COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON’S 6 TRULY WALKABLE NEIGHBORHOODS 
“. . . [Y]ou can have walkability even when density is just moderate. Small town downtowns are walkable even though most folks arrive by car. Many commercial neighborhoods in streetcar suburbs built before 1950 are this way. What makes them walkable: comfortable street design (sorry but 40 mph is too fast), frequent safe pedestrian street crossings, ample sidewalks in good condition, pedestrian-oriented buildings that aren’t separated by big parking lots, on-street parking (what Houston lacks in too many places), decent night lighting, and relatively small block sizes. Houston has subsets of these features in numerous places but the whole package is very rare — 19th @ Rutland, Rice Village (mainly just strip malls mushed together), Harrisburg @ 67th, the Historic District downtown, and the main gay bar area in Montrose (awful or nonexistent sidewalks though and lacking night lighting) come close, plus of course Bagby @ Gray. Hence developers building them from scratch (West Ave, River Oaks District, CityCentre, etc.) to satisfy demand.” [Local Planner, commenting on Comment of the Day: Sorry, but Houston’s Never Gonna Be Walkable] Illustration: Lulu
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: SORRY, BUT HOUSTON’S NEVER GONNA BE WALKABLE 
“Unlikely Houston will ever have the density or transit similar to the world’s great urban centers. The inner loop would have to triple in density (current average 5-8k/sq.mi), just to start on that path. Houston is growing, but I don’t see the population tripling any time soon. Think about how many housing units would be required; where would they go? In the predominantly single family neighborhoods? At best, the current trend will continue for a few more years until growth plateaus, and we’ll see Houston basically as it looks now; houses with occasional 4-8 story apt. blocks, maybe reaching ~10k density in some areas, but never the 20k+ necessary for real walkable neighborhoods.
Also, the heat and humidity. That’s never going away.” [outtahere, commenting on Comment of the Day: Downtown Orthodontia] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: DOWNTOWN ORTHODONTIA 
“I think it looks like the goal is to create a cluster, rather than a monolith. That makes sense in that part of town. As is, to me Houston’s skyline seems to suffer from a ‘gap tooth’ effect created by all of the standalone buildings. I think more blocks with multiple height buildings on them would make our skyline look more interesting. If everything stands out, nothing stands out . . . they can’t all be masterpieces like Pennzoil or Transco (Williams).” [DBG, commenting on A First Look at Some of the 33-Story Apartment Tower Hines Wants To Build in Market Square] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE WORD FROM SOMEWHERE WAY ABOVE WESLAYAN 
“Yes [it] is an awesome building. You just see a mock up pic. I’m working here. And I see no back yards. Only empty concrete back patios, lol. Anyways, you people in this area drive nuts. That’s the reason for the congestion! Stop slowing us down. 30 weeks of heavy noise to go.” [Rudy, commenting on The Numbers on That 35-Story Tower Planned for Weslayan and West Alabama] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WITHOUT THIS KIND OF JEWELRY, THE HOUSE WOULD BE NAKED 
“You have to look at Lick & Stick stone from the perspective of ‘given the low budget, what would have been an alternative?’ and most of the time it would be nothing, just bare stucco. So, on some level it’s better [to have] something than nothing.” [commonsense, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Ragged Left] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: KEEP HOUSTON OBLIVIOUS 
“In a real way, Houston is way more weird than Austin. Austin has a younger, more counter-culture population but all that has become mainstream anyway. Houston, on the other hand, is weird as in strange or unique in its ability to freely and quickly remake itself based on economics, not by committee. But instead of Houstonians embracing this uniqueness, we groan how we should be like Boston, NY, etc. and moan about not preserving buildings (I am in this group), this one going up in an inappropriate spot etc., that one not being architecturally congruent. But it’s like we’re living in a huge sand painting with things we see getting constructed and others destroyed constantly, which is the beauty, reality and terror of existence, the wabi-sabi beauty of impermanence. Austin is a peace symbol, Houston is actual war.” [Dana-X, commenting on Comment of the Day: Why Montrose Ain’t the Worst Place for a Bar from Austin] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY MONTROSE AIN’T THE WORST PLACE FOR A BAR FROM AUSTIN “[I]s there some magical mysterious essence of Houston that a person from Austin couldn’t possibly understand? Or vice versa? Inner loop Houston is just like inner (loopless) Austin. Suburban Houston is just like suburban Austin. You can rest assured that Doc’s, designed to appeal to the South Congress crowd in Austin, will also adequately accommodate the unique needs and wants of the Montrose crowd.” [heyzeus, commenting on Austin Bar Doc’s To Remedy Montrose Wendy’s Wreckage]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: A RIVER OAKS HOME’S HIDDEN HOLLYWOOD HISTORY 
“Believe it or not, somewhere in there are the bones of a 1950′s flat-roofed modern house designed for the Fondren family by Eugene Werlin. It was used in the movie The Thief Who Came To Dinner.” [BenH, commenting on Headlines: A Big New TV in Reliant Stadium; The River Oaks Mansion with the Biggest Pool in Houston] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: TRYING TO GROK THE BIG HOUSE “The $14.5 million house only has three bedrooms in 11K square feet of house — does that mean the rest of it is the 8 bathrooms and 4 half baths? A million-gallon pool would be what kind of water bill? Their current taxes are $98K with homeowners and over-65 exemptions on an HCAD valuation of $5 million, so what would taxes be for an under 65 if they end up selling it for $10-ish million?” [Heidi, commenting on Headlines: A Big New TV in Reliant Stadium; The River Oaks Mansion with the Biggest Pool in Houston]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT THE FATE OF THE ASTRODOME SAYS ABOUT HOUSTON “This whole Dome debate is more than a just a property tax issue that people want to paint it as. If you really distilled it down to a single point, well then I guess it is. However, it incorporates debates on size of government, government accountability / effectiveness, a city identity crisis, preservation, nostalgia, optimism vs pessimism, and cronyism. One could actually make the argument that in this one issue, we’re trying to figure out what it is to be a ‘Houstonian,’ what the future of Houston is going to be, and if it’s worth saving our past. This has been so fascinating to me because of all these issues are being hashed out whether consciously or unconsciously. This whole saga is definitely worth writing a book over. I guess we get to decide how that book ends (or continues?) in November.” [DNAguy111, commenting on Commissioners Decide To Let Voters Decide on Convention Center Plan]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: HOW HOUSTON CAN SPEED THINGS ALONG 
“Can we replace the HOT lanes with hyperloop tubes? Who wouldn’t pay $5 bucks to travel from The Woodlands to Downtown in 5 minutes? It’d be cheaper than gas! That’d be a game changer.
How about a hyperloop tube to Galveston? Think of how efficient evacuation would be with an on coming hurricane.” [Thomas, commenting on Headlines: Many More Dunkin’ Donuts; Free Metro Rides on Labor Day] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LISTENING TO THE MONTROSE VORTEX 
“This looks like the tornadic vortex that tunneled through and created the Inversion House and could do the same to any bungalow left in Montrose. I’ve seen some of Renner’s gigantic spheres of the same colorful slats and this seems like the humongous fallopian tube that spit them out. It appears to move faster than the traffic that sits alongside it. I love that the colors reflect the rainbow flags along Westheimer left from the parade. Best of all is that HAA money went to a Houston artist! If I put my ear up to the big end, do I hear the live oaks singing? It appeals to all my senses.” [Mike, commenting on Now Ready To Be Looked At: Montrose “Funnel Tunnelâ€] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BRINGIN’ DA FUNK EAST 
“The East End is getting Voodoo Queen and Moon Tower while Montrose gets a world-class croissant place, Vinoteca Poscól and The Susanne. The funk and character of Houston still exists but has relocated.” [Dana-X, commenting on Voodoo Queen ‘So Close’ To Opening in the East End] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: LONGING FOR LONG POINT 
“how long until the teardown trend crosses to the north side of Long Point?” [anonymous, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Global Warming] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW ETHNIC FOOD BECOMES FINE DINING, IN A FEW SIMPLE STEPS “The pattern in Houston is the same as in a lot of cities: Pricier ‘fine-dining’ establishments are found in city centers and more desirable neighborhoods where rents tend to be higher, while the more interesting but less refined ethnic restaurants open in areas where rents are affordable for their (often recent immigrant) owners. There is a sort of built-in prejudice against paying fine-dining prices for certain types of ethnic foods. One often hears ‘I’m not paying $25 for Thai/Vietnamese/Mexican food.’ We haven’t minded paying high prices for French or Italian food for at least two generations. And Japanese food followed a generation later. Spanish restaurants are commonplace, fine-dining Chinese food can now be found in many markets, and Houston has one of the finest Mexican restaurants in the country in Hugo’s. As 2nd generation immigrants come of age, you often see chefs receive ‘classical’ training, gain experience in the country’s best restaurants, then connect this knowledge with the food they grew up with. I fully expect Houston to have, say, a top-notch fine dining Vietnamese restaurant within the next decade.” [Angostura, commenting on Comment of the Day: Following the Great Chain Restaurant Migration]