crunchtastic

I've often wondered what percentage of the big-box shoppers eventually go to the other restaurants/stores near their primary

destination. I shop at this Target/Petsmart about every other week, but have never gone to any of the other places, and doubt I ever will. In the world of retail real estate, is there some sort of factor that's used? For example, we have area demographics of x, expect xx percent of those to shop the anchor, and xxxx of those to shop the smaller stores by virute of proximity?

I'm with you on that. I think that is what makes downtown seem so bland (in my opinion). The city allows all of these billboards and tall signs out side of downtown which I think make the city visually cluttered (thats what needs to be minimized). Why not allow them downtown and liven it up down there. Kind of like Times Square. I want to say the same about METRO, they don't allow advertisement because I they think its tacky. I personally think that it would be cool to have advertisement on sides of buses trains and stations.

.....and I personally think it would be cool to brand a corporate logo straight onto your forehead.

Hopefully that sounds absurd to you. What have we become, culturally, when a whole generation not only mistakes

marketing for beauty, but longs for the visual blight of ads to 'liven up' public spaces?

Not really a sighting per se but on Burn Notice (USA) there was a character on an episode whose backstory was that he worked as a cop in Houston trying to catch child abductors.

...speaking of Burn Notice, the completely awesome Bruce Campbell is at the Houston ComicPalooza next month.

Isn't it great? Rodney was forced out of business temporarily due to debt issues, yet like a post-apocalyptic roach who refuses

to die, is back in the game using the same old business model of aggressivley promoting debt financing to sell a shoddy foreign made product with a 300% mark-up to the lower middle and working class. Boo effin hoo on Finger's debt problem. No interest, no payments for 3 years, indeed.

Good luck if you try, like we did, to deal with one of their floor lizards on a discount for cash. It's all about the financing.

Maybe he wants to work in the Kremlin with a two-headed dog.

he he. Nice one. But now we've gone and given the lad ideas.

wait a minute.....all this talk about acid....I just finally clued in to your screen name. Now that's some crazy. I hope there's not a direct connection between mkultra and you??

oh, and how 'bout those class A vacancy numbers! (......feeble gesture at staying OT.......)

Not just quite yet. But once my military enlistment (prompted by the failure of the real estate development biz) goes through and I get trained and shipped off, I'll be sure to communicate back the number of confirmed kills.

WTF Niche!!! You did NOT! That's not just crazy, that's Roky Erickson crazy.

It may just be the the first new apartment building featuring the added amenity of a parrot colony. I understand they particularly like cell towers, and tend to live by the dozens in them.

Don't know if they're a nuisance in the way grackles are.

LoL. Maybe one day people can get this worked up about corporate incentives. I know there was never this kind of outrage about, say, the 100% cost overruns on the Katy Freeway.

heh, that's only because I wasn't living here at the time. I was too busy being pissed about the Zachary contracts in SA.

http://www.chron.com...ro/6593131.html

Just thought you'd like to know that bit of info!

I'm a huge soccer fan, and before I knew that myself, I was on the fence too, but I just don't see how this is a bad deal for anyone.

A TIRZ and donated land is public funding. It may not be direct out of my pocket, but it's still public land, and future public tax revenue. Trust me, I've read every story on this issue, long before there was a Dynamo. Like I said--it's a basic philosophical position. I don't care if it's soccer, or my beloved Astros or San Antonio Spurs. I love sports, but they need to pay their own goddamned way. Clearly this deal is nearly done, so I'm standing down and will support it. I live over here, so I sure hope all you fanboys put your money where your mouth is.

As an East End resident, I hope that the city and county stick to their guns and build it downtown. I am good friends with the President of the East End Management District, and she has been organizing citizens to put more pressure on the City and County to close this deal. We don't want to lose this stadium in our area!!

The benefits to the East End are much greater than the Galleria/ Meyerland area. This will help spur developement along the East End rail line and for the whole neighborhood. Plus, the last thing that the Galleria needs is another major traffic burden during rush hour.

The management district (and the civic associations who spread their message) need to stop

the fear mongering. By all means, encourage citizens to support the stadium. But I will not support an

organization that uses rumor, lies and scare tactics (crime! economic blight! jails!!!) to push their agenda. It's too bad, because as a white, professional, property owning new resident of the east end, I know they want me on board with the new world order. But you don't get my support by insulting my intelligence with shrill, amatuer propaganda and bad logic. (Claiming that the the Dynamo stadium will cost 'peanuts' compared to Reliant, as the ECA 'action alert' stated, does nothing to advance the argument that the new deal is good one. In fact all that did was

remind me how much greedy NFL owner have ruined pro football for me-- not a smart thing when trying to get me to support a deal for

another sports team owner. ) FWIW, my opposition is philosophical in that I oppose any public funding for privately

owned stadia--not land, not money, not anything. But that ship has sailed, and since the city already commiteed to the deal, just build the thing already. I do agree that the east end location is best.

The last I heard from one of the managers, there is another large furniture chain that bought the remaining inventory, and will be open at that location. I can't remember the name of the new chain, but it wasn't Star.

I think I remember seeing an HBJ article a while back--want to say it's Ashley.

having gone back an re-read the email and the Chron story it linked, there was a quote from the mayor that the city was looking at sites (multiple) for a potential new jail or crime lab. It was vague at best.

I would actively oppose a jail on the site, but I will not support the stadium based on a vague threat that something else might get built instead.

Where did all of these rumors about a new jail facility come from? It's not the first time I've heard them, but placing a jail facility so far from the courthouse complex just seems...dumb.

And I believe her when Garcia says that she hasn't seen any evidence that the Eastwood Civic Assn. or the Super Neighborhoods support the stadium, but it sounds like somebody is stoking rumors of a jail just to freak these people out so that they'll actively embrace the Dynamo. I know it's a conspiracy theory, but this stuff just doesn't add up.

I have the same question. I've heard rumors and internet noise, amd now the alarmist email, but no source. The idea of a jail

removed from the court complex, and within walking distance of two sports facilities, the convention center, and Discovery

Green is seems a little difficult to believe, especially when it only seems to come up in connection with the Dynamo stadium.

Let me be perfectly clear. Regardless of your issues with the quality of City of Houston services, Houston doesn't want to annex you. Your already-declining demographics, deteriorating infrastructure, and low taxable value are issues that disqualify you from consideration. The fact is that an attempt by the City of Houston at annexing a neighborhood in Spring would be a freakish abberation, and your constant worrying that you are a target is akin to a morbidly-obese woman worrying about getting stalked and raped. You should be far more concerned with internal matters such as a neighborhood watch or the enforcement of deed restrictions than you are with getting annexed.

I was thinking a toothless meth casualty working at the quick lube and fantasizing about Megan Fox, but that might be more east Montgomery County.

In all seriousness, I was not aware the COH had annexation sights anywhere at the moment. Do they?

Would the downtown location accommodate tailgaiters? They'd have the Astros parking lot but I don't remember seeing any plans for new parking lots.

I guess they could parallel park their smokers

Is tailgating permitted by the leaugue, team, or the venue? The only tailgate I've done at MMP was for a Jimmy Buffett show, and we paid an extra couple of hundred bucks for each parking space, plus an upcharge on the event tix. (The parking lot was far better entertainment than the

actual show.) If the Dynamo stadium went in downtown and they were using MMP parking lots, would they even allow tailgating? Guess that's

written into the contracts.

Landing Tootsies is huge. There are generations of uppity women who shop there exclusively. I could see several other retailers tag along after this announcement.

Agree, but this goes back to the idea of high-end retail saturation. All Tootsies is doing is moving a mile or so down the road--not adding a second store, and leaving a large hole in Highland Village in the process. Between Highland Village, West Ave and the eventual Regent Square, how much growth can we reasonably expect? I'm not seeing a net gain, just empty older space. Even wealthy people can only do so much shopping in a 5 mile radius.

So THAT is where the fireworks coming from! I was wondering about that.

"Ruggles green?"

There's a Ruggles Green on Alabama b/w Greenbriar and Kirby. It's a Ruggles, but 'green.' Not sure what that means.

Green building? Green food? Does it mean the original restaurant is Ruggles Gay? In any case, good for them on expanding.

I'd think a lavaderia would be just as attractive an idea inside a mall as in a strip center. And, they are getting bigger and better these days. If a giant laundromat opened at Gulfgate, it would pack 'em in. Sounds like a sound business venture for re-purposing a mall in an area

with a large immigrant population, IMO. I've spent quite a lot of time at laundromats in the east end when we were renting, and like with grocery shopping, people bring their families to do laundry, which provides increased traffic to the adjacent businesses.

That being written, every time I see the name of the restaurant I can't help but reading "Ill Forks" - like some sort of food poisoning scheme..

Haha, makes me think of the Beastie Boys, License to Ill. Between the overly clever name and the meat-tini, I'm leaning toward it being a restaurant chain based out of either Phoenix, Denver or Dallas. Lucky for us, someone is keeping menu cliches from the late 90s alive! My guess is, it's a tiny portion of shaved tenderloin served in a martini glass.

If I'm wrong and it really is some sort of Willy Wonka-ish meat drink, I would be totally impressed.

Does that say tenderloin-tini ?

I apologize for not being more clear. I'm not calling HOB weak. I'm calling entertainment-oriented anchors weak as a category, which specifically means that such anchors may take up a large chunk of space (at a significant rent discount by the square foot) and draw many people at a time, but that they have a difficult time justifying complimentary retail other than food service. Compare the traditional regional mall business model to that of an entertainment-anchored mall:

A strong mall anchor focuses on apparel and general merchandise, providing enormous draw and broad appeal across all demographics. In-line retailers then have three angles of attack: 1) they can specialize on certain products and themes that appeal to various segments of the large and diverse base of shoppers, 2) they allow comparison shopping between numerous similar stores, and 3) they can exploit convenience-oriented and impulse-driven retail.

In contrast, entertainment-oriented retail anchors start off with a fairly limited demographic appeal such as limits segmentation potentials, they draw people mostly during off hours, and they do not foster an atmosphere conducive to comparison shopping. Aside from food service, there's weak synergistic potential.

Big plus 1. With bonus points since you stopped me from having to type a reply, which was going to be what you clarified--that live music is weak as a category next to dining and retail in a mall, and for the large part, there is no crossover appeal to the daytime retail consumer. I predict one of the newly opened resturants will be toast by year end, and at least one of the 'coming soons' won't open at all. Few capital-intensive, high-concept restaurants can survive on those razor-thin margins.

With regard to your number 2--there was a really good segment on NPR a few days ago about highly concentrated shopping districts, ala the jewelry district in Manhattan.

PPS. Live Nation (ands Ticketmaster, etc) is Pure Satanic Evil. MegaStreisand Evil. Just had to get that in there.....

Obviously Warren's, since all of us were there for the HAIF Happy Hour(s).

Someone's happy hour was better than ours: remember the girl in the very small gold dress who made such an entrance? Apparently she was doing her best Sharon Stone impersonation at the bar.

I wonder if they'll have bungee jumping off of it.

how awesome would that be? Years back there was a bungee crane set up at Richmond and the loop where the Best Buy is now. Not as scenic as a river gorge, but hey. I loved jumping out of a perfectly good plane, so I'm definitely down for the balloon.

I miss Astroworld. I love rides.

Maybe Feast can put that on the menu: Roast Nutria with Kudzu Salad (and Smallpox for dessert).

With a confit of cow eyeball on the side.

The smallpox dessert is a nice touch, Attica, since Feast appears to be more in the European tradition. On that note, it's lunch time. My low sodium microwave soup sure doesn't sound very exciting now.

Did it mention what those companies were? I have a feeling that many of Houston's companies are large but not really recognizable names...

off the top of my head:

Conoco-Philips

Continental

Anadarko

Baker Hughes

KBR/Halliburton

Marathon Oil

Cameron

CenterPoint

Sysco

Are those not recognizable names in their fields?