the marathon world. And Houston has PLENTY of experience hosting large events, easily the match of Boston. (and let's be serious, in the universe of "large" events, the Olympic marathon trials would not rank very high.)
  23. Houston19514
    You are too funny. Neither your spinning nor your delusions of grandeur will change the facts. You attempted to explain away Dallas' bad CBD occupancy rates as being due to the exclusion of the Uptown portion of the market. The fact is, when one combines the two markets as you insist be done, the occupancy rate is still quite bad (23.5% according to Grubb & Ellis's numbers) and a little too close to Detroit's for comfort.
  24. Houston19514
    Niche, the fact remainsthat no matter what kind of spin you want to put on it, every commercial real estate market research company (eg Grubb & Ellis, CBRE, etc) considers the Dallas CBD a separate submarket from Uptown Dallas. And even more important, and more to the original point of this discussion, see my earlier post... even if you are correct that they are the same market, their combined occupancy rate is "pretty bad".
  25. Houston19514
    Even if they were considered the same submarket (and as I mentioned above, nobody in the office market profession does), let's take a look... According to Grubb & Ellis, which I believe is the source of your numbers above, the combined Dallas Uptown/CBD submarket would have a vacancy rate of 23.5%. Still what one might call "pretty bad" and second only to Detroit.
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