TheNiche Posted May 20, 2008 Share Posted May 20, 2008 For as many different organizations as there are trying to promote downtown Houston, most of them don't really seem to do a very good job, especially when it comes to leveraging its core strength as a business district. Help me sell some investors on downtown Houston, and to create a central repository of downtown trivia.I'll kick-start it with an example:"Downtown Houston is the largest business district in the United States which is not defined by 19th-century infrastructure or geographic barriers to metropolitan growth. According to Grubb & Ellis, it has 2.6 times as much occupied office space as downtown Phoenix, 2.3 times as much as downtown Atlanta, 59% more than downtown Dallas, and 15% more than even downtown Los Angeles."And folks, try to stay on-point. For instance, I fully realize that Uptown Dallas technically ought to be taken into account when making the Houston/Dallas comparison, but this isn't about dissing Big-D, it's about disingenuous propagandistic trivia...based in fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Wow, "the largest business district in the United States which is not defined by 19th-century infrastructure or geographic barriers to metropolitan growth"! Now that is a meaningful statistic. You can imagine how businesses will flock in after they read that! One of the most egregious downtown bogus advertising points was the one about how the Theater District was the second largest in the US. A classic example of a misleading "statistic" designed simply to mislead. Surprisingly they made a lot of headway with it before it was widely pointed out to be false. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbigtex56 Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 To my astonishment, TheNiche and I agree.On a recent Sunday afternoon, I took a walking tour of downtown Houston. Could I buy a simple sandwich or soda? Hell, NO!What a dreary, depressing place!Any Rust Belt city surpasses Houston's downtown.Daily Show reference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted May 21, 2008 Author Share Posted May 21, 2008 Wow, "the largest business district in the United States which is not defined by 19th-century infrastructure or geographic barriers to metropolitan growth"! Now that is a meaningful statistic. You can imagine how businesses will flock in after they read that! One of the most egregious downtown bogus advertising points was the one about how the Theater District was the second largest in the US. A classic example of a misleading "statistic" designed simply to mislead. Surprisingly they made a lot of headway with it before it was widely pointed out to be false. My source on the comment you question is Grubb & Ellis. Go through their market reports and pick out the patterns for yourself. And actually, the claim was that Houston had more theater seats than any other city aside from NYC, but you're correct that that doesn't fly. Still, if I can source it to somebody, I'll use it. That's what this thread is all about, is marginally-plausible propaganda. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lockmat Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Sorry Niche, I don't wanna take this too far off topic, but tell me once and we'll drop it. Where is the lie in the whole theater seat deal, again? I forgot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Third tallest skyline in the U.S.Not sure what you mean by "19th century infrastructure," unless it's just an anti-rail sentiment. Our tight street grid is very nineteenth-century... look to Uptown for a more "20th century" business district. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Not sure what you mean by "19th century infrastructure," unless it's just an anti-rail sentiment. Our tight street grid is very nineteenth-century... look to Uptown for a more "20th century" business district.I think they were referring not to the streets, but to the fact that downtown borders are defined by freeways, ie 20th century infrastructure. Why anyone would give a hoot I can't begin to imagine. Talk about a stretch..Where is the lie in the whole theater seat deal, again?It wasn't a lie per se. It just needed a huge amount of qualification. The PR was that Houston had the second largest theater district, but that was IF you made the assessment based on number of seats (which is a dubious method) and IF the theater district was in a 'contiguous area' and IF the theater district had been designated as such by the municipality. I believe the Chronicle or Press had a brief article laying all of this out. That was my point that the 'statistic' was made to be misinterpreted. I think Houston has quite enough going for it to not have to resort to silly PR to sell itself. Our success, especially now, ought to speak for itself. It's like anything else - when you have to stretch too far to make a point you only come off as insecure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tierwestah Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Third tallest skyline in the U.S.Not sure what you mean by "19th century infrastructure," unless it's just an anti-rail sentiment. Our tight street grid is very nineteenth-century... look to Uptown for a more "20th century" business district.Nope, Miami overtook us last year for the 3rd largest/tallest downtown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Nope, Miami overtook us last year for the 3rd largest/tallest downtown.And look what that got them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N Judah Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Not sure what you mean by "19th century infrastructure," unless it's just an anti-rail sentiment. Our tight street grid is very nineteenth-century... look to Uptown for a more "20th century" business district.Yes, I think there are too many qualifiers for it to have the straightforward sloganesque appeal marketers and consumers like. THe first thing I thought of when I read it was "So even though we're the 4th largest city in the country, does this mean that there are smaller cities -with older infrastructure- that have larger/better business districts" ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyEvilTwin Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 Nope, Miami overtook us last year for the 3rd largest/tallest downtown.If you're going by the Emporis rankings, I think you're missing the spiriit of this thread, tierwestah. Use your imagination! Those Emporis rankings are based on specific point values for different numbers of floors. Add some points for the higher-floor ranges and Houston could easily move back on top of Miami!(Based on a study funded by the HAIF, of course)A little more seriously, Houston as a city is 2nd in the nation in number of Fortune 500 companies, with 25. Little D and Chicago are tied for a distant 3rd at 12 companies. On the Fortune website, I count exactly 12 of Houston's Fortune 500 companies with downtown headquarters addresses. So I think you can safely say that downtown Houston is home to more Fortune 500 headquarters than any other U.S. central business district outside of NYC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted May 21, 2008 Author Share Posted May 21, 2008 Yes, I think there are too many qualifiers for it to have the straightforward sloganesque appeal marketers and consumers like. THe first thing I thought of when I read it was "So even though we're the 4th largest city in the country, does this mean that there are smaller cities -with older infrastructure- that have larger/better business districts" ?My audience has a longer attention span than most consumers, and I'm not developing any ads.In fact, that approach is so entirely supersaturated by the various downtown promoters, that that is why I started this thread. I want more thoughtful propaganda for the people that build stuff for the despicable yuppie consumers that go downtown as a lifestyle choice, but that would never actually participate in the mind-numbing pseudo-hip consumerism themselves.--------------------And yes, Boston, San Francisco, and Philly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted May 21, 2008 Author Share Posted May 21, 2008 Not sure what you mean by "19th century infrastructure," unless it's just an anti-rail sentiment. Our tight street grid is very nineteenth-century... look to Uptown for a more "20th century" business district.Yeah, I might've worded it differently. How about: "the largest business district in the United States which is defined by post-war development and that is without geographic barriers to growth." I only really have to throw in the last part because of Seattle and San Francisco (sorta). NYC, Chicago, Philly, and Boston...those are all defined by pre-war development...which is to say that they suck nowadays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbigtex56 Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 Largest contiguous privately funded climate controlled pedestrian facilities (i.e., the tunnel system)?Feel free to disprove it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tierwestah Posted May 22, 2008 Share Posted May 22, 2008 If you're going by the Emporis rankings, I think you're missing the spiriit of this thread, tierwestah. Use your imagination! Those Emporis rankings are based on specific point values for different numbers of floors. Add some points for the higher-floor ranges and Houston could easily move back on top of Miami!(Based on a study funded by the HAIF, of course)A little more seriously, Houston as a city is 2nd in the nation in number of Fortune 500 companies, with 25. Little D and Chicago are tied for a distant 3rd at 12 companies. On the Fortune website, I count exactly 12 of Houston's Fortune 500 companies with downtown headquarters addresses. So I think you can safely say that downtown Houston is home to more Fortune 500 headquarters than any other U.S. central business district outside of NYC.I wasn't going by Emporis. I was just correcting the fact that we can no longer make the 3rd largest skyline claim anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N Judah Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 My audience has a longer attention span than most consumers, and I'm not developing any ads.Hrm...that's a start, I guess. What are some other attributes of your target audience? And if you're not developing ads, what format are you looking for? For some reason I was thinking of the type of stuff usually found in those 10-page Economist paid advertisements for UAE, Dubai, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lockmat Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 niche, maybe this will be helpful...Houston Facts. The title says much about this publication and the organization that produced it. No spin. No frills. No hyperbole. Just page after page of straightforwrd information from more than 300 sources to answer questions most frequently asked about the Houston region.http://www.houston.org/houston-facts/Houston-Facts.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cottonmather0 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 For instance, San Angelo is the largest downtown in the United States that is not within 60 miles of an interstate and is in a county whose name contains the word "Tom" and where the largest proportion of employees are somehow related to sheep farming, the military, or polygamist religious sects. This is fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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