Maybe more. Most discussion of the Uptown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone’s plan, which goes before City Council this week, has been about a proposal to annex Memorial Park into the zone and spend $100 million restoring the drought-stricken park. The centerpiece of the zone’s plan, however, is a $187.5 million vision to widen and rebuild [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Uptown’
Memorial Park will not become the Riverwalk
Council will vote on the proposed Uptown/Memorial TIRZ this week, which may or may not put an end to some of the wild speculation about what expanding the Uptown TIRZ boundaries to include Memorial Park may mean. Imagine you’re jogging through Memorial Park, squinting past rows of neon signs in front of fast food joints, [...]
Have your say on the Uptown/Memorial Park TIRZ
From the inbox, and the office of CM Oliver Pennington: To the Residents of District G: As many of you are aware, the May 1, 2013, Council Agenda contained several items related to the Reinvestment Zone Number Sixteen (Uptown Zone), also known as TIRZ 16. Included on the agenda today were Items 15 (enlarging the [...]
Questions about the Memorial Park part of the Uptown/Memorial TIRZ
Lisa Falkenberg reports that some people have raised questions about the Memorial Park part of the Uptown/Memorial TIRZ. Reforestation is sorely needed in a park devastated by hurricane damage and drought. This is a great deal, city leaders and supporters say, a great way to restore our crown jewel to its former beauty. And we [...]
For the Uptown/Memorial TIRZ
Ed Wulfe never mentions Mattress Mack or his recent diatribe in the Chron about the proposed Uptown/Memorial Park TIRZ, but his op-ed in the Chron is clearly aimed at countering naysayers like Mattress Mack. Uptown is one of the most successful mixed-use urban environments in the United States and a leading economic driver of Houston; [...]
Mattress Mack’s Uptown rant
There’s a lot missing from Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale’s screed in the Sunday op-ed pages. When you get right down to it, the recent announcement that the Uptown Houston Management District wants to spend $177.5 million to “redesign and widen” Post Oak Boulevard and build a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system through the heart of [...]
The Uptown/Memorial TIRZ
Big projects, big plans, big funding mechanism. Transit and trees – things that make urban areas move quickly and look pretty – are the centerpieces of a $500 million project that would remake the Uptown area and reinvigorate Memorial Park. Mayor Annise Parker and other officials announced a plan Thursday that would fund construction of [...]
Metro’s bus strategy
We know that the 2012 Metro referendum was intended to help Metro boost ridership by improving and expanding its bus service. Metro Board member Christof Spieler explains what that means. First, in many cases, transit doesn’t go to the right places. Over time, Houston’s population has shifted as the urban core has redeveloped, older suburbs [...]
Uptown BRT
Interesting news from Swamplot. The driving force of a project that Uptown Houston District has proposed to the city to transform Post Oak Blvd.? Big beautiful buses. With both residential and commercial developments like Skanska’s 20-story office building popping up along the major transit corridor and METRO’s Uptown/Gold Line nowhere in sight, the District has [...]
Design guide versus transit corridors ordinance
Not sure what to make of this just yet. Fallout from the long-dormant Ashby high-rise development emerged Wednesday as a potential obstacle to the city’s effort to promote walkable, urban-style development along Metro’s planned light-rail lines. Neighborhood opposition to the Ashby project, a planned 23-story mixed-use tower whose developers continue to await a permit almost [...]