ssullivan

Battelstein

did Houston ever have Food Lion?

Yeah they didn't last too long in Houston or Texas for that matter. No loss there IMO -- I've been in a number of their stores in the southeast while traveling for work and have never been impressed. Most Super Wal-Marts have a nicer grocery department than the Food Lions I've been in, and I think Wal-Mart is pretty darn bad.

In its prime, the Red Lion was considered a very fine dining establishment. It was demolished after being badly damaged by fire in the 90s.

And speaking of Stella Link inside the loop, remember Alfred's? It was a venerable "Kosher Style" Deli and I believe it stayed in business till Alfred died. His son owns Kahn's Deli in the village.

My mother lived down the street from Alfred and his family when she was in high school. She was the son's babysitter for a while.

Yes, it's already built. It opened last summer. I looked at it last year when I was apartment hunting but didn't really like the vibe I got from the guy showing me around. The units are quite nice, with very high ceilings (I think I remember them being about 11 ft.), large open areas, and upgraded appliances. I ended up not going there because it was at the high end of the price range I was looking at, I didn't like the attitude of the office staff, and I didn't consider it to be as convenient to access mass transit as the place I ended up going with. But the apartments are very nice, and the community does have some great amenities.

Getting a little off topic, but I drove by West Oaks yesterday and was shocked to see Mervyn's closed and JC Penney with going out of business signs up. They no sooner finish a huge renovation and two anchor stores are going out? Doesn't speak well for the mall at all. When I lived in Westchase I always enjoyed shopping at West Oaks, and the last time I was there when the renovation was nearing completion I thought it was looking very good.

West Oaks probably had too many department store anchors. There used to be six, then after Palais Royal left in 2000 their spot sat empty for a few years until Linens & Things went into it. Now there will still be three department store anchors, provided Dillard's, Sears, and Foley's (Macy's) stay. Those three, plus Alamo Drafthouse, and the smaller stores might be enough to keep the place hanging on for a while. That mall does have a history of trying to find its niche -- it originally was built as a suburban Galleria with stores like Saks and Lord & Taylor. After Saks and Lord & Taylor left and were more middle-class stores, the mall did seem to be more successful.

I'm pretty sure there's a Gatti's at the corner of University and Greenbriar across from the southwest corner of the Rice campus. I think it's a delivery/carry out only location in an old converted house.

What was originally in this building?

Del Taco is long gone from Texas, but alive and well in California. I saw several in San Diego last weekend.

Weren't Showbiz and Chuck E. Cheese two different companies that merged at some point? Neither was very good; the only real attraction there was the games.

My favorite is Jefe Bar.

(Just kidding!) I would never set foot in that nasty place.

I somehow missed the post in this thread of the old church pictures that's been here since December. Wow! Those are really great, and I had not seen most of them before. It's a shame most of them are gone now -- First Methodist is the only one of that group I know is still standing. Second Presbyterian is now Grace Presbyterian, out in the Westchase area, and the old downtown building is long gone. St. Paul's Methodist still exists; it was originally in Midtown but moved to its present location at the corner of Main and Binz across from the MFAH decades ago. And of course First Baptist is still around, in a modern building off the Katy Freeway that IMO looks more like an office building than a church from the outside. Does anyone know where that synagogue was, or where Central Christian was?

That's good news to hear - More chain hotels need to be built downtown. The economy and trade within the Houston city limits needs to become more and more centered in Downtown.

The chains that do not have a hotel in Downtown include:

* Marriott

* Ritz-Carlton (Especially since the old Uptown hotel is now a St. Regis)

* Sheraton (perhaps a W Hotel - Houston needs a W Hotel)

* Sonesta

* Wyndham

Marriott had planned a Renaissance Hotel downtown, in the old Texaco building, but that project is now on hold. I'm sure once the market recovers Marriott will jump on the opportunity for a full-service hotel downtown if they can be assured of its success. At least they do have a Courtyard and Residence Inn downtown.

The others are probably in the same situation. Sonesta, and Wyndham to a certain extent, are more niche brands and may be harder to lure. But I'm sure Marriott and Starwood (Sheraton, W, Westin, St. Regis) would be downtown if the demand was there.

I drive out the Eastex occassionally to/from IAH (usually take the Hardy) but also get up that way on trips home to see Mom and Dad. I've been watching this thing go up for several years, and it has been slow. You're right, they have recently sped up a lot on it.

Can't say I find it all that attractive, but to each his/her own.

That banner with the rendering has been hanging on the side of the building for years now.

I've heard stories of some sort of mummification death and discovery of a body/skeleton wrapped in plastic or in a coffin. It's always involved a townhouse or apartment in the area but haven't heard the legend linked to the Empire Cafe Building. With the number of versions of this legend, there probably is some truth to it, although I doubt any of the stories are the exact truth.

The exteriors of those buildings may be very plain, but all have undergone major interior renovations in the last three or four years. And they really aren't any worse looking outside than many of the other buildings downtown.

I've had my windshield washed without me asking for it several times at that intersection Polly. It is aggravating. But, the way I see it, if I tell the guy not to do it and he washes it anyway, then he's washing it for free. If he does it after I've said no, then I feel no obligation to pay for his service.

The small town I grew up in had some very old phone switching equipment until about 1992 or 1993. Every phone in town was in the same exchange, so the way we dialed local calls was by just dialing the last five digits. If you dialed all seven digits for a local call, the call would not connect because the equipment was set up with every line on the same exchange. For example, my home number was 283-5968 and Dad's work number was 283-2231. To dial him at work from the house, you'd just dial 32231. Touch tone phones would also not work on that system -- just about everyone had the old rotary dial phones (Dad's store still has one that they still use!) or a push button phone set to the pulse setting. After SBC installed new phone switching equipment shortly after I graduated high school, touch tone phones could be used, and you were forced to dial the 2 and 8 for local calls. It took a long time for many people to break the habit of not dialing those two numbers.

It is Rice Ave. in Uptown. That's an error in the rendering, as Rice Blvd. runs east-west through the Village area and over to Rice U. Rice Ave. runs north-south through Uptown down to Bellaire, and does cross Richmond.

The stores in the Woodlands have clothes because the mall didn't get a lease renewal from Eddie Bauer.

Did you mean "closed"?

What school?

Austin College.

Not all local universities are in bad areas. Look at Rice! And the University of St. Thomas is surrounded by some pretty expensive real estate.

My alma matter was fronted by a boulevard once filled with grand Victorian homes (unfortunately only a handful are left). Beyond this street were fairly nice middle class neighborhoods. However, when it came to the neighborhood on the back side of the campus, calling it a ghetto would be too nice. It was worse than that. Fortunately the college, which was private with ample endowment funds, was able to buy out just about all of the houses for six or seven blocks bordering the campus on the two "bad" sides, tear down the ones that weren't worth salvaging, and renovate the rest. Those were then rented to faculty, staff, and students. The city streets were left intact and the area wasn't officially part of the campus, but by the college owning all of the houses and empty lots (which they resodded and kept mowed), the entire area benefited, and campus police patrols at night through the neighborhood made the entire area around the college safer. Today some of the neighborhoods around the school are the most desirable in town.

It would be great if Greyhound is moving! Not only is the current station hampering redevelopment of the surrounding neighborhood, but since MetroRail opened it's difficult for their buses to navigate in and out of the station, and the reconfiguration of Main St. eliminated a lot of space for cars dropping off and picking up passengers.

I've never noticed rude people at the Kirby Whole Foods, and I shop in there all the time. I tend to run into friends and acquaintances there a few times a month though. So maybe some of my friends and I are those surly people... (I hope not!) :-)

If the project is gated like the rest of the CAmden crap, I don't want it built either, because that would not be an urban renewal.

I'm sure it will be like the Post Midtown development, where retail spaces have street access, and residential access is through security gates. Like it or not, this is somewhat of a necessity. But from the renderings I wouldn't expect big fences completely surrounding the complex like you see at the current Camden Midtown complex a few blocks away.

I'm very interested to see how this project turns out, as I am interested in possibly moving there.