COMMENT OF THE DAY: SPACE SHUTTLE FANS WOULD’VE EATEN IT UP “I’m sorry we won’t be blessed with a shuttle. I was really looking forward to dining at the Rainforest Cafe in the payload bay.” [wilf, commenting on That’ll Show ’Em What a Magnet for Tourists Houston Really Is]
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE NEIGHBORHOOD VET “Since when are criminal background checks needed to rent an apartment. Ever heard of ‘paid your debt to society’? How are we to rehabilitate the formerly incarcerated if the only place you want them to live, is with other criminals? Be fair, and a little more forward thinking.” [Bill, commenting on The Apartments Taking the Place of the Houston Ballet on West Gray]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHO’S PAYING FOR THIS SPREAD? “Ironically, it is GOVERNMENT rules and funding that promotes suburban, space-wasting development. If people had to pay every day for the cost of the roads they use, or for the government-required parking spaces (subsidized by non-car users in the prices they pay), they might think differently. Instead, the [cost] is hidden in catch-all taxes. And, after all, isn;t it a goverment regulation that these developers are trying to waive? . . . The city government, with the support of many Houstonians who see no value in an attractive city, and prefer to retreat indoors, actively makes urbanization difficult, and promotes far-flung developments with miles of expensive infrastructure at taxpayer cost.” [Marco Roberts, commenting on Apartment Building Replacing Tavern on Gray Won’t Have Any Retail, But Really Wants To Hug the Street Anyway]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY WALK, WHEN YOU CAN DRIVE? “If I live in a ‘walkable’ neighborhood I have access to a couple of restaurants and maybe a couple of services but with my CAR I have access to THOUSANDS of restaurants, services, venues, malls, etc. without having to use the same one twice . . . Why would I give a sh*t about a ‘walkable’ neighborhood?!?!??!?” [commonsense, commenting on Apartment Building Replacing Tavern on Gray Won’t Have Any Retail, But Really Wants To Hug the Street Anyway]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: DOWN IN FRONT “Actually, ground floor retail is an uphill struggle. Apartment managers want to manage apartments. Shopping center managers want to manage retail tenants. Plus, with the slim profile of this lot…where 10 extra feet is needed for the parking…putting 50 or 100 foot deep retailers in the garage would be even worse. And, despite the claims of the poster several spots up, mixed use retail space is a very hard sell. Dallas pushed several developers to include ground floor retail in new complexes, and most of them sit idle. The fact is, Houston is capable of separating the two, so developers and retailers prefer to do so. Only in dense urban areas do retailers attempt to carve out space wherever they can find it. Despite the love affair with mixed use retail, it is still a very rare bird . . . especially in new development. . . .” [Dave, commenting on Apartment Building Replacing Tavern on Gray Won’t Have Any Retail, But Really Wants To Hug the Street Anyway]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: EXXONMOBIL OFFICE PARK CONSTRUCTION REPORT “On [my way] in to work this morning, driving south on 45 and going over the Rayford/Sawdust bridge, I could clearly see a crane poking out above the trees in the Exxon campus area.” [Jessie M, commenting on Aerial Views of ExxonMobil’s New Sprawling, Top Secret Houston Headquarters]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SAVE THE GRASSLANDS “One of these days I’m going to start a movement to return Houston to the prairie that it was before World War II. I’ll organize a massive protest every time a new tree is planted, in an effort to restore Houston to the pristine flatland of pastures it originally was, before the invasions of those alien oak, pine and palm trees. (Never mind the tallows….)” [J.V., commenting on Clearing Out the Feagan Oaks from Magnolia Grove]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: NOT HOLDING UP SO WELL WITHOUT YOU “Missing columns are nothing to snicker about. Have you ever spent sleepless nights wondering if your loved column will return? Have you experienced the pain of seeing your column with a Spanish Colonial from the other side of town? Well, you might think she supports you completely, but you’ll be the one left bearing the load. Mark my words you insensitive clods.” [kilray, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Dramatic Entry]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WORKS EVEN BETTER WHEN YOUR NEIGHBORS STUFF THEIR TOWNHOUSES WITH FOAM PEANUTS “I live in a 3 story townhome (2800 sq ft., shared walls, middle unit, north-facing) and the pleasant surprise for me has been the utility bills. July/August/September (bills since 2008) – no more than $140/month (@ ~.10/kw). Electrical bill drops down to <$100 in the winter. Since I have shared walls, the units on either side of me act as additional insulation for me.” [Terry, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Dramatic Entry]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THEY COULD’VE PARKED THE SPACE SHUTTLE OVER THERE BY SECOND BASE “Why build a [hangar]? We finally had something to put in the Astrodome and we let it slip away.” [DanaX, commenting on No Shuttle Parking: Space Center Houston’s Innovative Garage Design Loses Out]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE REAL REASON THEY DON’T BUILD SO MANY STEEL OR CONCRETE HOMES IN HOUSTON “Additionally, you’re very limited when building out of steel or concrete, engineering requirements limit the shape and interest in the house. The walls of the second floor HAVE to sit on another wall underneath and forget about turrets and towers (can be done but very difficult). Like it or not, in today’s market turrets and towers add interest to the elevation of the house and they sell!” [commonsense, commenting on Tin House Panic Grips West U]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE DISPOSABLE HOME “There is a reason we build out of toothpicks and plastic… Unlike in Europe Americans do not live in their parents houses and do not generally inherit them, tastes and needs also change. Hence a home that will last a few decades is perfect because it will be torn down in that time anyway and will provide new construction jobs and loan interest income. It’s the cycle of life of a home. This metal house will be torn down around the same time the stucco ones around it lose their appeal.” [commonsense, commenting on Tin House Panic Grips West U]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY’D THEY LET THE ASTRODOME ROT? “. . . It doesn’t have to just sit there and waste our tax dollars, but unfortunately taxpayers are letting that happen by not pressuring the county to take immediate steps towards making it useful. Instead of doing nothing while waiting on what it will be in its grand ‘next life’ they should be getting it up to code, bit by bit, step by step so that it can be used, or at least parts of it be used – like maybe just the field – to start bringing in revenue. Before the doors closed permanently, a family paid around $18,000 to rent the field for a bar mitzvah. Don’t know how much director/producer John Lee Hancock paid to lease it for his movie Friday Night Lights (Sport & Convention Corp. wouldn’t tell me) but it wasn’t chickenfeed. If the county had been doing stuff like this all along the building would still be inhabitable and probably be at least paying for itself. It certainly would be a lot more attractive to potential investors. Taxpayers need to be pro-active and tell their commissioners to start fixing it up NOW and not wait another month or six months (at $300,000-400,000 a month) or a year! They should put that money to work and not down the drain. Taxpayers should show up at Commissioners Court and insist that the process to get the building operational, even in some small way, should start NOW.” [Cynthia Neely, commenting on How To Demolish the Astrodome: No Dynamite, Please]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A QUICK AND EASY WAY TO DECIDE WHAT TO KEEP AND WHAT TO GIVE AWAY “I can create a cost model for any particular item based on the cubic feet of space it requires for storage vs. the price per cubic foot of space in the house.* (Actual monthly cost, NOT “sale price per foot,†because taxes and interest are real things.) Measure the cost of keeping it for X period of time, vs. replacing it at an expected point in the future combined with the fuzzy application of inconvenience factors (can it only be purchased via a 1-hour drive, or week-long wait for delivery?) and criticality (would I have a broken pipe for days if I don’t have this pipe wrench?) and I have a good, solid grasp on any individual item and whether its worth keeping based on the expected frequency of its utility. If the cost of keeping it during the periods of uselessness exceeds the weighted replacement cost by more than 10%, it’s gone. Unfortunately, this model -can not- be applied to items with a sentimental factor value of greater than 0.3. Sure recipe for a very long argument with the SO. * – in a more functionally perfect model, the overall value of a particular sq. ft. of space would be [weighted] on many factors such as its visibility, ease of access, specialized design, etc. However, these factors complicate the model to such a degree that I’d then have to write some software to handle it, and then I’d have the further conjoining restraint of cost of permanent storage for the data as well as the physical items. I usually determine that the feedback cycle that rears its head in the process isn’t worth the effort, and the generalized model works well enough.” [drone, commenting on Comment of the Day: How Houston’s East Enders Have Rid Themselves of Clutter]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW HOUSTON’S EAST ENDERS HAVE RID THEMSELVES OF CLUTTER “Small closets are a great tool for stuff reduction. Houston, and especially the East End, is still full of similar vintage 1000-1500 sq. ft houses designed for simple living.” [DanaX, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Fountain]