01/09/13 11:30am

Long a fixture on White Oak in the Heights, the Blue Line Bike Lab has opened a second location in the East End. In early November, the repair shop and retailer moved into a suite that had been gutted for a CrossFit gym at 740 Telephone Rd. in the Tlaquepaque Market, a little more than a mile from U of H. The shopping center, bound on the east by Lockwood and on the west by Dumble, might not be the most obvious location for pedal-pushing hipsters looking for a fixie: next door, as the photo above shows, is Space City Hearing Aids. But Bohemeo’s is just a few doors down and Thai restaurant Kanomwan is tucked in there somewhere, as well. And the East End has had two railroad right-of-ways transformed into hike and bike trails. Paul Dale, one of the lab’s resident gearheads, says, “We’re betting on the neighborhood.”

Photos: Allyn West

11/27/12 4:30pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: BAYPORT FOR TOURISTS “So no rent and docking fees? Which means the port will only be making money off of parking? Maybe something off of the cruise tickets? The Bayport cruise terminal is a nice feature, but the problem is that it’s located in the middle of nowhere. Most cruise ports are located where passengers can get off the cruise and be a tourist. Even though Galveston is the beginning and ending for many cruise passengers, it is also a destination for many also. New Orleans also feeds off this. The Bayport terminal is essentially dropping off passengers at a cargo terminal in the middle of a petro-chemical complex. FUN!” [kjb434, commenting on Port of Houston Paying $6.7 Million in Cruise Bait for Suddenly Popular Bayport Terminal]

11/26/12 6:26pm

PORT OF HOUSTON PAYING $6.7 MILLION IN CRUISE BAIT FOR SUDDENLY POPULAR BAYPORT TERMINAL A minor detail missing from last week’s story explaining how the Bayport Cruise Terminal was finally able to lure a couple of cruise lines to its Galveston Bay-side shores, after long 4 years of loneliness and vacancy: the payola. Er, dowry. To entice Princess Cruises and the Norwegian Cruise Line to give up on the overstuffed Galveston Port and stop by for a little on-again, off-again fun with its otherwise antisocial upstream neighbor, the Port of Houston Authority has agreed to dole out a combined $6.685 million to its seafaring suitors. The bulk of cruising-around money will go to the tall Norwegians; Princess will take home $685,000. And both lines will be excused from rent and docking fees. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user Silent Z

11/16/12 2:59pm

After waiting for 4 years for any kind of ship to cruise it, the all-but-virginal Bayport Cruise Terminal will at last get a seaborne visitor — starting next year. And it’ll be . . . a Caribbean Princess!

What was it that finally sparked the hookup — the daily grooming and maintenance? The word put out on the street that the $108.4 million taxpayer-funded facility would be willing to do whatever it takes to lure a few sailors to its waiting docks? More likely, the Galveston County Daily News‘s Laura Elder reports, it was just that the popular-with-the-cruising-set Port of Galveston was full-up, and Princess Cruises wasn’t interested in just squeezing in with all the other ships.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

10/17/12 5:50pm

Texas’s Department of Transportation has just announced the kickoff of a 2-year, $14 million study of options for new passenger rail service between the state’s “major metropolitan areas” and Oklahoma City. Funded by a grant from the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, the state of Oklahoma, the North Central Texas Council of Governments, and TxDOT itself, the study will compare options for enhancing existing Amtrak routes and building a new high-speed rail backbone through the state, as well as the possibility of public-private partnerships, the agency says. The proposed north-south route would connect San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas to its northern neighbor. (That follows the FRA’s longstanding designation of high-speed rail corridors; the federal agency’s proposed map of the South Central region is shown above.)

But what about, um, that other major metropolitan area nearby?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

10/15/12 5:06pm

NEW METRO TRAINS GETTING BIKE RACKS Metro is showing off the first of 19 new California-made Siemens H2 S70 trains it’ll be adding to its light-rail fleet. The first new cars in 9 years are updated versions of the line’s original 18-member fleet, with one notable difference: Metro will be outfitting them with 2 bicycle racks each, at the front and rear doorways. Photo: Metro

10/12/12 8:02pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE NORTH SHEPHERD EXPRESS “RE: DOT I-45 IMPROVEMENTS: I wonder why North Shepherd isn’t included as a ‘parallel route’ for development ‘to add capacity & alleviate congestion.’ It’s already a wide, straight corridor with a direct N-S orientation but (currently) too slow to be a viable alternative to I-45 (except under extreme crash/flooding conditions.) Many I-45 North drivers are headed to areas in The Heights, Galleria and points in-between, and, neither the Sam Houston/Beltway 8 Loop nor the Hardy Tollway are their paths of choice. Center lanes of Shepherd could be elevated as an express route. Below it, neighborhood traffic would be unaffected and the area could rejuvenate (or whatever developers call it these days) to a residential/light commercial area. There is currently a multi-unit project planned for the area, on Rittenhouse . . .” [movocelot, commenting on Headlines: The Push for Waterfront Homes; Unintended Light Show at the Rice Skyspace]

08/14/12 3:28pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE HERITAGE WEST BIKEWAY IS BACK ON TRAIL “If you had not heard, the construction contractor for this project had gone bankrupt, leaving the project dormant for quite a while. Good news is that the new contractor started working yesterday (8/13/12) and has 120 days to complete the bikeway project. Yes, this should mean that the project will be done by 12/31/12.” [Dan Raine, commenting on Did the Heritage West Bikeway Lose Its Way?]

07/02/12 11:37pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: GETTING AROUND IN THE MIDRANGE SUBURBS “. . . To me, the goal is not to make Houston’s car culture better. I want to provide people with alternatives to driving. But we have fallen into a trap, where we concentrate our efforts on a few prewar neighborhoods near downtown — because they look the part — and assume that postwar neighborhoods are beyond hope. This happens all over the country, but in Houston it’s really tragic because most of our City was developed after World War II. I brought up Gulfton because not only is it Houston’s densest neighborhood, it is also one of the most neglected. But Sharpstown is in the same predicament. And Oak Forest. And most of Memorial at the other end of the economic spectrum. Most of Houston, really. These areas are too spread out for walkability and rail. But with a few small improvements (a new bus route here; a bicycle path there, a foot bridge), they could be made far less dependent on the automobile. If only we could get out of the trap we’re in.” [ZAW, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Drive Toward a Denser Houston]

06/29/12 10:04pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE DRIVE TOWARD A DENSER HOUSTON “Density is fine as long as it’s Not In My Back Yard. Hey, that’s catchy, someone should come up with an acronym for that. in all seriousness, though, there is a transit issue with density that’s related to the character of Houston’s approach to the car. Density in other cities works well because transit in other city cores works well. Houston is . . . working on it. The fear a lot of people have with large vertical density is that assumption that transit follows the plow, so to speak. In Houston, that can be a riskier gamble than elsewhere.” [J, commenting on Regent Square-ish Apartment Tower Possibly Breaking Ground in 2 Weeks]

03/02/12 11:47am

A reader wants to know what happened to the section of the new Heritage West Bikeway along White Oak Bayou as it passes under I-45 just north of Downtown (shown above, facing west).

I take this bike trail to UHD out of the Heights. It has been about three weeks since I last used it. This section was brand new, I think less than 6 months old and it has been torn up. In the distance you can see another orange fence, where the new trail starts again and then abruptly ends at a construction site where they are building a bike bridge.

I am curious to know if anyone has info about why a new section is torn up already. I’m looking forward to a completed trail that will connect the Heights directly to Downtown and Minute Maid park.

If nothing else, it’s a pretty sweet pic about how Houston infrastructure is always “improving”, no matter how new it is.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

01/26/12 2:09pm

SAN ANTONIO AND DALLAS MOVING CLOSER For those of you who obey speed limits on interstate highways — or even just adjust your cruising speed accordingly — the drives to San Antonio and Dallas just got a little shorter. The Texas Transportation Commission today approved a 5mph bump-up in the speed limit along stretches of I-10 and I-45 North well outside city limits. The new 75mph speed limit will also go into effect on more than 1,500 miles of highway throughout the state — but only after the signs are changed. [Texas Politics] Photo: TxDOT