kylejack

Business hours, M-F. You can park at Bayou Place and enter the tunnels from inside the garage there. Alternatively you could park on the street somewhere and enter at the big steps in front of the Wells Fargo building, the big green one. Alternatively you could take MetroRail to Main Street Square and there's some steps down there, I forget where exactly. Or you could go to Shops at Houston Center and there's an escalator near the entrance and Monsoon that goes down to the tunnels. Once in the tunnels there is a map on the wall periodically. While you're in downtown you might want to check out the observation decks in the Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase Tower buildings. You can ride straight to it from the tunnel level in Wells Fargo. In Chase you have to ride to the first floor and then ride up to it.

You are demonstrating insufficient tolerance. You will be hung from the Tolerance Bridge at sundown.

Fantastic point. For those who have never visited the tunnels, you really should probably stop talking until you have, because there is nothing all that exciting in the tunnels. They're a nice perk, and sure, some food, but other than that its mostly watch repair stores, and printshops and etc.

...? Tax only businesses that are subterranean? Well that seems like a pretty strange standard. Would a convenience store in a building's basement get charged this underground tax?

In the age of the hat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrTJ_cP0vFk

Williams Tower used to claim to be the tallest building outside of a downtown area, but no idea if they still do.

Unfortunately these days any type of hat other than a baseball hat is considered cliche. Can't we go back to the days when a hat was a critical piece of every man's wardrobe?

If you tore down Sharpstown Mall, where would TV Johnny go? His grills are world-renowned!

Baseball caps only.

CBGB sells steak or whatever BCBG sells pants that make your ass look hot.

Snicker.

Nooo, that's where I live.

They should probably help LIDS out with some street-level advertising until there's actually some significant foot traffic in HP from the other venues and stores. Nobody's going to even know they're open.

If you like the tunnels, why would you suggest something insane like having the City of Houston shutting these *private property* tunnels down? *WHY* do you think these businesses would be open if they were on the surface level? They would not be open. It would be a bunch of closed retail stores. If you want proof, just look at Houston Center. If there were enough demand, Park Shops at Houston Center would be open all the time. Have you ever been to the Cafe Express on Main Street downtown after 6 PM? Its deserted. If the tunnels didn't exist, many of those businesses would go out of business, because the businesspeople who frequent them would bring their lunch or eat at restaurants in their own building.

Dave Atell did an Insomniac episode in Houston. I've been looking everywhere for it.

They're probably more likely to bulldoze the park.

Suggesting that the city should shut down the private tunnels is ridiculous. Those tunnels are owned by the respective buildings, and its their business whether they continue to operate. There are hundreds of businesses in the tunnels and they succeed because its convenient for people to walk around during lunch without having to move their car or deal with crossing streets. As far as downtown losing its retail during the weekend, that has more to do with few people being downtown. If the demand was there it would be served. Its improving with things like Discovery Green and Pavilions. Those should help to increase demand.

Could you provide some more information on what you mean by that? I have no idea where the grain silo or rails were. Is this just barely east of Montrose? Also whatever happened to the Asian community center or somesuch that was going to be built around here?

I ride those trails all the time and frankly I don't see how this is all that necessary. There's a turn-around that puts you back on the other side of the trails at Shepherd, and its not as if its difficult to cross at Montrose, Waugh, or Sabine. It seems like there are some much better things that this could be spent on, like for example the unfinished bike/pedestrian bridge on MacGregor (Columbia Tap Rails-to-Trail project).

Yeah I don't know all the details, but I do remember some action on panhandling when Bill White came in to office. Also, there were signs put up by the city and a radio campaign telling people not to give money to the homeless, and to give to aid organizations instead, something I fully support. The probability that you're supporting a substance abuse problem by giving money to homeless is just way too high. I've given food, though. Anyway, I just don't see it as that big of a problem, and frankly we absolutely do not have any jail capacity to spare for minor annoyances. Status quo seems good to me.

Some of the stories seem a bit extreme. I live downtown and encounter bums all the time. Yes they ask for money, but they've always left me alone after I said no once. If one continues to harass you, sure, that's a problem. I'm just saying its not a very common occurrence. I don't even bother telling any of the lies (I don't have any change, I only have enough for bus fare). I just say No. But ultimately they're just people, and while it may be an unpleasant experience for you to see them sitting there at the corner shop at Main Street Square in the morning asking for money with all their worldly possessions beside them, try to imagine how much worse it must feel for them. You'll hop on the train and be a mile away in a few minutes, but they'll be sleeping on the front stoop of the downtown churches tonight, or at the YMCA if they can scrounge together enough money. And support the organizations that are providing support to them, like S.E.A.R.C.H. Really guys its not that big a deal.

Gotta do what you gotta do, I guess, but I really like that old building. Interesting that the YMCA is dropping the housing units. Kinda makes you wonder where all those guys that stay there are going to go. Back on to the streets, I guess, because none of the other homeless facilities have capacity to cover that shortfall.

Yeah, its been a long long long time since I saw a mention of violent crime in downtown, and even that has been limited to some rowdy bars. I have a feeling most crimes are break ins of cars parked in the lots, probably just as many during the work day as there are at night. There's some panhandling in certain places, but most of it has been pretty low-key, imo.

I've personally dealt with that guy when my mother was looking for a place. He operates an office out of the Cotton Exchange building. Nice guy!

Correct, I've always felt very safe walking down Main Street at night, or really anywhere in downtown aside from the bus station (URGGGGGGHH I hate that area) and its a short walk to Sambuca from Pavilions.