tierwestah

I can't tell you.

why not? You can tell me in pm, i won't tell nobody

Hey Trae, who's the hot chick in your avatar. Looks like the girl who played in Soul Plane, The Wash, and Baby Boy.

^^^me meither, but i would like to see fewer restaurants and more retail. I guess this is a good start though, considering what's down there right now.

and supposedly III Forks (which was set to replace Lawry's Steakhouse) has backed out.

Where did you hear this?

Dang i'm sorry to hear about the Sake Lounge.

Does anyone know why the RocBar died? Last year around this time it was hoppin and alive with energy. Now all of a sudden, no one goes there anymore.

This project seems to be slowly moving forward. They haven't even broken ground and the anticipated grand opening was supposed to be sometime in 2009.

I can echo what Jax said but I would've also mentioned the reason why that some people on here would much rather the focus be put on their own neighborhood rather than downtown. It seems that they only care about their neighborhood and don't see why so much $ is spent downtown just because THEY never have a reason to go dt. Forgetting the fact that downtown is the birthplace and centerpiece of Houston. Judging the core of the city seems to be one of the first points that visitors see.

If we went by The Niche's logic, none of us would be able to see downtown prosper in our lifetimes. We'd still have the downtown we had back in 1998/1999.

Amen. We have plenty of malls. If a downtown mall makes economic sense then there's no need for s subsidy.

memebag, You really don't know the economic impact a retail mall can do for the CBD? Conventions?

If I haven't made it sufficiently clear yet to the impatient masses, let me be more succinct:

I DON'T CARE HOW LONG IT TAKES TO BUILD DOWNTOWN THE RIGHT WAY.

If it takes a decade, fine. If it takes my lifetime, fine. If it takes longer than that, fine. I really don't give a ____. What the Pavilions represents is the government-sponsored underutilization of land. It is utterly ridiculous, wasteful, and irresponsible.

Just a question, it you don't care if downtown is built right during your lifetime to where you might not be around to see it, why should you care at all? Especially about a puny developement like H/P.

I'm so glad you don't run this town. Houston would be in serious trouble.

Sorry but i doubt the East End will ever be a highly desired part of town. That's unless they decide to move the factories in Pasadena and Baytown further east toward Beaumont. Oh and there's also the pollution from the boats ariving at the Port of Houston.

But how did we drift on topics about oil and retail to the east side? This is about Houston Pavilions and retail for downtown.

You must not have lived here long, have a bad memory, or don't pay taxes.

3rd Ward, born and raised potna!

And whether i pay taxes is irrelevant. If you must know, I'm a college intern.

I agree with Trae. Some of you guys are just finding reason to whine and complain. True the residential portion would've been nice but after One Park Place is built out and surrounding residential developments follow, it may turn out that downtown wasn't in dire need of the measley 150-200 residential units that were supposed to go above the Pavilions.

No matter how you look at it, this thing can only help downtown from its current status today. And the location of this H/P right off the rail line tells me this won't be a carbon copy of Bayou Place. A bird in the hand is better than two in the Bush

I'm sorry but I don't count the criminals living in jails as part of the downtown community, even if it does help boost the downtown population number. Its not like we'll see them walking up and down main street adding to the buzz of the area. I don't think a downtown resident or homeowner would want to count them either.

I'm thinking this project is scrapped. I drove north of downtown over by UHD at the site and all the developer signs that said: Cushman and Wakefield and Urban Village were taken down. Oh well.

Now wait a sec, let's be sensitive. For some people creating and winning internet arguments is their only source of self-esteem.

it's almost like some of these people probably jerk off to winning an argument.

I was simply commenting on the fact that your webcam of Dallas doesnt disprove Tierwestah's statement that HP will not be as isolated as VP hence drawing people from nearby buildings. I see that your webcam proves that VP isn't very popular. So video screens don't bring crowds. We all knew that. The point that Tierwestah was trying to make was that if you want to put up video screens its best to do so where there will be people to actually see them, and since HP is in a good location with potential to draw people from nearby buildings, they would most likely work better than in VP (which is apparently empty most of the time).

Nobody here is trying to make the statement that video screens on their own will draw crowds.. The whole point is that if you have a public place which is popular and crowded, video screens might make sense for advertisers to use, and they might make that place look nicer to certain people (tourists, for example) than rusty old billboards or blank walls.

Maybe if membag is lucky, they might install some rusty billboards as well just for him to enjoy.

Thanks Jax. I'm glad you feel what i'm saying. I think some people on here are just trying to be difficult for the sake of being difficult.

do two people count as an influx?

EDIT: guess the show wasn't exciting...they've left.

I was talking about downtown Houston when i spoke of the integrated environment, not Victory Park.

Boy, if the "TV screens will make Houston exciting" argument wasn't silly enough, the TV vs. billboard.

I mean really, how many of you have travelled to Dallas to look at Victory's moving screens lately?

But, hey, if a few tv screens on the side of HP will get all of you guys off of your couches to watch tv downtown, then I'm all for it!

Not meant as a jab at Dallas, but i think Video Screens would work better in downtown Houston than it does in Vicotry Park because its already in an integrated environment where there's more surroundings of things closer by, therefore, you'll see more influxes of people.

And some of you all are being ridiculous with the billboard VS TV screen argument. Clearly you can't think a Colorful Video Screen is on the same par of ugliness as a rusty paint peeling billboard cluttering the freeway.

Those two silver boxes would be perfect for some screens:

It almost seems like that's exactly what they had in mind on the design phase. But we'll see. I hope to God they approve them.

And my question is, who would want to watch Video Screens facing Dallas (between buildings). I think facing Main St or facing Josephines is a better option. They should be something that people see as they enter the entertainment venue. I hope it happens!

I hope they do the TVs but downtown's ordinance is too strict when it comes to lighting. I personally think that's what's missing from downtown now. It looks too bland. I'm not saying the Video Screens would solve all the problems but when I go into a big city, I want to see lights, i want to see people, I want to see action. It wouldn't kill Houston to implement a little flash because it's not flashy enough. Many of you may not care, but Houston will continue to be skipped as a leisure travel destination if it doesn't develop more "eye catching" things. It's a harsh reality. Flash Sells!!!!

And for the people that live downtown like Daniepwils, why not have the Video Screens run and turn them off by like Midnight. I think Dallas turns theirs off at 10 or 11pm, i'm not sure though.

Did anyone catch the Channel 11 news this evening?

They said the developers of Houston Pavilions want to install video screens similar to Times Square on the side of the project facing Main Street to create more of a buzz in the area. They had a city council meeting on it today and city council is worried that it will cause a disturbance to the downtown residents that already live there at night.

No final decision has been made as of yet but it said they'll keep us posted.

I hope it can happen but i seriously doubt it considering that it rejected Cabbo's signage proposal a few years ago. Can't the downtown residents just close their curtains?

the downtown might actually be in the 6,000s now because that was the population in 2006. So i take it there's no recent estimates yet.

Does anyone have info on what the current downtown population is of Houston right now? I've been trying my best to google the information but I can't find any source that gives me a solid answer. Any info appreciated. Thanks

tier