Houston19514

What is the Fannin/Knight Street split? Would the building really have been likely to have 3 million square feet of leasable space? Seems a little unlikely. According to its website, the Chase Tower has just under 2 million square feet of gross building space (not gross leasable space).

Now I want to buy a house in that neighborhood just to see one of those newfangled "world pool tubs" you speak of. I cannot even imagine how awesome they must be.

Fundamantally, why do you keep ranting on about your totally irrelevant economic "thoughts", all started because there were one or two deaths associated with (not caused by) rail vehicles? Are we to believe that no deaths have been caused by or in relation to the cars, trucks, and buses that currently travel our roadways (including Richmond)? There have been many many many weak "arguments" presented in this thread, but the fact that one or two deaths occurred that were associated with rail vehicles, NEITHER of which was in any way the fault of the rail vehicle or its operator, has got to be the weakest.

Hey there, Houston-development... Any updates on that August groundbreaking from your source, in whom you have complete faith and who has personal, intimate knowledge of behind closed doors conversations? Or has there been a setback to, oh, say October 16? ;-)

If your posts here are any indication, I'm guessing new AOers you encounter are willing to say anything just to get you to shut up and leave them alone. ;-)

And do you think that is not the case in a city such as Atlanta or Washington DC, both of which have very small central cities but mile upon mile of sprawl?

CONGRATULATIONS! My one piece of advice is to ditch realtor.com and go to HAR.com (Houston Association of Realtors). Their site is much better.

Over on SkyscraperPage.com, there is a thread about the new Simon development called The Grand out on the Katy @ Grand Parkway. In that thread there is a link to the website for The Grand. In that website, there is a map of shopping centers in The Grand's trade area. On that map, there are two shopping centers shown in the general area of 290 and Cypress Rose Hill. One is Houston Premium Outlets, scheduled to open 2008-2009. The other is Fairfield Town Center scheduled to open in 2007. Houston Premium Outlets appears to be right at the intersection of 290 and the Grand Parkway, while the Fairfield Town Center appears to be closer to 290 @ Cypress Rose Hill. Could either of these be what you have heard about?

Well, of course one cannot argue with your personal reaction to heat/humidity. But there is an objective way to measure this... it's called a heat index. And by that objective measure, well, see the first post in this thread.

Apparently, they are going to operate duplicate stores, each having mens, womens, etc etc. I understand that only the current Foley's building will have furniture, other than that pretty much duplicate stores. It seems a little odd. Having duplicate stores doesn't seem like it would make sense for the long term. Here's my guess/hope of what's going on: Perhaps they are still considering bringing a Bloomingdale's into the current Macy's building; therefore they don't want to give up the building and so they'll just operate it as a Macy's for a while...

What sort of parts and equipment would they need at Johnson Space Center that would be shipped by ocean carriers?

It may well be on schedule. Note that Phase I is merely design and engineering. Phase II is construction

... and destoying our economy won't hurt their oil sales? Their oft-stated goal is to kill all infidels, destroy western civilization... I'm thinking that might affect their oil sales too...

What am I missing about this intersection design that supposedly makes them so much more efficient? I'm just seeing a different location for the traffic light.

Question: Did a lot of people go all out and actually wear white linen?

Yes, indeed; there are tradeoffs. That is precisely what I have been telling you. (And you're telling me that it's obvious I have not taken an industrial engineering class? It is to laugh.) Your position has very cleverly evolved to where you are now emphasizing the balancing act of "minimizing travel times with the maximum number of riders." That is decidedly NOT what you were your promoting in your earlier posts, in which you repeatedly told us that the ONLY thing that matters is the time spent on the trains. The "maximum number of riders" is in part a function of the convenience of stations not only to where people live, but also to their work and leisure destinations (i.e., in part, the number of stations). As I said earlier, if the only factor were time on the train, the best system would be a very short one with two stops, one on each end. But of course, that would not attract many riders, hence the balancing act I have been suggesting all along. It's nice to see you have now finally abandoned your earlier insistence on the "time on the train" being the only important measure.

LOL I know having two stations would be preposterous. But that is exactly where your logic would lead us (ie, if the only consideration is time spent on the train.) In fact, by your logic, the best train system would have two stops, about one block apart. "Hey, look at our efficient train system. Our riders only have to spend 1 minute on the train!" :-) (and before you tell me that's preposterous, I already know that it is.) You seem to perhaps be slowly stumbling to the truth, when you admit that having two stations would be inefficient because that would minimize the number of riders. Why do you suppose having just two stations would minimize the number of riders? Could it be because the stations would be too far from where people live and/or workd and therefore the total trip time was too long for too many people? But if that's the case, then it cannot be that the only important fact is the time spent on the train... hmmmm... You do indeed have to minimize the travel times for the maximum number of riders. But the travel time that must be considered is the full trip - origin to destination - not just train station to train station. It's a balancing act for rail planners, to plan enough stops to minimize the walking times to and from stations without slowing the train down too much with too many stops. It is IN FACT ALL ABOUT THE TOTAL TRIP TIME, and the time spent on the train is only one part of the calculation, along with the time getting to the station, the time waiting for a train (hence the importance of frequent service), the time on the train, and the time walking to the final destination. He's saying that Metro Park and Ride is more efficient than DART's suburban light rail service.

That is preposterous. If that were the sole way to judge, then the most efficient LRT would have two stops: one on each end. Yes, you have to consider all users' time, but you have to consider their entire trip time, not just their time on the train. If a rider has to spend 30 minutes walking to the station, rather than 15, that is part of their trip time. A rail planner would be foolish not to consider the walking time as part of the trip time, because the potential riders most assuredly will consider the walking time when they decide whether to patronize the rail system.

If so, approximately 40,000 riders are determining for themselves every day that MetroRail saves them enough time to make it worthwhile. Not bad. And, as RedScare pointed out earlier, that's a lot more people per mile of trackage than have made that same determination for themselves regarding the Dallas rail system, whatever speed it may achieve. And further to RedScare's post immediatly preceding this one, taking the DART red line from the Convention Center downtown to the Park Lane station covers approximately the same distance as Houston's red line. The trip on DART takes 25 minutes. In Houston, the trip from Fannin South to UHD is 32 minutes. Not a bad differential, especially when one considers the additional walking time many people would have to take to get to the more widely-spaced stations on DART (there are 10 stations in this stretch vs. 16 on Metro's red line), and the additional wait at the station because DART only runs trains every 10 minutes during rush hour and every 20 minutes the rest of the day, compared to every 6 minutes and 12 minutes for Metro.

Bravo!! Another excellent post RedScare. You are on a roll! The part you forgot to mention is that it is also significantly hotter (both nominal temperature and heat index) in many cities in the summer than in Houston (e.g., D-FW, OKC, Tulsa, St. Louis...). Houstonians (especially the Houston media) whine too much about the weather. So I guess then that it HAS taken cars AND Buses off the roads, and has surely saved gas. The University line will surely take cars (and possibly busses as well) off the freeways and roads.

Excellent post, RedScare. Thank you for bringing a few facts to the discussion that might be inconvenient for some. I tire of the constant raving about the Atlanta and Dallas transit systems when they in fact perform not all that well compared to Houston's. Metro rail is not taking cars off the freeways or saving gas, etc etc. etc.??? I guess those 35,000-40,000 riders per day would otherwise be walking or riding their bicycles?

And yet you promote commuter rail to the suburbs. Note to The Niche: Houston has already invested hundreds of millions of dollars in HOV lanes and Park & Ride lots and buses and as a result already has a relatively efficient, effective and popular transit system to the suburbs. It seems like building commuter rail would indeed be little (or nothing) more than a "marginally-more-effective bus-replacement system for people who can't stand 'uncool' forms of transit."

Well said dp2! Great post! You should send that to every reporter for that sorry excuse for a newspaper, the Chronicle. I've noticed they routinely and mindlessly repeat the idiotic "argument" about the ballot language without any challenge or explanation.

LOL Exactly what I was thinking.

No they don't. Their practice gym is inside the large windows along the west side of the building.