Makes sense. In downtown Houston, there are about 3,200 parking spaces on the street – and a whopping 5,800 signs drivers must decipher to use them without getting towed or ticketed. Aiming to fix this “confusing mishmash of signs,” as Mayor Annise Parker put it, City Council on Wednesday approved a $1.3 million contract with [...]
Posts Tagged ‘downtown’
Five years of Discovery Green
Five great years for a great park and an awesome city amenity. Five years after its opening, more than 1 million people annually come to stretch out on the grassy slope to take in live music and movies with the skyline as a backdrop, to play with Frisbees and soccer balls, to splash in the [...]
Don’t expect B-Cycle in the Heights anytime soon
I know there are a lot of people in the Heights that would like to see some bike share kiosks here, but as The Leader News reports, it will be awhile before that happens. Although running through arguably the most bike-conscious set of communities in Houston, the bike paths along White Oak Bayou and through [...]
How will Chapter 42 affect housing in Houston?
Yes, we’re still talking about Chapter 42, the local development and density code. One of the goals of revamping Chapter 42 is to make it easier and more attractive to build mid-range housing in the city limits. How do we hope that will work? “We have housing for the working poor, we have a lot [...]
New bike share kiosks now open
Woo hoo! Organizers of Houston’s bike-sharing program are excited about an increase in use of the community bicycles since 18 new kiosks around downtown and Midtown opened. After slow-going last year for the B-Cycle program, use of the bikes increased since the weekend, when word that many of the new stations were open spread on [...]
Hall makes his announcement
Game on. Former Houston City Attorney Ben Hall formally launched his mayoral campaign against incumbent Annise Parker Wednesday night, decrying the burden of taxes and fees he said are driving city residents to the suburbs, and saying Houston’s mayor must have a grander vision. Parker, also on Wednesday, accepted the endorsement of the Houston Police [...]
Fixing our front door
This sounds very cool. The century-old Sunset Coffee Building, looming in disrepair over Allen’s Landing at the north end of downtown, will become Houston’s “front door” with an $8 million public-private renovation set to begin in April. The three-story brick structure is boarded up, marked with graffiti, and has shrubs growing out of some second-floor [...]
Time for another report on how much traffic sucks
We love this sort of thing, don’t we? Houston commuters continue to endure some of the worst traffic delays in the country, according to the 2012 Urban Mobility Report released Tuesday by the Texas A&M Transportation Commission. Area drivers wasted more than two days a year, on average, in traffic congestion, costing them each $1,090 [...]
Here comes that B-Cycle expansion
Excellent. Houston’s bike-sharing program downtown is getting a boost from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, city officials announced Wednesday. The insurance company will contribute $750,000 to expand the B-Cycle system from three stations and 18 bikes to 24 stations and about 200 bikes, the city said in a news release. “Bike Share is [...]
Now you can drink for charity
The OKRA Charity Bar is now open for business. Charity Bar — like Warren’s Inn, its neighbor around the block — will be open until 2 a.m. seven days a week. “I think bars have a responsibility to people in the neighborhood to be consistent,” said OKRA founder and Charity Bar owner Bobby Heugel on [...]
More on the status of Houston’s bike sharing
From the Chron’s paysite: The expansion is a few months behind schedule, said Laura Spanjian, Houston’s sustainability director. She said federal reviews required under the $116,000 grant to start the bike-sharing program, and state historic preservation approvals for the locations, have proceeded more slowly than expected. The program, run by a nonprofit, Houston Bike Share, [...]
San Antonio B-Cycle expands again
I’m truly impressed at how successful this has been. San Antonio’s newest B-Cycle bike sharing stations opened Friday at six new locations around South San Antonio. The new stations — located at Roosevelt Park, Concepcion Park, Mission Concepcion, Mission Road Street Connection, VFW River Trail Access and Mission San Jose — provide yet another way [...]
That big East End KBR site has been sold
There’s one less huge tract of land on the market these days. A Buffalo Bayou-front parcel spanning 136 acres just east of downtown has found a buyer. The mostly vacant tract is under contract and expected to close by the end of the year, said Davis Adams of HFF, the commercial real estate firm listing [...]
More bike racks
The Chron notes that Houston is on the verge of becoming an actual bike-friendly city, and that we ought to recognize that and do something to help facilitate it. Notably, many downtown buildings lack accessible and visible bike racks. For those who live close enough, biking to downtown destinations, whether work or the Theater District, [...]
Tomorrow is the last day to submit comments to TxDOT on I-45
From the inbox: Dear Neighbors – TxDOT has plans for I-45, which will impact you! If you ever drive on I-45; if you live or work near the I-45 Corridor; if you live or work in the Heights, Old Sixth Ward, First Ward, Near North Side, Montrose, Midtown or Downtown – you will be impacted! [...]
Downtown schools
The Chron notes downtown’s continuing evolution. Last week’s announcement of plans for a Nau Center for Texas Cultural Heritage marked the latest in a string of developments in the decades-long march in the evolution of about 50 square blocks west of U.S. 59. It started with lots of vacant land, added a convention center and [...]
MFU Houston encounters some resistance
No one ever said updating Houston’s food truck ordinances would be easy. On Tuesday, more than 50 mobile food truck owners and supporters showed up at a council committee hearing to push for changes to the city’s mobile food unit ordinance, saying it would promote economic growth and improve vitality downtown. “The way the ordinance [...]
Roundabouts in the sky
I have three things to say about this. Imagine driving into downtown Houston on interstates 10 or 45, or U.S. 59, and having to merge with all other incoming traffic onto an elevated, one-way traffic circle around the cluster of skyscrapers. If downtown isn’t your final destination, you would stay on the circle until you [...]
What would you do with 136 acres near downtown?
Something urban, mixed-use, and transit-oriented, one hopes. A rare opportunity lies in 136 acres just east of downtown Houston. The Buffalo Bayou-front parcel, a longtime industrial and office complex, went on the market earlier this summer – a move bayou enthusiasts, East End residents and real estate developers had been anticipating for years. Some of [...]
Houston Bike Share set to expand
Cool The plan has always been to expand the program, and Laura Spanjian, Mayor Annise Parker’s sustainability director, first alluded to a search for new locations in early June. “We’re going to have about 20 new kiosks and about 205 new bikes,” Spanjian now tells CultureMap. That would bring the total to approximately 225 bicycles inside of the Loop. Spanjian [...]
Nick Cooper: Let Us Help People!
The following is from a series of guest posts that I will be presenting over the next few weeks. I am a volunteer with Houston Food Not Bombs, a vegetarian anti-war group that has been in the news recently for speaking out against the new law requiring prior written permission to share food in public. For [...]
Take the train to your dining destination
Katharine Shilcutt writes about how she gets to some of her favorite restaurants. When owner Staci Davis decided on a location for her restaurant, Radical Eats, one thing was extremely important to her above all: Davis wanted her vegan paradise to have access to the new Metro light rail North Line that’s currently being built along Fulton. When [...]
Downtown shuttle back in operation
For those of you who missed the old downtown trolley, here’s its successor. [T]he Greenlink bus service was launched Monday as a free offering for tourists and locals alike. The 18-stop route makes the rounds of eight hotels, the George R. Brown Convention Center, the Central Library, Discovery Green, City Hall, Main Street Square, Houston [...]
The B-Cycle era begins
At long last, Houston’s B-Cycle program officially kicked off last week. Mayor Annise Parker, an occasional bicyclist, called the federally-funded program “a quick, easy alternative to being stuck in traffic or walking long distances in downtown.” She said the bicycles may help familiarize residents with downtown, an area she said many still consider “foreign territory.” [...]
Bike sharing is officially almost here
From Citizens Net: Beginning Wednesday, May 2, 2012, Houston will be one of only 15 U.S. cities to launch a bike share program to make getting around downtown a whole lot easier. The bike share program, known as Houston B-cycle, is perfect for trips that are too far to walk but too short to drive. [...]
We need a much fuller public conversation about the homeless feeding ordinance
As Neil noted, some of us had the opportunity on Friday to ask Mayor Parker questions over lunch on Friday. Not surprisingly, the homeless feeding ordinance came up, and we spent quite a bit of time discussing it. The Mayor shared a lot of information about the ordinance and its history, most of which I’d [...]
Tailgating downtown
Go for it! The Dynamo have been playing at the University of Houston’s Robertson Stadium and have always allowed tailgating prior to games. However, fans won’t have the same luxury at the soccer team’s new stadium because of a city ordinance against drinking in parking lots downtown. The city ordinance prohibits an open container or [...]
Here comes NBC Sports
Comcast SportsNet Houston, which is owned by NBC Sports, is coming to downtown. Comcast SportsNet Houston, the new regional sports network that will air Rockets games this fall and Astros games in 2013, plans to begin broadcasting in early October from its new 32,000-square-foot studio complex in the downtown Houston Pavilions, the network’s general manager [...]
Feeding the homeless
I’m still trying to wrap my mind around this. Mayor Annise Parker is asking the council to adopt rules that would require organizations and people who feed the homeless to register with the city, take a food safety class, prepare the food in certified kitchens, serve only at three public parks, and leave those parks [...]
What’s to become of the downtown post office?
Lisa Gray writes about the future of the downtown post office on Franklin. In the past couple of years, there have been rumblings that the U.S. Postal Service plans to leave 401 Franklin and sell the 16-acre complex – a prospect that sets developers, architects and planners atremble. It’s not just that the parcel of [...]
Houston Central Station
This is pretty cool. [Last Tuesday], the Houston Downtown Management District hosted a competition featuring designs from five award-winning architectural firms. The challenge: to design an iconic new Central Station – Main on Main Street between Capitol and Rusk. The station would also be the transfer point for three light-rail lines. The five invited firms [...]
Doing business downtown
I have three things to say about this. Despite public and private attempts to revive a shopping scene downtown, the retail market has struggled. Some stores like Forever 21 and Books-A-Million have opened, but most of the activity in recent years has come from restaurants and bars. Turnover has been high. Last year, 16 street-level [...]
New bike trail into downtown nearing completion
From Swamplot: It looks like large portions of the 2.8-mile-long Heritage West Bikeway connecting Stude Park to UH-Downtown are close to completion, but the path along portions of the former UP railway won’t open until summer, according to the city. One important still-missing link: a pedestrian bridge over Little White Oak Bayou. Past the University, [...]
Comcast SportsNet Houston
This would be cool. The NBC Sports Group is seeking about $2 million in state and local support to bring a major production studio and 135 jobs to downtown Houston. The operation would be for Comcast SportsNet Houston, a new regional television network that will broadcast Astros and Rockets games beginning in the fall. The [...]