Jeebus

Well, I hope HP has gathered some steam by March 30th. My wife bought 2 tickets to Britney Spears , and is expecting me to go with her to HP first for dinner, before walking to Toyota Center for the concert!

The difference between bird crap and the bums is the potential to be harassed. Why go anywhere where there is a higher potential to be harassed, run in to trouble, or anything unpleasant. And before any of you go to the other extreme of: "Well, there's danger everywhere, why not just stay home then?" - you all know what I mean by the raised threat of harassment. I'm sticking to the idea of bus-tickets to Atlanta.

If you want to give to someone you think is really in need, I won't chastise you. However, if you are one of those who give to the intersection regulars, I will be greatly disappointed. That is where my frustration lies. They are the laziest of the lazy. Especially the ones who are so lazy, they work the same corner, with the same sign, every day.

The problem is that bums are ALL OVER THIS FREAKING CITY. From downtown all the way out to FM1960. Its beyond ridiculous. NEVER give bums anything - except a cold shoulder. Its all you bleeding hearts that keep them in business. I personally think its disgusting that people will stand at a street corner for over 12 hours a day - yet refuse to get a job, only working 8 hours a day, where they would most surely do less work than they do now when they beg. I agree with the other poster, give all these lazy grifters a one way ticket and twenty bucks to somewhere magical - like Atlanta.

1. Would there be enough business to keep them open after business hours? 2. Are the businesses that are street level open in the evening now? 3. Is there enough residential to support even the street level businesses now if they started to stay open late? 4. Until HPD does something about the homeless/bums/panhandlers/mentally handicap, they will continue to loiter at the entrances to anything open in the evenings, as they do now, detracting business. This is exactly what I was talking about a few posts above. Everyone wants Houston to be something its not. Where's MidtownCoog to remind us to just be ourselves?? What proof do you have for this? They were out in force at every Main Street I've been to since the Super Bowl came in 2004. Back when the Main Street clubs were hot a few years ago, they were out in force. Hell, I walked with my wife from 1111 Fannin to the CVS on Main and they were EVERYWHERE. Just wait until they move into the Pavilions area.

After being a member of the forum for three years now, I've noticed this is the biggest flaw with Houstonians. We all want the ultimate in development, but its never where we work or live. Even worse, if it is proposed near where we work or live we turn into nasty nimby's that will have nothing to do with it.Nothing pleases us it seems. This is exactly right. Just look at all the retail that IS above ground now and look at their hours.

And deal with the bums? No thank you. My wife works downtown, and after eating lunch with her a just a few times I realized the value of the tunnels. You can leave your office, go to lunch, run errands, and never have to worry about a bum messing with you. Those of you on here that want to talk tough about bums never messing with you, that's great - but my wife is barely five foot tall and one hundred pounds soaking wet. I would rather her not have to deal with them, or me have to worry about it. Just like everything else in life, the tunnels were created out of necessity. The ground level retail will fill in as residential occupancies rise.

I said the same thing until I got a small laptop. I still like to buy the Saturday paper on occasions for the car dealership ads, and the Sunday paper for real estate.

SNAP! DOUBLE SNAP!

I'd probably go with the guy who spends less time posting unfunny pictures through out the forum.

Just think how awesome this building will look when dwarfed by the 89 story Deyaar tower!

I agree with you but the reality of it was that these stores were not making money. I think it had to do with the fact that the only business these little mall type businesses were getting were on the weekends, and even then, there weren't many transactions taking place. I think this is probably best plan to save it. I'd rather see this than to let it continue to be a vacant development that dies. If anything, it evolved forwards - if only to survive.

Is it really? If so, great job. The live music really does class up a place.

There's something about the perspective of this picture I can't put my finger on..

This was exactly my point.

You're right, my mistake. I'm gonna disagree with that however - unless we're limiting this to only people traveling from the southwest on US59 south, northbound. FWIW... This is starting to look a lot like the Shamrock thread. And we all know how that ended.

Who exactly?

I think as that area fills-in, 7 blocks won't seem like such a trek anymore. I personally had hoped to see lofts here, but if a budget franchise 2 star hotel, or boutique 3 star can occupy this space, then a success is a success. I wonder if it would be possible to knock out floors, to open up some of the upper floors, creating 20 foot ceilings for penthouse suites?

Could be worse I suppose. It could be a Kenny Roger's Roasters sign.

Hey, that ain't no stripper. That's an old "pro" looking to work the bar area & stake her claim on new territory. As for the building's height, 20+ stories is more than plenty compared to an empty lot. We need in-fill in Houston and it takes all shapes & sizes.

To me, it seems like the Central Bank would have more potential for a renovation than the Days Inn would.

Big fan of Mario Kart as well! I just got Mario Kart for the Wii. I highly recommend it.

I don't think you'll see much of that as it's still a pain in the ass to shop downtown - epsecially on Main St.

Nah, it held steady. I think HPD put a storefront in there to help curb crime in the large crowds. I think the occupancy problem is that there's no traffic during the week. Most of those little mall-type retail shops need 7 days worth of sales to stay open.

Gospel.