brian0123

No way would I ever go to a Tex Mex place in London.

I was adventurous and did try a Tex Mex place in London. I cracked up when the waiter asked if I needed to know what Tex Mex was. I couldn't stand ANY restaurant there. After seeing what London has to offer, I'm convinced Chef Ramsay Gordon's food probably tastes like Chili's and everyone over there thinks he's a genius.

Not sure why everyone freaks out about "big gubmant" cameras in public spaces. London has them everywhere and it never bothered me. It actually made me feel happy knowing that if I were mugged, they'd have a nice clear picture of the assailant. I think this program is excellent news and I'd love to see it expanded into my neighborhood. Why should we pay a ton of $$ for extra police to randomly patrol streets when we can have an entire area monitored by less staff... and dispatch officers to crimes in progress?

What is "proper" park space? I love the golf course there (as do many people)! There is already a ton of park space around?!?!

I did read somewhere that a new facility was built on the east side and the Mexican bus station would be relocated there...and maybe the Greyhound?

My memory is failing me.

edit: found it http://www.chron.com...ss/7281999.html

You sure know how to cheer me up in the morning! The article sounds like it opened last Tuesday... but I've still seen buses operating out of both the Greyhound and Americanos terminals in Midtown. Anyone else have info on this? This would be HUGE for the area.

You could do what my wife and I did and instead of downtown condos (with high HOA fees and locked into downtown)... we bought a townhouse in Midtown (not the apt side... the townhouse side). Discovery Green and all of Downtown is a very short and safe bike ride... and we have a larger place than we could have had downtown w/ attached garage to park the cars, trees, Baldwin Park, restaurants/bars/nightlife nearby, a side yard, and live in a neighborhood. I spend a ton of time in Downtown still (we'll ride the bikes to Discovery Green for picnics), but also ride the bikes to Hermann Park and museums easily. For reference, Downtown takes 5 minutes on a leisurely bike ride.... Hermann Park 8 minutes. Feel free to ask if you'd like more info on my neighborhood.

The building is at an intersection of two streets where, if it faced either street, it would face away from the park. Also, since the land behind the building (between it and the park) is still a separately-owned surface lot, there was a decent chance that something would be built that blocked a nice and expensive facade if one had been built that faced the park.

Not that I'm defending the suckage, mind you; I fully acknowledge and concur regarding the suckage. I'm just pointing out the obvious to the oblivious...that's all.

I had no clue that the lot between it and the park is separately-owned. I thought they had the entire block. It makes sense why they did what they did if that's the case.

Google alerts just sent me this blog post with interior pictures and more info about this property... http://bambooleasing.com/blog/11/2010/midtown-has-new-address Looks pretty nice.

Yes, Piola is a pizza place in the Mix where the pizza is Italian style... not NYC or Chicago style. I was there last night and the food is good.

Has Embassy Suites commented on why the building faces away from the park? Isn't that really ugly electrical substation on the side that it now faces? I'd love to hear why they decided to point it towards a block full of electrical equipment instead of a park.

Anyone know what's going in next to Crave Sushi? There is a ton of construction going on. Is it the Greek restaurant mentioned earlier in this thread?

I don' like Rick Perry or think he is a good choice, but Bill White is incompetent, and Perry is the lesser of two evils.

This logic is why Texas ranks behind the rest of the country in many categories (especially education). I also love the commercials Perry is running right now w/ the HPD widow. Somehow Bill White was responsible for her husband's death because he was mayor at the time, but the man that was GOVERNOR at the time... well vote for him again so he can continue to fail just like he did when her husband was killed.

Did anyone lose a glass pipe at one of the park benches on Anita?

Just kidding. But seriously I found a broken glass pipe that my dogs nearly stepped on yesterday evening.

I work sales so I am in and out of my town home during the day and have noticed (and smelled) a great deal more people "smoking" on the park benches in the past few months. It's rather obvious in the 10 months that I have lived here that these benches are used more as a bed or living room for people. I have yet to see any of my neighbors use them. If I am mistaken please let me know so I can return your pipe to you. ;-)

From the design of the benches it appears that the city sought to avoid this activity as it looks difficult to sleep on them, but I guess people find a way. Who should I talk to about having these benches removed?

Steve

I might be your neighbor (I live on Anita) and have used them occasionally. I haven't seen anyone smoking crack on them, but if you smell and see anyone suspicious on them, call our constables or HPD right away. It won't take them long to figure out that if they "smoke" on our street, they will be going to jail quickly. HPD arrested a guy in front of my house the other night (had been pulled over in his car) for crack and a crack pipe... so they are very responsive and ready to arrest.

Scenes are over-rated. If the scene has left downtown that is fine with me, because I had a swell time at Dean's and Notsuoh last night. If Washington is good, I want to be bad.

I could not agree more. I moved away from Washington Ave. as soon as I saw the dbags coming.

Why were there so many people walking around? Did the tunnels exist then? I'm sure there are many more people officing AND living downtown now than there were then. I'm also guessing a big difrerence is that there was more retail back then?

Houston must not have been hot back then.

Seriously, it drives me nuts when I hear people complain about walking more than a couple blocks because of the heat. Look at the waistlines of the people in those pictures. Since those pictures were taken, Houston has doubled in size around our own beltways.

That's the old MHMRA building. Looks OK from the outside, but is apparently pretty useless on the inside. Charles LeBlanc at Midtown Authority told me a few years ago that it has 7 foot ceilings, inadequate elevators, dead end halls, etc.

My dream is for them to gut the place and move the Angelika into it. One can dream... right?

damn i was in dallas for a horrible Texas game... do you guys jam out at any other venues in houston?

Playing Dean's (downtown) this Saturday night. Dean's is our main place we play in Houston.

London is good too. I've lived there, and it's still my favorite big city to visit.

I was disappointed in London. The mass transit is nice... but bars close at 11pm, the weather is crappy, everything is overpriced, and the food is revolting (seriously.. what do people in London eat?!?!).

Los Angeles also doesn't belong on this list. Sprawl (and traffic) worse than Houston with overpriced housing and some really bad areas. Also tons of fake people.

NYC and Paris are awesome.

Chicago is like Houston if you combined Downtown/Med Center/Galleria/Greenspoint together... then have endless suburbs w/ insane cold weather.

Went to Natachee's last night and really enjoyed it. I had the bacon burger and fries, and also tried the Sliders and baked mac n' cheese (incredible). Lacy was there and trotted over when we came out. The owner is a really nice guy who said he plans to eventually setup the outdoor area for live music w/ a stage and hanging out. I'm bringing the coworkers by for lunch today. They also told me that more things will be added to the menu soon (as mentioned above) like Chicken N' Dumplings and breakfast items to be served all day.

Got stuck over by the kiddy ferris wheel and did not make it over to the stage before y'all wrapped it up. Y'all sounded really good.

Striped shirt, right?

Yep, that was me. Thanks for the compliment. It was a little warmer than I thought it would be at that time. It started to feel great later in the evening though.

That looks like a pretty dingy building and doesn't look historic. And where are the planning to put the garage; it doesn't look like there's room. Is this the righ location?

http://www.bing.com/...TX%2077002-8594

That's the right location. From what I remember in the Chronicle article from awhile back... the garage will be built on the empty lot across from Christian's Tailgate. The building itself is that rectangular two story one in the middle of your link. The White House that is mentioned is here: http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=nypxrg71jy99&scene=32457314&lvl=2&sty=b

As far as the other development, I wish I can see a rendering of what's going on over on main street.

How DOES that antique store across the street stay in business?

I don't know of any renderings because it's just a rehab of an existing building. It's the building in the middle of this view: http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=nypt9n71jhsf&scene=32460678&lvl=2&sty=b The horse was grazing on the lot to the right of it. The storefronts reminded me of Guadalupe St in Austin.

culturemap update

culturemap saying the groundbreaking starts in august (article dated sept 29th, 2010). not sure if they mean next year or should have broken ground by now.

They must have updated the article because it says mid-November ground breaking. I had no clue they were going to add an extra floor to the building... that will be awesome. As for the White House mentioned in the article... still no activity at the building from what I've seen.

On a side note, I was at Tacos a Go Go last night and noticed that the Supper N Punch (and other shops about to open) are coming along nicely. They had a live horse grazing on the lot next door wearing a sign that just said "Opening October 1". It was hilarious to see a horse grazing in Midtown.

Please confirm that you changed the time from 5:30 to 2:00.

Yeah, I changed it. I got an email after posting that they moved us up to the 2pm slot (still doing some reshuffling of the entertainment). She told me it's not 100% yet, but if something changes I'll update my post on here. So right now it stands at 2pm.

would be a good location for a park... better for retail if it could survive...

i'll be there.

Swing by the stage at 2pm... I'll be the guy singing for the band playing

I would gladly but property values have plummeted a good 20% in Midtown over the past 3 years. In the rest of Houston, real estate has stabilized to pre-recession prices but not in Midtown. Check out HAR. Prices are listed 15% below what they used to be and there are no pending sales.

What are you talking about?!?! Why was I able to refinance last month (after living in my home for two years) and my appraisal came in 7.4% higher? My home value has increased 16k in two years and the comps were all very recent. Homes were option pending about a month ago. Just because there aren't any right now doesn't mean the end of the world (we are still in a recession).

Hearsay has awesome atmosphere, but the food was bad when I went. This was when they were first opening, so perhaps it has improved. Maybe I should give it another shot.

Yeah, you should try it again. Restaurant.com sells give certs to Hearsay. When the site runs a special, you can enter a promo code and get a $25 gift cert for $2 (have to spend $35 and excludes alcohol). My wife and I have used it at Hearsay w/out a problem (just tell the waitress ahead of time).

As for Nouveau Antique Art Bar in Midtown... yeah, that place is awesome. It's four blocks from my house so I end up spending way too much money there.

isn't Union Bar on Bagby in Midtown? is there one downtown too?

Oops, sorry... I meant State Bar.http://www.thestatebar.com/