ssullivan

First, it's already under renovation and has been for quite some time. I don't think this is a reaction to the Pavillions proposal. The plans to update Houston Center go back several years, and started with the first phase of renaming the center from the Park Shops, opening ground-level retail on the center's corners, and adding some exterior signage. The interior renovations that started a few months ago were part of the original plan. They may have been enhanced some as a result of the Pavillions project, but the overall makeover of the mall was going to happen anyway.

Macy's has repeatedly indicated that the downtown store will not be closed. Foley's has maintained for years that the store is profitable. I see no reason why Macy's would be closing the downtown store at this point.

I think higher than average prices in NYC is not a sign that Virgin is uncompetitive in their pricing. I think that's more a case of the high cost of just opening and maintaining a store in NYC. Everything costs more there. I imagine if you went in Best Buy in NYC you'd see similar prices.

Well these days I don't do a lot of grocery shopping because it's just not worth it when you're home only two or three nights a week. But back in the days when I had the time to cook most nights I bought a lot of raw ingredients and tried to focus on organics and healthier items as much as possible. So that's probably why I didn't see much price difference, because I wasn't shopping based on price as much as I was on quality. I used to also be a big coupon shopper, and with a Randall's card and double and triple coupons, prices on the everyday advertised items (the ones where stores try to undercut each other and compete on price) aren't so bad at Randall's. I also shopped a lot at the Westchase/Royal Oaks HEB after it opened when I lived in Westchase. I refused to go in the nasty HEB Pantry it replaced, and I don't shop in Wal-Mart for a variety of other reasons that are apparent if you do a search on this board. But I rarely saw much difference between the cost of my shopping at the Westchase Randall's versus the HEB a mile down the street. Honestly, most stores are going to charge about the same price on 85-90% of their products, because those items aren't considered to be as price sensitive. The other 10-15% of inventory are the items where people compare prices and have a better idea of what something "should" cost. Those are also the items that get heavily advertised. I do miss having a nice HEB in my neighborhood now. They do carry some great products that aren't available elsewhere. And their newer, non-Pantry stores are very nice and well-kept. I do venture out to the Westheimer/Fountainview store on occassion, even though it's a bit of a drive just to buy groceries. Most of my shopping now is at Randall's, Whole Foods, and Central Market -- but as I said, I don't do a lot of grocery shopping these days in Houston since I spend more nights in other cities than I do at home.

There's also the additional parking garage that was built during the construction of the Hilton Americas and GRB expansion. That garage is connected to both buildings by skywalks and was designed to have enough space to accomodate both the hotel and the GRB, as well as overflow for the Toyota Center.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't get all this stuff about merchandise in Randall's being ridiculously priced. I've never felt like they were overcharging me, and I've never noticed much, if any, difference in my grocery bill when shopping at a Randall's versus HEB. Maybe it's just the stuff I buy.

The two Randall's that Safeway remodeled last year into the new concept are really nice stores, but it was too late and too little to recover from the damage that was done in the early days of the Safeway takeover. I do miss the days when Randall's was locally owned, and had great management that did things like making sure all checkout lines were open during the busiest times of day. I think there is a place for a more upscale grocery concept between the discounters that stock nothing more than the basics and the really upscale like Whole Foods and Central Market. Maybe Randall's can recapture this position if Safeway acts quickly to fix some of its problems here and gets the stores that aren't closing remodeled into the new concept VERY quickly. But if they can't pull that off, then count on more Randall's closings, and eventually, the death of the chain.

Alamo Drafthouse downtown... now there's a great idea! I love that place, but West Oaks Mall is just too damn far out to drive for a movie and dinner. And after sitting through a movie Friday night while stranded in Alabama surrounded by teenagers that wouldn't shut up I'm all in favor of theaters that serve alcohol and have age restrictions as a result. At least this time nobody's cell phone rang and nobody's baby cried.

Part of it may have been a bank at one time, but the majority of the building's original use was as a department store. My mother who grew up near the area has verified this, and the original terrazzo entrance to the store confirms it. When going in the main entrance of Half Price Books you still walk over the original "Meyer Brothers - White House Store" terrazzo.

The Meyerland Borders closed? Must have happened quickly and very recently. When I was over there Labor Day Weekend it was open and there were no signs it was shutting its doors soon. I typically shop at the Borders on Kirby though. I think it's a lot nicer. And sometimes I do Half Price Books, but my main complaint with them is that it's hit or miss. They may have what you want, and they may not. That's just the nature of any business that focuses on second-hand and closeout merchandise. I do wish Houston had a large independent bookseller like Austin's Book People or Denver's Tattered Cover.

I'm not the least bit surprised by this news. Six Flags for years has done almost nothing to update the park or promote it outside the Houston area. And this summer it seems as if they've barely even advertised it at all. Even when we went there when I was a kid in the 1980s it wasn't all that great, and it was a lot better maintained then than now. I'd rather see a different company come in and build a really good theme park if we have to have one, rather than what we have now.

I really like the plans for the downtown park. I don't think it's too busy; there's a lot there in those 12 acres but what's wrong with that if it gets people downtown to use it? This could end up being a great location for outdoor festivals in the park and on surrounding streets, as well as an amenity that can be used by conventions. For once, we have a proposal for a new outdoor recreational area in this city that not only looks nice, but also includes many features that should attract people to use it. This could have ended up as just an expansion of the existing Houston Center Gardens, which while beautiful (well, they were nice before the rats and homeless moved in), didn't provide for much use by the public.

There's been a Johnny Rockets in the food court area at Katy Mills for several years, maybe since the mall opened.

Welcome to the board, ConstructionManagerMAS. I do love that mural and the floors, and walk through there several times a month. The whole area is one of the airport's most attractive interior spaces.

Great idea for those who don't want to find free on-street parking. The Angelika has done this forever with the underground theater district garage. Let's hope this pays off for the businesses doing it; I'm sure their hope is that they will make up the cost of taking $5 off a customer's cover charge or food/drink tab with increased numbers of patrons. If it works, it could not only bring more people downtown on weekend evenings but also encourage additional businesses to participate.

Just for the record, the average weekend rates at the Hilton Americas run upwards of $135-140/night. Weeknight rates are running about twice that, in the $260-300/night range. And the occupancy rate is often more than 50%. My parents stayed at the hotel two weeks ago and the occupancy rate that weekend was way over 50%, as the place was packed both Friday and Saturday night. Both the restaurant on the first floor and the coffee bar were doing a booming business at breakfast on that Saturday, with many people buying the $14 breakfast buffet. Hotels don't just make money off guest rooms. There's a ton of profit in their catering and meeting room services, as well as bars and restaurants. The Hilton Americas handles a ton of smaller meetings and conferences, which all pay for meeting room rentals and food, and if the event is pulling in out-of-towners, guestrooms. I don't think the Hilton Americas is hurting all that much. If it was, Hilton would be offering some much better weekend specials at the property than they are to keep it full.

I don't like the name change but can deal with it. But removing the mural because of it? That makes absolutely no sense at all! I don't see the point in destroying a piece of artwork because they're changing the name. Many hotels feature artwork and decorative themes related to the local area and its history. Why not use this as the basis for creating a signature item for Alden hotels, if they do expand outside Houston? Each one could have a similar piece in the lobby depicting something important to the local area's history and culture. They could also keep the Sam Houston name by calling the place something like the "Alden Sam Houston Hotel." Other companies, like Wyndham, have done this with their historic properties.

Maybe my coworkers and I are the exceptions to this, but when I'm on a business trip I love it when I can eat at local, unique places and wonder around in areas that aren't full of stores I see everywhere else. Most of the people I work with are like this too. I can eat at Chili's in any on eof several hundred cities in this country. I hate it when I get sent places where Chili's or any one of its clones is the only, or best option. I'm stuck in one of those right now in rural North Carolina and can't wait until Thursday night when I'm staying in Raleigh and have some hope of finding something other than mass-produced reheated frozen food from a factory someplace. I don't know; maybe I'm just unique in that respect. But I'd much rather have something different when I'm on the road than something I can get at home anytime I want it.

Although I can deal with some chain stores/restaurants downtown, and realize they probably need to be there to help with the "comfort" factor for those who don't venture downtown often, I don't want to see it be only that. A mix of the national chains, plus some more exclusive places (smaller chains that might only have one or two locations in a big city and are only in a handful of really large cities), plus local-only type places. Outback I can deal with. Let's leave Hooter's out of it... we have enough of those joints already. Besides, the few times I've been, the food has always been crap and the service even crapier. On my last trip there a few years ago with some friends from work I had to ask the waitress four times for a clean fork because the original one had food caked on it that hadn't come off in the dishwasher. Rather than bring me a fork she just continued to flirt and flash her goods in my face. I finally had to tell her I was gay, had no interest in anything she had to offer but a clean fork and I was tired of asking for one. After that I had a fork and even lousier service the rest of the meal.

Great example MidtownCoog. Why can't Market Square look like that?

I don't mind Jones Plaza that much. I had mixed feelings about the renovation; I kind of liked one aspect of the old design -- the mature trees that lined all four sides of it. But the new design is more modern and accessible and a better design for how the space is most often used. As for Market Square, I can appreciate some of the design aspects of it, including the diagonal walkways. However, as parks go, it's very unusable. The greenspace goes completely unused, and is really only accessible from the streets. I'd love to see it modified, so the green areas are more accessible from the walkways across the square, and maybe two walkways added that start in the middle of each block and go through the middle of the square to the other side. One would bisect the square on parallel to Travis and Milam, the other would be parallel to Preston and Congress. A better feature in the center of the square, along with many more trees and benches and a few tables in the grassy areas would help a lot too. I'd love to see something like some of the squares and circles in DC (like Dupot Circle) here in Market Square. The park would probably see a lot more use that way than it does now.

Clicking through the links back to the source for size rankings that Yahoo! was using, it looks like our Galleria is number two in the country for number of stores, with only the Mall of America in Minneapolis beating us in that category.

The Airport System has plans to extend TerminaLink between Terminals A and B. However it's a funding issue; when they get the money it will be done. As for the trek between E and C, here are several tips from someone who uses those terminals on a weekly basis: - If arriving at E gates E-11 - E-24, you can save some walking to baggage claim in C by using TerminaLink. Follow the signs in Terminal E for Terminals A, B, and D and gates C-14 - C-27. These will guide you to the center of Terminal E (by the Borders bookstore and Continental Presidents Club), where a skybridge leads to Terminal D and the D-E TerminaLink station. It's a relatively short walk past the security checkpoints for international passengers to the escalators up to TerminaLink. The ride takes less than a minute to Terminal C. Go down the escalator into Terminal C, turn right, and after a very short walk you'll see the escalator down to the C baggage claim to the left. - If arriving at gates E-1 - E-10, follow the signs in Terminal E to baggage claim. You'll go over a skybridge/ramp to the parking garage building that has moving sidewalks. After you go past the security checkpoint keep walking straight ahead and the walkway will take you directly into the Terminal C lobby, where you can go down two levels on the elevator, stairs, or escalators to baggage claim. Until recently this did involve walking through a short section of the parking garage but this has been changed. There is now a fully enclosed walkway the entire distance. DO NOT use this route if you are simply connecting between flights in C and E, as it does require leaving the secured area and you'll have to re-clear security at the other terminal. - If flying out of Terminal E on a domestic Continental flight, you can often save some walking by reversing the route above. Check in at C, then go up one level to the walkway to Terminal E. There is a security checkpoint before you start down the ramp from the parking garage to E. Lines here often aren't too bad, but this checkpoint does keep shorter hours than the main checkpoint in C, so if you're flying out extremely early or late, you might ask an agent before going up there if the checkpoint is open. Personally, I don't think the walk between E and C through the concourses is all that bad, and it's a lot shorter than disctances I've walked between flights at other major hub airports like MSP and PHL. Before and after getting on flights where I'll be sitting for a few hours I prefer to walk around some and stretch my legs, and the walk from the C lobby through the south councourse past gates C-43 - C-45 is a good way to do that. I often will hit Terminal E if I need to get something to eat before a flight out of C (food options are MUCH better in E) or if I want to hang out in the Presidents Club for a while, since that club is larger than the two in C, and I really like one of the bar tenders that works there. By the way, a section of the C south concourse that has been closed for some time for renovation is scheduled to reopen tomorrow. After all the C gates are back in service you'll see fewer domestic flights out of E, as part of the reason there have been so many over there was that C has been under renovation for the last 18 months. If you ever need a terminal map of IAH, there's a pretty good one on the Continental Airlines website.

I also love the mosaics in the corridors connecting the A-B garage to Terminals A and B. They are quite beautiful. IAH isn't the prettiest of airports, but it's far from the ugliest I've been in. Hobby has always been much worse, although the new concourse there is nice. If they ever finish the rest of that project Hobby will be pretty nice overall, but as it is now, parts of two of the original concourses and lobby areas are still there and still look bad. Dallas Love is also pretty run down, and nothing compares to the old Chicago Midway and Detroit terminals when it comes to nastiness. Thankfully both of those are long gone. As for IAH, the main project in the terminals still going on is the renovation of the C south concourse. I'm in there every week and it's progressing along, but there's still several months worth of work to go. The Terminal C ticket lobby and baggage claim areas also haven't been done, and I think they are also part of Continental's plan for renovating that terminal. Now if the city could just get the TerminaLink people mover extended to Terminal A so that transfers between that terminal and the others don't require leaving the secured area to use the underground train or the transfer shuttle buses, which require a ticket on Delta, Continental, Continental Express, or Continental Connection/Colgan.

They were where Saks is now. The same situation existed with Town & Country. When Marshall Field's announced they were leaving Houston they sold the two stores to Saks. The Saks store at Town & Country only lasted a couple of years before it closed.