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I never said you said DART is like MARTA. BUt you are saying DART is like a RRT system so I told you it is nothing like those which are in fact RRT. Understand??? DART is no where near MARTA or MIAMI rail. Like it or not it is the same system as Houston metrorail.
There is no part of DART that is RRT. not one inch. And you say I am not good at comprehending. I need to get you a mirror to see what the lack of comprehension looks like.
What you fail to let sink into your skull is that both RRT and LRT can be grade separated so just because parts of DART are grade separated doesn't mean it functions as RRT, that is not what makes a RRT. Grade separation is a common feature of both.
I didn't put words in your mouth, just cut and pasted your very erroneous rabid Dallas rail boosting words. No matter how you look at it it is not a RRT system. You should have just accepted that you were confused as to what a RRT system entailed and stayed quiet instead of dragging this on.
Further, I have not gone out to the boonies on DART so I checked out the stations on google. OMG most of them take you to fields. Better rail system my butt. I will give you that it is longer. but these middle of nowhere stations are pitiful.
You tell me that outside downtown it functions like Rapid transit system and this is the areas that they are dumping people off in???
Rapid Transit systems dump tens of thousands of people a day in areas of heavy activity. NOt fields in the country.
DART is pitiful in execution but admirable in miles. Best I can do.
I was last in Houston back in winter around December and drove around quite a bit and there are cranes all over the metropolitan but the western half of the loop particularly sticks out as crane-topia. All over Montrose, the Heights, Midtown, EaDo, Binz, Greenway, Upper Kirby, Elgin, so on and the scary thing is the infill each year intensifies the next, 2012 hit the infill game much stronger than 2011, which like wise demolished 2010.
Presently in just one area of Houston:
Quote:
Is Montrose-River Oaks in danger of overbuilding? Axiometrics VP Jay Denton (front and center with his team) tells us the submarket will deliver more apartment units this year than any other submarket in the country. In fact, the 3,770 units scheduled to hit the market outpaces the entire MSAs of Atlanta, Boston, San Jose, Orlando, and Nashville. But Jay says fundamentals may support it. At the end of 2012, effective rent growth in the submarket was very strong at 8.6%, and its average rent ($1,594) was $400 higher than any other submarket. Montrose's occupancy rate dropped to 92.1% during the downturn but jumped to 95.6% by the end of the year.
The type of multifamily going up are usually 4-8 story built to sidewalk apartment buildings, like these.
I've seen Houston change over the years and the 12 years I lived there from a dreadful and awful crime infested place to one that is nearly the opposite of those things, the most dramatic changes came in my final years. Since my frequent visits, even those years look like shells compared to what's happening now, in terms of infill. It's easy to knock downtown for having lots of surface lots and way to many for a city it's size but even those are rapidly biting the dust. In 15 years, it's gong to be a whole different type of city and as someone in the Washington DC area, that lived in Austin right before, I never thought I could say this but Houston definitely feels like it has more construction going on all over and needless to say both Austin and Washington DC absolutely feel like boomtowns right now.
Now Houston's long term problems are transit and getting pedestrians to walk, it's not that the infrastructure isn't there but Houstonians in particular just really seem to show a lot of dis-interest in pedestrian life. As the inner loop infills and becomes more dense, let's hope that mindset can change.
Cant say I'm surprised with the infill though, like I've stated several times in this thread alone, which has gone ignored by those not wanting to see the argument. Houston has the second most multifamily permits after New York in the country and it shows, especially inside the loop. It also has more single family home permits than anywhere else in America but that's another story. Point is, if you exclude Washington DC, then there shouldn't be anywhere else in the south infilling at a higher rate than Houston, followed by Austin, Miami, and Dallas.
I think there are some Houston Posters who go to Dallas and are impressed with the building activity around Uptown and the neighborhoods surrounding it and ask why can't Houston in fill like that. And I wonder to myself, do they get off the highways here to see what is happening in their own home. Houston is doing the same thing but it is doing it on a crazy scale. Funny it is in a linear fashion not up against the rail but after a buffer zone of five or so blocks.
Its almost all townhomes and multifamily complexes over there.
Starting in the neighbs of North Houston and Independence Heights you enter the loop from the north into the heights, Then you continue south into the the Washington Ave and Rice Military area, then into Fourth Ward, Hyde Park and Greater River Oaks, Then Midtown, Montrose, Upper Kirby, Then Museum District, Binzs, University Place and West University place, Then Into South Side Place, Braeswood Place, Smith Lands, and Astrodome area.
That is about an 8 by 4 mile stretch on the west side of the rail and not counting the development east of the rail.
There are many single family homes mixed in, but they are tightly packed on smaller lots.
I got attacked for saying Houston's core has the most promise of the 4, but I stand by it. I did give ATL the nod for having MARTA in the core, but I think my exact words were if you super impose MARTA over Houston's core, Houston would distance itself from the others.
That stretch that I mentioned above has a total density around 7,000 ppsm if it bumps up towards Montrose type density it could contain 75% of population of ATL in that less than 25 sq mile area.
as a side note what is up with City Data population Data? I looked up the population of the area around 77006 and it showed the population dropped to about 13,000, then I looked it up on google and it says the population is 22K. Then I looked up zips all around that area and CD has almost all the zips in the loop losing population from 2000, while the census has it booming. a 9K deficit is a huge difference for a 2 sq mile area
77006
CD population 13K (down 5K from 2000)
Census Pop 22K (Up 4K from 2000)
77019
CD pop 11K
Census pop 20K
77098
CD Pop 9K
Census 14K
77002
CD pop 3.7K
Census 10.4K
This one is a whopper of a loss that CD is showing
77004
CD population 16K (Down from 30K in 2000)
Census population 34K (up 3k from 2000)
I agree. I drive the loop all the time, especially around Montrose area and the apartments are now block after block now. The gaps are getting filled in. Houston has a bunch of nodes around the Inner Loop. The urban core will never be just the Downtown loop. I drive through the east side when I go to Rockets games and apartments are creeping over there too, especially around the dynamo stadium.
I agree. I drive the loop all the time, especially around Montrose area and the apartments are now block after block now. The gaps are getting filled in. Houston has a bunch of nodes around the Inner Loop. The urban core will never be just the Downtown loop. I drive through the east side when I go to Rockets games and apartments are creeping over there too, especially around the dynamo stadium.
I don't even consider downtown to be an integral part of the urban population, just an integral part of the urban amenities. The same with midtown.
I think the people who visit uptown Dallas and then get hipnotized by the developments there and cry asking why can't Houston build as much too, i think these posters just focus on downtown and midtown wuthout realizing that a few blocks over the same thing is happening but on a larger scale.
I was told that there is nothing like the State Thomas area anywhere else in Texas, when i saw it, for myself it was no different from the upper part of midtown, or montrose, or lower parts of Heights or Rice Military.
Don't get me wrong, State Thomas is a really impressive, but the same thing is going on here in multiple areas.
Just yesterday a DFW poster was saying that Houston had no answer for OakLawn , but i feel that Montrose and the Heights are more impressive.
We need a video tour to show all the new developments the last ten years.
Midtown still has a ways to go, but the development is increasing. The residential units increased by 73%
In the 90s with over 2500 new units, that was greatly surpassed in the 2000s
Just yesterday a DFW poster was saying that Houston had no answer for OakLawn , but i feel that Montrose and the Heights are more impressive.
You taking what I said out of context. I was not talking about density or walkability (though I actually feel Oak Lawn tops Montrose and the Heights in those regards too).
I was speaking about the flavor of the neighborhoods themselves. Thats why I said Houston has no answer for Uptown and Oak Lawn and Dallas has no answer for Hermann Park and the neighborhoods around it. I was addressing the constant need to find comparable neighborhoods for the sake of one-upsmanship.
You taking what I said out of context. I was not talking about density or walkability (though I actually feel Oak Lawn tops Montrose and the Heights in those regards too).
I was speaking about the flavor of the neighborhoods themselves. Thats why I said Houston has no answer for Uptown and Oak Lawn and Dallas has no answer for Hermann Park and the neighborhoods around it. I was addressing the constant need to find comparable neighborhoods for the sake of one-upsmanship.
I am not talking about density or walkability either.
I am talking about charm.
The feel, the restaurants, the quirky stores, the antique shops, the neighborhood fabric as a whole in Montrose, in my opinion is more than an answer to Oaklawn. I think it tops Oaklawn.
IMO Oak Lawn and the Heights are more comparable, although I would say that a walk through Oak Lawn is more enjoyable than one through the Heights but not as enjoyable as one through Montrose.
All three have gorgeous housing stalk, good food, etc, but Montrose just feels more alive, more seedy (although it is a zillion times less seedy than it was in the 70's and 80's), more whacky, and all of that in a pretty pricey part of town.
I might be missing what you experience when I visit. What about Oak Lawn specifically that you talk about when you say Flavor?
I think Miami is kinda already filled. Miami is starting to gentrify and in-fill Liberty City, and areas around there. Huge transit center and appartments in Brown Subs(Brownsville). Most of the areas South and West of DT Miami are already some of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the South(Little Havana, West Miami, etc).
I think Miami is kinda already filled. Miami is starting to gentrify and in-fill Liberty City, and areas around there. Huge transit center and appartments in Brown Subs(Brownsville). Most of the areas South and West of DT Miami are already some of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the South(Little Havana, West Miami, etc).
Yeah, Houston and Dallas won't ever be completely filled because of so much undevelopable land inside the city limits and because of sheer size. Dallas is about 7 times the size of Miami and Houston is about ten times the size of Miami
The Western part of the inner loop of Houston is a more apt comparison cause only a few areas are undevelopable and they are comparable by size.
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