Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas
At least there is a sidewalk. I tell you what. If there's a sidewalk and I'm walking, I'll walk on it. And that street isn't so wide that I can't cross it.
Question: is there anything planned for the vacant field next to the HEB?
Also, Mike, you're not being completely honest with those photos. Now don't take that as any sort of attack, but you show the approach to the HEB at Mueller, but for the Fresh Plus photo you show the front of the store. What's the approach like on that? I'll admit, I'm not familiar with either of them, but any store location anywhere isn't going to be able to control the land next to it.
So I went and looked, there are no sidewalks on East 43rd Street east of Duval Street for one's approach on foot to Fresh Plus. Granted East 43rd dead ends maybe 500 feet from there, but that means some street walking for residents there. Or in the grass. And west of Avenue H on East 43rd Street, there is only a sidewalk on the south side of the street. So pedestrians would still need to cross that street to be on a sidewalk. The Duval route looked, good, though. I even counted 8 or 9 pedestrians. And extra points for the bike lanes on Duval Street.
While these two stores are in a differently built environment, they're really not all that dissimilar in their obstacles for pedestrians. They both have sidewalks leading to them, though there are some breaks in the sidewalks (or none), and some obstacles like the parking lot. And you'll still need to cross the street at both. One point of note is that the speed limits around the HEB and the amount of traffic is probably less than what you'd encounter on East 43rd Street.
Anyway, I'd probably still prefer the Fresh Plus neighborhood over the one surrounding the HEB. Of course I'm sure there are some nice areas of Mueller where it isn't so bad.
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Kevin, I didn't take either picture. And by the way, 43rd has a sidewalk on the north side all the way to at least Avenue B. That's the way we walk there. No idea why you think otherwise.
The key difference is that the HEB requires a long walk on a sidewalk headed off the main street (Berkman) onto a perpendicular parking access 'road' to hit the side of the store, then a shorter walk along the front of the store to the entrance; OR, as H2O's picture showed, a somewhat nicer but still long walk on the other side of that same perpendicular parking access 'road' and then crossing some parking and/or other access 'road' to get to the same place.
In the case of Fresh Plus, if you are already on the sidewalk on 43rd St., you are at the front door to the store. That is why the picture for Fresh Plus shows the front door. You are already there! Or, put another way, if, like my family, you walk from other parts of Hyde Park to, say, Julio's; you will walk right by the front door for the Fresh Plus.
Again, if you are on Berkman in Mueller, you still have a walk to get to the store, and it's not pleasant, and it's not on a street - it's through a parking lot.
This is a big difference. And remember, a lot of the difference between urbanism and suburbanism is NOT "CAN people walk"; it's "WILL people walk", or "HOW MANY people will walk". Most of suburban Austin has sidewalks, after all! You can theoretically walk from your suburban house to your suburban HEB. Do you? How many do?
People walk into Fresh Plus from surrounding areas all day long. That's the difference. And Fresh Plus is only halfway urban - it's not a high bar to meet; it's just that HEB didn't even try; and those of us who pointed out as far back as 2010-2011 that they weren't even trying were ridiculed and submarined for our trouble.
(and to those who thought the previous post was a personal attack - Really? REALLY? The poster in question seriously misrepresented my argument even though he clearly knows better. I asked the readers to consider why somebody might do that. If you think that's a personal attack, you are too thin-skinned for the internet).
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