Houston19514

The articles I've seen are not entirely clear on the point, but my impression was that the $80 million was the total projected cost for acquisition and development of the park. Do you have other information?

I hear you on the negativity, so apologies . . . but the $80 million isn't money they are going to spend to develop the park, just acquire it. 

Underground levels of the GRB? That's news to me, and they don't appear on the GRB's floorplans on their website... what do they have on these underground levels?

The actual alignment proposals, as of the last Metro public workshop, has two options of subway underneath either Mckinney or Walker streets.  The third option is a surface rail, like the red line, on RUSK.

If the Mckinney one is chosen, then, they would have to tunnel deeper to get underneath of the 5 or so underground levels of the GRB.  This alignment would continue straight underneath the GRB under Walker Street, then pop up on a portal somewhere around Dowling Street.

If the Walker one is chosen, then the plan is to remain subway right under where the proposed Central Park would be, and curve towards the north and bypass the GRB, and therefore, not have tunnel as deep compared to the Mckinney alignment.  Again, the portal would emerge somewhere around Dowling Street.

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Sorry, but there is nothing in the article we are all commenting on that gives the slightest hint that Mr. Delay is "indeed holding up the process."

I am sorry, but why should anyone have to chill when it comes to DeLay?

The man single-handedly witheld federal MONEY earmarked for Houston forcing us to pay way more than our share. He then said he wouldn't hi-jack future plans for rail if the voters passed the referendum. Well, guess what? The plan did pass and he is indeed holding up the process. Seems like flip-flopping to me.

If they're not planning to close off that part of Crawford they certainly should.

It stops 2 blocks south at Polk anyway for the Toyota Center.

largeTexas, where did you see renderings of the park? It seems a little surprising that there would be renderings when the article said that design work will being in 2005. But of course we all know how much faith we should put in a newspaper...

I have never before read anything about "express" trains from Northline to IAH. As far as I can tell from Metro's plan documents, there is no such plan. At the very least, they plan a stop at Greenspoint. I hope they will run both express trains and "local" service trains, like they do in Chicago. I would like to see them run "Express" trains all the way to downtown, perhaps stopping at Greenspoint and Northline on the way. Of course running both express and local trains on the same tracks requires additional trackage, so that the local service trains can be stopped at a station while the express train zips on by on the adjacent tracks.

Re: Tom Delay. Some of you guys need to chill a bit. What is wrong with examining all the available technologies? Why should Houston NOT push the envelope a bit? While the light rail is not identical in every detail to 19th century streetcars, the technology is essentially the same - an electric-powered car riding on steel rails, sharing the street with other traffic. Yes, we now have level boarding; yes, we now have doors that open wide; yes, we now have air conditioning; yes, we no longer stop along the way like buses do. Many comfort and convenience improvements have been made in buses and cars over the last 100 years as well... Nevertheless, they are still buses and cars and we don't pretend they are not the same basic technology we were enjoying 100 years ago.

Flatline, it looks like you are correct about the location. Since my earlier post, I found the press release on the Mayor's website. It includes a little aerial view with the parkland colored in green, I guess. (It doesn't exactly explain the picture. For example, there is also some land marked in yellow... I don't know if that will also be part of the park or not... anyway, here is the link.

Mayor's new downtown park

The park is a very exciting development. Any info on the exact boundaries of it? I hope they'll build a spectacular fountain there. Something around which people can gather just to watch the water and lights. It's amazing what a little water and some colored lights can do. Throw in some choreographed music and it's even better.

Yes, as a matter of fact, the ads were incorrect, as were the Chronicle's headlines both then and now. Houston does not have and never has had anything approaching the nation's "dirtiest air." Air pollution is comprised of a number of components (I think 5 or 6). The ozone count is only one of those 5 or six components, and the ozone count is the ONLY component for which Houston's air has an issue. Many other cities have issues with more than one component, and while it is very hard to come up with a conclusive answer to the question of which city has the nation's dirtiest air, I believe most experts agree that it is not Houston. Atlanta is a better candidate and I believe Dallas is at least as good of a candidate.

quote=VelvetJ,Tuesday, October 5th, 2004 @ 10:52am]

And how have Tom Delay, John Culberson, and the Republicans affected our air quality? Talk about writing the book on "Business and Profit Before ALL Things, Including People". If action had been taken earlier, maybe "a new one" wouldn't have had to be ripped for Brown and the Democrates to "let" happen.

Besides, were the ads incorrect?

Never ceases to amaze me.