Lina Hidalgo, eager to improve Harris County government (Houston, San Antonio: employment, price)

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by jfre81

Well, the voters had already cast an "inform" vote on the future of the Astrodome, and Emmett and the county commissioners disregarded it. Then the voters voted again, and Emmett lost

No I was needling you on your typo. Typo for a typo retaliation

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

No I was needling you on your typo. Typo for a typo retaliation

Read the final paragraph of your post #25 again, carefully.

I used to type in "letters to the editor" back when people still sent mail to newspapers. Some of them shared your literary flair. That was around when it was time to find something useful to do with the Astrodome after major league sports. I transitioned from the "save it" stage, to the "**** or get off the pot" stage, to the "may it rest in peace" stage. Sort of like the stages of grief.

Right now the Astrodome is an embarrassment, not an icon, and the Emmett/commissioners' plan is another expensive coat of white paint on the elephant. It'll sell some more parking, but the space above ground will be only a notch or two above useless without air conditioning.

But it will have this, from the Chron story:

Hidalgo declined to comment further, but current and former county officials said the renovation costs were never meant to include traditional air conditioning. Rather, the climate inside would be maintained by a mechanical forced-air ventilation and convection-based system designed to keep the inside of the building more temperate when it is hot or cold outside.

Hold up, what? This is something that exists?

I just Googled "mechanical forced air convection" and all the results have to do with convection ovens. From the sound of it, this is better at keeping heat inside an enclosed space instead of keeping it out, and I'm not sure what happens with the humidity. It sounds like something that needs explaining on its own.

Also...

“The thought process was that further phases would bring in air conditioning,” said County Engineer John Blount, who is managing the project.

This translates to me something like "After we spend at least $100M making a parking garage out of the field level, we'll spend more untold tens of millions making the building inhabitable from April through October."

The more I read about this, the more I like Lina Hidalgo.

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by jfre81

Read the final paragraph of your post #25 again, carefully..

I get it, I left out an n in uninformed, and posted uniformed which was a typo. You jumped on it. It's pedant and irritating.

Originally Posted by jfre81

Right now the Astrodome is an embarrassment, not an icon, and the Emmett/commissioners' plan is another expensive coat of white paint on the elephant. It'll sell some more parking, but the space above ground will be only a notch or two above useless without air conditioning...

You embarrass easily.

Originally Posted by jfre81

I just Googled "mechanical forced air convection" and all the results have to do with convection ovens. From the sound of it, this is better at keeping heat inside an enclosed space instead of keeping it out, and I'm not sure what happens with the humidity. It sounds like something that needs explaining on its own....

Forced air ventilation just means they're using fans instead of natural ventilation meaning relying on wind to ventilate the area.

Originally Posted by jfre81

This translates to me something like "After we spend at least $100M making a parking garage out of the field level, we'll spend more untold tens of millions making the building inhabitable from April through October."

The more I read about this, the more I like Lina Hidalgo.

Right now all she has done is make some political noise, after the Rodeo the work on renovating the Dome begins. We'll see how settled the issue really is at that time. All the big players involved have signed off on this renovation and probably will not appreciate the issue resurfacing.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

Forced air ventilation just means they're using fans instead of natural ventilation meaning relying on wind to ventilate the area.

If that's all the Dome needs, then why didn't they just put a bunch of fans everywhere in the Dome back in '65? Probably because it would have worked about as well as trying to grow grass after painting the roof white.

[kemahkami]

Originally Posted by bu2

What's that got to do with someone with no experience suddenly running a billion dollar operation?

That someone is Stanford-educated, and so clearly has the intelligence to figure out the ropes fast.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by ScrappyJoe

That someone is Stanford-educated, and so clearly has the intelligence to figure out the ropes fast.

That's what she thinks and she's wrong.

I have no doubt she is very bright, but people out of school know nothing. What's worse is they have no idea what they don't know.

As Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations." That applies to women too.

[Vicman]

This reminds me of the state prison system's claims of a cooled environment without AC

http://web.archive.org/web/200003102...19990012.shtml

At the Terrell Unit, built in 1993, inmates will have a small vent in their cells that blows what officials say is "tempered air." Although not air conditioning, it keeps the temperature in cells from exceeding 85 degrees.

Originally Posted by jfre81

Hold up, what? This is something that exists?

I just Googled "mechanical forced air convection" and all the results have to do with convection ovens. From the sound of it, this is better at keeping heat inside an enclosed space instead of keeping it out, and I'm not sure what happens with the humidity. It sounds like something that needs explaining on its own.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by Vicman

This reminds me of the state prison system's claims of a cooled environment without AC

State News - First condemned inmates moved to new death row near Livingston 06/19/99

Thanks for sharing.

I'm sure that $105M involves a similarly creative solution, too, for the rats, feral cats and mold that have been the only living things populating the building for nearly two decades now. There's a lot more to this project than building the field-level parking and exhibit space.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by bu2

Houston has tended to tear down all our history very quickly. The Dome is unique and important. Its ignorant to say otherwise.

People that say the Astrodome should be preserved, need to understand that preserving a historic site has a cost.
I bet anything you want that preserving the Astrodome would cost 10 times what it cost to preserve the Alamo,
Minus the tourist money the Alamo generates for San Antonio.

It’s ridiculous to want to preserve something so big that doesn’t generate any money.

[kemahkami]

Originally Posted by bu2

That's what she thinks and she's wrong.

I have no doubt she is very bright, but people out of school know nothing. What's worse is they have no idea what they don't know.

As Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations." That applies to women too.

Intelligence and determination is all that is needed to be effective at these positions. And lucky for Houston, Lina has both. She's adapting quite well.