houstonfella

DJV ... you are too funny.

Yes, Red Scare, we don't need any more stoking the fires between Dal & Hou. As we all know, current growth in Texas is wonderful. What good would it do to say Dallas is growing faster or more cooly than Houston than vice versa? This state is the best state in the USA. Therefore, I am hanging my hat on that fact. Just because I am a Houstonian (very proud) doesn't mean I don't enjoy reading that Fort Worth or Laredo is getting a new highrise or art museum. Texans + Texans. New Yorkers wouldn't understand.

The good old days. But those days are long gone. South Beach, the Mine, JRs, 611, Ripcord, etc. are the hot spots. Mary's probably is too (as long as its been there), but I don't go out much anymore. Montrose is awesome at any rate.

My take: either it will get built or not. Bottom line is Houston will not drop into the abyss if it doesn't. But I believe HP will develop and be the catalyst that Houston needs. I'm positive great things are in store for our downtown. Especially since we have vacancy rates that are getting very, very low downtown.

Thank you. You summarized my posts in one quick link. Yes, NY is great. But, yes, NY is so urban that it can be intimidating and hard to manage. Dallas and Houston are great NEW places to live and shed that old subway and two hour commute thing. I drive to work about 18-20 minutes at most. If there is an accident, of course, it might take 30 minutes. Our NY office co-workers tell me they all take 1 and 1 half hours to 2 hours to get to work. But getting back to Dal and Hou, we are two great cities that are going to get better as time moves along. Why is it that Dallas on the "Trinity" River and having Thanksgiving Square and Victory Project have such religious themes? Bible Belt Babes I guess. +

I am five ft nine inches tall and weight 145 (speaking for myself); my sisters are little 100 lb. things and my brother is the larger, and perhaps weighs 5 or 7 lbs. more than the charts say. We are blessed with thinness, but I am speaking for Americans. Don't you all see the news? Pictures of fat women in tight pants with legs rubbing together making that eerie sound? This country is FAT. However, it appears other countries have caught on to the American diet. Put down that oreo!!!!

Oh yeah, oh yeah Speaking of "big companies that have their headquarters in the state", I got some numbers on the 2006 Fortune 500 today, and Texas has passed up NY for the first time - 56 to 55 - making us the big numero uno, ahead of even CA (52), a state with almost twice our population. Can you say "$60+ oil"? Houston is still a strong #2 with 23 to NYC's 44, and well ahead of #3 Atlanta(14), #4 Dallas (11), and #5 Chicago (10) (city list - everybody else 7 or below). Atlanta still lists BellSouth, which should get absorbed by San Antonio-based AT&T/SBC this year. Chicago, and Dallas for that matter, would have a whole lot more if you looked at their metro areas instead of just the city - but Houston still has almost half of Texas' total, with the rest spread in the "Texas Triangle" between DFW, San Antonio, and Round Rock (...um, I mean 'Austin').

In reality, Dallas has some great architecture. Of course we will be envious of some of Dallas' great things. But that is a two-way street. Houston isn't exactly Baghdad. We are blessed to have two metropolitan areas of each around six million folks (give or take a few thousand) and lots of wonderful things. Let's say I hope the new Dallas performing arts center (official name?) is as beautiful as that first rendering I saw with a white fabric-like material surrounding a red oval building. If not, hopefully it will turn out beautiful. Dallas does have Meyerson which is really really nice. Houstonians aren't Dallas haters. We just want our respect; because we deserve that - being No. 1 and all.

Which tells us this stuff is for magazine readers who are nibbling at chocolate brownies and yogurt. Jeez. One year we are fat; the next we are skinny. Let's get real. Americans are overweight and it isn't one city, it is ALL cities.

I know that's way cool as I have taken my little nephew 6 yrs old there once. Jeez, I'll have to take him back and again. But that's OK. Since we have such a terrific place for "Little Man," I won't mind. Houston does provide greatness beyond expectation.

Don't call him Dallasboy. It is Dallasboi He doesn't respect anything positive I say about Dallas, because, really, I think Dallas is a pretty city and I have friends there, but hate winter so Dallas is out as a permanent location for me. By the way, don't think those Dallasites (?) (sounds pedofile-ish) would use office vacancies against First City Texas if they could, but, hey, Houston is The Energy Capital of the World -- that's how that works. The Dallas "turn around" hasn't happened since that 2001 posting (but maybe in Cedar Springs ). But keep dreamin' By the way, Houstonians, that tall, new Texas Med Ctr building is starting to look really impressive, along with Mosaic's twin 30-story highrise towers overlooking Hermann Park under construction nearby. But, as we all know, Houston is Texas' largest city and must build and get better, accordingly. In the 60s & 70s we changed the world. In the 21st Century, Houston still has the same resolve. Good luck, Dallas. Fort Worth will help you (trust me on this -- you need Fort Worth). Pasadena, Texas has helped Houston and is a great suburb. They have a 30 story highrise going up on Clear Lake that is mind-blowing and many others in the works on the waterfront (Galveston Bay and Clear Lake). Houston doesn't fight with its neighbors, we work together to create a big and inspiring city which we don't have to label "plex" at the end of our Greater Houston. Lots of love from Houston. P.S. The San Jacinto Monument (nation's tallest and the birthplace of Texas) has completed its reconstruction. Catch the elevator to the top to see America's 4th largest city

Thanks so much. At least some one knows what I am talking about. This is going to be quite a place (according to my sources) and quite frankly, with Verizon's great concerts and in the heart of the theater district, it will be welcomed. Any more info would be greatly appreciated. I haven't given up at all on Bayou Place.

Actually, I read, just yesterday, that Chicago not only is losing population, but Cook County as well. Lots of folks are moving away from Cook County (probably to the far burbs ... other counties). Houston is growing and Chicago is losing population. It will be interesting to see when Houston is the nation's 3rd largest city.

This one is more up-to-date. Three cities also appear in both the downtown and suburban

I agree with you about living in L.A. Oh, no. I'll take Texas -- Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antone, anyplace Texas (almost) before L.A. But having been to New York City countless times, the masses of people, the zillion taxis and people like rats running around in a maze, I think, would be worse than L.A. Great places to visit and do things. Then come back to the Lone Star State.

Too cute Puma.... certainly prettier than the construction cranes for sure!!!

Of course no one in New York would dis Houston I'm excited, as any proud Houstonian would be, that we will have a beautiful downtown park with a brand new residential highrise approximately 501 feet tall. That isn't even considering Houston Pavilions. Life is good. And who would want to compare the Big Apple (loud, confining and rude) with H-town? Not me.

I am not a smoker, but it seems that couldn't a law be passed that would allow bars to be smoking or non-smoking. That way, non-smokers could stay away from that second hand smoke and smokers would be able to congregate and non-smokers who didn't mind could go to either.

That's who I was talking about Mark Cuban (loser). I think the Riverwalk scares the man.

I don't know if this thread is somewhere out there on HAIF, but I found this on the Houston Business Journal site. Great news for downtown Houston. A company that size taking a 50-story tower will significantly reduce our already plummeting office vacancy. Let the new buildings begin to rise.

Could it be gas prices have come down to reality. Gas really should be around or below two bucks a gallon? We'll know if they creep back up toward the three dollar price again. But I will say, cool.

Bottom line re: urbanism: Texas ain't made that way. We have wide opens spaces, lots of land and urban environments are only pockets, certainly nothing like San Francisco or New York. Personally, I love my wide open spaces. I love driving my car to work; the freedom of going to lunch 5 miles aways if I desire without getting on a train or bus and definitely love not having to fight the masses going to and fro (as in when I work in our New York office). By the end of the week in that urban environment, I am totally ready for the wide open spaces and my automobile.

Yeah. Last? We built the Astrodome that changed the sports world. Irving copied us, but look at the ugly stadium the Irving Cowchips play in now. We built the Galleria that changed the shopping world. Dallas tried to one up us, but Galleria Dallas is so small that we could fit it inside the Houston Galleria many times over. We are home of the most Fortune 500 companies and Texas' tallest buildings. We are home of over 2 million people in the city proper. We have beaches 45 miles south of Houston. Dallas has Corsicana, fruitcake land. So don't do the Dallatude thing with me. I have been very complimentary of Dallas' new performance hall and other Dallas things. Did you forget how quickly I defended the performance hall when some Houstonian said "big deal"? But fabulous Dallas can't even build its winning football team a stadium. So you wanna talk who is last? By the way, I travel to New York City all the time and stay at the Pierre and W (if you can grasp that aspect). At any rate, having lived in San Francisco and Houston, what makes you think you can tell "Mr. Cheerleader" (isn't Dallas famous for that? they send those ugly cheerleader drag queens to Houston's gay pride every year) that he has never left Houston's massive city limits? You don't know me, so don't start saying things about a person whom you don't even know. I'll tell you this, I am classy enough not to go to a Dallas board and disrespect the Metroplex. Learn how to spell Hooray, please. And Dallas isn't nearly as cool as you think. In fact, wait til January, 19 degrees will be how cool Dallas will be.

Thanks Montrose: you are correct. I stand corrected. How about 6.36 million?? Reasonable, you betcha. We be #1 in Texas.

Thanks E This needed to be said. H-town is the big one. Dallas has the catching up to do. Uptown Houston is the nation's 14th largest "downtown" if you will. Downtown Houston is the 3rd largest. Therefore, we rule. OK, the Cowboys probably will beat the Texans into pulp; but if that doesn't happen, oh my, we will have even more bragging rights. This is good natured ribbing only. Dallas and Houston are fab places that no one outside Texas understands. But we understand each other. Yeah Texas.