Subdude

and all this can be yours for a low, low $750,000!

But, but don't you see? It is the Ultimate High-end Enclave, for Elegant Boulevard Living!

All but two kinds of businesses are now free to be open 7 days a week if they choose.

Car dealers and liquor stores.

The Texas Automobile Dealers Association lobbied hard to get themselve excluded from that freedom. They WANTED to be required to be closed at least one day on a weekend. They said not all dealers would be able to be open 7 days a week if it were allowed, and would, therefore, be at a competitive disadvantage against those that could.

So, you can't buy hard liquor or a car on Sunday, which has come to be the default closing day for most dealers. Every now and then though, on very rare occasions, a dealer will advertise that he will be closed on Saturday so car-buyers can come see him on Sunday.

I always thought the rationale behind that was to make car shopping less convenient for customers. Most people only have hours to kill hanging around car dealers on weekends. so by only opening one day it lessens the time people have available to shop around. Typical....

What stands in it's place are those big apartments that have shops and restaurants on the first floor along the sidewalk. Old Mexico was on the block bounded by Gray, Baldwin, Valentine, and Webster. It is an odd shaped block because Valentine cuts through at a diagonal. Here is a photo of the patio:

I was momentarily shocked to see that plac again..a place I was inside as a child. Thanks for the photo. I'd like to see a photo of that other restaurant called "Johns" on W. Gray... I think it was on the SW corner of W. Gray @ Dunlavy. Anyone have a shot of the Santa Claus rig at the Bairds Bakery? I thought of scavenging that large B sign that sat atop the bakery when they demolished the place ..when?..early 70's?

Captain Johns?

thread here

Dupe topics merged.

We had a decent place along Allen Parkway. That was a lot of fun, although at the time a lot of people thought the weather was unfortunate. That just reminds me of the depths of the bust of the 1980s. Not very happy times for Houston.

It would be nice to see Havana return to its glory days, but would take a long time to overcome the effects of being a backwater for 50 years. I know people who have been there on vacation and they haven't been terribly impressed.

There have been several responses in this thread by individuals wanting to save this "historic" building. All along I've been a little baffled by them -- my impression of the downtown Y has always been that it's basically an eyesore.

But I think that's my impression because I work at the Continental Center I building, facing the Y on the Smith Street side.

In reality, I think the the distinctive, somewhat attractive portion of the Y is really just a tiny sliver of the building -- facing Louisiana. For those who pass by it every day on that side, it's pretty nice. But look at it from Smith or Pease and it's just windowless, plain brick blocks. This dreariness is apparent from the picture I took below, from the Smith/Pease corner (my apologies for the picture quality -- it's just a camera phone, and the photo was taken through a glass window).

My point is... The people who want to save this historic building... do they really just want to save that sliver along Louisiana?

If so... and I know this will never happen, but... Would it be cool if Chevron just knocked down the plain rectangular blocks and left that thin sliver facing Louisiana standing, eventually to make it the lower facade of whatever tower they build on the spot?

Is this idea completely absurd? I have to admit it's a little difficult for me to imagine a skyscraper that would integrate neatly with this architecture, and I'm sure there are economic and structural problems with it... but I'm just a fan, not an architect.

In either case, after they knock this building down and before they put something up in its place, that's going to be one HUGE front lawn for the Chevron tower.

Not a bad point. The section facing Smith was a later addition and it doesn't seem to have the architectural merit of the original structure on Louisiana. I don't care what they do with the new wing, but it would be nice to save the old section.

It's sad to hear the tattoo parlors and whatnot are gone, but implementing the ideas of a design "charette" from Gulf Coast Institute and Urban Land Institute would be putting a nail in the coffin of whatever character the intersection used to have.

Where was the Ocean Club?

Saint James Place.

Eureka! For once we agree on something.

The weird part is they are selling in a down economy instead of an up. They should have sold this 2 years ago when they could have surely gotten a lot more money.

True, although they have been making noises about moving to a new location for years now. They could find something cheaper and more convenient to transportation.

Let's tear it down and build a train station.

Eh, they tried that before.

The entertainment schedule for this year's International Festival is up. The featured country is Ireland; as usual, entertainers will come from all over. That includes local & regional favorites, plus the Ohio Players, Hugh Masekela & Los Lobos!

It takes place the weekends of April 18-19 & 25-26. Downtown, of course!

Featuring Ireland! Good craic!

There was a proposal a few years back that when the post office sold the property it should be purchased by the city for use as fair grounds. This would avoid fiascoes as when the International Festival moved to the Reliant parking lot, or even the problems having to close blocks of streets for various festivals.

Note Liberty Hall topics combined.

I could swear there's a topic about that here somewhere..

Boxty is definitely how it's pronounced, they've got that in parenthesis on the menu, but the actual name is spelled differently in Gaelic. Regardless, it's delicious! Also, my wife had a Poinsettia which is a mimosa made with cranberry instead of orange juice and very good. I had beer of course; it isn't just for breakfast anymore!

I don't think a traditional Irish breakfast would have boxty, but there would certainly be black pudding. The less said about which the better, except perhaps to note that it constitutes suitable nutrition for vampires.

Come on guys, this is the only opera house that took 1980's bank architecture as its inspiration. At least appreciate its uniqueness....

I thought it was supposed to evoke a railroad station?

True enough. Who knew? The car from the future ended up being a bulbous BMW with ugly ass rims!

The 1980 Celica!

I would love to own an old Toyota from the 1970s or 1980s. Very nimble and well-made cars.

Recently there was a report on metro job gains and losses for 2008. Houston was the #1 gainer, adding 42,400 jobs. Atlanta lost 66,100 jobs, second worst to Detroit's loss of 67,700.

Link?

What is up with this "Panamera" name? I keep wanting to say Panaderia.

That BMW looks about as exciting as an 1980 Celica.

Short for "Panamerica". And the 1980 Celica was actually quite cool. At the time it looked like a car from the future.

The Panamera is awkward looking in photos, but I'm sure that when it goes down the street it won't be mistaken for another make. And that's the idea behind it.

Looking like this you would think that they would WANT to be mistaken for another make.

Here is BMW's entry in the sedan-that-looks-like-a-coupe sweepstakes. What do you think?

I think the Panamera looks good. Atleast as good as the X6:

Talk about damning with faint praise!

To me the Panamera looks like a giant beached humpback whale.

A really, really ugly Porsche - the new Panamera:

Maybe they could resurrect and modify the design for the unbuilt Menil guest house by Legoretta that was planned to have been east of the museum. It would have made an interesting contrast.

Well, looks like Sagemont beat em to it - 170 ft cross (originally to be 190 ft) is at the corner of 45 and 8.

In the article, Booth was quoted as well:

"With all these billboards and adult entertainment places out here, we at Grace Community decided a cross would be perfect for Houstonians," Pastor Garrett Booth said.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/18695333/detail.html#-

Oh my.

The renderings early in this topic included a kind of visitors pavilion and giant globe at the base! Where'd they go? These things really do need observation platforms on top.