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Why Casual Visitors To Houston Area Skip Downtown


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I went to a new restaurant opening in downtown Houston the other day. I used to work downtown 10-15 years ago, and only visit sporadically since then, so things that others take for granted sometimes take me by surprise these days. Case in point, I wanted to take my daughter to the restroom to wash her hands before eating our meal. I was informed that this brand-new million-dollar restaurant had no public facilities.

I'll second Midtown on the BS call. I'll grant that I haven't been to every DT restaurant, and one assumes that there are probably more than a few fast-food type places in the tunnels and such that do not have public restrooms. But I will absolutly guarantee that there is no "brand-new million-dollar restaurant" without public facilities in Downtown Houston.

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I came up with an ideal. Some of y'all may think its stupid, but here it goes.

What about transferring all the business from Downtown to Uptown, and turn all the office buildings Downtown into condos with street level retail?

It's like flip flopping. Since Uptown is the going place for tourist and for Houstonians.

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Zoning mang... Zoning. :)

zoning does not equal development. It would not have gotten Shamrock off the ground, etc..

Also for those saying things take to long (Shamrock not withstanding) you all act as if something is announced and then a week later it starts being built. There are several things going on downtown, landco I have confidence in with days inn and the res. that they will start in 2008. And we will just have to see with pavillions.

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They going to start owrk on the Days Inn in 2008? Gee Weez! I thought it was end of this year, or next year they going to start on the Days Inn? 2008!?

This what makes downtown so slow is projects on agenda, then it becomes on hold for some time. Downtown will never get nowhere like this.

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They going to start owrk on the Days Inn in 2008? Gee Weez! I thought it was end of this year, or next year they going to start on the Days Inn? 2008!?

This what makes downtown so slow is projects on agenda, then it becomes on hold for some time. Downtown will never get nowhere like this.

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough (I guess). Days Inn starts in 06, and there is another res. in 08. Besides Shamrock which projects have stalled recently downtown (at least ones that showed some promise).

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some of the decaying buildings are privately owned, and the owners sit and won't budge (days inn for a while, ben milam, william penn, savoy). if they decide to sell, most of them by that time are so crapped out that no one wants to buy...

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Midtown Coog said this: "Pineda, I may just have to call BS on this one. Why can't you tell the name of the business? Why rant and rave, but not tell us who it is? I'll be sure to avoid the place."

HeightsGuy said this: "I'll second Midtown on the BS call. I'll grant that I haven't been to every DT restaurant, and one assumes that there are probably more than a few fast-food type places in the tunnels and such that do not have public restrooms. But I will absolutly guarantee that there is no "brand-new million-dollar restaurant" without public facilities in Downtown Houston."

I didn't want to impugn the reputation of this new restaurant because I DO happen to like it and want to see it do well. That being said, I did check with the owners yesterday about the lack of restroom facilities. Their response was that restrooms were not even a consideration due to the site location, and the impossibility of plumbing and sewers. Something tells me that perhaps the homeless congregated in the area might have had a little something to do with the situation as well. Now, for the interesting part of this story: There is (TA-DAH!) an elevator located within the restaurant however, that you can get on and take three or four floors down (!?) to a bathroom within the main building that the restroom is located within. This was NOT told to us at the time of our visit by the waitstaff, who being new, I suppose could be excused for ignorance. I'm sure regular restaurant patrons of downtown Houston will soon be able to uncover the name of the mystery restaurant all on their own accord, without me providing any further clues. :)

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Like I said, Hakeem owns a lot of abandoned building in Houston.

So does the Queen of Mean.

I expect that from a New Yorker, but Hakeem is practically a native.

i remember you posting about hakeem...does he have a corporate name he uses when purchsing these properties? i can't find much with his name.

any help locating these buildings would be greatly appreciated :)

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i have - those are bookmarked on both computers!

i don't recall finding much, except one property down westheimer...maybe i should try again...

edit - Kaufman's databases make my head and eyes hurt!

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"Case in point, I wanted to take my daughter to the restroom to wash her hands before eating our meal. I was informed that this brand-new million-dollar restaurant had no public facilities."

"I asked one of the servers at the restaurant why they had no public facilities for us to wash up in since we had just come from outside, and that it didn't seem very sanitary to not have facilities available to do so. He said it had to do with the high cost of real estate (!?) in downtown Houston."

"In my best Law & Order voice:

"I'm not at liberty to divulge that information at this time...""

"Something tells me that this is a common practice not to provide them in downtown Houston, but I don't know why. Is it because of plumbing/sanitary sewer issues?"

"Their response was that restrooms were not even a consideration due to the site location, and the impossibility of plumbing and sewers."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry, but something seems a little fishy with all of these comments. A new restaurant in downtown Houston would be required to have public restrooms, period. (International Building Code Chapter 29, Table 2902.1 - Minimum Number of Required Plumbing Facilities) No one is allowed to opt out because of the "high cost of real estate" or lack of access to plumbing and sewer. How could it be that a restaurant does not have access to a sanitary sewer? Kitchens must have water. And it has to drain somewhere. If there is access for the sinks and dishwasher in the kitchen then there would be access for restrooms. And if the line is not big enough it is the responsibility of the owner to make it so.

I don't think you are telling the whole story. What really made me suspicious of these comments was the one where you would not name the restaurant. How noble. Of course it keeps anyone from checking your story.

If they really do not have public restrooms, turn them in.

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houston is not a typical tourist city, with a tourist-y downtown.  things may not be "happening," but there is always something to do.

and just because there aren't a gazillion people wandering around or stumbling out of minute maid or toyota center doesn't mean it isn't "alive."

But it can give a grand illusion that it is NOT alive, however. One can tell me how much downtown is alive until they are blue in the face, but as long as I see empty streets and businesses closed, I'm going to draw a natural conclusion from that, and that is downtown isn't alive.

Possibly a more touristy downtown AND city is something we should really think about.

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For days now, I have read all the doom and gloom about downtown not being what it should be or could be. To be complimentary, it shows the imagination of the posters to this board, that there are so many more attractions that downtown could have. It also shows the impatience that downtown hasn't reached its potential to be all things to all people, yet.

To say downtown is empty is dishonest. Wednesday through Saturday will find the bars, clubs and restaurants on Main Street full, with more people walking the street in front of them. The theatre District is also hopping many nights a week, even if the cultured life is not your idea of a party. Monday through Friday, the business side of things is in full stride, with 200,000 workers doing their thing.

The infrastructure has been improved dramatically, with virtually every street repaved, every sidewalk bricked, and every streetlight replaced.

To be sure, there are times when downtown is quiet. But, you must remember what promotes traffic at particular times. Clubs and restaurants only produce traffic at night. Retail will cause daytime traffic during days and early evenings, but that hasn't come in yet. Why? Well, downtown's rebirth is only 6 years old. MMP came online in April 20000. Toyota is only a couple of years old. Rail construction devastated Main St. until January 2004. Plus, the stock crash of 2000, the recession later that year, and 9/11 all had their effect on tourist and convention travel. Say what you like, but no developer or retailer is going to throw money where the return is low.

The new GRB park and Buffalo Bayou's renovation are in the planning stages. These developments will bring more daytime and weekend traffic. More residential will also increase traffic flow. But, these projects take time to plan, develop, build and sell. It won't happen overnight. But, it will happen.

I generally see two critiques on this board: the one-time visitor to downtown, who complains that he went downtown on Sunday afternoon in July, and didn't see a crowd, and the other person who complains that he didn't see enough of his preferred style of entertainment, ignoring all of the other things in downtown that draw other patrons. While both may be valid observations, they do not paint an accurate picture of downtown.

In conclusion, downtown WILL be many things to many people. In some ways, it already is. But, it takes time. Most observers didn't even start the clock on downtown until 2004, when the LRT opened. Give it 5 years, and tell me if it failed then.

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I am downtown today, and it is pretty quiet.

But I think back to the mid 80s. We were down here every weekend at Power Tools, Brewery Tap, Warrens, Homage, Cabaret Voltaire, seeing plays, etc.

There has ALWAYS been things to do down here.

But some people may not see what they are looking for, so they discount the entire area.

I think they need to expand their horizions.

And I sound like a broken record, but if it's not in downtown, chances are what you are looking for is not far away.

That's Houston. Learn to love it.

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"And I sound like a broken record, but if it's not in downtown, chances are what you are looking for is not far away.

That's Houston. Learn to love it. "

That may be the problem. Today's American is so used to being spoon fed his entertainment, via Disney, Las Vegas MTV/VH1 and other man-made attractions, that he cannot enjot the thrill of looking for life's hidden jewels. If that is what it takes for downtown to make it, I'd prefer we not go there.

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That may be the problem.  Today's American is so used to being spoon fed his entertainment, via Disney, Las Vegas MTV/VH1 and other man-made attractions, that he cannot enjot the thrill of looking for life's hidden jewels.  If that is what it takes for downtown to make it, I'd prefer we not go there.

i think you have summed it up perfectly :)

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I am downtown today, and it is pretty quiet.

But I think back to the mid 80s.  We were down here every weekend at Power Tools, Brewery Tap, Warrens, Homage, Cabaret Voltaire, seeing plays, etc.

i was at Warrens last night, then we hit up Jones bar (i think). we didn't leave till almost 3am and there were still plenty of people walking the streets, cops, bike rickshaws.

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I don't know about Downtown, i'm beginning to lose all hope for downtown by its slow progress. In the past few months, i've visited New York, Chicago, (NO COMPARISON), Milwaukee, and Denver.

I last visited Denver 9 years ago right before they built the Pavilions but even downtown Denver is doing better than Houston's right now. I was there a month ago. It's prettier, cleaner, and way more vibrant. I think that's a shame that as big as Houston is, we don't really have that many amentities in its city center.

I don't understand why HOUSTON has such a problem getting projects off the ground or why HOUSTON can't seem to afford things and get funding for things or why we can't just do the "build and they will come" method.

For years Central Houston has been trying to bring life back downtown and more residences living in and around Downtown. I wouldn't want to live there. It's dark. has crumby lighting (exept Main St), and just not enough to do. And everything that there is to do is so spread out, it makes a person wonder exactly what downtown has to offer. I would love for downtown to continue to take off but if Houston continues to be afraid of taking risks, it will sadly remain stagnant and even our friendly neighbor to the north will continue to get all the hype and recognition. (Sorry for the rant- i just get frustrated sometimes) :angry:

Word. Anyone who has visited and explored other top 10 cities will come away with a similar outlook when looking at Houston!

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Word.  Anyone who has visited and explored other top 10 cities will come away with a similar outlook when looking at Houston!

Why am I not the least bit surprised that this is your opinion?

Tell, you what, though. I was downtown today for the Astros game, and there isn't a city in the US that is as fired up over their baseball team as this one. And that definitely includes Denver.

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I was downtown today (after visiting the east end with a camera - summer is bad picture time in Houston, diffently will go back in the fall) anyway - there were peole everywhere!!! I almost got out and walked around - but I didnt want to spend anymore money - and I was sweety from milling about.

I think the time for downtowns full revival is either far off or just around the corner. In this town its hard to tell.

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