Redeveloping the old Days Inn downtown, METRO needs to learn from Denver's failures, Texas' boom, and more

[Tory]

A few smaller items this week...

• The Chronicle examines what's up with the abandoned shell of the old Days Inn high rise hotel downtown. TL,DR: it's uneconomic to do anything with it, esp. with low ceilings. I’ve hoped to see it redeveloped for a very long time. I always thought the best use was an off-campus student dorm for Rice and UH students, with rail access to both campuses. But I understand what they’re saying about the math not working, especially at these high interest rates, which would need to dramatically come down. Hat tip to Rich.
• Developers focus on Waller County as Katy area grows. Short article highlighting the importance of freeway-widening and affordable housing. Hat tip Nathan.
• METRO needs to learn from the horrible expensive failures of Denver RTD, which has been focused on rail for many years now.

Finally, hat tip to Hugh for sending out this video of Why Florida and Texas are booming (and NY and California are not) by Economist Joseph Politano.