- Hotel Derek’s $4.5M Renovation Project To Incorporate Materials That Reflect Its ‘Indigenous Surroundings’ [Houston Business Journal]
- Rush To Build Far-Flung Master-Planned Communities Around Houston Qualifies the City as a Hot Residential Market [Houston Business Journal ($)]
- Construction Begins on $5M Navigation Blvd. Beautification Project; To Include Pedestrian Promenade, Esplanade, Possible Revived Streetcar [KUHF]
- Johnson Space Center’s Take on ‘Gangnam Style’ Video Not as Embarrassing as Other Parodies [Culturemap]
- Metro CEO George Greanias Stepping Down Before End of Year [The Highwayman]
- Rice’s ‘Twilight Epiphany’ Included in List of ‘Most Talked About’ Buildings of 2012 [Atlantic Cities; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of Ben Milam Hotel demo aftermath: Candace Garcia via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Glad that Navigation will be spruced up, and $5,000,000 does not seem like a huge amount, but let’s not get too fancy. Other nearby streets need redoing even more. For instance, Polk is:
-closer to the soccer stadium than Navigation is (.3 mi vs. .5 mi)
-the primary street for those living in the south and west part of Houston for accessing the soccer stadium, GRB convention center, the Toyota Center, or the rest of the East End. It is also used by East Enders. Navigation is used by East Enders.
I wish that sometimes, the city would spend money first on fixing third-world streets and putting in continuous sidewalks rather than fantasizing about streetcars.
What is the over-under on number of feet between utility poles (and other obstructions) placed in the middle of the sidewalk on Navigation. $100s of millions of dollars on the transit streets with the rail lines and that finished product leaves me with little hope for Navigation.
Hotel Derek and “Indigenous Surroundings”?
As the sister-in-law of a NASA engineer, and the aunt of a JSC intern last summer (from the opposite side of the family) all I can say is I love nerd humor. Well, done.