Streets

Houston Heights, Old Sixth Ward, Streets

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View from Carriage along Briar Forest, Houston

A few recent scenes from around town: Jay Lee provides a carriage-eye view of ~~Briar Forest~~ East Rivercrest, just south of Briar Forest.

More fun-around-Houston pics below!

77007, 77008, Briar Forest, Houston Heights, Old-Sixth-Ward

South Post Oak

08/12/08 11:37am

Snuff Is Not Enough: South Post Oak Lubricated Walking Tour

Streets

South Post Oak Blvd. at W. Bellfort, Houston

Veteran Houston hoofers John Nova Lomax and David Beebe and a guest suffer a vehicle breakdown on their latest walking tour — from West Fuqua up South Post Oak to W. Bellfort. The trip, says Lomax,

ended up as little more than a Bataan death pub crawl, taking in three unjustly obscure near southwest side strip mall taverns.

But . . . oh, the sights!

77035, 77045, 77053, 77085, Near Southwest, Pedestrians, South Post Oak, Streets, Tours

Greenway Plaza

08/11/08 11:41am

Costco $17K Left Turn Green Light

Quicklink, Shopping Centers, Streets, Trees

1 Comment

COSTCO $17K LEFT TURN GREEN LIGHT The new Costco on Richmond gets on okay for tree-free left turns: “According to Craig Cheney, spokesman for partner-developer Trammell Crow, nine bald cyprus and three other trees will be removed from the Weslayan median and replanted elsewhere. The developer will ‘buy out’ three live oaks that will be cut down on Richmond to make way for two left-turn lanes for a total of $17,000, a spokesman for the city said. [River Oaks Examiner, previously in Swamplot]

77027, Greenway Plaza, Shopping Centers, Streets, Trees

Online Resources

08/06/08 1:08pm

Google Now Looking Inside the Loop and Up Your Street

Streets

6 Comments

Map Showing Coverage of Google Street View in Houston

When the Street View feature was first introduced to Houston Google Maps about a year ago, it allowed viewers to follow street-level photos . . . mostly along major thoroughfares. In March, Google added street-level views of residential neighborhoods within a huge swath of West Houston and Pasadena . . . but the update still left out most areas inside the Loop.

This week, a tipster informs us, Google has expanded Street View again, updating its database with photos taken from almost every street inside the Loop . . . and this time including most areas inside the Beltway and beyond as well. The map above shows the extent of the new coverage.

Smile! Photos of your home are likely now on the internet . . . unless you live in a few special areas in town . . .

Google Maps, Houston Data, Online Resources, Streetlife, Streets

Neighborhood Disputes

07/29/08 9:12am

Those Aren’t Live Oaks on Kirby Anymore

Quicklink, Streets, Trees, Upper Kirby

2 Comments

THOSE AREN’T LIVE OAKS ON KIRBY ANYMORE “Overnight, crews cut down dozens of trees lining Kirby between Richmond and Westheimer as part of a controversial construction project.” With chainsaws and backhoes in the middle of the night — what excitement! [11 News, previously in Swamplot]

77098, Kirby Street Trees, Neighborhood Disputes, Streetscapes, Trees, Upper Kirby

Greenway Plaza

07/02/08 11:15am

Left Turns at Weslayan and Richmond: Trees Get in the Way

Shopping Centers, Streets, Trees

Costco at Richmond and Weslayan Under Construction

Street trees in medians on Weslayan and Richmond will likely be disappearing soon, reports Sarah Kortemeier in the offline-only Village News. Three left-turn lanes on Weslayan and two on Richmond are planned for the new Greenway Commons Costco-powered Power Center under construction on the northeast corner of that intersection:

Trammell Crow Managing Director of Retail Development Craig Cheney says that the company was required by the City of Houston to put the turning bays in for traffic mitigation purposes, and his company was not made aware of any extra permitting required to remove trees. . . .

The median does not appear to be wide enough to accommodate extra lanes without removing trees. Cheney says that Trammell Crow is “open to any suggestions [the City] might have” about relocating or mitigating the effect on trees, but that the turning bays cannot be constructed without removing or relocating at least some of the trees.

Costco’s Price May Include Weslayan Trees [Village News]
Greenway Commons: Gas Station Too! [Swamplot]
Big, Expensive HISD Box To Be Replaced by Big, Cheap Costco Box [Swamplot]

Photo of Costco construction: Flickr user Graustark

77027, Greenway Commons, Greenway Plaza, Shopping Centers, Streets, Trees

Airline

06/09/08 4:46pm

Why the Auto Salvage Yards Like Airline Dr.

Hazards, Retail, Shopping Centers, Streets

Corner of Airline Dr. and Hill Rd., Houston

Fox TV reporter Isiah Carey breathlessly describes the scene yesterday at Airline Dr. and Hill Rd. — “probably one of the most dangerous areas in our city” — where he had stopped to plug a leaky tire:

In the 15 minutes I was there I witnessed 2 hit and run accidents. One truck hit a car and then drove off. The other was a car slamming into a SUV and the driver of the car also took off. In both cases the victims pursued the drivers who hit them. Then there was almost a third accident but the drivers managed to avoid hitting each other. But the fun didn’t end there. There was another instance where two people were driving down Airline and arguing from car to car. One passenger was hanging out of the window yelling at the other driver while pointing his finger very angrily. I asked the tire repair guy what was going on. He immediately blamed the flea markets just down the road. I still don’t get how the flea market can affect how adults behave on a Sunday afternoon. Anyway, when I left the tire repair shop there was like bumper to bumper traffic in front of those flea markets along Airline. I have never seen so many people out and about without a major concert. I almost hit a couple of them who just walked in front of my moving car to get from one side of the flea market to the other.

Now This Is a Dangerous Part of Town! [InSite]

77037, Airline, Flea Markets, Hazards, Retail, Shopping Centers, Streets

Mixed Use

05/22/08 9:38am

Regent Square Developers: Parking Garages Scared Us Straight

Montrose, North Montrose, Parking, Proposed Developments, Streets

1 Comment

Axonometric of Proposed Regent Square Development, North Montrose, Houston

Those of you still wondering why Regent Square’s quaint crooked street was axed from the project’s most recent plan — along with a few lush-looking inner courtyards — will be interested to read this explanation unearthed from a variance request submitted to the Planning Commission for today’s hearing:

After careful value engineering, it was determined to eliminate the below grade parking and replace that parking in additional structured garage parking. In addition, the diagonal private street that bi-sected the site has been modified and now runs perpendicular to Dunlavy. This also provided for a more efficient design of the structured parking garages.

After the jump: The new plan. When . . . and what?

77019, Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Parking-Garages, Proposed Developments, Regent Square, Streets, Variances

Mixed Use

05/14/08 12:17pm

The Kink Is Gone: Those Revised Plans for Regent Square

Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Streets

Master Plan, Regent Square, North Montrose, Houston, March 26, 2008

A helpful reader who lives across the street from “what will hopefully become Regent Square and not self-storage” sends us a link to this revised master-plan drawing for the proposed North Montrose multi-block monster. The new plan matches the new drawing we posted yesterday.

After the jump: some closeups, plus another look at the old version for comparison.

77019, Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Regent Square, Streets

Commercial Real Estate

05/13/08 7:58am

Going Straight: Regent Square Follows a New Path

Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Streets

3 Comments

Axonometric of Proposed Regent Square Development, North Montrose, Houston

This new drawing provides a sneak peek of the latest plans for Regent Square in North Montrose. And it shows a few changes from earlier views of GID Urban Development Group’s new 24-acre mixed-use project.

Earlier drawings showed several new streets cutting diagonally through the site of the recently demolished Allen House Apartments. But this latest leaked drawing of the complex’s first phase shows a straightened north-south axis coming off Allen Parkway, resulting in buildings with fewer odd angles.

This new drawing dates from late April. Our tipster reports:

. . . they will have some pretty cool apartments there in addition to condos and retail. This pic shows allen pkwy on the far right. The 2 shadows are the condo towers. The apartments will be 5 and 8 stories in multiple buildings and will have some awesome amenities including the rooftop pool you can see there.

After the jump: Closeups of the new drawing, plus a longing last look at those kinky old plans!

77019, Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Regent Square, Streets

Downtown

05/07/08 12:28pm

Crossing Downtown: The Latest Plans for East-West Rail

East Downtown, Proposed Developments, Streets, Transportation

3 Comments

Diagram Showing Proposed Alignment of Southeast and East End Light Rail Lines, Downtown Houston

Christof Spieler returns from a Metro meeting with some new detail on the proposed Downtown routes for the Southeast and East End light-rail lines.

Spieler politely calls the latest plan a compromise. (“I doubt anyone is really happy with it,” he writes.) It has Metro siting the two lines — which will run on the same tracks for most of the crosstown trek — along the south side of Capitol (heading west) and the south side of Rusk (heading east). But unlike the trains that run down Main St. today, the new vehicles won’t have any right-of-way advantages over cars:

Like buses do now, the trains will share the curb lanes with cars, both turns and through traffic. . . . And the signals will be operated as they are on Capitol and Rusk today: trains will find the lights are sometimes green and sometimes red, and they will stop or go accordingly. There is no doubt that this will slow trains down and throw off schedules: for example, a line of stopped cars in the left lane on one block would force the train to hold in the previous block until the cars moved. It might also be a safety issue, but thatâ€™s not as clear.

The new lines will intersect with the Main St. line at a new Downtown Crossing station, which will likely require passengers to do plenty of street-crossing themselves:

there are 4 platforms â€” north- and southbound Main Street and east- and westbound East End/ Southeast â€” that can share one station name, making the system easy to understand. But the east-west platforms are a block away from Main Street, so some transfers will still involve a three block walk, with 3 pedestrian lights, from the center of one platform to the center of another.

After the jump: The end of the line!

77002, 77003, Downtown, East Downtown, Light-Rail, Metro, Proposed Developments, Streets, Transportation

Afton Oaks

05/01/08 3:41pm

A Walk Down Cheezy Street: Richmond Avenue, Past Its Prime

Nightlife, Richmond Strip, Streets

3 Comments

Corner of Richmond and Fountainview, Houston

Pedestrian scribe John Lomax and Marfa City Council candidate David Beebe have, by this time, earned the right to make a few sweeping statements about various Houston neighborhoods. And Lomax exercises that right in his chronicle of the pair’s latest adventure on foot, along Richmond Avenue from Mission Bend to Midtown:

. . . the epicenter of H-Town cheese is the corner of Fountainview and Richmond. A four-story, day-glo, red, white, turquoise, and tan building looms over the southeastern corner there, and it houses a Sprint shop, a little downstairs bar with the godawful name Identity, a scalperâ€™s office, a massage therapist, and a huge Darque Tan outlet.

Sure, Westheimerâ€™s got some cheese, and is a little tattered around the edges in spots, but thereâ€™s a veneer of gentility as expressed by old-line businesses like Christieâ€™s Seafood. Richmond, by contrast, used to have that sub-Landryâ€™s fried seafood emporium King Fish Market, which despite the incessant awful commercials that polluted local airwaves circa 1999, is now out of business and practically in ruins. The whole lot of it is a great vat of rancid Velveeta.

As is much of the Richmond Strip. That giant sax outside of Billy Blues is looking more and more like the torch sticking out of the sand at the end of Planet of the Apes.

After the jump: how’s the nightlife?

77027, 77042, 77056, 77057, 77063, 77082, Afton Oaks, Nightlife, Pedestrians, Richmond Ave., Richmond Strip, Streets, Tours

Chinatown

04/30/08 3:42pm

The Journey Slideshow Is the Reward: New Photo Directions from Google

Online Resources, Streets

Turn by Turn Directions with Google Street View

Google has just added street-level photos to the driving directions available on Google Maps. This means — if you’re headed through an area covered by Google’s Street View — you can now use photographs of each intersection to guide your journey, with helpful arrows superimposed to show your path.

Though the areas covered by Street View in Houston were recently expanded, most inside-the-Loop neighborhoods are still not covered. Let’s say you’re at the new Pagoda Vietnamese restaurant near Cottage Grove, trying to find your way to Chinatown — you know, that neighborhood on Bellaire in southwest Houston, where all those Vietnamese restaurants are. If you plot your trip using Google maps, the directions won’t show photos of your first few turns. From I-10 on, though, you get preview photographs of every intersection. And you can pan and zoom around them, as if looking for oncoming traffic.

After the jump: A video from Google, showing how Street View directions work . . . and what they’re good for.

Chinatown, Google, Maps, Online Resources, Streets

Alief

04/25/08 11:47am

More Evidence Parking Lots Are the New Main Street

Attractions, Parking, Streets