Jeebus

I do not live or work downtown, but I do go down there often, on weekends and evenings. I am baffled by the alarm over the bums. While I have seen quite a few bums, the numbers are not particularly surprising compared to other major cities, and I have never been the least bit harassed or bothered by any of them.

Honestly, in any listing of downtown problems the "bum problem" ranks well below the problem of bird s*#t covering Main Street Square, the plaza in front of The Wortham Center, and other areas of downtown.

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.

I'm afraid I'm one of those bleeding hearts that keep them in business. I know they can be annoying, but I guess I figure it's not my place to judge. "There but for the grace of god" etc. I try to just give them a dollar and move on. It seems to be more gentlemanly than to go on about it.

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.

You need to get out more. Houston doesn't have a lot of bums, and the ones we do have are boring compared to other big cities. Check out San Francisco if you want to see a lot of really crazy and scary bums.

What can be done? Learn to accept them. They aren't stopping downtown from "thriving".

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.

Ninfa's serves more meals than just lunch so does Schlotsky's and Beck's. Last time I checked, they were all full-service restaurants. Conversion to full-time restaurant hrs. would be pretty easy if they were committed to it.

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.

I have worked downtown (currently work at UofH) and I know the major convenience that the tunnels give to the area. They would be equally as convenient without retail in them. They'd still be air-conditioned, well-maintained (hopefully) and protect people from the elements... the only thing that would change is the retail could move to street level, and then maybe downtown wouldn't look like a post-nuclear warzone.

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??

Oh, and bums? If more people were walking around at street level, the bums wouldn't be so adamant.

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.

If you don't work downtown, why do you care?

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.

The "retail" in the tunnels is almost entirely lunch places for office workers. How would it help downtown if Ninfa's, Schlotsky's, Skyline and Beck's were at street level? They still wouldn't be open at night. The tunnels are just a quick place to grab lunch and maybe get a haircut.

This is exactly right. Just look at all the retail that IS above ground now and look at their hours.

I wish they would close the tunnels... or at least move all of the retail and stuff above ground to street level.

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.

These features are a lot more couch-friendly than online viewing, and pretty much were the deciding factors in my latest (reluctant) decision to renew home delivery.

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.

Not possible. The limit can only be changed across the board (so to speak).

Since you're 1,500 miles closer to Brennan's than I am, perhaps you could take some snaps so that everyone can see them? That might help the thread suck less.

SNAP!

Much of the second floor is gutted, and I'm sure the first floor suffered heavy smoke and water damage. The outer walls are virtually intact.

You may have literally watched, but it didn't literally burn to the ground.

DOUBLE SNAP!

Yea, I think I'll go with the facts from the Houston House staff instead of the story from someone who was a friend of someone who lived in the building for a couple of years a long time ago.

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!

It's very sad that it went from a unique urban style concept to a typical garbage strip with this renovation plan. I hate the new parking lot and I hate the locations of the new buildings.

I hate it. I know the mall is not doing well, but they basically undid the compact mall design and made it more like a strip center. It evolved backwards.

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.

that's me

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..

Hell, I've had people that thought the medical center was "downtown". I've had to correct quite a few people on that one as well.

I kinda' wonder what people think downtown was when they pass it by.

This was exactly my point.

Are you serious? Look at what I quoted.

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.

They already do.

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?

You know, I was having having a talk about this with a friend and he started laughing when I told him about the new building and says the following:

"Can you imagine being some poor putz working late at night and having to suddenly have to deal with your office lit up like the sun every 30 seconds or so?"

We both laughed so hard we cried.

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.

Would like to see some national retailers lineup on Main Street.

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.

Didn't Magic Johnson buy the whole place. They went downhill pretty fast after losing Jillian's, and some bad press about stabbings and gunplay can't help you out either.

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.

Sometimes I wish we would just accept downtown for what it is: A place for business, business related activities and special events.

We are so focued on making downtown Houston look like other downtowns we can't see the forest for the trees.

Think how much there is to do a stone's throw from downtown.

Gospel.

..there needs to be some thought put into making obvious pedestrian connections to the mall, La Madeleine (which would have been an ideal restaurant for Town Center, but is across the street) and other nearby places. I've walked these routes, and while you can do it, it's often rather awkward, especially to the new outdoor mall extension, when just a bit of sidewalk paving would help tremendously.

I agree completely, I think with a little creativity both the Town Center, Town Square and the Mall's outdoor forum could be seamlessly joined with more residential over commerical structures, and all served by a new parking garage in the Town Center parking lot.

I thought they were building a dinner theater like the Alamo Draft House? We need an "adult" theater in Sugar Land. I won't even attempt to go see a movie at the AMC theaters. Nothing but loud obnoxious teenagers that make it impossible to enjoy the movie.