CROSSING THAT THIN BABY BLUE LINE Two Bellaire City Council members are upset about a very long, baby blue line Metro painted along Bellaire Blvd. last month: “‘We work hard in Bellaire to improve the look of our community, the planning commission is working hard on a comprehensive plan, and then some outside entity decides to paint a stripe down our street, and I don’t like it,’ said Councilmember Peggy Faulk at Monday night’s council meeting. ‘We are continually plagued by visual pollution,’ said Councilmember Pat McLaughlan, who also challenged signs posted at-will by government jurisdictions through Bellaire. Metro painted the blue line along the entire route of its Quickline Signature express service, which offers high-tech hybrid buses at peak hours down Bellaire/Holcombe Boulevard from west Houston to the Texas Medical Center.” [Bellaire Examiner]
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Tag: Streetscapes
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE NEW KIRBY TREES “. . . the stretch of Kirby south of Rice Village to Brays Bayou is finished. It now has a center median. The tree planting is identical to the Kirby project from Westheimer to Richmond. Tree plantings on both sides of the road and in the median. The bonus of the Westheimer to Richmond section is that all the power lines will be underground. So the trees will be able to grow freely unlike the ones that were removed!” [kjb434, commenting on West Ave School of Loud but Muffled Knocks]
THE WOODWAYS AND THE WESTHEIMERS “I sometimes think that Woodway is made nicer by the fact that Westheimer exists. There are certainly numerous suburbs and exurbs where the Westheimers look like Woodways. Oh, there’s retail, but it’s set back from the street, perhaps behind a tree buffer, with tasteful monument signage out front. I’ve always found such environments to be stifling. It’s so obviously contrived. All-night, six- and eight-lane arterials are SUPPOSED to have large illuminated signs. They’re SUPPOSED to have ratty businesses alongside the nice ones. Every suburb has a Target and a ratty convenience store. Westheimer has a Target and twenty ratty convenience stores, plus ’24 hours video and news.’ I’ve never been in there, but its existence tells me that this strip is whatever it wants to be. This holds true of Woodway. It’s not a pure residential drive; there is retail, much of it even with tasteful signage. The signage follows from the road – Westheimer has large signs because it’s big and straight and a larger sign means higher visibility. Put up a larger sign on Woodway and it’d just be obscured by trees. Some people think of Westheimer (and other streets like it) as ugly. I don’t, but I understand where they’re coming from. Perhaps if they wanted to do something about it, they should plant trees instead of making rules about commercial signage. Proactive versus restrictive. Woodway is a nice drive because it was built to very nice design standards (10′ median with staggered trees) and because the people who own stores and homes along Woodway want to keep it pleasant. And so it is.” [Keep Houston Houston]
Google has rolled out another update to its Street View feature, this time allowing simultaneous views of a property from the air and the street — as shown in this view of a familiar Rice Village site. The button labeled “Street View” that used to sit at the top of most maps is gone. In its place: a character named Pegman who stands at the ready above the zoom slider on the left side of each map, and who narrates this video detailing the new Google Map features:
COSTCO SIDEWALK MAZE: BETTER FOR THE TREES Lee McGuire gets to the bottom of the wacky sidewalk screwup at Trammell Crow’s Greenway Commons, on the corner of Weslayan and Richmond: “It turns out the city actually required the new sidewalk to run right through the utility poles to save a row of trees. The developer said the project meets federal guidelines — except perhaps the blocked handicap ramp. The final inspection won’t take place until the shopping center is finished. If it’s in violation, the developer promises to fix it.” [11 News, via BlogHouston; previously]
A LONG HOLIDAY BREAK FOR KIRBY CONSTRUCTION Good news! The drainage work that’s turned Kirby Dr. between Westheimer and Richmond into a dusty obstacle course is almost over — for the year, at least: “Construction work will pause from Nov. 21 through Jan. 2, said Travis Younkin, capital projects coordinator for the Upper Kirby District. Work along side streets will continue, though. ‘We can’t have construction crews working on the street during the busiest shopping season of the year,’ Younkin said. The $18 million project, managed by the Upper Kirby District Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, is scheduled to be completed by next November.” [Houston Chronicle, via BlogHouston]
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]
At last — maybe now we’ll actually be able to see the store signs on Kirby between Richmond and Westheimer:
TIRZ President Buddy Bailey said the new high-rise oaks, which can reach a height of 40 feet, “grow straight up and straight down,†which will reduce problems with root systems and underground infrastructure.
The plan calls for the exiting 135 trees to be replaced with 148 trees.
“We will match the old trees caliper for caliper,†he said.
- Preliminary Upper Kirby construction under way [West University Examiner]
- Kirby project starts Monday [Houston Chronicle, via Off the Kuff]
- The next Kirby [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: Kirby Casualty Forecast: 161 Street Trees, 1 Realtor, Kirby Tree Compromise: Only Three to Five Feet To Be Lopped Off Using Gentle Saw, Kirby Oaks Dress Up for Street Fight
A real estate agent writes in to report that the grand compromise to save all those Live Oaks lining Kirby Dr. between Richmond and Westheimer isn’t going to save anything:
Despite a compromise that reclaimed 7 feet of paved width from a plan to revamp Kirby Drive, it now appears that all of the trees between Richmond Avenue and Westheimer Road will be lost to construction.
Houston foresters told a group of about 30 residents Thursday that after walking the site Dec. 7, it was determined that even with a roadway that is 73 feet across, the majority of trees will be unable to survive.
City Forester Victor Cordova said only eight trees within the area have a “realistic chance†of surviving, and that is because they are relatively small rather than in a viable location. He called moving those trees “a very expensive venture.â€
Our agent-informant is aghast, and tells us that either the trees stay or she leaves Houston. That sounds kinda drastic, and doesn’t give much credit to the real improvements to Houston’s quality of life the Kirby Dr. reconstruction will likely achieve:
The City insists that the street be widened not to increase capacity but to increase the lane widths. A Public Works engineer told me recently that drivers of Hummers and some large SUVs find the current Kirby lane width “uncomfortable.â€
- Kirby trees’ chances cut down [River Oaks Examiner]
- Kirby trees doomed, forester says [Connections]
- Previously in Swamplot: Kirby Tree Compromise: Only Three to Five Feet To Be Lopped Off Using Gentle Saw
The wisdom of King Solomon lives on! The promised grand compromise on the Kirby Dr. street trees has been officially unveiled: Many of the oaks lining the busy street will get to keep most of their roots! The street surface will be expanded
to a standard of 73 feet, widening to 74 feet for left-turn lanes without signals and 77 feet at intersections with stoplights. Kirby is currently 66 feet wide.
That means up to five-and-a-half feet of trimming.
In order to protect trees during construction, a process called “water sawing†will be used to trim roots away from the construction area.
It won’t hurt a bit!
- Kirby compromise — ‘That’s as well as we can do’ [West University Examiner]
- Earlier in Swamplot: Kirby Oaks Dress Up for Street Fight
The oaks along Kirby Dr. between Richmond and Westheimer have spoken, and they appear to be against being removed so that traffic lanes can be widened by twenty inches.
Since FEMA is providing funding to install massive 72-inch culverts under Kirby from 59 to San Felipe anyway, folks at the Upper Kirby TIRZ figured, why not go all the way and make the street safer for buses and fat-ass trucks? And while we’re at it, why not pave those intersections with giant stars? Sure, that might mean less space for trees and sidewalks, but we’ll be able to squeeze some new ones in.
None of this is making Trees for Houston, the organization that planted many of those trees umpteen years ago, very happy. But maybe they’re just not being appreciative enough of the new 14-foot-wide median they’ll be able to drop their tiny saplings into. Got it? On Kirby everything gets rebuilt.
- Kirby Drive reconstruction plans pose important questions, trade-offs [Transportation Whatnot, via Off the Kuff]
- Kirby Drive reconstruction (US-59 to San Felipe) [CTC Forums]
- Trees for Houston letter to Mayor White [CTC Forums]
- Trees for Houston vs. the Upper Kirby District TIRZ [Houston Strategies]
- Upper Kirby District
- Kirby Drive Starscape [Kirby Allstars]
