It’s not arenas that destroy neighborhoods. It’s the giant parking crater and the flood of drunk drivers that frequently accompany events. A compact, transit accessible arena with no parking can be lovely. Also, if the taxpayers pay for it they should own it.
Every time I travel I’m reminded Houston is more or less ten skyscrapers and some sports teams in a trench coat pretending to be a city, I feel like there needs to be a word for this
Honestly, I don’t think this bodes well for Houston 10-20 years down the line. Huge swaths of the city are still without power 6 days after a cat 1, if/when we become known as the city that shuts down after every storm people won’t want to move or invest here
It’s absolutely insane the economics of widening urban highways.
Austin’s operating budget in 2023 was $6.7B with the 1-35 widening is $5B
Houston’s operating budget was $6B and NHHIP is gonna cost $10+
We’re spending more than the economies of these cities on a single road
Do something that scares you every day.
If you do that, then each day, little by little, you will be scared. Every day will be scary, and your life will be very scary. 💫
@elaifresh
Imagine wanting all the negatives of living in a city and none of the benefits. What’s the point of living in a city if you can’t want to a pub or a cafe a few blocks away?
I like how $2 billion for a convention center is ok, but spending an equivalent amount of money on transportation (arguably a more core service) is considered frivolous.
Today the Austin City Council passed a balanced $5.9B Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Budget that invests in our people. 🎉
In this budget, we are making our communities safer, cleaner, healthier, and simply more livable.
Here’s the full tirade, it’s just insulting the hypocrisy. Houston Ave is unsafe, 11st was unsafe, Scott street is unsafe, Montrose is unsafe, yet none of us can do anything because the mayor’s office is standing in the way. But he gets to have safety in his neighborhood
I wish I could just call TXDot to get a crossing at Montrose and Clay, unfortunately I have to argue with this administration just to get the same safety infrastructure the mayor puts in for himself in his neighborhood
It’s funny how transit is considered a boondoggle but they’re gonna get a loan for billions in order to buy a toll road and then use those tolls to pay off the loan for buying the road. No new infrastructure gets built but we get a new 1.7B liability
Under the category “taking her job seriously” Houston City Council Member
@salliealcorn
test driving new mobility options outside City Hall.
@FOX26Houston
There is no reason that every american city shouldn't have a grassy streetcar like that of New Orleans. Its a staple and a point of pride in their image and representation, and everywhere else should be able to have that too.
Quick favor:
City of Houston is looking for opinions on the closing of a portion of the end of the spur and turning it into a park.
Email: BuildForward
@houstontx
.gov with your thoughts and please include your address.
For a quick refresher, look below:
The mayor is so two faced. He’s yelling at city council right now talking about getting a crossing at wescott. “As a senator we’d call up TXDot and ask them to get something done”. So he wants street safety for him but the rest of Houston gets to be run over I guess?
We need this in Houston, and it would be nice if city, county, state, and national leadership could all have a summit to discuss getting the funding for it. This city deserves big vision.
Mayor Whitmire talking about his wescott crossing “let me tell you how bad it is”, my guy it’s bad everywhere. We want safety on our streets. We can’t get across Montrose Blvd who’s gonna fix that you dolt
I think one reason I hate TXDot so much is that all they do is build highways but they don’t even build them particularly well. They really only seem to build inefficient low capacity designs that are basically guaranteed to clog up all the time
Well, only really “walkable” if you drive there. We ought to be looking at ways to get more retail onto parts of the city with a walkable grid. Bring some commerce back to Main Street
Physical retail is thriving in Houston, despite the decline of traditional malls.
Walkable town centers like La Centerra, Sugar Land Town Square and CityCentre are drawing crowds with vibrant events and shopping experiences.
➡️Learn more:
These same people will ask why Houston always gets overlooked as a city, this is part of the reason. Transportation is infrastructure, and 3.5B is relatively low when it comes to government infrastructure projects. If we’re not investing into our future why would anyone else?
Harris County’s METRO transit authority recently shelved plans for a rapid transit bus line known as the University Corridor BRT. The decision marks a major shift in focus for the transit authority.
Houston be like: “this library is a cornerstone of the neighborhood and preserving is integral to the character of the neighborhood, also it’s closed on Friday Saturday and Sunday”
Earlier today,
@houmayor
John Whitmire and Acting
@houstonpolice
Chief Larry Satterwhite took an aerial tour to assess the debris, damage and flooding throughout our city following Hurricane Beryl.
The mayor’s commitment to recovery and collaboration remains strong. Together, we
I wish I could just call TXDot to get a crossing at Montrose and Clay, unfortunately I have to argue with this administration just to get the same safety infrastructure the mayor puts in for himself in his neighborhood
The mayor is so two faced. He’s yelling at city council right now talking about getting a crossing at wescott. “As a senator we’d call up TXDot and ask them to get something done”. So he wants street safety for him but the rest of Houston gets to be run over I guess?
Kinda crazy for TXDot is allowed to spend 20x the cost of University BRT to destroy downtown for a better part of a decade but METRO can’t build a project that will move Houstonians around the city
“They’re [Gulfton residents] largely undocumented immigrants. They just want basic services. They don’t want to be part of the Galleria,” Whitmire said. “You think they’re going to be welcome in the Galleria?”
Who talks like this?
TxDOT Houston District Director of Maintenance Melody Galland joined a panel of experts at today's
@BayTran1
Partnership Event discussing transportation's role in disasters including hurricanes. Panelist included
@METROHouston
,
@HarrisCountyTra
,
@galvcountyoem
and others.
@MikeBradleyMKE
I’m no lawyer, but this seems to say that a vehicle lane can’t be exclusive for public transit vehicles, BUT it doesn’t seem to prohibit the existence of a >20Ton only lane, so there COULD be a bus only lane it just has to allow public buses
I hate these clickbait articles, Fort Bend is NOT Houston, Katy is NOT Houston, the woodlands is NOT Houston, clear lake is NOT Houston, stop saying something is “coming to Houston” when it’s not
Ngl Houston has a lot of traffic for a fairly empty city. There should be at least 10-20x more people just mulling about its very strange for a city of this size
If only we had expanded transportation options to get to the university that didn’t involve having to drive, they could add some high capacity line down blodgett to wheeler TC and continue down Richmond and head up Lockwood on the other. Metro should really look into that idea
And part of the reason people move to Houston is cheaper housing, but if every home needs a backup generator that just increases costs and lowers competitiveness … not to mention all the noxious fumes they’ll release into the air after every storm
Houston has really weird residency requirements, apparently you can live and work in Houston but if you advocate for more multimodal transportation or support groups that advocate for it you’re not a resident?
Friendly reminder that
@TxDOT
wants to blow $350 million of your tax dollars needless raising that highway and replacing this view with a wall of interchanges
Houston city council debating Christmas decorations was not on my bingo card. If we can’t afford Christmas decoration for IAH we really must be in dire straits
TXDot really gonna be rebuilding every major freeway in Houston at the same time … surely this won’t have implications for traffic and business success. if we built light rail with the same vigor we’d have a half decent network by now
@JamesLLlamas
It’s not the 2WD that’s completely the problem, most trucks are rear wheel drive so you need to throw sandbags or something in the bed so the tires can get traction. The problem is most truck owners don’t know how to drive trucks
I like how Houston only makes a couple hundred million from hotel occupancy tax so they’re gonna spend $2 billion to renovate GRB that we’ll be paying for the next 30 years. Also means we can’t use that money for something beneficial to the city like repaving streets
For those that don’t bike in Houston, this is the linch pin of the entire bayou recreation trails, it is the only safe dedicated route between white oak and downtown, all bike traffic originating on white oak MUST flow through this section of the trail
This seems tremendously terrible for innerloop Houston residents,
@uhdowntown
walkability, and Houston's barely connected hike and bike off-road trail network. The network
@houmayor
promised to invest in.
(The pricetag is also wildly fiscally irresponsible)
The money will be used to help prevent erosion at the Simonton Pinch Point on the Brazos River. The area is where two parts of the river threaten to merge, eliminating a six-mile loop.
I’ll never really understand people that say driving is better than a public transit, like do you not drive to work? Do you enjoy being subject to the collective annoyance of hundreds of low skill drivers?
I can’t believe we’re gonna fund a transportation system that moves fewer people than a pedal pub. Both vehicles don’t have AC and the evolve shuttles move 5 a pedal pub moves 16 and has beer
"real" major American city test:
-"haves and have nots"
-poor election turnout where 118k in a city 2 million residents elect a Mayor
-Mayor claims elections matter
💦
@AARP
Houston is hosting a telephone town hall with Mayor John Whitmire at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, June 20.
Dial 1-833-380-0647 to participate and ask city leaders your questions.
Here we go again, another day another highway widening we can’t afford.
Build more lanes -> growth happens in Katy -> Katy gets mad about commute times -> build more lanes, you want it to stop? Just put in the train already
Join our virtual meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 6 or at the in-person open house on Thursday, Feb. 8, 5-7 p.m. at TxDOT Houston District Headquarters (7600 Washington Avenue) for an in-person open house discussing I-10 from Voss Road to I-45. Details:
My jaw is on the floor, this is absolutely insane, a protected bike lane from Chenevery to Buffalo speedway, that connects the austin street bike lanes to HEB, to the menial collection, St.Thomas. This would be one of the most transformative project in the area
Got to explore rice university via hermann park, what a funny prank that area is, oh you’re a student? Well everything near campus is a multi million dollar mansion filled with people who hate tall buildings, good luck finding somewhere to live idiot
I feel like a lot of people are getting mixed up thinking about things individually and as a society. At the societal level, it’s reasonable to expect a sufficiently developed city to be able to provide for its citizenry even during disasters. We landed men on the moon ffs
@theSurlyBiker
Idk, maybe urban facade? To me the “city” seems to be entirely suburban and lacks anything that resembles an urban core that I’ve seen other places. Downtown feels more like a suburban office park than a city center, it got tall buildings but it doesn’t have a soul
If I were a mayor, and nearly every civic association from a neighborhood came to city hall to speak against my decision, I would assume it’s not popular with the community. Regardless of what Sue Lovell says
Scoop: A draft report by
@HouPublicWorks
engineers obtained by
@axios
shows that speeds, crashes and crash severity all decreased along 11th Street after bike lanes were installed
It’s very clear whitmire doesn’t know how to run anything without having someone to blame. If these things are such big issues why is he so uninformed on the state of the city he’s trying to run? Why is he not getting reports on the state of the city?
On the latest edition of “What’s Your Point?” Mayor
@whitmire_john
expresses anger 10 HFD stations and City 12 multi-service centers were left unequipped with backup power generation by previous administrations.
@FOX26Houston
more at
So whitmire was lying about GRB not having power? What possible reason could he have to attack the Astros then? How would an anti-baseball stance that ever be a smart move
Interesting.
Mayor Whitmire said that George R Brown had no power yesterday and it's bad that Minute Maid Park did.
I just learned that GRB did have power yesterday and people were being served food. I was sent this photo showing Texas Mesquite Grill giving over 3,000 burgers
For those that don’t follow transportation in Houston, the university line was at 4th and goal. Then in the zeroth hour, we swapped coaches and they decided to punt because they were being paid by the other team to lose the game
The thing they don’t tell you is a bike lane on mcgowen would connect to Columbia Tap and Austin St and would make a nice network loop in midtown and 3rd ward and provide easier access to Hermann park for 3rd ward residents
🚧
@METROHouston
has quietly rescinded its plans to construct a bike lane on McGowen as part of the 54 Scott BOOST project, the agency said.
Read more, from
@_janetmiranda
:
Love the fake equity concerns, nobody is stoping you from putting in 3ft AND 10ft sidewalks, if places need sidewalks put them in nobody is stoping you. Don’t block already funded projects for no good reason
.
@whitmire_john
has already removed medians/curbs on Houston Ave & ordered a review of bike lanes/features of the new 11th street redesign in the Heights. Is he rolling back progress? He invited the Ed Board to his neighborhood to share his vision.
$104 billion dollars over 10 years, and we can’t even build a rapid bus line Texas is so screwed if the feds ever stop giving them infinite money to prop up the highway building industrial complex