- League City Sees Bump in Commercial Construction [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Renovation of Fifth Ward’s DeLuxe Theater Nears Completion, Grand Opening Set for October [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
- Downtown Mia Bella at Main and Preston Closed Since May for Remodeling Reopening in 2 to 3 Months [Food Chronicles]
- Town in City Brewing Co. Makes Debut in the Heights at 1125 W Cavalcade St. During White Linen Night [Culturemap]
- Torchy’s Tacos Opening Seventh Houston-Area Location in November at The Woodlands’ Cochran’s Crossing Shopping Center [Houston Chronicle]
- Lack of Connectivity, Construction Deterring Bicyclists from Using Downtown’s Lamar St. Bike Lane [Houston Public Media]
Photo of Downtown: Telwink via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
It appears that keeping the Pierce elevated, once its closed to automobile traffic, and converting it into a pedestrian/cycle artery, would answer this connectivity problem. Of course, whether and when this would occur, and who exactly within city hall and among the various TIRZ groups affected is actually advocating for such a solution is currently a mystery.
Visited Town in City Brewing Friday. Their porter and pale ale are delicious. Big things ahead for these guys…
diaspora. Spend a little time actually looking at how much the realignment removes connectivity between areas not called midtown and downtown. There are no additional through lanes added to any of the freeways, there are actually a reduction in lanes in certain places. the number of streets going east/west from 288/59 to 59/i10 are reduced by half (and the number is already really low). If you really spend time looking at what they want to do, and compare it with what is there now, it’s a net loss for people who live in any of the areas, even those living in midtown.
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If you really look at it, the only winners in the 45 realignment are high end developers working the downtown space who want the land that the pierce elevated runs on (and want the land they own around it to go up in price). So there is no way that 45 gets realigned and the pierce doesn’t get completely removed.
I had to re-read the headlines to figure out if this was just a complete non-sequitur. The connectivity issues they’re referring to along Lamar are at the East and West ends, to the Buffalo Bayou trails and to Columbia Tap on the east side. I know that at least the connectivity issue to the Bayou trails is just one of navigation — you’re two blocks away from the trail, it’s just hard to find.
Even if this crucial piece of infrastructure were abandoned in favor of a hike / bike path [1], where would you go on your bike? 59? I-10? It’s an interstate road downtown that just connects to other interstates. Hundreds of millions of dollars would have to be spent on ramps to make it walkable. And what use would this path be, as opposed to just fixing up Caroline St (which the TIRZ is already planning), and having some better (and very cheap) paths through Freedman’s Town?
[1] Or demolished entirely: “This interstate cuts off the urban fabric between Midtown and Downtown. Therefore, let’s destroy the urban fabric on the *other* side of downtown instead.” And it doesn’t even have to be that way since it’s actually just the Greyhound station and its complement that poison the area.
Torchy’s Taco is so overrated in my opinion! I can get so much better tasting tacos from a taco truck and that’s not saying much.
Re: Lamar Street lack of users of the dedicated bike lane
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After seeing JohnQ’s comment, I went and read the article, too. Talk about a boondoggle. Two cyclists using this dedicated lane in 30 minutes? (Ridiculous).
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And, we’re waiting for the Allen Parkway construction to start at one end so that the lane can be “more ready” next spring? Why not just return the lane back to car use until then to aid mobility downtown? This is a perfect example of putting the cart before the horse. I’m supportive of bicyclist but I’m more supportive of common sense – this is just silly.