A New Yorker rediscovers Houston, Ike Dike case, 2004 vs. 2017 Houston, and more
This week's items:- A Tale of Two Super Bowls: Houston in 2004 vs. 2017. Some pretty cool statistical comparisons, like nearly double the hotel rooms, ~25% more airport flights, 67% more restaurants (!), and the Galleria has almost doubled its annual visitors! And how crazy would it be if the game is an exact rematch? But here's to hoping it's the Texans instead, which are looking pretty solid with a 3-0 preseason.
"In 2004, the New England Patriots defeated the Carolina Panthers 32-29 at Reliant Stadium. According to sports analysts, we could see this exact same matchup in the newly renamed NRG Stadium in 2017. Will Cam&Crew have a major chance at redemption? Only time will tell…"
- A mere $54 billion for Seattle light rail. That's $10,000 *per inch* folks!! Wow. Got a cool million you'd like to blow? How does 8 feet of light rail sound?
- Most of the country’s new apartments are going up right here in Houston. Almost a quarter of all apartments under construction in the country are in Texas, and Houston has the most in the state, which I would at least partially attribute to the lack of zoning, which often tends to be anti-apartments in most cities.
- Self-driving cars are coming faster than you think.
- This excellent op-ed by Bill King makes a great case for the Ike Dike, which will pay for itself after only one direct hit hurricane. Given that happens at least every ten years, seems like a pretty great investment, eh?
Finally, a longer but great piece in Thrillist, "Houston Has No Problem" by local that moved to NYC and has been amazed by how the city has matured since.
In New York City, I noticed the difference over the years. It went from people saying “Why would you ever go to Houston?” to “I wanna check that place out!”It does an amazing job extolling Houston's virtues and what makes us a great city. It'll make you a proud Houstonian all over again. Highly recommended.
Labels: autonomous vehicles, development, growth, history, hurricanes, identity, rail, sports, zoning
posted by Tory Gattis @ 6:00 PM
11 Comments:
Fix link on tail of two superbowls.
Tale of two Superbowls
The LBJ Texpress Costed 2.6 Billion. So the proposed light rail in Seattle will cost 20.7 times the LBJ Texpress Upgrade.
The Katy Freeway Costed 2.8 Billion Dollars. So the proposed light rail in Seattle will cost 19+1/4 Katy Freeways.
NJ Turnpike Expansion from exits 6-9 costed 2.5 billion dollars. So the proposed light rail in Seattle will cost 21.6 NJ Turnpike Expansions.
Great comparisons to put it in context! And thanks for the catch on the link - fixed!
You could upgrade all the freeways in Seattle (or even Houston, hint, hint) to be Katy Wide with that money. And with congestion pricing and Amazon Busses, (or Chevron biodiesel powered busses in Houstons case) you could optimize usage to get maximum benefit.
You cannot even call the Sound Transit LRT plan a Boondoggle, it makes every other boondoggle look like chump change. The Orange Line in Chicago only costed a half billion and that's with standard Chicago overhead. It ain't even a proper El or Subway system.
Lets see how much it would cost to build proper katy style freeways in seattle
Port Mann Bridge costed $1.93e9 USD. 1
IH-405 is 30 Miles so 1.5 Katy Freeways so $3.5E9.
IH-5 is 54 miles so 2.5 Katy Freeways so $5.6E9.
IH-90 is 54 Miles so 2.5 Katy Freeways so $5.6E9.
Bridge segments of IH-90 lets take the Port Mann Bridge and multiply it by 2 so $1.93E9 * 4 or $7.72E9.
For a grand total of: 24.91E9 dollars.
You could buy everyone in King county WA a Honda Accord EX with Honda Sensing, with the money they're spending.
You could also every adult in King $31,000 to buy a new Subaru.
Has anyone in here actually been to Seattle? It's an isthmus surrounded by Puget Sound, Lake Washington and Lake Union. There isn't a flat piece of ground in the city. On what planet would they be able to build new highways or widen existing ones?
The Seattle LR is very expensive but it's also not the garbage that's being put in Houston, Portland, Kansas City and LA. It's below grade in the dense portions of it. Trains come on time every 8 minutes. It's great service. They are setting new ridership records frequently. The cost is high but Seattle is flush and has no state income tax.
Ever been to LA. There are some serious mountain passes that they built monster freeways over when California was run by sane people. Here's a 12 lane mountain pass. https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0266821,-117.9962582,3a,75y,233.84h,95.48t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sUc8NPwuABzbZr0EgsKhIGA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e4
A five wide mountain pass
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