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Sunset Coffee Building At 1019 Commerce St.


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I've done the bayou in a canoe a few times putting in Woodway and 610 and getting out at Allen's Landing. Past Allen's Landing, it's crap. The trip through R.O. and Memorial Park is great. A few big gators in there. If they can ferry canoes up to the Old Archery Range by Memorial Park and let people ride down it would be great. Takes about 4 hours or a 12 pack.

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Turning Allen's Landing on Buffalo Bayou, where Houston began 171 years ago this week, into an active water and lawn amenity has long been a dream of city boosters. Noble efforts have been made, but attracting Houstonians to the downtown waterway has been sidetracked by, at different times, pollution, floods, lack of funds, apathy, area blight, wrong approaches, homeless campers

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I like what they did with Allen's Landing, but one of the reasons nobody goes there is because nobody is downtown in the first place. And the other reason is most likely the homeless. The few times I explored that area, I felt uncomfortable because of all of the dudes sleeping around there. I know I'd love to rent a canoe though, and it would give tourists something to do. As long as it didn't feel creepy and empty, and more people spent time downtown it might work!

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This sounds good. Houston needs to embrace the bayou scape. They have been working on an observation deck at Fannin forever.

Bums are not a problem in this area. If anything, this side of downtown attracts the friendly travelling hobo type. The king of the road.

Let sleeping bums lie.

Edited by MidtownCoog
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I know they are most likely not a problem (they haven't asked me for money) but they still keep people (especially families) away...

So where is that observation deck supposed to be on Fanin?

Edited by Jax
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Why are so many people on the Chron acting like the bayou is an open sewer and that it will never be clean enough to enjoy? If I understand correctly, it's fed by a natural spring and the brown color comes from all the silt and mud in there, not necessarily pollution. The garbage people throw in is another problem, but it seems to me that it could be stopped and cleaned up - it's at least possible. I know it may have had years of industrial pollution / sewage, but not anymore. And so did the rivers in Chicago and the Hudson Rive in NY and those are clean enough now that nobody complains. Even the River Walk in San Antonio is brown, and nobody seems to mind.

I'm not advocating drinking the water in the Bayou, but it seems people are so pessimistic about it and so convinced that it will never be clean enough to use for recreation. I think this negative attitude will be the biggest hurdle to the development of the Bayou into an asset as opposed to a dirty river that everybody tires to ignore.

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I'm not advocating drinking the water in the Bayou, but it seems people are so pessimistic about it and so convinced that it will never be clean enough to use for recreation. I think this negative attitude will be the biggest hurdle to the development of the Bayou into an asset as opposed to a dirty river that everybody tires to ignore.

The pessimism is likely caused by negative comments, like those in post #3 and #6.

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Last time I was in town, I took my mom's dogs for a long walk starting at Allen Parkway near Dunlavy and followed to Bayou all the way to Allen's Landing. It is really beautiful down there especially inside downtown.

I think Lake Flato's design looks stunning. I made a small donation to the cause today. If you can afford to, join the Partnership.

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The pessimism is likely caused by negative comments, like those in post #3 and #6.

The pessimism comes from my posts about how most families would not spend recreation time around homeless people? I even said I'd love to rent a canoe in my post. I don't see how my comments on the homeless sleeping around Allen's landing have anything to do with the pessimism about water quality and health issues related to being near the Bayou. I think parts of the Bayou are nice, and I think it has a lot of potential. I don't think the water quality is hopeless or anything like that. I just meant that the homeless situation needs to be improved before families are going to take their kids for a picnic at Alan's Landing, and that I didn't feel comfortable being there alone with the sleeping homeless dudes.

For some reason, a few people in the Chron comments seem to think the water is stagnant in the Bayou. Every time I have seen it (especially at Allen's Landing and Waugh Bridge), it seems to be flowing fast. Maybe too fast... I was thinking that could be an issue for canoes. I guess it just goes to show how uneducated the average Chron comenter is. I bet that guy hasn't even seen the bayou.

Edited by Jax
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I'm not advocating drinking the water in the Bayou, but it seems people are so pessimistic about it and so convinced that it will never be clean enough to use for recreation. I think this negative attitude will be the biggest hurdle to the development of the Bayou into an asset as opposed to a dirty river that everybody tires to ignore.

From the Buffalo Bayou Partnership website:

Water quality is the one blemish on the face of Buffalo Bayou. The storm drains throughout urban Houston drain directly into the bayou carrying litter, oil, fertilizers, toxic chemicals, and other non-point source pollutants that come directly from our manicured lawns, little-league fields, and golf courses. Unfortunately, Buffalo Bayou and White Oak currently have the worst water quality of any stream or river in Texas. Most pernicious are the sub-normal levels of E.Coli bacteria. Of course, the Art Guys drank the water and lived to tell about it!

(Why are sub-normal levels of E. Coli bacteria 'pernicious'? In this instance, isn't sub-normal a Good Thing?)

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Last time I was in town, I took my mom's dogs for a long walk starting at Allen Parkway near Dunlavy and followed to Bayou all the way to Allen's Landing. It is really beautiful down there especially inside downtown.

I think Lake Flato's design looks stunning. I made a small donation to the cause today. If you can afford to, join the Partnership.

Where can we see Lake Flato's design?

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I'm not afraid of hobos. I actually enjoy walking downtown more than anywhere else in the city, and I drag people with me who do all of the complaining about the bums. My complains are more to say that I wish there were less bums so that more people would be willing to go downtown and I wouldn't be walking in an empty street. I didn't ever say that I wouldn't go downtown because of the bums.

My point was that nobody is going to hang out at Allen's Landing if it's just you and a bunch of bums, and you're down an embankment where nobody else can see you. It's kind of creepy. Last time I was there I didn't feel comfortable being alone in that part of downtown, and that was one of the few times I didn't feel comfortable walking alone.

And I made some comments about bums in midtown, but I was just asking why they all hang out on that one corner. I don't recall saying anything negative about them.

Edited by Jax
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To improve the bayou you need to get more people to visit it. My proposal is to install some artificial rock climbing routes down there.

Does anyone have any suggestions on who I might contact to help get this idea off the ground? It would need to be someone with some serious influence to cut through the red tape.

Liability concerns could be mitigated by having the climbs start about 7 feet up so that non-climbers could not use them. Money is not an issue as I will happily pay for the gear.

Thanks

Duncan

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