102IAHexpress

Allison Cook of the Chronicle just reviewed Christian's Tailgate Downtown. You can read the review on chron.com, but it's not very good unfortunately. She graded their burger a D but said good things about the onion rings.

Not sure about the old co-catherdral church building but the old co-cathedral offices are currently being used by Annunciation during this construction phase.

Yes the old rectory was torn down. But the plan from the beginning was to refurbish it not raze it. For lots of reasons i won't get into, the refurbishment plan was no longer viable. But i will say that one complexity that did not exist a hundred years ago is that today there has to be a much more defined space that seperates the living/sleeping space of the pastor and the church offices. The eventual plan is to have a seperate rectory and a seperate church office. Our pastor is a saint and would never hurt or abuse anyone but the seperated space is a must in today's world and the new plan accomidates that better. Once the decision of razing the old rectory was made then the Foley House plan made a lot of sense. Foley house gets preserved, that city block gets cleared away for future city of houston development. The church gets a new office, etc... The parish could have razed the old rectory and built new construction instead, but it should be noted that they chose instead the harder task of litteraly moving a building and restoring it that otherwise would have set empty. Yes, we are not HISD indeed.

More money for ministries like feeding the poor, clothing the naked, healing the sick, serving those in prisons, etc is not a bad thing. The Church is in the business of saving souls not maintaining empty palaces. To say nothing of the fact about the skilled tradesman and architectural artisans that the Archdiocese will employ to maintain other historical buildings on the island with the money from the sale of the palace. There are lots of architectural destroyers in our city. The Church is not one of them.

What exactly is your complaint? Earlier your grievance was that the archdiocese tore down the clayton building. In this case they are no longer able to maintain bishop's palace as a museum and would rather sell it and use that money for other ministries and other repairs and maintenance for other buildings on Galveston.

I am aware. I go to church on that block. That's one building. Not exactly a pattern of demolishing buildings. Quite the opposite, the church has a rich history of preserving buildings for centuries. Can we preserve all of them? No. But I can't think of any organization that has done a better job preserving architecture.

You have no idea what you're talking about. But you are free to have that opinion. As for facts. The city put a clause in the deal that would require Annunciation to maintain the hisotrical archecture of Foley House for at least 30 years. And even if Annunciation wanted to raze it one day, the city would have the option to take it back. http://houston.novusagenda.com/agendapublic//CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=4927&MeetingID=106

Foley house is a good fit at Annunciation. Foley was a parishioner of Annunciation, his family was very active and generous in the early days of the parish. I think he would be happy that the parish was putting the home to good use. Not sure why you think the church is on some demolition free for all? Does the Catholic church have some history of not preserving it's buildings that we don't know about?

The Foley house move will give us better office space, teaching space and will give the pastor and msr. better living space. I teach RCIA at the Parrish and currently we have to meet inside the church because we don't have proper classrooms. anyone interested in learning about the faith or better forming their faith I invite them to our adult education course this Thursday night.

Interesting. So a business in downtown can't submit an on-premise sign permit application with the CoH like every other business in the city and county can? I didn't know that. I thought if they wanted to put one up they just needed a permit.

Yes Burger King. In a way Burger King and Subway had it easier. They have instant brand recognition. Don't have to worry about alcohol and TABC, etc. Don't have huge Comcast/Direct TV bills each month. Have a proven business model that is profitable. Proven system, that litterly 16 year olds can execute. Resources of huge corporations. etc,... Yet, still failed at that location. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is insane. So yes under that logic it may be better to use that space as something else. Maybe not a parking lot but some other industry besides retail. Nothing wrong with that.

cspwal said it perfectally. The bar is kind of on a island compared to the other main street bars. Saturday night pub crawlers on the main street north/south pub crawl have to make a major diversion to get there. It's essentially by the courthouse. On weekdays there is no diversion because travelers are naturally walking east/west to or from the courthouse. Thus the importance of catering to daytime lunch time crowds. Does anyone remember if burger king and subway who both shared that same location closed in the evenings and weekends? I can't remember. Did they only cater to weekday lunch crowds?

I went by there about an hour ago. I had plans at Hotel Icon but decided to swing by and take a look. UT vs Cal game was on, so i was expecting a large crowd. Nope. Yes some people were there, but not like the other bars on Main Street and Congress. Patio was open but empty. All in all...ehhh. Signage is going to be a must if this bar is going to survive. Edit. Pic attached this time.

that's a big question mark. I hope you're right. But what's more likely is we have another One Park Place. Expensive rents that attract corporate apartments and or renters that keep an apartment in downtown, but don't actually live there. Not exactly people who are making that part of downtown a more vibrant neighborhood.

Just because their other locations have done well doesn't mean that this location will definitely 100% do well too. Burger King did well in other locations but failed there. Subway did well in other locations but failed there too. just saying...

Fair point. And like I said I think it looks promising. I also like cspwal's idea of better signage.

No, you're right. All the business turnover in that part of downtown is something I just imagined it in my head. My bad.

I knew someone was going to post this. I've seen a variation of this written in the downtown forum once or twice before. (insert new business name) will do great in downtown because the (insert failed business name) that was nearby was horrible, etc.. This time it will be different... Like I said I want it to be successful, this is my neighborhood. But I also can't ignore the observations in my neighborhood either. Just off the top of my head that exact same location has been a burger king, subway, what else? Last time I checked those are pretty big corporations with lots of resources and businesses experience. The sports bar a block away is undergoing its what, 3rd? re-launch.

All true. But how well did Live sports bar do in downtown with all those sports nights?

True. College football is another 12 Saturdays a year. Like I said I think it's promising but I think sports bars in downtown need to attract lunch crowds. There's no sports on tv during weekday lunch. Good, inexpensive, reliable lunch food would be a big plus. Then anything they get in the evening is gravy. I'm going to check them out for lunch one of these days. It's raining today so maybe not today.

I checked out Christian's Tailgate last night. Looks promising. Tried getting a bite to eat, but it was actually full at the bar. Place had a strange smell though. Anyways, the fact that it is busy is a good thing I think. I hope it works out, but sports bars have not done that well in the past in downtown. NFL games are only 20 or so Sundays a year maybe a few more games sprinkled in on weeknights? What's the sports going to do the rest of the year? Live had trouble with lunch time crowds. But I won't be a Debbie downer. Like I said it looks promising. Big huge windows on congress (live was like a cave) nice patio, feels like part of the neighborhood. What's the food like? I heard they have good burgers.

Taylor Swift is in town and some parking spots around Minute Maid are going for $80. Crazy. I wonder if there will be any more riders on the new light rail tonight or if people will just pay more for parking? I think a combination of both.

Yeah I've noticed that on the new line, it does look risky. But there are intersections just like that on Fannin street on the red line in-between wheeler and museum district stations (fannin and Binz). I'm not sure if cars are legally allowed to turn left on the lane next to the line on fannin, but regardless I see cars turn left all the time.

Which is perfect for Houston. Houston is dynamic and always changing. Routes need to be dynamic as well. Unless we enact zoning and start doing some major city central planning, BRT is the best compromise.

Not these people. You can see the new rail line in operation from that corner.