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I have worked downtown for essentially my entire adult life, and I've been out and about a couple of times a week in the evening for pretty much that entire time. Yes, there are a number of mentally ill people and those with substance problems who don't have anywhere else to go - I'll defer to whoever is doing some actual counting about whether it's more or less than some other point in time. However, unlike during the 80s and early 90s, I generally feel safe walking at pretty much any time. Redoing the Texaco building took out the last of the public pissoirs (the Rice was even worse when it was vacant). In my experience, a dose of situation awareness coupled with following Miss Manners' advice and responding to panhandlers with a shake of the head and a quiet "sorry" without breaking stride generally works pretty well.
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The problem with Center Street is that it's very narrow, and has a lot of things built right up to it. This is where a monorail would come in handy, since they don't take up much in the way of real estate.
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How did construction affect the businesses on Harrisburg or on Scott street? The original red line construction was rushed, so there was greater impact on the businesses, but I thought that Metro went through a lot of effort to avoid it with the Green/Purple/Northlines. Maybe they will reroute people on to Center street during the construction
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with the exception of Sonic, and Star Pizza I believe each of these is a one-off business? probably some of those businesses are owned by people who have multiple businesses though. sure, most of these places are destinations, but if there's construction and a place is harder to access, there are other destinations that the prospective patrons will go that are easier to access. unless the place offers an experience that is that much better. but you're still going to see a reduction in clientele. as a business owner, the prospect of a reduction in top line revenue for 3-5 years is not something I want to consider, and no matter how many more patrons I might after that 5 years is over, I need to stay in business for the next 5 years to get to that positive outcome.
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And think of the development that will branch off of this!
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i have had an office downtown for over 16 years. I really haven't seen any significant change in the homeless population other than changes in where they congregate (which is mostly due to the location of soup kitchens, where mobile services drop off food and redevelopment of buildings that used to be spots to sleep at night like the Le Meridien). I think there are more visible homeless encampments because a lot of vacant property in and around downtown and inside the loop has been redeveloped or just torn down. So, the squatters have nowhere to go and are forced into the various tent encampments. I think this article is a pretty good analysis of the causes behind homelessness in the US. I have always thought that there should be a federal housing assistance program to provide rent or mortgage payments for a period of time when people lose a job. On occasion, I have had to go to JP court and had to sit through the eviction docket. I would say that 75% of the people who show up tell the judge they lost their job or got hurt/sick and missed a lot of work. Compared to the costs of incarceration, rehab, and other social services that are needed to deal with homeless, paying someone's rent or mortgage for a while to give them a chance to get back on their feet seems like a very inexpensive way to prevent a lot of homelessness. It would also be a good way to promote affordable housing because landlords would save a ton of money not having to deal with so many evictions and could keep rents low and afford to build new units. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/homeless-utah-end-america-salt-lake-city_n_5cd1cac0e4b04e275d511aba
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The bar is not affiliated with Guava Lamp. It's a former employee that worked at Guava Lamp some time ago that is opening the bar. Buddy's will actually be located on the west side of the building, where Mary's Alibi and Bayou City were previously located. Buddy's is said to be a country/western bar and are currently awaiting permits/licences with the city to open. Back to Hamburger Mary's - I did hear their lease is set to expire and may be relocating.
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Which section of downtown is this in? I'm curious because I had never seen anything that digressive in south downtown (where I lived for 6 years) or on the main street corridor
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Homelessness in Houston
UtterlyUrban replied to CaptainJilliams's topic in General Houston Discussions
Generally correct. The addicts (again, using my preferred nomenclature: they are not homeless.....they are addicts) are both more prevalent downtown AND far more aggressive. I have been yelled at, cursed at, and called a racist, and a pig, by addicts for simply saying a polite “no” to their aggressive request for money to buy “food” (a euphemism for “my drug of choice”). I have seen entire families(mom, Dad, small kids) verbally accosted by the addicts. Want an image? imagine this: a middle aged woman of Hispanic ethnicity getting off a bus wearing a uniform that would imply that she works at a chain restaurant. She was going to work. She also had a completely withered arm (birth defect?) and walked with a pronounced limp. But, she was going to work to support herself and her family. Then the addict started to harass her, scream at her ..... call her terrible things....when she said ‘no’ to his request for “money for food” She was visibly shaken. I hustled over to her, told the ADDICT to beat it and helped the woman across the street. She was thankful. downtown is my neighborhood. I live here. Turner has fixed zip in my neighborhood. Any bets what would happen if the 100 addicts that populate the streets of downtown where magically transported to the residential streets of Turners neighborhood to set up their tents, do their drugs, harass hardworking women for money, and ask all the pedestrians/residents in Turners neighborhood for money too every time they walked outside? hint: turner would figure out a way to fix the problem if it existed in HIS neighborhood. But, it doesn’t. So, it only gets worse in downtown. Turner won’t get my vote. -
A longer line means either more trains for the same frequency or less frequency for the same number of trains. Extending only one line would work if they don't want to put more trains on one of the lines, but want to keep the frequencies the same
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I would imagine it would be both. Not sure I see a benefit to one stopping and not continuing.
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I asked and they are planning to be open this weekend, hopefully it's a good start for them! And yes they do have a small bike rack near the patio, the car is blocking it in the photo above 😉 enjoy!
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Stwo88 joined the community
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For the purpose of the actual trains, I wonder which lines will be extended to Heights, or if both purple and green trains will go all the way down. Does anyone know the history of Hughes manor?
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Homelessness in Houston
CaptainJilliams replied to CaptainJilliams's topic in General Houston Discussions
Well, it's certainly encouraging to hear a perspective from someone who has been here longer than me and has seen the improvement firsthand. I'm hoping continued Downtown and Midtown development will create greater connectivity and community, decreasing blight and the areas where people have been gathering. I'm also hoping the Pierce Elevated rebuild along with the sinking of 69 near downtown helps break up more tent cities. -
Just went and looked at the bars and restaurants along Washington which would be affected: (I'm assuming that the stop at Heights will stop just short of the intersection) Star Pizza Urban Eats Sonic Hughes Manor Shell Shack Catalina Coffee Liberty Station Henderson Heights Pub Julep Kubo's Sushi Tacodeli Platypus Brewing Gus' Fried Chicken B&B Butchers BB Lemon I mean, that's not that many IMHO. And several of those are destination places that people are making a trip for.
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Homelessness in Houston
Tumbleweed_Tx replied to CaptainJilliams's topic in General Houston Discussions
The big problem downtown started when they closed the Midtown Sears store because that's where major homeless camps were. You can't keep shuffling homeless from one part of town to another, what they need is affordable housing near transportation centers. Houston's problem isn't nearly as bad as LA or San Francisco- you have to make 350k a year to afford a house in SF. Housing out there is super expensive, and it's going to be that way here soon. -
I obviously failed the possessive adjectives part of English class.
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I wasn't. I am absolutely dumbfounded that people still have this mentality though.
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That's not how businesses see it though. Most don't think long term that this will benefit them, and most will see it as harder for customers to get to their businesses, the same claim businesses on N Main said. I'm willing to bet the opposition will be a lot more pronounced than you realize.
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Post HTX: 401 Franklin Post Office Site Redevelopment
CaptainJilliams replied to cloud713's topic in Going Up!
This development is actually starting to remind me of a development in Pittsburgh known as Nova Place. Before I moved down to Houston, I attended college just outside of Pittsburgh, so I frequently made trips to the city to watch ball games and see performances, a nice mid-size city. Nova Place is a renewal project on the north side of town that took the former Allegheny Center (Mall) and turned it into a mixed-use hub with the largest co-working space in the city, restaurants, and even residential units nearby. From what I've heard, it's experienced a decent amount of success and continues to add a lot of tech and medical companies. You can take a look at it for yourself here: https://novaplace.com/about-nova-place/ I hope Post HTX can be a significantly better version of this, and hopefully grow and add more amenities with time.- 685 replies
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They didn’t want anything more disruptive than the existing rail corridor. I think you will see less opposition to what’s essentially a streetcar to the Theater District. It’s a QOL and property value enhancer. Businesses will complain but hardly any of them last longer than 5 years on Washington.
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Not sure if serious. Maybe Metro strategically left this out of the plan until this final revision so that they only have one month to rally the troops. Edit: really most of the clubs/bars are west of where the proposed line would end. There's only a small handful that would be affected.
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This is a pretty cool report. I wonder if MFA can break into the ranks given their incredible expansion project. -
Oh, I'm calling it now. You'll see a big backlash not just from residents in the area, but from all the bars and clubs that will be impacted by the construction. I have a neighbor who moved from the Washington Ave corridor and he told me the area meetings were always in an uproar about parking, crime, and traffic in the area. Can't imagine what they'll say once Washington gets reduced down to one lane each way.
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I have worked downtown for essentially my entire adult life, and I've been out and about a couple of times a week in the evening for pretty much that entire time. Yes, there are a number of mentally ill people and those with substance problems who don't have anywhere else to go - I'll defer to whoever is doing some actual counting about whether it's more or less than some other point in time. However, unlike during the 80s and early 90s, I generally feel safe walking at pretty much any time. Redoing the Texaco building took out the last of the public pissoirs (the Rice was even worse when it was vacant). In my experience, a dose of situation awareness coupled with following Miss Manners' advice and responding to panhandlers with a shake of the head and a quiet "sorry" without breaking stride generally works pretty well. -
The problem with Center Street is that it's very narrow, and has a lot of things built right up to it. This is where a monorail would come in handy, since they don't take up much in the way of real estate.
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How did construction affect the businesses on Harrisburg or on Scott street? The original red line construction was rushed, so there was greater impact on the businesses, but I thought that Metro went through a lot of effort to avoid it with the Green/Purple/Northlines. Maybe they will reroute people on to Center street during the construction -
with the exception of Sonic, and Star Pizza I believe each of these is a one-off business? probably some of those businesses are owned by people who have multiple businesses though. sure, most of these places are destinations, but if there's construction and a place is harder to access, there are other destinations that the prospective patrons will go that are easier to access. unless the place offers an experience that is that much better. but you're still going to see a reduction in clientele. as a business owner, the prospect of a reduction in top line revenue for 3-5 years is not something I want to consider, and no matter how many more patrons I might after that 5 years is over, I need to stay in business for the next 5 years to get to that positive outcome. -
By j_cuevas713 · Posted
And think of the development that will branch off of this!
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