Peeping Tom

More like 7 times as big. Discovery Green is 12 acres to Main Street Garden's 1.7 acres. MSG is roughly the size of Market Square. And, it has been open less than a month, so the claim that it has changed east downtown overnight is probably a bit premature.

But, it has been called Dallas' "swankiest park", so I suppose that must count for something. And, they did get rid of a parking garage to build it, so it should get 2 thumbs up from us Houstonians for that alone.

I've driven by Main Street Gardens several times. You can barely notice it. It is very small. I can't speak to the swankiness because I have never walked around. But I can tell you the part of DT Dallas that it is located feels dead to me. There is some large abandoned Mid Century hotel (with a lot of potential) that is right next to it. And lots of homeless people in the area.

I'm sure the Woodall Rodgers Freeway Park will be better situated given it's proximity to the Arts District. But that is also several times smaller than DiscoGreen.

I agree that some of those projects I listed are just announcements and renovations, but I wanted to throw them out there for updates. Compared to a lot of areas in Dallas (and around the country), downtown is doing OK and the area hasn't been completely abandoned by developers. The City is trying to keep recent momentum going, despite the setbacks, to hopefully produce a more vibrant, livable downtown. The sum of all of these various renovations and "small" projects is greater than one or two new buildings that contribute nothing to the urban environment. The new Main Street Garden has changed the east end of downtown overnight, bringing families and downtown residents to an area that was previously desolate. Much like Discovery Green has done for downtown Houston, these new parks are going to change the perception of downtown Dallas.

Downtown is headed in the right direction and we've come a long way in just the past few years. But there are still a lot of transit gaps and underutilized structures in the business district. The new Downtown Dallas 360 Plan is going to merge all previous area plans into one strategic map for development. It includes connecting the disjointed districts with streetcars and sustainable development; creating affordable urban housing options; and expanding and promoting the area's identity. The slowdown in the economy may be the perfect opportunity to reevaluate the area's potential and wisely plan for the future. And until private developers start back with their plans (Victory Park included), the City and cultural institutions will keep up the pace.

Therefore, I'll keep posting about little things that may seem meaningless to readers 250 miles away but add up to big improvements for downtown Dallas. I think Houston and Dallas can learn a lot from each other's small and large scale urban development. Though we both have pride in our respective cities, we're not all that different.

There is no way the Main Street Gardens has made as big of an impact to Dallas as Discovery Green did for Houston. Discovery Green helped to spawn 3 high rise towers and is at least 3 times as big as MSG.

The Dallas Hype Machine isn't working.

I see the mod chose to allow Dallasboi's Houston bashing thread to remain while deleting all other responses to it. Post 154 is an opinion which is as non Dallas specific as the one's you chose to delete (not to mention flaming, inaccurate and barely readable) . Yet it survives another round of censorship.

So I guess it is o.k. to post whatever negative remark about Houston you want to on this thread, but not o.k. for anyone to respond. Maybe we should start calling this site DAIF or DAF for short.

This place, like the astros, is too far out to make a difference.

So are you.

SSC here we come. Seriously, could you guys give it a rest.

Yeah Spider, listen to Gary. Give it a rest and shut up already. If you can't offer anything constructive to the conversation or to the promotion of Houston you should just tune in and drop out.

We don't need your stinking negativity! You aren't part of the solution. You're part of the problem.

The ones thinking the Dome should be a movie studio are the ones that are high.

Yea.. people from all over the world will come here... to ... what... stand behind a glass wall and watch a movie being made?

I've lived here all my life... Houston is not some "georgeous" city.... it was "georgeous" decades ago before they knocked down 90% of the buildings, built a bunch of boxes and cardboard strip centers every block, became a homeland for 90% of foreigners coming from south of the border, and every neighborhood from those days became a hood.

Compared to 1975... I'd say Houston is pretty damn fugly.

I take it back. Go find yourself some maryjane quick! It sounds like you need it, bro.

TOP 10 USES FOR THE ASTRODOME

1. Grow House (largest indoor grow house in the world... can tour and test like the Budweiser plant too)

2. Amatuer Porn Movie Studio (come on baby... let's go film a home movie...)

3. Internet Porn Studio (always wanted to start my own internet porn site)

4. Missile Silo

5. Future Home of the Houston Moose Knucklers (after the expansion of the Lingerie Football League)

6. Five Star Dome (how many full size restaurants could fit in there? visualize the TOP 100 five stars in there.. TOP 200?)

7. Food Court Dome (you got it... the largest congregation of fast food restaurants under one roof in the WORLD)

8. Children's Museum (largest on planet earth)

9. Energy Trading Dome

10. Casino

Just kinda popped in my head you know.....

I think you ought to give the maryjane a rest.

Despite the obstacles, at least the hotel and movie studio ideas could really be beneficial to Houston at some point. And if not, at least we could say we gave it a shot. The Astrodome deserves better than to have its destruction come about because some pot head wants to take the easy way out (typical behavior).

I can predict the future as well as those who are predicting movies will be made in the Astrodome.

I predict you will live an extremely empty, dull life with that attitude.

I say we should only melt it down and blow it up if we can round up all the nay sayers, people with no imagination or vision, Houston haters and all the rest of the losers who would try to stop progress from coming to Houston because they are incapable of 'thinking big' or don't have the balls to take a chance on something that really could turn out to be huge for the local economy.

The only "movie studio" concept that could work out in the Astrodome would be if the porn industry wanted to move from Southern California.

I say we turn it into a Coliseum of sorts... for criminals.... Gladiator Dome.

Like you can predict the future. You don't know what you are talking about. On the other hand, it wouldn't take a lot of modifications to the Astrodome to make it look like a giant boob. The Astrodome would be a great capitol for the porn industry. They could rename it the Assholedome.

Yea... I'm sure the Hollywood foke would love to come to Houston to film. I mean, the scenery, history and weather in Houston is something every American should experience at some point in their life. Can you imagine Angelina Jolie down here filming a movie... she can take some "getaway time" and head down to the beaches in Galveston.

The weather in Houston is perfect -inside the dome. Anyway if Houston is good enough for the rest of the nation to seek their fortunes, it should be good enough for ugly lipped weirdos like Angelina Jolie.

I think the idea of this would not be to blow either Austin or Dallas out of the water, but to work with those cities.

I think we should do both. Work with them at first. And then stab them in the back, gloat and ridicule them when Houston becomes the Hollywood of Texas.

It's the Texas way! There's no room for #2 in this land.