j_cuevas713

On 4/8/2023 at 3:07 PM, editor said:

There was an article in the Chronicle this past Thursday about the governor of Connecticut, Ned Lamont, slamming downtown Houston on a couple of radio stations in the nutmeg state.

On WTIC:

On WPLR:
 

 

While downtown Houston isn't perfect, Mr. Lamont forgets that he's from Hartford, which invented rolling up the sidewalks at 5pm.

Sadly, the best civilized retort came from Lina Hidalgo, who tried to tout downtown's "fabulous restaurants, historic buildings & massive murals" — all things that every other city can claim, including Brownsville. 

The restaurants aren't open very much.  Every city has historic buildings.  And the murals are nice, but 91% of people file them under "who gives a shit."  Hundreds of other cities have been using massive murals to disguise the urban blight of blank brick walls  for the last half a century.  Welcome, aboard, Houston!

Hopefully, this acerbic opinion from an importantish outsider will act as a little kick in the pants of local officials to get them to stop staring at their bellybuttons and understand that Houston needs to step it up. 

 

 

I hope it does. A few Super Bowls and other big events haven't shifted much. I'd say a lot more has come in the form of private development than the city getting it's act together. The problem with Houston is it moves way too damn slow. I hear it all the time from people from other cities. One lady I met from NJ asked me why it seemed like people didn't take their job serious enough down here. It was actually one of the reasons she left Houston and went back to NJ. At the time I was like screw you you're from NJ, but now that I think about it I get what she was saying. It seems like city leaders move at a pace of "we'll get it done at some point" instead of having a sense of urgency to get it done TODAY. If I'm the city, I would find every available dollar to get reconstruction going on a lot more streets. I'm still waiting for W Alabama and Emancipation to finally kick off, but who knows when they actually will. While we don't have the most extensive transit system compared to other cities, we also don't provide enough incentive to walk and use what we have. We need to start enforcing our sidewalk ordinance where property owners are responsible for maintaining them. The city can work with property owners who have more serious sidewalk issues but basic cleanliness shouldn't be an issue. We also need to get rid of parking minimums inside the Loop and the city needs to quit being scared to force people out of their cars. 

MMD needs to redo the design for that median. Why not pave it, add a bench and a tree with a nice grate and call it a day?

2 hours ago, bookey23 said:

This is a big roadblock to your vision for SE Downtown:

 

I went through on HCAD and highlighted all of the parcels owned by Golconda Ventures, which is a subsidiary of Opicoil, Taiwan's national oil and gas company. Apparently they've owned most of these plots since 1990 and have been content to just sit on them as parking lots for the past 33 years.

That’s incredibly depressing .

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/downtown-houston-parking-one-quarter-area-17888647.php

Just now, Houston19514 said:

How 'bout three blocks?  

I'm hoping for the other two buildings to happen soon, but I'm speaking more on similar height/scale as ER. All those empty blocks in SE DT would be great. 

It would be cool if a developer bought like 6 blocks of Downtown and did something like this. 

On 4/8/2023 at 10:57 AM, Sunstar said:

I feel like this is par for the course for any big sporting event. Media personalities come into your town and complain. If it were in New York someone would complain how crappy the subways were (they are but that’s missing the point). 
 

For me the proof is in all the major events we are getting. The Superbowl, two NCAA final fours, a national championship, and a World Cup venue. This isn’t just luck. This is due to a sustained effort to build out our sporting venues, our transit connecting events, and most importantly our urban core. This means a lot more than some random politician or radio personality ragging on us with vague insults. 
 

 

 

You nailed it! 

Please tell me they’re building sidewalk here 🤦🏻‍♂️ This is in front of the Pappa’s Seafood that’s being remodeled. It looks like it was filled with mulch. 

Those beautiful lofts across the street are going to be demolished as well. That's the only thing that sucks. 

2 minutes ago, LosFeliz said:

Not sure how it worked this year but in years past, two team hotels were downtown and two were in the Galleria area. If you got stuck at the Westin Oaks as a team hotel, I could see how it would suck. You'd need bus transfers for everything for your cheer/band/dance teams as well as alumni events. I'm hoping all four were downtown this year as it seems as if Hyatt, Hilton Americas, Marriott Marquis, and one other could do the trick. But it sure would be nice to get that W built and the Astros hotel and in the future all 4 team hotels could be near Discovery Green.

Yeah all 4 were downtown this year. They used the JW Marriott on Main, AC Hotel on Main, The Marriott Marquis, and the Hilton. The city also put vinyl stickers on the windows showing which team was staying where. 

I'm trying to get an understanding of when people say "far apart." I've travelled to other cities where I had to take transit to access another part of the city that wasn't close to the downtown. And not once was I like, "Man this sure is far." I feel like some of that criticism is nonsense, especially when the Red Line takes you straight to NRG. Downtown was fun this weekend, so I don't get it. 

2 hours ago, HoustonBoy said:

I'm no longer in Houston, are the lights maintained or are they still lit up in patches? Looked semi broken last time I saw them. Does anyone happen to have recent pics?

This is the latest news. Houston First is in charge of the lights now. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/arts-culture-news/2023/02/01/442799/broken-montrose-59-69-southwest-freeway-bridge-lights/?fbclid=IwAR2AzBovym69c38gyvoufqjhqPUYoofOCknZCqL5GWgFva98p5dbmUBwgh8

On 4/4/2023 at 1:20 PM, hindesky said:

https://ballisdevelopment.com/1300-texas-ave-615-caroline-st/

https://ballisdevelopment.com

I wonder if these are their current plans for the two properties they seem to own/manage or plans have changed?

I think you're right! This looks to be their future plans while incorporating the little old building next door. 

This new facade is worse than the previous one smh

1 hour ago, bookey23 said:

I think the league is interested in more expansion teams, but from what I understand Quebec City is very much next in line for a team. Perhaps Houston could get one too if they want to keep the conferences balanced

Wow really? I haven't heard anything about expansion in Canada. 

So why are all the fountains downtown shut off? From Sesquicentennial Park to Tranquility Park, everything has been shut down for years. Even the Cotswold fountains are rarely turned on. 

If Ancorian owns the lot then we don't have much to worry about

12 hours ago, 004n063 said:

This never made sense as a gathering place, because Fannin is just not a good place. It's four lanes of one-way traffic with long spaces between lights. Cars regularly go 45mph or faster on it. Nobody wants to hang out next to that.

It exists to flush cars out of Downtown.

If they want Fannin to be come economically robust on a local scale, significant redesigns are needed. 

To be honest, I'd just leave it as it is and try to encourage/concentrate development on Caroline.

I think Fannin is one street that needs a road diet. I'm not sure what MMD has planned for future improvements to the area other than the Brazos Street reconstruction.

Downtown has been electric this week. With Opening Day, the Final Four, and the normal rush of people that head downtown on the regular, it feels like a totally different city. 

17 hours ago, steve1363 said:

I honestly don't know why Fertitta gets so much hate.   Open your eyes and look around.   He has almost single-handedly revived the University of Houston sports complex and without him UH would NOT be in the Big 12.  The Fertitta Center is universally applauded as the best venue to watch a game in the city of Houston.  The recognition the Post Oak Hotel has received speaks for itself.

You think Crane is an angel?  He fired his GM that JUST won a World Series!  Even the Christian McNair's have been known to say the wrong things ("inmates running the prison")! 🤣

Let's give Fertitta credit for all the good he's done for this city.   No need to throw shade.

I don't think Crane is an angel, I'm just stating what I've heard specifically about Tillman. 

12 hours ago, Big E said:

I'm sure that status can be removed just as easily as it can be given.

 

I said what I meant.

I'm sure any historic status can be removed but it's highly unlikely

34 minutes ago, monarch said:

^^^ our fair city of houston, tx, is constantly ESPOUSING TO THE ENTIRE WORLD that "we are the fourth largest city in america".  yet we constantly allow for the greater dallas metropolitan areas to constantly OUTCLASS us with their WORLD CLASS sporting facilities/venues... along with their WORLD CLASS hospitality developments.  everyone of their state-of-the-art sporting venues, totally outclasses anything that the greater houston areas have to date.  EVERYONE!  heck, isn't dallas supposed to be the more conservative city?  houston always seems to be coming from behind and playing catch-up to the dallas metro areas.  heck, as we all know, THEY REALLY DID NOT NEED A BRAND NEW BALLPARK FOR THE RANGERS... RIGHT?  yet, here we are, they now harbor a brand spanking new state-of-the-art venue, along with a MAGNIFICENT NEW mixed-use baseball entertainment district with gorgeous new hospitality facilities.  yet, here is the TWO-TIME WORLD CHAMPION ASTROS owner JIM CRANE, espousing/dreaming/planning to the media about finally bringing forth concepts/renderings and possibly "breaking ground sometimes at the end of the year".  as long as i live, i shall never comprehend this fact.

PRIME EXAMPLE of just what i'm speaking of:  the city of houston, utilizes taxpayer funds to construct a state-of-the-art retractable roof football venue for their newly proposed HOUSTON TEXANS football team.  finally, this gorgeous new facility is completed and is introduced as a marvel of engineering to the entire nation/world.  (heck, although, i LOVED the overall design of the new venue) I REALLY HATED THE FACT THAT I KEPT THINKING THAT THE NEW VENUE WAS CONSTRUCTED MUCH TOO SMALL... TO HEREBY REMAIN VIABLE, WITH THE EVER EVOLVING NFL SUPER BOWL ROTATION.  subsequently, dallas comes along and constructs their HUGE EXPENSIVE MAGNIFICENT NEW STATE-OF-THE-ART FOOTBALL VENUE and TOTALLY OUTCLASSES THE HOUSTON FACILITY.  hereby, making it appear smaller and meek by comparison.  therefore, currently, the NFL is expressing that in order for houston to hereby remain viable in the SUPER BOWL ROTATION, NRG STADIUM IS GOING TO HAVE TO BE TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY REIMAGINED AS A FOOTBALL VENUE.  why on earth, couldn't they just construct the DAMN FACILITY right in the first place...?  

Ehh I mean our setup has allowed us to host 2 Super Bowls and 3 Final Fours in less than 20 years. I’d rather have my stadiums in the city proper, not in some suburb. NRG is def not small and MMP is the best baseball stadium in the state. It’ll be even better once Crane start’s construction on the ballpark village. Really Toyota Center just needs an entrance upgrade. And let’s not act like Shell Energy Stadium where the Dynamo/Dash play is some cookie cutter venue. It has a great European design. 

Yeah Toyota Center is ugly at pedestrian level but I like the overall design. It barely passed a vote to be built in the first place but the cost is what helped it gain enough support at the time. I think the total cost was half of what American Airlines Arena was in Dallas. 

They hosted us this past Saturday for some crit races for the cycling community. Great place and great beer. 

This building looks so much better with the natural brick restored. I'll try to take a pic today some time.