C2H

Agreed. 5 guys is ok, but nothing special. I don't understand the hype. My fiance loves the place, but i don't think its worth the price. I keep hearing about all these burger chains coming to the Houston area too. Carls Jr was supposed to open up by years end 2009, but if i've seen a Carl's Jr here, I've seen one on the moon.

bummer. now it looks like DFW's fortune 500 list is equal to or even may surpaass ours. We just lost Continential. It's looking like a dark time for Houston!

That's sad man, just sad!

good news. i hope this ignites a spark that eventually lead to redevelopment of the ugly stretch between downtown and Greenspoint.

Well Citykid, its starting to improve, so stop talking like its still 1999 when Houston hardly had any signs of urban development. Yes, the lack of urban feel and mass transit is frustrating. I used Dallas as an example because in reality, they're no better off than Houston as far as density, culture, structure, workability, and rail transit as you so put it but they can put a mass transit plan together with no problem. Their rail stations don't even go though many urban clusters like Houston and they have an extensive network. Hopefully this setback isn't for too long.

If the above post is true, why is it Dallas seems to get alot of Mass Transit and TODs? Dallas hasn't been a big city for that long either and they seem like they can have their acts together as far as mass transit and urban development.

The building is real ugly but what would be worse? It would have been worse had this hotel went the way of La Quinta and gotten scrapped altogether. Considering Houston has had a history of plans getting scrapped, i say that the fact the hotel got built at all is a good thing.

Those pics that urbanizer posted show the true scaling back of this project. If the final design of this building was a person, it would look like the equivalent of their head being chopped off and only leaving the shoulders.

Another 1980 baby in the house! Happy Pre-lated birthday!

I probably don't get out enough. Maybe it has something to do with me turning 30 this year. LOL

I know people have been saying this area has been slowly dying for years since 2004/2005.It seems like this area has fallen off extremely. It used to be filled with people. I'm not talking about the 2004/2005 era, even after that, the street still managed to stay crowded with people on Fridays and Saturday nights. I went down there this past Friday and the scene was depressing. There were a few people down there but not like the crowds there once were. Even last year or earlier this year, there was still a crowded scene off Main Street. I thought with the addition of Houston Pavilions and other surrounding developments, the area would have gotten better, not worse. House of Blues didn't have much action going on. There was hardly no one there, and it appeared that quite a few of the clubs had closed. Maybe there's my answer, but does anyone know for sure? I don't think this area lost all of its energy when most caucasions decided to start hanging out in Midtown. even afterwards, it still managed to stay pretty LIVE with Hip-Hoppers. Club Glo at night used to be bumping. The area where the M Bar used to be also still had crowds around that area. Is this area becoming a thing of the past for nightlife? I'm not sure if Washington Ave is sucking the night scene from downtown, but I think it would be cool if both areas had something going on at night. Me and my fiance couldn't believe how dead this area has become at night. Is there still hope for it? Opinions please?

This is definitely sad news for Houston any way you look at it. It's never a good thing to lose a Fortune 500 company and a major airline carrier headquarters. I would rather have a less busy airport than lose the headquarters. If it wasn't for Continential, the little improvements to IAH airport would be nonexistant. It already appears to be a somewhat "outdated" airport with the exception of Terminals D and E anyway. I'm guessing Mr. Smissick is going to get the screwjob at the end. I think there's going to be some renigging of the promises or whatever incentives the big guys at United offered him in this deal.

It made sense to me!

I don't mean to sound like the pessimist, but this is very troubling news that this city is in this bad of shape financially, all these things are happening around town such as the recent major water rate increase, Angelika Film closing, and this. What is really going on in this what appears to be a corrupt government? Seems like the citizens of Houston are the ones taking up the rear end.

Great! A reassurance basically telling us NOTHING. For all we knw, it could be another random bar or some other bland development. Hopefully we hear some good news and soon. I'm not sure how long is "Shortly" when it comes to landlord's terms.

Although i was never really impressed with the Angelika because it didn't play BOX ofice movies much, I'm sad to hear of the closing. Maybe this may make way for a AMC or Alamo Drafthouse to open up downtown.

Yup, this shows that Dallas's "hogging the spolight days" have come to an end. No amount of overbuilding pretty skyscrapers, condos, and landmark "bridges to nowhere" is going to change that.

Dallas? Never even heard of the place! J/K Great news for Fort worth. BTW, the fight between Dallas will never be over. They will always try to outdo HTOWN in everything Houston thinks of first (Cowboys Stadium).

LOL

I agree with your post 100%, but i think you focused on a tiny litle sentence out of my whole paragraph and you entirely missed my point. For starters, I never said that blacks are being "picked on", nor did I imply it. My friend simply made the comment about the black folks and I said i feel sorry for some that were driven out, but at the same time, I'm tired of slumlords and nesteggs for crack atticks. It seems like Houston has an over-abundance of slummy areas compared to most cities and I'm tired of it. I also stated that the people who keep up their properties deserve to keep their properties but the slumlords don't. Why didn't you focus on that part of the sentence? It seems you went straight to the defensive and made it seem like I was trying to play the race card which I wasn't. Reading your previous posts in the past, I know you're a minority as well (well probably not so much anymore), but I would expect you to halfway understand where I was coming from when I said i sympathized with some of them. I'm still glad the areas are being cleaned up nontheless. C2H/ComingtoHouston

It seems like ever since the new Mayor took office in January, I've seen more dilapitated buildings get razed than ever before. It really seems like there's an aggressive plan to get rid of all the shacky structures that've been standing and rotting for years. I've especially noticed it around 3rd Ward area. There was a somewhat run-down motel of Scott and Alabama area, now its gone. I've also seen alot of older run-down buildings get razed off 610 near the Astrodome. Also traveling through Midtown today, I remember there being some old shacks arbitrarily spread throughout different parts of Midtown, but I'm seeing less and less of them. There were some old apartment buildings off Broadway St on the way to Hobby airport that were demolished recently too. I remember seeing on the news that the owner of those apartments was in despair because those apartments were his whole future. Why would someone who cares about their property let it sit vacant for so long to get infested with crackheads. I was talking to my friend the other day about this and he feels that its all politics and about $$$ (Well of course!). He said one thing that kind of hit home and he said its more about moving the blacks out out of their neighborhoods. Being black myself, part of me wants to feel sorry for some of these people living in these areas, but at the same time, I'm tired of Houston being the only city I visit that seems to have more scummy areas than average. I may be sounding a little republican here (which I AM NOT), but if you just let your property go to sh!% and let it become a haven for the crackheads, then it didn't mean much to you anyway. At the same time, the people who care about their property and keep it up (like areas around TSU), i applaud them and they deserve not to be moved out of their neighborhoods. Has anyone else noticed the demolitions around Houston in the last 6 -7 months? Is it looking like the city is beginning to clean up? Please share some thoughts. C2H/ComingtoHouston

Actually Citykid, the entre East Coast I hear is burning hot and humid this summer in the tripple digits. This summer has been bad everywhere. From Wisconsin, Minneapolis and northwest, people been dropping like flies (dying) from the heat. Houston will never be able to do anything about the heat factor here, unfortunately. No hard feelings though, I share alot of your frustrations with Houston too. It seems like Dallas is more proactive on doing things to asthetically enhance their city without actually building the city. They do things more to "look" cool rather than "feel" cool and I think that's one thing Houston may be doing better right now. Dallas feels no more urban than Houston and really has nothing noteworthy of more tourism. That's where my disagreements were in your previous post.

ciykid, i usualy agree with alot of what you say regarding Houston tourism and agree it could be stepped up a few notches but the statements you made about Dallas's tourism are false. The only thing that gave Dallas the tourism edge was Westend, and since Westend Market place closed, the area hasn't been the same and has been struggling. Meanwhile, Houston's began to catch up and get on par with the development of Discovery Green, opening up of new restaurants on Main Street, and the Houston Pavilions. You mention all these crazy things about Dallas for tourism, but you also failed to mention the Washngton Avenue corridor, which is showing signs of becoming the next 6th Street. You mention a JFK museum, but what about Houston's museum district, Theater District, Buffalo Bayou restoration, etc. I like Dallas and all but it has more of a neighborhood "structured" feel than a city regardless of their transit oriented areas. The light rail doesn't go through dense, urban clusters like in Houston, although I do like the fact that they have a 2.5 mile subway segment from Mockingbird Station to downtown. I wish Houston would do more grade separations with rail, but maybe in the future. It just seems like you're giving Dallas a little too much credit. The Niche was right, it's a cool looking city but very sterile in terms of feel.

Maybe i'm a little slow, but i thought some 3 or 4 years back that the idea for commuter rail to Houston was shut down. It would have been perfect to put it along side the Katy Freeway, that way it would connect the new upcoming Regency Square with developments like cityCentre and such to downtown. Now, its only talking about connecting it with the Northwest corridor. Furthermore, Sugarland seems to be left out of the equation. So when and where is this commuter line planned for? I haven't seen any concrete plans.

^^^ I share you're frustration. The last thing that should be happening is more delays, but the Southeast line construction seems to be in full swing. On my way to work I always have to take detours to avoid the construction.