JCI Grill Still Keeping Heights Restaurant Under Hot Dog Surveillance; TXDOT Kills Plans for 290 Elevated Carpool and Toll Lanes

Fourth Ward Townhouses and Downtown Towers, Houston

Photo of Fourth Ward townhouses and Downtown: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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  • I wondered when Palovina would close, it was pretty good before management changed. Then it way way downhill, they took out everything, they had about one waitress per night and the food quality went downhill. The last time we where there we found a piece of plastic in our dish and they gave us $5 off, like it was no big deal.

    They completely gave up and it was obvious they didn’t care what any customer thought anymore.

  • An outlet mall right on the Southwest Freeway?! SWEET!
    .
    This will definitely be a destination for me and my family….

  • Re: US290 redesign

    The redesign dropping the HOV lanes down to a single one-way configuration is the worst idea yet to come out of TxDOT. Are they nuts? I prefer to think they are doing so to insure that the taxpayers will have to rebuild AGAIN in just a few more years thus giving highway contractors yet another chance to make more of our money. Why can’t out highways be designed to be easily expandable? Why do we need to constantly tear down relatively recently built overpasses or bridges such as the elevated US290 HOV lanes?

    Something is rotten in Austin….

  • Comparing JCI to Good Dog, is like comparing McDonald’s to Hubcap Grill. No slam on either, they each are making and sell a completely different product to a completely different consumer.

  • That 10 billion dollar toy train set is still still in the works? The only people who ride trains are hippies and the musical group Quad City DJ’s!

  • Does the JCI/Good Dog story remind anyone else of Sponge Bob Square Pants?

  • On the guardrail story I stopped reading as soon as I got to “he used to compete with them”

  • Reducing the HOV back to one lane is not a big deal as long as HCTRA can still get the companion toll road installed along Hempstead.

    The original expansion plan had no HOV and timed the toll construction in sync with main lane construction.

    Additionally, removing bottlenecks such as the 610/290/10 interchange will go a long way to improving mobility for commuters.

  • @WR because those I-10 managed lanes work so well right? I’m sorry, but having to pay extra to ride in managed lanes that are on a freeway that was once free to use doesn’t fly with most people. I do not want to have to pay 7 dollars each way to drive to and from downtown each day. I’d much rather have 5-6 lanes on each side of one reversible lane.

  • WC, to build a great city one needs a vision of tomorrow instead of just today.

  • I see that Simon Premium Outlets is taking a calculated risk.

  • @kjb
    The construction of the companion toll toad is not a given, and I’d be surprised if it is completed by 2025, considering that toll roads get built more quickly than free lanes.

    @WR
    Yeah, that’s right. It’s not like TXDOT has major shortfall or anything, and it’s not like they’ve had to delay projects indefinitely because there’s not enough money. No, clearly they have so much money that they are building things with the intent to demo them in 5 years.

  • @MC, if those lanes on I-10 weren’t tolled, they would not be there. They would not have been built. TxDOT doesn’t have enough money to build extra lanes.