Houston19514

There is really nothing lame about it. On the street signs, I believe the N, S, E, and W indicators merely indicate that you are to the North, South, East, or West of the starting place. In Houston, I BELIEVE the north-south starting point is roughly Buffalo Bayou, and I BELIEVE the east-west starting point is Main Street. If a street sign says N, that just means you are on a street that runs in a generally North-South bearing (as opposed to an East-West bearing), and that you are to the North of the dividing point. From his comments here, I guess MidtownCoog would propose that the street signs, rather than simply saying N, should say N 33 degrees, 12 minutes, 25 seconds, E, or some such level of detail. Of course, that would be totally unworkable; not to mention, the point of the street sign indicators is not to serve as a compass, but just to specify which side of town you are on and which general bearing the street runs in.

Dallasboi... ?? I know you're there... ;-) Any source for your numbers?

Even the most extensive mass transit systems do not have stations outside each and every residential building, so even in those cities, visitors to the vast majority of residences have to WALK several blocks.

Thanks for the info. Sounds like great things coming. I don't think Dallas has been particularly slow in this regard; These things take time, in most every city. We frequently see, on this board and elsewhere, many people attacking Houston's MetroRail for its failure to spur TOD, with only 2 1/2 years of operation.

It could be both a park and world class. Is there some reason you think the two are mutually exclusive? And you sure must know this by now, but Discovery Green will include much more than just dirt, grass, trees, and water. (I for one am glad they chose a name withOUT the word park, because it is so much more than just dirt, grass, trees, and water.)

Can't find anything on the building's website, yet, regarding any name change.

So I guess there are really two, maybe three completed, existing TOD's that have been built along DART's light rail line. Can you remind me when the line opened?

My thoughts, exactly.

Where do you find a 22% vacancy rate for downtown Dallas? It may not be as high as 30%, but I have not seen anything to suggest it has gotten as low (relatively speaking) as 22%.

I am familiar with the Mockingbird Station development. What other "transit-oriented developments" have been built along the DART rail lines?

... and was your statement that "everyone" drives 20 MPH on the freeways perhaps a wee bit of an exaggeration as well??? As is the case with many topics in this age of internet access to information, we are actually able to apply a bit of objective information to this topi. Transtar shows the current average speed of traffic on each of Houston's freeways. I just looked at it and everyone one of them is posted at 50+ MPH AVERAGE (and that's the highest they show, so if the average is actually 60 or 70 or 80 MPH, it would still only show 50+), with one exception showing <20 MPH on a section of inbound Gulf Fwy, outside the Beltway; I would presume there was an accident or construction slowing that traffic down right now. Even more interestingly, if one clicks on a segment of roadway, and then click on "Live Speed Chart" one can see the actual speeds of traffic for both today and the average for the year 2005 for each segment of the day. I've clicked around on a few and it's very interesting. Most have average traffic speeds close to 70 MPH, a far sight from 20 MPH. Which begs the question, what freeway are you talking about, Perimeter?

Here, here!! Excellent post, 2112!

Just wanted to point out your rank hypocrisy when it comes to accepting the votes of the democratic process. ;-) I don't really care whether you ever have or ever will vote for such stadia, nor is that particularly meaningful to the discussion. (Nor was your initial post particularly meaningful to the discussion, for that matter.) Whether you voted for or against them does not affect their legitimacy. Back on point, if this proposal is real (and keeping in mind that the rumor does NOT even include anything about who is paying for it), what does everyone think of the location?

Read my post again. That's what I just said. MMP and Reliant passed the first time. Toyota failed the first time. (It was a totally separate vote a couple years after the MMP/Reliant vote). And Toyota passed the second time. BY 60%, not exactly a small margin.

I think you have your history wrong. I believe the vote on MMP and Reliant passed the first time. The vote on Toyota Center failed the first time, but passed the second time BY A 60% MAJORITY.

Unless I missed a post announcing that construction of the Dynamo stadium has started, I think you kind of made my point for me there... At this point, so far as I know, all we have is a totally unsubstantiated and unsourced posting on an internet forum regarding construction of a Dynamo stadium. And even that post did not say it was to be funded by the HCHSA. If construction of a Sports Authority-funded stadium begins without a vote being first taken, THEN and only then is part of your point made. (I don't think a vote is required prior to any rumor being passed around the internet.) And even IF, a Dynamo stadium were built without another vote, your post and my response were regarding your claim to have been "screwed with your pants on... by MMP, Toyota Center, and Reliant Stadium", which, if you had not noticed, were passed by votes of Harris County taxpayers, JUST as was the Metro Solutions rail plan. (By a 60+% majority for Toyota Center; 51-49 for MMP and Reliant, similar to the MetroRail margin). That "screwed with your pants on" by projects that were in fact approved by the taxpayers is remarkably similar to AftonAg's screams of having rail shoved down his throat, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum.

If it's to be east of MMP, it pretty much has to be east of 59. I hope this happens. That would be great to have the stadium on the edge of downtown. Much better than somewhere outside the loop. AND, I 'd love to see the demise of those parking lots. That sounds a bit like AftonAg talking about MetroRail. In both cases, the projects were voted on and passed by the local taxpayers. Some people seem to only like democracy when they agree with the result.

Or you could try saying in your first post on the subject what you now claim to have meant to have said. If you had indeed said "Houston's roads could be better", the words "easily excitable and hypberbolic" would not have leapt to mind. Oh, and those repeated references to third world countries and Cambodia... no hyperbole there, right? ;-) But of course we all know that is not what you said. (And by the way, you know all of this is in writing and reviewable, so your attempt to re-write history are not likely to work. We can all go back and see that your original point was not that the "minor" roads in Houston are not in good condition.) The roads you have specifically referenced are all very obviously not "minor" roads, but are arterial roads. (And trying to pretend that Allen Parkway is not an arterial road just makes you look silly and desperate.) Are you really trying to suggest now that Airport and Monroe are also just "minor" (and not arterial) roads? (I'm presuming you meant Airport, not Airline, since I don't think Airline goes anywhere near Hobby Airport.)

Why do you insist on setting up straw men that you can knock down easily? I never ever ever said that Houston should be proud of being solidly in the middle, and I repeatedly reminded you of that fact (and I don't recall anyone else on this board suggesting such "pride" either). Again, neither does Houston have anything to be particularly ashamed of when it is in fact, solidly in the middle, and when, not just one stretch of its roads, not just a dozen stretches of its roads, but a full 24% of its roads are in good condition, again, solidly in the middle of the major metros in this country. Apparently you are an easily excitable and hyperbolic individual. Even after being shown that Houston is IN FACT pretty average in regard to the condition of its roads, you insist on figuratively running through the streets yelling "the sky is falling", "Houston is no better than a third world country." Get a grip, man.

Sorry, but your statement that the only good road in town is Allen Parkway is clearly, demonstrably, objectively false, unfounded, ignorant and idiotic. And it would be almost equally false, unfounded, ignorant and idiotic to pretend that the only good roads in Houston are Allen Parkway and the ten or so other roads mentioned earlier. Nice job of setting up straw men and knocking them down. . . Nobody in this thread has said or even suggested that Houston does not need to improve its roads. But that can be said about almost every city (as demonstrated by the study I posted. Houston is not unique or even relatively bad in this category and it is indeed false, unfounded, ignorate and idiotic to say otherwise, as you did. Well-founded observations that can be backed up with facts are welcome. The "vitriol" as you call it, comes from making unfounded and hyperbolic statements and then refusing to admit that the facts don't back you up.

LOL Pardon me? You never disputed that are highways and major roads are in good shape???? Allen Parkway is clearly a four-lane arterial (major) road. So when you said it was the only good road in town you weren't discussing major roads and highways? Nice try... but you can't really expect anyone to buy that squirming can you? After having read and even quoted from the report, where is there any dispute about what "major city streets and routes" refers to? You just quoted language that clearly says "Most routes that have at least four lanes are arterial routes, although some key two-lane roads are also classified as arterial routes." Yes, most two-lane inner city roads were not included, but where in this conversation has anyone (including you) mentioned any two-lane inner city roads? And that changes nothing in the overall discussion. LOL again. The study's finding that 24% of Houston's roads are good makes your interpretation that Allen Parkway is the only good road in town a "good one?" What would it take to make it a bad one? I guess only if the study found Houston to have 100% good roads? My analysis of the "good" column shows Houston to rank at 37th out of 70 metro areas. I don't know where you studied math, but where I learned it 37 out of 70 is well above the bottom quarter of the rankings.

I've now given you the full study, so knock yourself out. (It was published LAST MONTH), and it was for all metro areas over 500,000 (as I already said). Yes, we can all whine that the roads are not perfect, but the fact is, and the objective study proves it to be the case, that Houston is FAR from the worst, contrary to what you would have had us believe. Nobody in this thread said Houston's roads or its relative ranking on road quality were something to be "proud" of. Neither is ranking solidly in the middle of the pack something to be ashamed of. But more to the point, you did not start this conversation by telling us that we should not be proud of our roads; You did not start this conversation by telling us that Houston had an average proportion of bad roads. You did not start this conversation by telling us that more than half of Houston's roads were mediocre or worse. No, you started this conversation by telling us that the only smooth road in town was Allen Parkway, and that basically, the rest of the roads were an embarassment. It should be obvious to everyone (perhaps even you) that that statement was, well, choose your poison... false, unfounded, ignorant, idiotic, ... I've now given you the full study, so knock yourself out. (It was published LAST MONTH), and it was for all metro areas over 500,000 (as I already said). Yes, we can all whine that the roads are not perfect, but the fact is, and the objective study proves it to be the case, that Houston is FAR from the worst, contrary to what you would have had us believe. Nobody in this thread said Houston's roads or its relative ranking on road quality were something to be "proud" of. Neither is ranking solidly in the middle of the pack something to be ashamed of. But more to the point, you did not start this conversation by telling us that we should not be proud of our roads; You did not start this conversation by telling us that Houston had an average proportion of bad roads. You did not start this conversation by telling us that more than half of Houston's roads were mediocre or worse. No, you started this conversation by telling us that the only smooth road in town was Allen Parkway, and that basically, the rest of the roads were an embarassment. It should be obvious to everyone (perhaps even you) that that statement was, well, choose your poison... false, unfounded, ignorant, idiotic, ... PS (In fact, AT BEST, my prior posting of the study results did in fact, support my claim, which was merely that objective studies show that not all of Houston's roads are bad)

Here's the full report

Don't be a tendentious idiot. NOBODY here thinks that there is nothing at all wrong with Houston. Yes, you are entitled to whatever unfounded opinions you want to stick to. You seem to have a problem accepting that other people have less negative opinions of Houston than you do. And you seem to WANT to ignore all the facts that are presented that are contrary to your opinion. (Like the miles and miles of smooth streets you seem to have overlooked but other people were able to post without even giving it a thought.) Oh, and, not that you are interested in any objective views or analysis, but here you go: Road Conditions of metros over 500,000

Your whole post is not worth reading, with all of the typos, grammatical errors, and just plain ignorant ranting, but I just want to give you one little reality check. Houston already HAS a big airport. It's called George Bush Intercontinental. It is the 7th or 8th busiest airport in North America, something like 14th busiest in the world, and is the 7th or 8th largest international gateway to the United States. (And FWIW, it handles more traffic than JFK). It would be nice if you actually took the time to learn something about Houston before you start typing your trash. Oh, and your comment about NYC's September 11 "reality show" has to be the most wretched, sick, loathsome post I have ever seen on this board. What kind of person would even think such a thing?