Houston19514

Wow, that's quite the spin. The fact is, Metro still plans on Federal funds. they didn't get any special allocations from Stimulus funds that they can use for the rail plans, but they still are in the process for federal transit funds. The article that kicked this off said nothing whatever to the contrary. You completely mischaracterized what the article said.

So what's your point? The plan all along (and I believe the feds agreed to this plan) was for Metro to seek full funding on certain lines and zero funding on others, rather than 50/50 funding on all.

I'm pretty sure you are mis-remembering.

Looks more like maybe dumpster parked behind the neighboring shopping center. The bigger story in that picture is the amount of building material piled up on the walls of that adjoining shopping center. I'm surprised by that.

Why not? In fact, the new wing is named for the Dan Duncan Family, and it is indeed the Duncan Family Wing. They have been major contributors to the HMNS for some time and I'm pretty sure he has also served on the board.

No, it would not. The plan for Mercer II is/was to be lined up with Mercer I in an east-west formation, not north south. From day one of that plan, it looked to me like they should be planning a 4 building complex, so that they did have the nearly-blank walls of the towers backing up to one another.

There's an article in today's Houston Business Journal about Warehouse Live opening a third venue called the Green Room. In the article they refer to the "uber-successful" House of Blues and say that it (the House of Blues) is already planning an expansion.

The good news is... you don't have to wait until 2016. The Final Four will also be here in 2011.

By that logic, the New York Times should be the least expensive paper, not the most expensive.

For 2008, the downtown hotel occupancy rate was 67%, up 3.7 percentage points from 2007.

Huh? Downtown Dallas might get one subway tunnel. I have no idea how, even in your mind, one tunnel (or even the imagined "a lot" of subway tunnels) becomes anything remotely similar to grand central station.

Good find! and very interesting. I was able to see some details. It is indeed in 77002.

So now we know the source of all of your insider information... ;-)

Exactly. The complaints about the lack of connectivity are a little unfair. HP provides three blocks of connectivity to downtown. It is hardly fair to blame them for the remaining empty lots. And, again, Denver Pavilions has been pretty darned successful in downtown Denver and it's retail is also mostly inwardly-facing, towards "interior" passageways. That will not be an issue, once it fills up with tenants (and once the remaining outwardly-facing spaces are filled).

Well said, Niche

huh. Any chance you know the name of the one that comes down to Westheimer? Did they make them part of Westcreek Highland Village?

Don't the Westcreek at River Oaks Apts come all the way down to Westheimer? If so, part of them are indeed on OliverMcMillan's site. (And I believe the parts of Westcreek at River Oaks to the north of Bettis were included in "future phases" on the early plats of River Oaks District)

If someone did point that out, they would be incorrect (not that that would stop a journalist). As noted above, the $288 million is for the retail operations of the company. It does not include power plants with 14,000 MW of generating capacity. (Note that you may still have a good point, just not quite as entertaining.)

Actually, I think the proposal presently on the table would stop ONLY at the airports; so this whole discussion is fairly moot. You are correct as to Acela's speeds. The reason for that is that it runs on existing infrastructure. The flip side of that, of course is the enormous cost of building entirely new infrastructure. Meaning either enormous subsidy/taxpayer "investment" or higher, likely uncompetitive, pricing. Also, the proposal presently on the table, the Texas T-bone would diminish at least some of the time-savings obtained by higher speeds, especially if one had to change trains at the T.

Good point, unless and until the imaginary Dallas-Houston HSR is part of the imaginary nationwide network.

Acela delivers you from downtown DC to midtown Manhattan. And yes, Manhattan is pretty much where people want to go in NYC. A little less so for the trains going in the other direction. And vastly less so for the inter-city traffic between Dallas and Houston. Downtown Houston and, even more so, Downtown Dallas, are simply not the all-encompassing dominant destinations that Manhattan is for NYC. Saying downtown is "where people go" in the case of Houston and Dallas is simply not true. Start with the reality that most of the Dallas-Houston intercity travel is business travel. Then add in the reality that approximately 120,000 people work in downtown Dallas, out of a metropolitan employment base of approximately 3,000,000. In Houston, maybe 175,000 people work downtown, out of an employment base of approximately 2.7 million. Your comparisons of travel time are inapt; adding all sorts of time to the air commute but not doing the same for train commutes does not give us an accurate comparison. "Commuting to and from....": People don't live at the train stations (well, maybe some people do, but they generally can't afford the tickets, so they aren't really relevant for our discussion). In reality, when traveling by train, one also has to commute to and from the train station. We're not talking about NYC here; we're talking about Houston and Dallas. The difference between commuting to Hobby or Love vs. a downtown train station, just is not that great. In fact, for most likely business train riders in Dallas, the commute to Love Field would be easier. The number for which it would be LESS convenient is very low indeed. Overall, in the Houston-Dallas market, I think it's fair to say the commute time to and from the airports vs. to and from a downtown train station, is pretty close to a draw. "taxiing twice" Adding taxiing times twice is simply inaccurate, as one of them is already included in the flight time. "clearing security" fair enough, but at HOU and DAL, it's just not a long process at most times. "check-in" Any frequent business traveler not checking luggage knows that you check in at home the day before and go directly through security, no check-in at the airport required. "and all the other things one doesn't have to deal with when traveling by train".... such as, what, exactly? I think you've already more than covered it. No need to get snarky. You know very well I didn't say anything of the sort. The fact is, both HOU and DAL are very conveniently located for the vast majority of people. Going to a downtown train station vs. Hobby would save most people 10-15 minutes, at most. And for a fairly large number of people it would add 10-15 minutes. Even more so in the case of DAL. Perhaps it is vastly quicker compared to navigating NYC airports or DC airports. But compared to DAL or HOU, it just is not vastly quicker. I have ridden the trains from WDC to NYC many times, including Acela. It's not THAT dissimilar to boarding a plane. You get to the train station, go to your gate area, wait for the boarding to begin, gather at the door with the rest of the passengers and walk to the train. Yes, it's a little quicker and less of a hassle than boarding an airplane. Not vastly quicker. The only significant difference is the security, which as mentioned above, just does not take a vast amount of time at either Hobby or Love. Theoretically, you can walk in the station 15 minutes before the train departure and walk right on the train. But theoretically, you can also walk into Hobby 20 minutes before your flight and walk through security and right on to the plane (I know; I've done it.) Not what I would call a vast difference. In reality, in 95% of travelers' experiences, one gets to the airport/train station ahead of time and waits at the gate. Not sure what your point here was. Yeah, you can roll your bag onto the train, just like you can onto the plane (except on the train, you might have to "roll" it up some steps.) Not seeing how that's an advantage for the train. (And what is this process you claim to go through to check bags on an airplane? When I check bags on Continental or Southwest, I just put the bag up on the little scale thing and they take it from there. No "lugging to tagging", "lugging to security" ... The reality is, "lugging" your bags to the baggage check and then claiming it at baggage claim is easier than lugging it all the way through the train station and onto the train and then back off the train and all the way back through the station, with or without a porter.) Don't misunderstand me. I am a big fan of taking the train from DC to NYC. It works there and is much more convenient than flying. I am also intrigued by the idea of HSR in Texas. But he same convenience factors and time-savings just are not going to be reality for train travel between Dallas and Houston. We both have more convenient and efficient airports than the east coast cities, and neither Dallas nor Houston has the concentration of destinations that NYC and, to a slightly lesser extent DC, have.

As you suggest, there is no $60 walk-up fare for Southwest. But I just looked it up and the walk-up fare to Dallas today is $136.10, taxes and fees included. No advance purchase necessary. Time of travel for Acela: 2 hrs, 48 minutes. Time of travel for Southwest: 1 hour. and in both Houston and Dallas, it's really not much more difficult or time-consuming to get to Hobby or Love than to any train station that might house a HSR. Boarding trains is a simpler and somewhat quicker process, but I think you overstate the advantage, at least here in Texas. As mentioned above, both Hobby and Love are quite conveniently located, neither has terribly long or difficult security lines. It's not as though one strolls into Union Station in Washington DC and, voila!, 2 hours and 48 minutes later, you magically arrive on the streets of midtown Manhattan. One still has to get to the station in advance of the train, wait in the waiting area until boarding time, then walk to the train (and since we are positing no luggage-checking, that means you are dragging all of your luggage with you...)

Your evidence is underwhelming. There is a freeway conveniently located just off of your map of suburban Vancouver (and less than 2 miles from the center the tiny slice of suburban Vancouver you showed us.)

Before you go to TOO much trouble, I'd check and re-check those meter readings again. The bill should show the actual reading, not just the usage. Compare that to what the meter currently says. Obviously, the current reading should be just slightly higher than the reading on your bill. Also check to make sure this is not an "estimated" reading. I had an electric company in the past (in another state) that would from time to time, for no reason at all, decide not to read the meter and do an "estimate". Oddly enough, every single time they did an estimate, they estimated WAAAAYYYY high. Your bill looks just like some of those I had. Is your electricity provider by any chance owned by AEP?