totheskies

Good for HCC Central!! It perplexes me to no end why we don't have more commercial investment in the surrounding areas of our schools inside the loop (Rice being a glorious exception). This really is standard fare for any major school because students NEED STUFF in between classes! We need to have a Starbucks, Target, couple of restaurants all surrounding HCC. Fiesta and Subway alone aren't cutting it.

And of course the same goes for UofH.

Eventhough the eastern half of the loop clearly LOST population during the census, but the EaDo census tracts gained a whopping 3500 people (check out http://gregsopinion.com/maps/harris_multi_comp2.html to see). So I think the rate of investment will quicken here in the next couple of years.

Embassy Suites Downtown is now open. I walked into it last night. The attendant said they opened last week.

the little side area is still under construction though. Not sure what is going to be there. The interior was nice, but wholly unimpressive. It doesn't look like a "typical" Embassy Suites... no large open area in the middle, no spacious patios or anything like that.

Houston's population now stands at 2,099,451. The city has already committed to challenge these numbers.

My first area of question is downtown. Composed of 2 Census Tracts, this is what we get....

Population for Downtown Houston (2010 Census)

Census tract 1000: 4,690 (6667 in C 2000)

Census tract 2101: 9,652 (5201 in C 2000)

total: 14,342 (11,868 in C 2000)

(I looked these up using the American FactFinder, but Greg's Opinion has already done this with comprehensive maps.)

CT 1000 is the primary tract for Downtown Houston, while 2101 is the portion north of the Bayou (which also includes the Harris County Jail). Am I missing something here?? How did Downtown Houston lose so many people, even after having several hundred new residential units come on line? One Park Place, Franklin Lofts and St. Germain didn't even exist (as housing) in 2000!!!

I also hope UofH gets this property. What a fantastic site for a new Basketball arena.

Is there a way to access the numbers by zip code yet?

I think WF is doing well by leading the charge for "aggressive" lighting. IMO it's better to have all of the colors at your disposal, and then tastefully use them at different times of the year. For example the red and white this month is great for Valentine's Day, and for March some green would be appropriate. I don't think those detract from our skyline in the slightest.

For some reason, my preference is for WF to have lighting above all of the other buildings. The Chase tower's lighting is ok, but it looks just as good when it's not lit up too. But for WF, lighting is a definite architectural asset to that building.

EaDo just opened a Lil Woodrows by Warehouse Live, and a few other Houston staples are on tap to come to the neighborhood. But this hotel would guarantee some more decent restaurants and a few support establishments for the hotel. I'm lovin' it.

Not needed... we're 549 people short!!!

Several more in this part of town... a couple of rather large ones down Telephone Road. It's a booming business to say the least.

^^ Definitely... Coffee bar, or a 24hr Tapioca tea place. Whatever it is, something that stays open late.

I go to the bars in the Montrose area, and it is much appreciated that the cops have been cracking down on the homeless/prostitute issues there. You can tell a significant difference since the start of new year. I think once people feel "safer" to wander the area at night, then we need to tackle that awful shopping center.

I miss Taco Cabana right here too. That would be a perfect fit if they would move into the old Blockbuster space!!!

Really good plan!! I think they will increase ridership this way. Only 15 mins longer for the trip, and it will help promote visibility for METRO among city visitors. I'm shocked at the lower fare, but very glad to see it. Especially considering that the vehicles will have to travel over 600 miles a day just to complete one shift!!

After doing a couple of image searches, I propose this... Embassy Suites is a f-u-g-l-y hotel chain. I challenge persons on this forum to post an overly aesthetically pleasing Embassy Suites that is more than 10 stories tall. Do some searches!!

Well I hate to lose such a nice bookstore in downtown, but truth be told I don't think Books a Million is a good fit for downtown. It has a TERRIBLE Christian slant that's just annoying when you try to shop there (I'm a Christian btw). We need a company that's going to be more fair in its media distribution for Downtown. Borders or Barnes and Noble would have been better tenants for downtown.

Hopefully something nice will go in its place though, and we can be thankful that the coporate shifts will put more interest in HP's retail scope. I'm betting that this anchor spot won't be vacant for too long.

Looks like they're working on the Wells Fargo building's lights. Half of them were turned on tonight.

I'll throw that in as yet another building that I don't especially like, but where I can respect the intent of the lighting.

So are we pretty much in agreement that awesome lighting is awesome and that mediocre lighting incorporated as an afterthought is a tacky distraction not worth having?

We're in agreement that there are 2.5 million(ish) people in the City of Houston, and that every one of them likely has a different interpretation of what is tacky. I think the Chase building's lighting is ok, but that they should have a little it of lights down the sides as well. Something that accents the fact that the building is actually five sided.

They need to go to a Bowl Game!! SWAC should be included in the BCS

This sounds really cool!! I hope the network is successful. We should all Tweet and Facebook about it to try and spread the word. FINALLY some world recognition that doesn't center around Oil, Jesus, or Tropical Storms!!!!

Yay time to drudge up this thread again

The Chase building confuses the heck out of me. They have "played with" the lights a few times this season, but won't turn them on with the other buildings. They have several colors up there to choose from too. What gives????

And come on... it's now officially time to stop looking environmentally conscious and start showing some pride in the city. Granted, I see that Denver also has a conservative lighting scheme, but they have a more conservative skyline than Houston anyway, and better natural scenery to boot. We need to accent the cool architecture that we have in our skyline. At night, that is best done through lighting.

FANTASTIC NEWS!!! Should be a great venue and will help fill an important void left by the closings of both the Skybar and the Red Cat. It seems like our live music venues in Houston have been taking a BIG hit this year, but I can tell 2011 is already going to be better.

Too late... I already voted yes

Size, primarily.

Nope. If you're going to open that can of worms, then you have to give further parameters. Size of buildings? Office pop? residential pop? Houston has a "big downtown", but only if you're measuring it by physical spaces. If you go by number of residents, it's small.

They don't want a divorce. It's one of your fellow Eastwood area residents who want a divorce from the Heights because some of them opposed a Walmart Supercenter development.

I don't think you get my point. I don't want the Heights to be separate from Houston... nor do I want River Oaks to separate or anywhere else. It just sucks that certain areas of town get such high favor while other continue to be neglected. We should all feel safe at night, and we should all have regular police patrols. Those kinds of inequalities should not be tolerated. I hope that Prop 1 can help a bit with this (if it passes)

Yes, I have been to Times Square HUNDREDS of times. I went to college in New York. I lived in NYC for half a year after college and then worked there multiple times during my 12 years in Boston. I have hundreds of friends that live in the City, and NONE of them go to Times Square for anything other than work or a show.

Trust me, those people that you saw taking pictures of flashing advertisements weren't locals. The folks sitting in lawn chairs weren't there from Tribeca. Those were TOURISTS and a vast majority of them were staying in the nearby 16,000 hotel rooms. It is because of those hotel rooms and the Broadway Venues that street performers like the Naked Cowboy pop up in Times Square and not say, down on Wall Street. But those tourists don't just come for Times Square and Broadway. They also come to see the nation's largest city, the Empire State Building, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, the UN, Ground Zero, SoHo, Greenwich Village, some of the nation's best museums, etc...

Houston doesn't have 16,000 hotel rooms concentrated in a small cluster. Houston doesn't have over 50 million tourists a year. Houston doesn't have 39 theater venues located in just a few square blocks. Houston isn't known for first-run stage theater either. We don't have the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. The MET isn't here nor are we home to NYU, Pace, Columbia, Fordham, CUNY, Parsons, Cooper Union, Hunter, Barnard, Baruch, Fashion Tech, Hunter, Marymount Manhattan, Juilliard, etc... (the schools just in Manhattan proper). We'll never have a Times Square. The best we could ever hope to do is be like Dallas and develop something like Victory Plaza, which, by most accounts, has been a huge FLOP.

You're so right... we don't have any of those things. But the few attractions that central Houston DOES have (Discovery Green, very good theater venues, sports, and a world-class museum district) we sure don't spread the word about them like NYC does. If we want a tourist culture in this town, we have to develop it. It doesn't just happen overnight. It didn't just happen for NYC either. You know, there are now taller buildings in the world than the Empire State Building, including one in our own country. But it's special because NYC and its promoters hold it in that regard. NYC has done the tourism thing for a long time, and places like Times Square are the result.

Speaking of Red Cat, it's gone from downtown. I saw a rent arrears lockout notice Sunday. A little research and I found they're going to open a new place in Pearland.

Where did you find this information from?? I didn't hear anything about it at the Red Cat Jazz Festival.