Posts Tagged ‘redevelopment’
Introduction
Today I’m starting a series on high-speed rail. This first post contains my opening thoughts, and some of the background assumptions that inform the rest of what I’m going to write about.
What to do with empty lots?
Cities and developers around the country are trying to find innovative ways to use vacant lots while they wait for the market to recover. What can Houston learn from these efforts, and where might we apply them?
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 [...]
West Gray Streetcar
Christof just finished a three part series on streetcars for Houston, which you can find here: part 1, part 2, part 3. It was a great read, and I highly recommend it. Kuffner then chimed in with his own iteration, which struck me as a great corridor, but really long for a streetcar. That would [...]
McGowen Green
So, over the years there has been a lot of discussion about what to do with the “superblock” at McGowen and Main. Lots of people have wanted to see a major mixed-use development go in there, and I think that would be an acceptable use of the land. However, as we’ve recently seen with Discovery [...]
Good concepts for Washington Ave
From Swamplot today, landscape architecture students reinvision the Washington Ave. corridor. I wholeheartedly agree with the concept here. Making Washington Ave and Center Street a one-way pair would tremendously help with traffic in that corridor. Volumes are manageable today, but development potential is really limited by the capacity of Washington Ave. Plus, we’re not talking [...]
Commuters instead of circulators? Bad idea.
Houston Strategies today suggests abandoning three of the planned light-rail lines in order to free up funds for other projects. In place of those lines, he suggests improved bus service, and investment in the commuter rail and improvements to the commuter bus system. His suggestion is that we cannot afford the investment in the north [...]
Kirby Can Be Saved
Recently, Trees for Houston has been battling with the Upper Kirby TIRZ over widening Kirby drive. The argument tends to go something like this: TIRZ: “The lanes are too narrow, there’s all this development happening over here, and we’ve got to improve traffic flow.” TFH: “The trees are about the only thing making Kirby bearable [...]