Archive for February, 2009
Thanks!
I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who came to read and participate in the discussion on Multiways today. We’ve blown past the previous record for unique readers in a day with over 250 so far. For purposes of comparison, the previous record was 181. I’ve started hearing more and more “Hey, I [...]
Multiways in Houston
A lot of the recent discussion about transportation in Houston has been focused on light-rail and streetcars. These have been great conversations, and I think they are rightly front-and-center considering where we are with METRO and their current LRT expansion plans to date. There have been a few other pieces of the transportation discussion that [...]
Continuing the discussion
Cory over at Lose an Eye put together a great recap of the recently hot transit discussion that’s been taking place amongst the Houston blog scene. Thanks for the links, Cory. Briefly, I wanted to offer my thoughts on two of his statements. Cory asked: Why is it that the same people who are opposed [...]
West Gray Streetcar: Commonwealth Redevelopment
Update (2/10/09): Graphics adjusted to improve clarity. I’ve been thinking more about the West Gray Streetcar concept, and the more I think about it the more I like it. For those who didn’t read it before, the gist of the concept is to convert West Gray and Peden St. into a one-way pair from Shepherd [...]
Best Blog I’ve found in a good while.
If you’re not reading it already, consider reading FlowChart. FlowChart is Rick Newman’s blog over at US News and World Report. I just read four great posts in a row, and I’m sold, I’ll be a regular reader from here on out. If you’re interested, take a look at this articles: What Sully Sullenberger Can [...]
When the economy is built on housing
THIS is why we need to forever move past the idea of housing as an economic engine. An extreme case, but an illustrative one, the New York Times today tells the story of the suburban area surrounding Fort Meyers, Florida. The area got its start in the 1950s when a Chicago pest control baron, Lee [...]
Stimulus, States, and Senators
Some thoughts on the upcoming stimulus package: 1. What’s the rush? I know people are panicky about the economy and want to see drastic action. I have no problem with drastic action. What I have a problem with is this rush to spend that clearly is going to result in billions of dollars wasted. Why [...]
Craving another fix?
This, from Clusterstock.com, was excellent: The Republicans have so little power in Washington right now that they’re grasping at the thinnest reeds in hopes of influencing the final stimulus bill. It’s going to be real tough to add substantially more tax breaks to the package, especially since so many people are convinced that we got [...]
I-10
Has anyone else noticed that traffic on I-10 is still not great? I have a ‘reverse’ commute on I-10 every day. Before the expansion traffic was fine inside the loop outbound in the morning, slow outside the loop. Inbound in the evening it was slow outside the loop, fine inside, except near the 10-45 interchange. [...]
Random Facts about Houston
My grandmother sent me an article from the Chronicle last night that mentioned a series of stories from the 1920s and 1930s in Houston. I found some of the information quite interesting and thought they deserved a mention here.
Hobby Airport was purchased by the City of Houston in 1937 for just under $300,000. I found out from Wikipedia that it also used to be called Howard Hughes Airport.