Houston vs. Dallas (Saginaw, Howe, Mart: unique, transfer, construction)

[Exult.Q36]

Originally Posted by Dallaz

Is 1401 Elm, Downtown's Largest Vacant Building, About to Be Sold? Sure Looks Like It.

Late last week, in the comments to some item, a Friend of Unfair Park asked about if the Tower Petroleum Building had come off the market, since its web listing had disappeared. I called Colliers International's David Glasscock, who's repping that building and the mammoth 1401 Elm, which was once the tallest building in the state and closed in January 2010, and he said both were still available and that they were just retooling something having to do with ground-floor retail leasing...

..The agenda says the former Elm Place, which was on the market for $19 million, will be redeveloped by something called 1401 Elm Street Holdings LLC -- which, according to the state's Secretary of State's website, was created July 26 by Turkish investor and developer Mukemmel "Mike" Sarimsakci, who came to San Francisco's attention last year when he began buying buildings there, including one that went for $35 million...

...And, of course: "I'm very excited," says Crawford, who's yet to see the redo plans. "I would be thrilled to see 1401 Elm close. That's enormous. And potentially it could lead to other investment opportunities. I would be thrilled."

More tomorrow. Or Thursday, for sure.

Is 1401 Elm, Downtown's Largest Vacant Building, About to Be Sold? Sure Looks Like It. - Dallas News - Unfair Park

That dirt cheap...I wish I had the funds....I would buy the building

[Dallaz]

Originally Posted by kdogg817

That dirt cheap...I wish I had the funds....I would buy the building

Yea, it is. I can't wait for it to be redeveloped.

[Exult.Q36]

Originally Posted by Trae713

Other than the craziness that was going on in Dallas' core of that pic, that's basically the plan now. A lot of those freeways are under construction. I see the new 121 Tollway in SW Fort Worth on there. And they're finishing up 161 to I-20 right now (interchange rising up).

Thats all good but loop 820 is outdated and needs to be expanded to 4 lanes.

[violator1977]

Originally Posted by dallasboi

you came out of nowhere trying to appear as an honest poster but the more i read ,the more it was revealed that you are just a typical biased hating Houstonian. Everybody knows that the transit systems in texas are still projects on goin. Everyone also knows that Dart is the best in texas. Just the ignorant notion of dart not being any better than the Metro system in Houston shows your bashing bias. You don't know s**t about Dallas....move on!*#%$@!!!

Actually your jumping to conclusions. I did not compare the DART to the Metro. You really need to brush up on your reading skills.

When the other poster stated 72 miles of track I was actually about to compliment the DART system. I even looked up videos on the DART and was impressed (compared to Houston, not to other cities though). However before I could post my compliments, the server timed out for nightly maintenance and I'm just coming back now.

Now I'd be jumping to conclusions if I was to infer by your post that Dallas schools suck.

[violator1977]

Originally Posted by Three Wolves In Snow

As a total outsider, living in Houston for 1 year and Dallas/Plano for 4 months, (as stated in previous post), I am going to give my opinion on Houston's bus system:

I did mention the one bus driver who was very kind, stopping for me even though I was not flagging him down or at a bus stop nor had money and only had to go a few blocks.

But, I did not go in to the bus/transit system more than that for either city because:

Houston -

I'm standing in the driveway of my brother's house. To the right of me is the Galleria. If I had a car, it would take me about 10 minutes to get there.

To the left of me is downtown. If I had a car it would take me about 15 or so minutes to get there.

Ok, so, I want to go to the Galleria. I don't have a car so I'm going to have to get on the bus.

Problem.

Instead of just being able to walk towards the right and up a few blocks where the buses are, and hop on one going towards the Galleria, I have to go all. the. way. downtown FIRST and THEN catch another bus to the Galleria.

Man I hated that. Every time I wanted to go anywhere I had to go downtown first and then back out.

THAT part of Houston's bus system totally sucked.

But, the ridership was indeed high. The buses were clean, they had a/c, (nice!!!!), and the drivers were always, and yes, I mean that, always, friendly.

It just sucked to have to go downtown and then back out wasting a good half an hour to an hour of my time.

In Dallas/Plano, I did not use the bus system, had the use of a car while I was there so I cannot say how their system ran.

This is why I did not compare the two. But, as much as I enjoyed Houston and again, if I did move back to TX, that is where I would live, I would say get a fricken car because you waste a lot of time trying to get someplace that should only take 10 minutes, 20 tops, to get to.

And as I was reading all the comments and writing this post, I was thinking back and frankly, I don't remember seeing buses in Dallas/Plano...so, that's not a good thing. But, then again, I wasn't looking for them because I didn't have to use them.

Anyway, Houston, don't take offense, I really like your town, it's awesome, I get why you love it but, as friendly and nice as the bus drivers are, as clean as the buses were, and though a lot of people used the bus, the system sucks as far as wasting time. Improve that and you'll have one hell of a fine city.

This is true. The bus system is extremely inefficient in Houston.

[dallasboi]

Originally Posted by violator1977

Houston certainly feels and looks more diverse. I'm Indian American and we have 2 full time Indian radio stations Mon-Sun, and 5 half day-full day radio stations Sat and Sundays in Houston. There wasn't one I could pick up in Dallas scanning the radio stations. Walking around the malls, out in public, and speaking with relatives who live in Plano makes me feel this way also. I didn't see the sheer number of blacks, asians, hispanics, etc. that I see in Houston.

I called up two Indian restaurants in town and found out that they weren't even "real Indian" that they had some american indian fusion thing going on. Apparently I need to drive to Las Colinas or the 'burbs for decent Indian. The ones I called were Kalmanchandjis the other was Cosmic Cafe, both were some american-indian fusion thing. Its easy to find authentic Indian restaurants in about every part of Houston (not to mention Vietnamese, Chinese or Thai).

This is my point exactly!....you already had your mind made up in a negative way about Dallas before you even got here. And if you did find something that you liked about dallas, you ignored it or you stated it in a way to where it wouldn't look like a compliment towards Dallas. For example I'm sure you liked many more things about Northpark, but the only thing you mentioned was your anguish about us getting H&M(were getting 3 and Houston none). That clearly spells out envy. So my point is,don't try to act like you came up here and did a fair assessment when u clearly knew what you would say about dallas before you got here. If there's indian food on every corner in Houston why would you visit an entirely different city wanting indian food?! Try something different. Oh i forgot,you were tryna use that as a negative point about dallas. I think houstonians expect dallas to be Houston when they visit and we are TOTALLY different. And thats perfectly ok with us Dallasites.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by R1070

The Dallas trains and system is much nicer than what I saw in Houston. The Metro looks and is designed like what the streetcar system is going to be like in Dallas.

That's basically what Houston metro is. It's a streetcar system. Nothing wrong with that. It's jyst not a rapd transit system. I wish Houston would use heavy rail to implement taps yransit system. But we know how slim to none those chances are.

[First24]

Originally Posted by dallasboi

I think houstonians expect dallas to be Houston when they visit and we are TOTALLY different. And thats perfectly ok with us Dallasites.

Excellent point.

I don't go to other cities comparing it to the one I live in, then criticize what's different. It is what it is, respect the differences and move on.

Also, DFW has a large South Asian format radio station, FunAsia 104.9FM. There are several more on the AM dial with South and Far East Asian formats.

[Dallaz]

The State Fair of Texas is gonna celebrate its 125th year. There's also gonna be a renovation of the historic Art Deco buildings.

DISCOVER FAIR PARK
"A new learning opportunity just weeks away is the interpretive signage program for the historic Esplanade.

The project is funded through the Department of Interior’s National Park Service “Save America’s Treasures” grant and includes the interpretive signage and the historic restoration of mural and building identification.

The interpretive portion includes a welcome to Fair Park and its historic Esplanade. Life size interpretive panels will detail the history of Fair Park, its art, architecture, historic events, and special things of note. The panels will be installed just inside the historic gates into Fair Park at Parry Avenue.

The seven sub-story panels will identify the historic features of the park with a timeline and historic photos on the back side of each panel starting with the original State Fair to current time. The six porticos along the Esplanade will also be identified on the columns and the existing murals at the Centennial Building will be labeled.

From the Women’s Museum area to the Hall of State, panels will identify significant features, architectural components, bas reliefs, sculptures, and other interesting information for our visitors to learn from. New replacement replication murals, developed from original 1936 photographs, are being installed underneath the porticos of the Automobile Building.

Finally, the names of the buildings for the Centennial Building, Automobile Building and the Hall of State will be installed. The names will be prominently featured in three dimensional stainless steel letters.

The project will be completed by the opening of the 2011 State Fair of Texas."

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by Trae713

If it was up to Metro, they would have the blue line under construction along with the others (including Uptown). Thank the NIMBYs for delaying it so much.

yeah, I was reading up about your comments about Delay yesterday. Didn't know he was such a douche. Why was he so adamant about not having rail in Houston when he was not even representing Houston??? I can't believe the feds gave Houston half a bill back in the day for rail and the stupid mayor took it to plug potholes.

Originally Posted by dallasboi

our trains look more durable. Houston trains do look more modern but they also look cheap and almost cheezy......I'll take darts cars if i had to choose.

I think Houston's trains look more slick and classy. The Dart ones look like the cheapo toys I played with as a kid. That grey will look good for much longer than that puke color you guys use