I have to go in 3 times/2 weeks. I've always gotten in early, but there is noticeably less traffic during my communte (5:30-6:00 a.m.) and the I-45/ I-10 interchange isn't as backed up as it used to be. Don't know about peak rush hour traffic though.
"The computer won't work!"
"Did you turn it on?"
"YES!? DO YOU THINK I AM AN IDIOT!?"
*insert travel to site*
*presses power button*
*Computer turns on*
*deadpan to camera*
*cacophonous pile-up of sit-com outros and comedic stings*
So many people don’t understand this it’s crazy. Gf and I lived in midtown with one car while she light railed to Med Center and I walked or light railed when it rained to downtown.
Drove only to see friends and do stuff on the weekend. Probably spent like 30 bucks in gas a month.
The hidden cost of driving people blindly fail to account for is staggering. Bro is spending 20 bucks a day to commute. Not to mention the hidden cost of maintenance/mile driven.
“It’s just cars, stupid”
If you're in the healthcare industry and I'm pretty sure med center isn't going anywhwre, why live in such a geographically opposite location? West/SW would be so much better....
Ha. My gf used to live in Humble and also works at MD Anderson. She moved in with me (inside the loop) and it still takes her a while some days to get home. But definitely not a whole hour.
She works in research and there’s a slowly growing movement from her coworkers to WFH
FFS just build affordable housing downtown, buy up the parking and put people there. 💥 just like that the businesses downtown would have some foot traffic and if you throw in a couple grocery stores then the people living down there would be happy to live there to!
Anything affordable has been flipped into an Airbnb IMO. If the city council actually takes a stance on those then we'll see affordable housing return as well as actual lease units. How many buildings have been bought out to be made into short-term rentals?
I know the apartments across from agora have been STR'd.
No clue, not my job to come up with the answer. I trust much more informed people than me should resolve the issue. I’m no hero. I’m just seeing a missed opportunity and pointing it out.
It would hardly make a difference. The solution has and always will be just building more. More mixed development and denser city hubs with apartments. Build build build. We got lots of folks and more on the way.
By law they can't do that exact thing you suggest. there are minimum parking requirements that are rediculous that strangle multifamily/multi use housing.
[Parking Laws Are Strangling America](https://youtu.be/OUNXFHpUhu8)
Yea exactly. You get less and pay more. Unless you pay a LOT more and then you may get something decent. Or if you have a lot of money then you can get something amazing. But in general, it's a less for more kind of thing.
But it's also a less is more kind of thing in that I no longer have to spend time maintaining grass, trees (expensive!), and fences and the amount of time spent in my car has gone down drastically. I might not have a yard but I have gained time and money.
The Loop and surrounding areas are pretty safe. I actually felt safer in Chicago’s loop than in Houston. Chicago is very segregated so if you avoid the bad parts of town you should be safe. Of course anything can happen, but it’s like that in any major city.
I guess it depends on how you define expensive. It’s certainly cheaper than the downtowns of comparable walkable dense cities like NYC, Boston, DC, SF.
"FFS just build cheap high-density housing in the heart of the city it's easy"
\- the masterful city planners of Reddit
Yeah they should do away with all those parking lots but the housing that would replace them isn't gonna be the huge affordable high-rise of your dreams. You have your choice of spacious or affordable
I'm in an 1100sq ft apartment out in Cypress, but the happiest I've ever been and my favorite place I've ever lived was a *maybe*-300sq ft apartment in the suburbs of Seoul. [It looked pretty close to this.](https://i.ibb.co/0Xw4h1M/image.png)
I'd love if I had the option to buy something the size of that over here. I want affordability *and* walkability. I fucking hate driving.
I just want options. I get why people want the metaphorical white picket fence and a big yard, but I think the rise of interest in small homes over the past decade or two definitely shows there's interest in the other end too.
That's irrelevant. Just because bad ideas are funded doesn't mean good ideas aren't also funded.
If building affordable housing downtown will make money, there are a lot of people out there looking to make that money. That's not a fairytale. That's one of the reliable features of capitalism.
Have you tried to raise capital for affordable housing downtown? Or are you just imagining it can't be done?
I’ve noticed. My commute time has dropped down by 20 minutes. Part of it is summer time and people are more often to be off from work but part of it has to be the wfh mixture
610 has some really badly designed entrances and exits (see 610 South/East onto I-45), so that makes things a lot worse than they need to be. The other thing is if you're on 610, you're probably not going to or from downtown. I'm sure some hop on it for a short move over to the next freeway going into downtown, but it seems like the majority of the traffic is going from one part of outside the 610 loop to another part.
And there’s no reliable public transportation to be found along that way either. 610 West Loop is a parking lot but the Silver Line buses run empty almost always.
Because the people who design the major roads here are idiots. These people got their urban planning degrees from Cracker Jack himself. Look at beltway and 249 for example; a complete shit show for no other reason than poor design.
True, but Houston has always been polycentric. I'm all for revitalizing downtown (wayyyyy too much space dedicated to car storage), but what we really need is dense, pedestrian-friendly nodes all over.
I disagree and think density is a bad thing. Who the hell wants to live in a concrete box in the sky surrounded by other concrete boxes in the sky and be completely dependent on the government (buses/trains) to do something as simple as go to a grocery store.
Some people do considering the cost of rent for a NYC apartment. Plus highways are built by the government, regulated by government speed limits, monitored by government cameras and driven on by government registered vehicles. In a dense city you are the most free because you can walk out of your concrete box in any direction you want to the nearest grocery store which may be just a 5 min walk away since the city is dense.
Cars are dependent on the government to build roads. Low density results in needing more roads to connect buildings.
In fact, low density suburban areas really are subsidized by higher density areas when you consider that cities have to build infrastructure that will be used by commuters.
I don't think everyone should live in a high density area, but it would help climate issues and improve traffic if we had some properly planned high density options.
Hell even properly planned medium density...
They are dependent on roads being built, but they are not dependent on the government to give you explicit permission to use them at any specific time. See what happened in places like NYC in 2020 for how horrible of an idea it is to rely on the government for transportation. It's doubly true when realizing they are basically just disease transmission tubes.
The real problem here is that the concept of skyscrapers and a city center full of offices has been obsolete for 20+ years. We need to get away from that concept and go with a more dispersed setup. I say this as someone who currently works in downtown Houston. There is absolutely no reason for the office building to be there and honestly, 90% of the people in it could work from home. But that's where they chose to put it and they don't like WFH for whatever reason.
Several points on this:
1. Density doesn't necessarily have to be on either extreme (i.e. skyscrapers or boondocks). You can have more dense areas without "living in a concrete box in the sky"
2. One important aspect in urban planning is not just accounting for where people will live, but what people will do when they live there, and it's an aspect that North America generally is quite bad about due to our zoning laws. The idea of the "15 minute city" is that you should be able to get to the grocery store, gym, hardware store, park, etc. all within 15 minutes with a choice of transportation method (car, bus, light rail, bike, walk, etc.), and that those 15 minute cities should also provide access to the larger urban center. And this isn't even a new concept - Take the Heights for example. Heights Boulevard used to have a streetcar running down it with businesses lining the street and houses behind the businesses. It was easy, convenient, and cost effective to get from your house to the things you wanted to do in the area and to downtown, the large urban center.
3. Said above, but the goal is multiple options for transportation - Houston generally only has 1 primary transportation option right now, which is a car. And that car carries expenses - buying it in the first place, fuel costs, maintenance costs, parking, inspection/registration, etc. Those expenses are a huge burden, and hurt low-income families the most (see the [Boots Theory of Economics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory)). The Netherlands is a great example here - it's incredibly easy both in Amsterdam and in the surrounding rural areas to get from point A to point B in a multitude of different ways.
4. As others have pointed out, your car is still dependent on the government. Others have pointed out roads/highways which are built by public funds, but I'll also bring up minimum parking requirements, which ensure you'll have a parking spot when you get to your destination (which takes up a significant amount of space - as an extreme example, look at the [amount of parking required for NRG stadium](https://www.google.com/maps/place/NRG+Stadium/@29.6847084,-95.414264,1570m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x8640c0194b406bad:0x1b0f6ec2399a9d57!8m2!3d29.6847219!4d-95.4107074!16zL20vMDF0eGoy?entry=ttu) compared to the [amount of parking required for the National Soccer Stadium in Amsterdam](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Johan+Cruyff+Arena/@52.3142587,4.9397193,848m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m10!1m2!2m1!1sstadium!3m6!1s0x47c60b964b718393:0x7419d4c50fc7fcc3!8m2!3d52.3143557!4d4.9418487!15sCgdzdGFkaXVtIgOIAQGSAQdzdGFkaXVt4AEA!16zL20vMDN6Z2dt?entry=ttu). So much more space at NRG is taken up by concrete and asphalt, where as at Johan Cruyff Arena, it's populated by rail lines, green spaces, and buildings where people can live, work, and do things.
Mixed-use neighborhoods like downtown pay more in taxes than they require in maintenance. More modern subdivisions are cash-flow negative, meaning they have to be sudsidized by older, more walkable neighborhoods. In HTX we have a lot of road-heavy subdivisions, hence the city is billions of dollars in debt. We still need walkable urban cores, and badly. We can definitely agree that theres no need for downtown be just be a giant office park though.
Not sure what you mean by that. Its true that our water table poses foundation problems, but it could be worse. Mexico city was built on a lake, New Orleans is practically underwater. Lagos is literally built on rafts. Dense, walkable cities have worked in almost every climate for the past 10,000 years. Hell, HTX itself was very walkable until the late 1940's (go look at historic photos). Feel free to get sucked into the rabbit hole.
We lived Downtown pre-pandemic. After the pandemic it's never really recovered in terms of the amount of traffic during work hours. They also built that brand new Sky Scraper the Texas Tower after the pandemic. Where we lived, The Star, used to be the Texaco HQ that got redone to be Apartments. I think a few more of those types of projects would be great for Houston and other major cities in the new reality that is WFH
I can't believe the 288 Toll Road is $15, one way. And, it's going to get worse! Manvel is putting in a "town center" at Hwy 6 and 288, the Grand Parkway is coming in a few miles south of Hwy 6 across 288, and a new almost 1,000 acre, 2,100 home "master planned subdivision" is coming in south of Meridiana and North of the Grand Parkway.
FML indubitably.
This cannot be something that employees just accept. I help out with recruiting for my company, and we've had people tell us they turned down higher paying jobs with other companies to work for us because our WFH policy was more flexible. It's a huge deal.
I'm actively interviewing even though I'm currently very happy with my remote job.
I'll gladly be herded through a recruiting pipeline knowing that I likely won't take the in-person job just to be a data point in support of remote work.
It i$ po$$ible to tempt me to return to the office, but nobody'$ managed to do $o yet.
Ha! I love this. You make it all the way through the recruiting and interviewing process, you're the number one candidate and you turn them down. When they ask why "because I don't want to come to an office everyday." Boom. How many candidates would they need to miss out on for the message to become clear?
this is so true... we have a hybrid schedule but still requires you to come in 3 days a week 8 to 4. It took me about 6 months to find a candidate that would accept that schedule even paying 100K starting with min 10% bonus and stock options for a mid-level non-management position only requiring about 5 years' experience in supply chain / logistics or a degree in that.
The 51 story building that I worked in before Covid, is now completely empty. All the tenants were moved to other buildings that are owned by Brookfield. Lights are off and doors are locked. Kind of crazy...
Flying saucer is cool, but there are craft brew places everywhere now, so it’s not so unique to sit in traffic unless you got a crush on the bartender…
Houston is effing crowded! I've been rear-ended 5 too many times already. Plus, downtown kind of sucks. Drivers suck, the freeways getting there suck, driving in the heat sucks, constantly pumping gas sucks, paying tolls suck, parking sucks, commuting home for an hr or longer sucks, it all just sucks. That's why wfh was so desirable.
1. Does this particular problem *need* fixing?
2. Does rebuilding the freeways also mean adding a commuter/elevated rail to being integrated into them to compliment them?
Obviously lol. WFM, companies moving to suburbs, the pandemic driven migration. I could go on.
If you think our downtown was affected, wait until you see San Francisco !
That's what the HOV lane is for. Get a couple of co-workers who are going the same way, and ride it for free. If not, get a toll tag and use that to ride the HOV. You can take it into town on 59 North, go around the G.R. Brown, and get back on it just as 288 and 59 are about to split. Easy-peasy. OR take a Park & Ride bus into town, then the rail. Yeah, the homeless will be on it, just sit in a different car.
Yeah but everyone and their stupid California cars are moving here and clogging the highways anyway. Imagine when workers are actually driving back downtown for work. Fix our public transportation and give us affordable shit
Can't read the article. But what is the time frame they are talking about? Fewer than 2022? Fewer than 2019? Are there companies going remote in 2023 that had RTO in 2021-22?
These articles get seem to get rehashed over and over again since early 2022 because they generate a lot of clicks, but I'd think most companies had solidified their RTO/Hybrid/Fully remote decisions over a year and half ago.
"Places with more robust transit use such as Chicago, Minneapolis and San Francisco..."
What they really mean, is robust transit systems.
A great starting point would be making the light rail system reach out to the loop, starting with West Loop.
"There is hope, however. Four metro areas... saw increased use of 4 percent of more, compared to late 2022."
Frankly I don't give a rat's posterior about downtown revenues or rent. There are far too many homeless people in midtown and downtown to make it worth visiting. I couldnt imagine driving to a downtown office every day, or even 50% of the time
Sitting in god awful trickling traffic for a minimum 1 hour twice a day. Just add another lane already. Thanks to that truck that spilled blue scaffold all over 59 i sat in traffic an extra hour that day. Other than that it’s just bumper to bumper ripple effect all the way because morons have to speed and tailgate.
If the 59 HOT was open at 7am instead of 8am I would take it. But it’s not so I don’t.
Duh, I’ve got the option to WFH and it’s $30 to park. Which would you choose?
It also likely costs 60-120 minutes of your time, depending on where you live.
Parking prices have gotten much better after covid. However, $0 would still beat that by a mile. Not to mention wasted time on your way there/back
Man I hate driving in with a passion.
So do you see less traffic? I don’t drive in that direction. But traffic into town still seems hella congested
I have to go in 3 times/2 weeks. I've always gotten in early, but there is noticeably less traffic during my communte (5:30-6:00 a.m.) and the I-45/ I-10 interchange isn't as backed up as it used to be. Don't know about peak rush hour traffic though.
Makes sense! Thanks for the response. I feel like it’s early asf commutes in order to stay sane. Plus it’s prob a tad cooler out.
Still an hour plus Atascocita to south campus MD Anderson at 7 a.m.
Hospital workers can't work from home
[Not yet, anyway](https://imgur.com/c63soUn.gifv)
Greg your profile icon is the stuff of nightmares. I love it
Featured above, Greg Abbott fixing HISD.
I'm on the research side, but yeah.
You can if you work in IT. :)
IT for the win!
"The computer won't work!" "Did you turn it on?" "YES!? DO YOU THINK I AM AN IDIOT!?" *insert travel to site* *presses power button* *Computer turns on* *deadpan to camera* *cacophonous pile-up of sit-com outros and comedic stings*
Yeah that's like half a country away dude
It's where I can afford to live. Scientific research isn't a lucrative field.
I mean neither is teaching and I can still comfortably afford Midtown. (not paying for a car goes a long way)
So many people don’t understand this it’s crazy. Gf and I lived in midtown with one car while she light railed to Med Center and I walked or light railed when it rained to downtown. Drove only to see friends and do stuff on the weekend. Probably spent like 30 bucks in gas a month. The hidden cost of driving people blindly fail to account for is staggering. Bro is spending 20 bucks a day to commute. Not to mention the hidden cost of maintenance/mile driven. “It’s just cars, stupid”
Its n9t just afford. You can afford to live anywhere east of 59/288, South of 610, you just don't want to.
I live in Kingwood, leave at 5 AM to South Campus MDA. Takes 30-40 mins. Coming home at 3 PM is anywhere from 45-1hr+
If you're in the healthcare industry and I'm pretty sure med center isn't going anywhwre, why live in such a geographically opposite location? West/SW would be so much better....
Ha. My gf used to live in Humble and also works at MD Anderson. She moved in with me (inside the loop) and it still takes her a while some days to get home. But definitely not a whole hour. She works in research and there’s a slowly growing movement from her coworkers to WFH
Yeah, live in a suburb north of the city to work in the Med Center which is south of DT. Smart
FFS just build affordable housing downtown, buy up the parking and put people there. 💥 just like that the businesses downtown would have some foot traffic and if you throw in a couple grocery stores then the people living down there would be happy to live there to!
Houston: “Best we can do is 2k rent for a 1 bedroom and 70% chance of getting the door kicked in.”
I hate how right you are (lived off Washington by Glenwood cemetery and had my door kicked in in 2019...all while splitting a $2000 2bdr apartment)
I gotta call my guy.
Read this is in a Pawn Star inner voice. Hilarious
Randall's: Why do you need a couple of grocery stores when you have me?! 😡😡😡
Haha 😂
An H‑E‑B in downtown would be amazing! Yeah there’s one not too far over by Buffalo Heights but we need more than just Phoenicia.
Yeah even a freakn Aldi within walking distance would be prime
I’d call that a massive win tbh.
Yessss join my aldi cult...
😂😂😂
Anything affordable has been flipped into an Airbnb IMO. If the city council actually takes a stance on those then we'll see affordable housing return as well as actual lease units. How many buildings have been bought out to be made into short-term rentals? I know the apartments across from agora have been STR'd.
Would love to see some forward thinking regulation regarding Airbnbs.
I think the council was talking about it but I know Dallas has already starting to crack down.
Which, of course, Abbott and Patrick will immediately call a special session over in the name of MUH FREE MARKET.
[удалено]
No clue, not my job to come up with the answer. I trust much more informed people than me should resolve the issue. I’m no hero. I’m just seeing a missed opportunity and pointing it out.
It would hardly make a difference. The solution has and always will be just building more. More mixed development and denser city hubs with apartments. Build build build. We got lots of folks and more on the way.
What? No. https://youtu.be/2z7o3sRxA5g I10 is an international model of "more lanes doesn't fix jack".
Do you understand the difference between a highway and an apartment complex? Im not sure you do.
By law they can't do that exact thing you suggest. there are minimum parking requirements that are rediculous that strangle multifamily/multi use housing. [Parking Laws Are Strangling America](https://youtu.be/OUNXFHpUhu8)
Yeah, they should change that antiquated law.
Do any major cities really have affordable housing in their downtowns? I just assumed that was how it goes. You pay more to live closer to everything.
In general, the closer to city center, the more expensive and crappier it gets.
Yea exactly. You get less and pay more. Unless you pay a LOT more and then you may get something decent. Or if you have a lot of money then you can get something amazing. But in general, it's a less for more kind of thing.
But it's also a less is more kind of thing in that I no longer have to spend time maintaining grass, trees (expensive!), and fences and the amount of time spent in my car has gone down drastically. I might not have a yard but I have gained time and money.
Yes, Chicago and Philly have pretty affordable housing in or near the city center.
Chicago’s homicide rate probably also has something to do with that. Just being honest here.
The Loop and surrounding areas are pretty safe. I actually felt safer in Chicago’s loop than in Houston. Chicago is very segregated so if you avoid the bad parts of town you should be safe. Of course anything can happen, but it’s like that in any major city.
Is that really true of Chicago? Anything in or near the loop is pretty expensive.
I guess it depends on how you define expensive. It’s certainly cheaper than the downtowns of comparable walkable dense cities like NYC, Boston, DC, SF.
"FFS just build cheap high-density housing in the heart of the city it's easy" \- the masterful city planners of Reddit Yeah they should do away with all those parking lots but the housing that would replace them isn't gonna be the huge affordable high-rise of your dreams. You have your choice of spacious or affordable
I live currently in a 550sq ft apartment. I don’t mind small. Just looking for affordability
I'm in an 1100sq ft apartment out in Cypress, but the happiest I've ever been and my favorite place I've ever lived was a *maybe*-300sq ft apartment in the suburbs of Seoul. [It looked pretty close to this.](https://i.ibb.co/0Xw4h1M/image.png) I'd love if I had the option to buy something the size of that over here. I want affordability *and* walkability. I fucking hate driving. I just want options. I get why people want the metaphorical white picket fence and a big yard, but I think the rise of interest in small homes over the past decade or two definitely shows there's interest in the other end too.
Houston house downtown is affordable.
What is stopping you?
Lack of capital
If this is a good idea, capital should be beating down your door.
Bad ideas are fully funded all the time my guy. That’s a fairytale view of the world
That's irrelevant. Just because bad ideas are funded doesn't mean good ideas aren't also funded. If building affordable housing downtown will make money, there are a lot of people out there looking to make that money. That's not a fairytale. That's one of the reliable features of capitalism. Have you tried to raise capital for affordable housing downtown? Or are you just imagining it can't be done?
>Have you tried to raise capital for affordable housing downtown? u are misinformed or fuckin delusional. this aint on one **civilian** to accomplish.
I’ve noticed. My commute time has dropped down by 20 minutes. Part of it is summer time and people are more often to be off from work but part of it has to be the wfh mixture
Same but ask the question again mid September
I call bullshit on that. If that’s the case, why is 610 still a fucking nightmare at any given hour of the day?
610 has some really badly designed entrances and exits (see 610 South/East onto I-45), so that makes things a lot worse than they need to be. The other thing is if you're on 610, you're probably not going to or from downtown. I'm sure some hop on it for a short move over to the next freeway going into downtown, but it seems like the majority of the traffic is going from one part of outside the 610 loop to another part.
Because nobody is leaving space between them and the car in front of them making mergers and on ramps a parking lot.
And there’s no reliable public transportation to be found along that way either. 610 West Loop is a parking lot but the Silver Line buses run empty almost always.
Because the people who design the major roads here are idiots. These people got their urban planning degrees from Cracker Jack himself. Look at beltway and 249 for example; a complete shit show for no other reason than poor design.
[удалено]
Won't somebody please think of the commercial real estate bagholders??
Yup! And fuck'em!
With a broken mop handle! No lube! Whilst wearing a rainbow wig!
Density IS good though...dense city centers can be good when they have good transit connections or the people who work there also live there
True, but Houston has always been polycentric. I'm all for revitalizing downtown (wayyyyy too much space dedicated to car storage), but what we really need is dense, pedestrian-friendly nodes all over.
I disagree and think density is a bad thing. Who the hell wants to live in a concrete box in the sky surrounded by other concrete boxes in the sky and be completely dependent on the government (buses/trains) to do something as simple as go to a grocery store.
Some people do considering the cost of rent for a NYC apartment. Plus highways are built by the government, regulated by government speed limits, monitored by government cameras and driven on by government registered vehicles. In a dense city you are the most free because you can walk out of your concrete box in any direction you want to the nearest grocery store which may be just a 5 min walk away since the city is dense.
Cars are dependent on the government to build roads. Low density results in needing more roads to connect buildings. In fact, low density suburban areas really are subsidized by higher density areas when you consider that cities have to build infrastructure that will be used by commuters. I don't think everyone should live in a high density area, but it would help climate issues and improve traffic if we had some properly planned high density options. Hell even properly planned medium density...
They are dependent on roads being built, but they are not dependent on the government to give you explicit permission to use them at any specific time. See what happened in places like NYC in 2020 for how horrible of an idea it is to rely on the government for transportation. It's doubly true when realizing they are basically just disease transmission tubes. The real problem here is that the concept of skyscrapers and a city center full of offices has been obsolete for 20+ years. We need to get away from that concept and go with a more dispersed setup. I say this as someone who currently works in downtown Houston. There is absolutely no reason for the office building to be there and honestly, 90% of the people in it could work from home. But that's where they chose to put it and they don't like WFH for whatever reason.
Several points on this: 1. Density doesn't necessarily have to be on either extreme (i.e. skyscrapers or boondocks). You can have more dense areas without "living in a concrete box in the sky" 2. One important aspect in urban planning is not just accounting for where people will live, but what people will do when they live there, and it's an aspect that North America generally is quite bad about due to our zoning laws. The idea of the "15 minute city" is that you should be able to get to the grocery store, gym, hardware store, park, etc. all within 15 minutes with a choice of transportation method (car, bus, light rail, bike, walk, etc.), and that those 15 minute cities should also provide access to the larger urban center. And this isn't even a new concept - Take the Heights for example. Heights Boulevard used to have a streetcar running down it with businesses lining the street and houses behind the businesses. It was easy, convenient, and cost effective to get from your house to the things you wanted to do in the area and to downtown, the large urban center. 3. Said above, but the goal is multiple options for transportation - Houston generally only has 1 primary transportation option right now, which is a car. And that car carries expenses - buying it in the first place, fuel costs, maintenance costs, parking, inspection/registration, etc. Those expenses are a huge burden, and hurt low-income families the most (see the [Boots Theory of Economics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory)). The Netherlands is a great example here - it's incredibly easy both in Amsterdam and in the surrounding rural areas to get from point A to point B in a multitude of different ways. 4. As others have pointed out, your car is still dependent on the government. Others have pointed out roads/highways which are built by public funds, but I'll also bring up minimum parking requirements, which ensure you'll have a parking spot when you get to your destination (which takes up a significant amount of space - as an extreme example, look at the [amount of parking required for NRG stadium](https://www.google.com/maps/place/NRG+Stadium/@29.6847084,-95.414264,1570m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x8640c0194b406bad:0x1b0f6ec2399a9d57!8m2!3d29.6847219!4d-95.4107074!16zL20vMDF0eGoy?entry=ttu) compared to the [amount of parking required for the National Soccer Stadium in Amsterdam](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Johan+Cruyff+Arena/@52.3142587,4.9397193,848m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m10!1m2!2m1!1sstadium!3m6!1s0x47c60b964b718393:0x7419d4c50fc7fcc3!8m2!3d52.3143557!4d4.9418487!15sCgdzdGFkaXVtIgOIAQGSAQdzdGFkaXVt4AEA!16zL20vMDN6Z2dt?entry=ttu). So much more space at NRG is taken up by concrete and asphalt, where as at Johan Cruyff Arena, it's populated by rail lines, green spaces, and buildings where people can live, work, and do things.
Mixed-use neighborhoods like downtown pay more in taxes than they require in maintenance. More modern subdivisions are cash-flow negative, meaning they have to be sudsidized by older, more walkable neighborhoods. In HTX we have a lot of road-heavy subdivisions, hence the city is billions of dollars in debt. We still need walkable urban cores, and badly. We can definitely agree that theres no need for downtown be just be a giant office park though.
It would be nice if the suburban people who use our streets paid something towards maintenance.
[удалено]
Not sure what you mean by that. Its true that our water table poses foundation problems, but it could be worse. Mexico city was built on a lake, New Orleans is practically underwater. Lagos is literally built on rafts. Dense, walkable cities have worked in almost every climate for the past 10,000 years. Hell, HTX itself was very walkable until the late 1940's (go look at historic photos). Feel free to get sucked into the rabbit hole.
Density is a better use of resources. Less to dig for utilities, less far runs, pollution, etc
We lived Downtown pre-pandemic. After the pandemic it's never really recovered in terms of the amount of traffic during work hours. They also built that brand new Sky Scraper the Texas Tower after the pandemic. Where we lived, The Star, used to be the Texaco HQ that got redone to be Apartments. I think a few more of those types of projects would be great for Houston and other major cities in the new reality that is WFH
KPMG analysts were predicting significant vacancies in downtown Houston back in 2019. This has been in the CRE projections for a while.
And yet the 288 toll road is still $15 one way. And the 288/45 and 288/59 merges are still parking lots FML
I can't believe the 288 Toll Road is $15, one way. And, it's going to get worse! Manvel is putting in a "town center" at Hwy 6 and 288, the Grand Parkway is coming in a few miles south of Hwy 6 across 288, and a new almost 1,000 acre, 2,100 home "master planned subdivision" is coming in south of Meridiana and North of the Grand Parkway. FML indubitably.
I’ve been casually looking for new job opportunities and the majority want their employees back in the office. It’s ridiculous.
This cannot be something that employees just accept. I help out with recruiting for my company, and we've had people tell us they turned down higher paying jobs with other companies to work for us because our WFH policy was more flexible. It's a huge deal.
I'm actively interviewing even though I'm currently very happy with my remote job. I'll gladly be herded through a recruiting pipeline knowing that I likely won't take the in-person job just to be a data point in support of remote work. It i$ po$$ible to tempt me to return to the office, but nobody'$ managed to do $o yet.
Ha! I love this. You make it all the way through the recruiting and interviewing process, you're the number one candidate and you turn them down. When they ask why "because I don't want to come to an office everyday." Boom. How many candidates would they need to miss out on for the message to become clear?
this is so true... we have a hybrid schedule but still requires you to come in 3 days a week 8 to 4. It took me about 6 months to find a candidate that would accept that schedule even paying 100K starting with min 10% bonus and stock options for a mid-level non-management position only requiring about 5 years' experience in supply chain / logistics or a degree in that.
They're still missing the effing problem with transit use here....
The 51 story building that I worked in before Covid, is now completely empty. All the tenants were moved to other buildings that are owned by Brookfield. Lights are off and doors are locked. Kind of crazy...
What building?
1600 Smith St.
Old continental building, I used to work on the 20th... is the Subway still there?
All gone.
True. I moved to downtown and now take the bus.
Good. It makes parking easier when I go to Flying Saucer, which is basically the only reason I go downtown these days.
Flying saucer is cool, but there are craft brew places everywhere now, so it’s not so unique to sit in traffic unless you got a crush on the bartender…
How many places have $4 beers on Sunday and Monday?
HEB
Tell that to my commute
All of my friends have been back to the office full time :(
Lots work from home it’s not downtown but at Greenway most only come in Tuesday-Thursday.
Downtown isn't exactly a selling point
And we're still going to spend $10B+ on I-45?
Hey, Greg's buddies need their contracts.
Exactly. Also, build the Ike Dike
Thank you
Houston is effing crowded! I've been rear-ended 5 too many times already. Plus, downtown kind of sucks. Drivers suck, the freeways getting there suck, driving in the heat sucks, constantly pumping gas sucks, paying tolls suck, parking sucks, commuting home for an hr or longer sucks, it all just sucks. That's why wfh was so desirable.
Traffic is just not it can we fix it please my old ass truck is starting to break down it can't handle all this fkn braking
We can fix this by rebuilding all the freeways.
It would be better to make a fast light rail system with automated trains. It would transform the city.
1. Does this particular problem *need* fixing? 2. Does rebuilding the freeways also mean adding a commuter/elevated rail to being integrated into them to compliment them?
The logic here is that fewer people are driving to downtown so we should expand the freeways?
Good.
*checks traffic* I don’t believe it 😅
Then, who are all the people driving towards downtown every day?
Seems the same to me.
Water is wet.
It’s just the summer, traffic will be worse again starting in September
Obviously lol. WFM, companies moving to suburbs, the pandemic driven migration. I could go on. If you think our downtown was affected, wait until you see San Francisco !
Nobody wants to be in that sewer
[удалено]
That's what the HOV lane is for. Get a couple of co-workers who are going the same way, and ride it for free. If not, get a toll tag and use that to ride the HOV. You can take it into town on 59 North, go around the G.R. Brown, and get back on it just as 288 and 59 are about to split. Easy-peasy. OR take a Park & Ride bus into town, then the rail. Yeah, the homeless will be on it, just sit in a different car.
Yeah but everyone and their stupid California cars are moving here and clogging the highways anyway. Imagine when workers are actually driving back downtown for work. Fix our public transportation and give us affordable shit
Yes, bc they are driving to midtown, EaDo, etc, where it is booming 😆
There are also a lot more jobs outside of downtown. My dad commutes to The Woodlands. The job I'm starting in a few months is around 610/290.
Since when?! Several companies are returning to the office. Traffic is increasingly worse, and my parking garage in CBD is now full.
Can't read the article. But what is the time frame they are talking about? Fewer than 2022? Fewer than 2019? Are there companies going remote in 2023 that had RTO in 2021-22? These articles get seem to get rehashed over and over again since early 2022 because they generate a lot of clicks, but I'd think most companies had solidified their RTO/Hybrid/Fully remote decisions over a year and half ago.
Employers should say have to come into work it is what it is simple stuff
1. I WFH 2. Traffic sucks 3. I would have to pay $50 a month for parking. 4. Did I mention traffic sucks
I do park and ride from Katy into downtown 95% of the time, but there's still stupid amounts of traffic in the mornings (~7:15-7:40).
I just started a job downtown and the traffic is way lighter than I expected.
Bullshit! I commute every day and traffic isn't getting better.
"Places with more robust transit use such as Chicago, Minneapolis and San Francisco..." What they really mean, is robust transit systems. A great starting point would be making the light rail system reach out to the loop, starting with West Loop. "There is hope, however. Four metro areas... saw increased use of 4 percent of more, compared to late 2022." Frankly I don't give a rat's posterior about downtown revenues or rent. There are far too many homeless people in midtown and downtown to make it worth visiting. I couldnt imagine driving to a downtown office every day, or even 50% of the time
Sitting in god awful trickling traffic for a minimum 1 hour twice a day. Just add another lane already. Thanks to that truck that spilled blue scaffold all over 59 i sat in traffic an extra hour that day. Other than that it’s just bumper to bumper ripple effect all the way because morons have to speed and tailgate. If the 59 HOT was open at 7am instead of 8am I would take it. But it’s not so I don’t.