totheskies

XXI is one of the hottest "mid-price" clothiers for the teens/20s age group. The downtown location was a super smart idea, b/c the next closests stores are in Pearland, and out west (either Katy or Mem. City). A whole bunch of my friends love it. HP is going annoyingly slow with its openings, but you can't ask for better and more popular anchors than the House of Blues and XXI.

you probably need a few more. But Liberal Arts counts just as much as anything else. It ain't my fault if there are lots of lib. arts grads that are slackers... I'm not one of them. And no one complains about the validity of my degree when I'm spending my money, and I wasn't complaining when I walked off stage last night with an extra $750 in my pocket. Not bad for 45 mins worth of work.

I guess we can argue this later, but I worked just as hard for my Liberal Arts education as you did for whatever the f*ck you have. I have taught at UHD, and San Jacinto College, and maintain a private voice studio. I work at UofH main. I have sang professionally in the Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Little Rock, New Orleans, and Kansas City metropolitan areas, and have even sang as a cantor for Ely Cathedral in England. Wish I could say there's more, but hey I'm only 26. Not bad for a degree that "doesn't count". Talk about your own education, but don't make generalities about someone else.

Any word on Lucky Strike Lanes opening?

LOL the same??? Different strokes for differnt folks dude. My whole degree program... Bachelor's, Masters or Doctoral... doesn't even exist at UHD/HMU. I should know b/c I taught there as a lecturer last summer. But I haven't taught any classes at UH b/c I don't have a doctorate. They're totally different entities that hapen to share some very common accreditations.

I think there's also a really cool ob. deck in the Wedge tower... not sure about that though.

UofH still has the second ranked Creative Writing program in the nation (graduate), one of the best music schools in the state of Texas, and a celebrated program for public policy. With 35,000 students, there's bound to be some dead weight, but UofH is a very distinguished institution. I'm sure some of you are aware that UHD/HMU will now be the largest Houston-area school for open enrollment. Texas Southern changed its policies last year, so HMU is going to serve an increasingly important role for our area. What better way to show that than with a name all its own.

I added houstondowntown's site to my top post, as it is a great resource. But this is a forum, and everyone here may have different opinions about the places downtown. So for someone moving to downtown (I know I know God forbid that EVER happen), they could come here and read what people think about certain places in downtown. Again the mods can do as they wish, but I'm just trying to promote downtown retail.

Clothing/ apparrel... Macy's downtown http://www1.macys.com/store/locator/index....TOR_BUTTON.y=-1 BCBG Maxazaria http://www.bcbgmaxazriagroup.com/fall2008/...ge=storelocator XXI Forever http://www.forever21.com/store/storelocator.asp The Tipping Point http://www.thetippingpointstore.com/ Houston Center clothiers http://www.houstoncenter.com/home/category...46&catid=11

Yay! That's the sperrit!! Restaurants (evening and late nights) Frank's Pizza http://www.frankspizza.com/ Mia Bella downtown http://www.bellarestaurants.com/mia/indexmia.html Cabo downtown http://www.cabomixmex.com/ Spaghetti Warehouse http://www.meatballs.com/index.htm Hard Rock Cafe http://www.hardrock.com/locations/cafes3/c...amp;MIBenumID=3 House of Blues Houston http://www.hob.com/venues/clubvenues/houston/ Birraporretis http://www.birrarestaurant.com/ The Grove at Discovery Green http://www.discoverygreen.com/accommodations/ Mingalone Bar and Grill ($$$) http://www.mingalone.com/ Josephine's Italian Restaurant http://www.josephinesitalian.com/

Maybe... or a resource to take advantage of and discuss all of the things that we DO have in downtown. Think what you wish. Thread of reference: http://forum.dallasmetropolis.com/showthread.php?t=7477 (not that we should ever strive to be dallasmetropolis, but I thought it was a good idea.

Post your info about where to go downtown. http://www.houstondowntown.com/home/default.asp -a great website by the downtown management district.

Currently, I don't live or work downtown... but as a member of the Houston Chamber Choir, St. Paul's Church, and frequent vocal soloist, I seem to end up in downtown at least 3 to 4 times a week out of necessity. I live 2.8 miles away, and travel there for my own leisure frequently as well. I probably don't visit your street very often, but between 2006 when I worked downtown full-time (keep in mind that HGO is both a day job and night job), and now that I work downtown part-time, I am encountering more people that are exploring the space, enjoying Discovery Green, and wondering when Houston Pavilions is going to be done with construction. I tend to go to Discovery Green for exercise and social events.

Agreed, this is a very good point to consider... The retail only exists for the office population. As exciting as it is (not), it's still a retail boost... particularly the restaurants and places like Starbucks, etc. People that come to downtown outside of business hours have no need for office supplies, but they might want more than one option for a place to get coffee. Downtown population is currently built from necessity and public opinion, but no one wants to entertain the possibility that the public opinion of downtown could be changing. I believe that it is. Discovery Green is the main catalyst for this change, but more are on the way.

Retail in DTD follows the same patterns as Houston... most businesses close after business hours. Again, I don't think you guys are actually visiting downtown after business hours. There are more people there than ever thanks to Discovery Green, and the interest it has spurred. More retail options would be welcome in downtown now. The 2010 census is going to reveal significant changes in Houston's central core, most noticeably a population increase. Now that more people live close to downtown, it is warranted that downtown needs more surface level retail, and can extend its operating hours.

Please re-read my original post.

Nope... just pointing out that out of the 5.6 million people in Houston, only 200k (max) use the downtown tunnels on any regular basis. Yet the time when most Houstonians travel to downtown is outside of business hours... for Rockets and Astros games, to visit Disco G, or to go to the theater district. There are people downtown, but they only have acces to half of downtown's retail base. It's just not smart business for the city or the downtown workforce. AGAIN I LIKE THE TUNNELS... what I don't like is how they encourage downtown's retail base to only operate during lunchtime and business hours. Houston's tunnels are one of the coolest things about the city.

Wow, I like the sound of this bridge, but uh... PRIORITIES!!! Dynamo stadium FIRST!

Whatever hotel chain takes the bait, we really need to go with an "ultra modern" design... something that doesn't fit in with the surroundings. That rendering (showing what appears to be a carbon copy of the Hilton Americas) is horrible. We don't need another Hilton, or anything that looks like it.

I just wanted to express my views on the year-old "argument" about which skyline is better. First, Houston and Dallas both have amazing skylines. We're lucky to have such great CBDs in Texas, and another tall one on they way (Austin!). I grew up in Arkansas, and Dallas was the first large city that I ever visited... in fact, it got me hooked on city skylines. I happen to be fascinated with the Dallas skyline, ESPECIALLY at night. I think the building arrangement works pretty well together, and the addition of Victory is really starting to unify it even more. Victory is sleek and futuristic... a great compliment to buildings like BoA and Fountain Place. Also, this discussion isn't complete without mentioning Ft. Worth, it has a great skyline, albeit smaller than the other two. And then there's Houston. First off, I seriously didn't even know that Houston existed until like 2001 (I'd of course heard of the Rockets, and oil companies, but I never paid attention to it). My vision of Texas was really based on Dallas and Ft. Worth. One day, I was surfing a computer looking up different cities, and I saw this big yellow blob on a Texas map, and it read "Houston, the largest city in Texas". I was like 'wait that's got to be a mistake... everyone knows that Dallas is Texas' largest city'. Then I saw a picture of the skyline, and I was hooked! So as far as the skylines, I am totally biased, though I do enjoy Dallas more and more each time I visit. Downtown and victory are amazing. But Houston is just on a different 'level'... it's like a big clump of several cities, all very close to each other. If you get tired of always hanging out downtown, you can hop the trian to the Medical Center and it feels like a whole new world. Or if sprawly scrapers are more your style, you can go check out the Galleria. Houston just has a great variety of skylines and urban forms... one for every occasion.

I would be pretty weird. Now that downtown's shopping venues have moved from "life support" to "critical condition", I'm hoping that we're in the running for a W hotel. It would be be perfect there b/c it's right by the park, and in between the two... hopefully three major sports venues.

Oh how I love the Holidays!! The downtown skyline looks awesome right now with the lights on Heritage Plaza and BoA. Chase looks kinda weird with the green top, but oh well.

Nice, sounds fun... let me know when they're open outside of regular business hours. I'll invite my friends!! Oh wait, they're not I feel bad, I don't belong to the boys club anymore.

Are there going to be any retail developments to accompany this? I was just up in Dallas this weekend, and as I drove around (mostly in the uptown and Oak Lawn areas) two names seemed all-too familiar... Camden and Post. LOL it was like Camdenville right next to Post City! But what I really love about the uptown area is the systematic integration of street-level retail. No big surprises (i.e. random surface parking lots, swaths of un-kept and run-down development), simple predictable city blocks. I would never want to trade Houston's randomness, but as we continue to revive the city's urban feel, we must build sustainably.

An official press release, or a script to read to inquisitors about why Lucky Strike won't make it's open date.