- Bayou Music Center To Now Be Called Revention Music Center As Part of a 5-Year Naming Rights Deal [Houston Chronicle]
- Lennar Multifamily Communities Bought 9.2 Acres from Medistar Inside ParkWest Business Park Near Grand Pkwy. in Katy [HBJ]
- Brock Group Leases 38,260 SF in the Deerwood Glen Business Park in Deer Park [Prime Property]
- Redevelopment of Long-Vacant Falstaff Brewery Moves Forward After Port Parking Agreement Reached [Galveston County Daily News ($) via Prime Property]
- Keller Williams Realty Inc. Pearland Adds 4K-SF of Office Space in the Sunrise Lake Village Professional Building [HBJ]
- Living Near a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods Will Likely Boost Your Property Values, Finds RealtyTrac [Prime Property]
- The Bird & The Bear Restaurant at 2810 Westheimer Has Closed, Been Sold to Relish Fine Foods [Houston Chronicle]
- Table on Post Oak Blvd. Might Be Transforming into Texas Outpost of L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon [Houstonia]
- City Makes Plan To Add Dedicated Bike Lanes in Both Directions on West Alabama St. [Montrose District]
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Suggests Removing Industrial Waste from 14-Acre Superfund Site on the San Jacinto River [Houston Chronicle]
- Southwaste, Timbergrove Manor Still at Odds Over Hurst St. Disposal Facility [The Leader]
- Outdoor Ban Burn In Effect Now in Harris County [Houston Public Media]
Photo of the West Loop: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Locations for “specialty grocerty stores” are chosen on a number of metrics that primarily include increasing home valuations, incomes and density. But thank god Sherlock and RealtyTrac are on the case with disguised marketing blurbs to come and tell us that retail stores that specifically target high income populations just so happen to end up in locations with increasing home values. Next up, Econ 101 with what goes up without supporting fundamentals, must come down.
Revention? Is that where you get so mad you have to vent, then you stew for some period, get mad again and have to re-vent?
West Alabama bike lanes…because taking Kipling would just be “too” safe
Bad Idea Jeans
MidtownCoog: The new bike lane would go past Shepherd, where Kipling ends. It sounds like it would eventually go at least to Weslayan, around Greenway Plaza.
You do make a good point though. Inside the loop, where there is a semblance of a street grid, there’s usually some nice and safe side street to travel on [1]. Greenway is not one of these areas (at least in the East-West direction), so this bike lane will make a great addition. I hope it’s separated and cleaned regularly.
[1] For some reason Washington is designated as a “bikeway”, with sharrows, but who in their right mind — besides large groups — would ride there instead of Center or Blossom or Feagan? Why would you ride in the trash-filled gutter “bike lane” along Commonwealth instead of Yoakum or Van Buren or Woodhead? Greater needs inside the loop are better connections around Memorial, the Bayou, and Allen Parkway.
Sidepaths on West Alabama for use by pedestrians and cyclists? Egads — I thought those were only permitted to be built in the suburbs!
@Midtowncoog, exactly.
The segment of of West Alabama up for reconstruction in the CIP is from Weslayan to Buffalo Speedway, so Kipling doesn’t look like a feasible bike alternate there. But I suppose whatever happens there may influence the re-building of the rest of the street eastward.
Funny, I had reservations for the Bird and the Bear on Friday that were cancelled due to a “water line break”. I could have had an Eater Houston scoop, but I guess I’ll have to keep waiting.
Why has the reverse lane stayed on after the spur was completed? As I recall it was a temporary measure to reduce spur construction traffic.
All these decades later drivers on W.Alabama are still mostly clueless about reverse lanes. And W.Alabama bicycle commuters are retarded.
Albert Thomas Convention Center has been standing there since what, 1972 or ’73? Why just rename it? This is Houston, isn’t it about time to tear it down and build something completely new?
RE: Bike lane carved out of West Alabama
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I jumped over to the article and scrolled through the comments: it was comforting to see that my fellow Houstonians are sensible in calling for the actual rebuilding of the broken-down road called West Alabama. And, it was nice to see that a good chunk are also calling for moving the bike lane to another street to avoid mixing bicycle and motorized traffic. (A sensible idea.)
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Lest anyone think I was anti-bike, I’d be in favor of building a dedicated “bikes only” pathway that parallels West Alabama at the same time that we rebuild West Alabama into a street worthy of the 21st century. As it is now, that street is barely tolerable for the horse and buggy age. Fix the potholes!
@Major Market,
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If a horse and buggy were to try to traverse W. Alabama, the poor horse would likely break an ankle on the potholes, raised manhole covers, and general crappiness of the surface.
The amount of vehicle traffic on west alabama is only increasing (see the suzzane/heb intersection at dunlavy). Using a more neighborhood street like fairview as an east/west connector seems a better idea. I guess one benefit of the alabama corridor would be it ties into caroline street just south of San Jacinto High School (HCC Main Campus) which gets tossed around as a museum district to downtown connector.
Still would like to see utilization the westpark rail easement the parallels the southside of 59 used as an urban pathway.
I’d support using another east-west street for bike traffic, but only if it got the same traffic lights Alabama gets. Bikes shouldn’t be playing Frogger on Shepherd.