Midtown Christmas Wish List

[Chi-Char-Hou-Dal]

Forum is light on updates today. Thought I would propose my top 5 Midtown Wish List. See what everyone else thought.

1. Demolish Central Bank Building replace it with...

2. Relocate Greyhound Station

3. High Rise Condo Building

4. Wave a wand and have that Camden Park tomorrow

5. Better help the homeless on the East Side of the tracks under the bridge. Since it's a wish list I can say this with hopefully little backlash.

[ToryGattis]

How about no more of this? I've always thought of the Midtown homeless as relatively harmless, but this is very concerning...

http://www.click2houston.com/news/Randalls-employee-stabbed-outside-Midtown-store/-/1735978/17813876/-/lqilf2z/-/index.html

Randalls employee stabbed outside Midtown store

Homeless man arrested after stabbing

Published On: Dec 18 2012 06:56:42 AM CST

HOUSTON -

Houston Police are trying to figure out why a man stabbed a Randalls employee in Midtown.

The employee was in the parking lot of the grocery store on the 2200 block of Louisiana St. when investigators said a homeless man approached him around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Witnesses on the scene said the two men argued, and that's when the homeless man stabbed the employee two times.

The victim is in stable condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital.

The suspect was arrested and the weapon was recovered.

Charges are pending.

[Purdueenginerd]

oof. 330AM stabbing.

More street retail, more walkability, Less development with suburban architecture (Im looking at you CVS/Walgreens, Capitol one bank, and stripmalls). Move the greyhound buss station or clean it up.

[brian0123]

1. Renovate Central Square building (condos w/ retail on ground floor facing Gray).

2. 3bed/2bath housing options in either 1 or 2 story configurations (either condo or TH) w/ a little private yard/balcony space. No more three to four story TH's.

3. Realization from a lot of original land owners that their land is not Midtown Manhattan... so sell it at Houston prices or stop sitting on an empty lot or nasty building thinking it will be worth tens of millions a couple years from now. I think this is one of the biggest problems Midtown now has. Empty lots held a long time by original owners who don't want to sell yet (or are but are asking way too much). They are all playing the waiting game for their values to skyrocket, but they are all holding themselves back in the process.

4. The city cracks down on Greyhound for operating a nuissance business so they sue to shut them down (or Greyhound is forced to add a security guard on every corner within a four block radius).

5. A good, locally owned donut shop.

[Nole23]

1) More Mixed-Use development/Less strip malls

2) Speed up the development of the Alamo Drafthouse

3) Scout square development across from Blackfinn to open the restaraunts/bars that were mentioned a while ago.

4) Grayhound station moves

5) Did I mention more mixed-use?

[houstonartstudent]

Convert the two blocks North of Elgin at Main into a CityTarget and another retailer or two (perhaps a Marshall's or Aldi Grocery)...with free parking validation as long as you purchase something from one of the stores to encourage the downtown/med center commuter crowd to stop by before or after work.

http://maps.google.com/?ll=29.741613,-95.377007&spn=0.001039,0.001127&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=29.741613,-95.377007&panoid=NyjZ1vDbaoyUdZmIBzYV5Q&cbp=12,66.2,,0,-2.46

http://www.accessoriesmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/city-target.jpg

[Fortune]

Residential high rises with retail on the bottom floors in Midtown instead of blocks of town homes and suburban strip centers.

[rci2145]

Remove Greyhound and the Light Rail. Will never happen but would solve a ton if problems.

[barracuda]

Residential high rises with retail on the bottom floors in Midtown instead of blocks of town homes and suburban strip centers.

I sometimes wonder about the lifespan of town home complexes in Midtown. They barely appreciate in value, and in some cases, like the one I sold awhile back, they depreciate. I suspect that in time, some of the complexes will be demolished for higher density development...but the question is when.

[Fortune]

I sometimes wonder about the lifespan of town home complexes in Midtown. They barely appreciate in value, and in some cases, like the one I sold awhile back, they depreciate. I suspect that in time, some of the complexes will be demolished for higher density development...but the question is when.

Not soon enough.

[kbates2]

I thought the homeless were not a problem?

[TGM]

How about no more of this? I've always thought of the Midtown homeless as relatively harmless, but this is very concerning...

Depends. Mental illness brings a whole new level of volatility to the equation. Since most of us are not adept at performing a 5 second once over to determine someone's mental state, I think it's best to be overly cautious if the person appears overly agitated or aggressive.

The issue is that since Midtown is known as a social-service hub/destination/whatever if someone is off their meds they're now in a high-density area compared to what it was 20 years ago. In the time that we lived in Midtown we phoned in 4 instances of people walking or sitting naked in the middle of the street. In one case this was on Smith near Spec's during 5pm traffic. Not good.

Glad to be gone.

[jgriff]

I had a homeless guy down there tell me he was going to kill me if I didn't give him my shoes. Fortunately he was too wasted to follow through on the threat. I see him all the time, sometimes with shoes sometimes without. It seems like he just can't keep them on his feet.

[TGM]

I had a homeless guy down there tell me he was going to kill me if I didn't give him my shoes. Fortunately he was too wasted to follow through on the threat. I see him all the time, sometimes with shoes sometimes without. It seems like he just can't keep them on his feet.

Lol.

So years ago I had a pair of cushioned Nike sandals that stunk to high heavens. My wife made a comment when we were out with a bunch of people and I while I was waiting for the Elgin at Fannin light to change. I took them off and left them in the middle of the road near CVS. We drove by an hour later and they were still there. The next day I found them abandoned on the sidewalk near the Valero station. I guess they really were that bad.

[RedScare]

I only opened this thread to see how quickly the homeless were brought up. It did not disappoint. Hard to get sooner than post #1.

Carry on.

[TGM]

I only opened this thread to see how quickly the homeless were brought up. It did not disappoint.

Consider it a stocking-stuffer.

Rumour has it that the homeless are trying to get the Pierce Elevated declared a Historic District.

[KinkaidAlum]

Lol.

So years ago I had a pair of cushioned Nike sandals that stunk to high heavens. My wife made a comment when we were out with a bunch of people and I while I was waiting for the Elgin at Fannin light to change. I took them off and left them in the middle of the road near CVS. We drove by an hour later and they were still there. The next day I found them abandoned on the sidewalk near the Valero station. I guess they really were that bad.

1) Less people who apparently proudly litter while waiting at a stop light.

2) A new, modern, glass and steel 15-20 story residential tower built near Baldwin Park that would offer amazing views of Downtown, TMC, and Galleria/Greenway to the West.

[Chi-Char-Hou-Dal]

Residential tower on Baldwin Park would be really cool.

Insert right here http://goo.gl/maps/Zf2Oi

[brian0123]

I sometimes wonder about the lifespan of town home complexes in Midtown. They barely appreciate in value, and in some cases, like the one I sold awhile back, they depreciate. I suspect that in time, some of the complexes will be demolished for higher density development...but the question is when.

Considering Downtown proper still has tons of empty blocks to be filled, I would imagine it will take another 60 years before anything like that will happen to a lot in Midtown owned by many different owners. I used to own a TH near Baldwin Park as well, but I think they make sense for the area.

[TGM]

1) Less people who apparently proudly litter while waiting at a stop light.

Littering? Nah, that was recycling. Somewhere in midtown there is a guy or large-footed gal walking a mile in my sandals.

[rci2145]

I sometimes wonder about the lifespan of town home complexes in Midtown. They barely appreciate in value, and in some cases, like the one I sold awhile back, they depreciate. I suspect that in time, some of the complexes will be demolished for higher density development...but the question is when.

[samagon]

Depends. Mental illness brings a whole new level of volatility to the equation. Since most of us are not adept at performing a 5 second once over to determine someone's mental state, I think it's best to be overly cautious if the person appears overly agitated or aggressive.

The issue is that since Midtown is known as a social-service hub/destination/whatever if someone is off their meds they're now in a high-density area compared to what it was 20 years ago. In the time that we lived in Midtown we phoned in 4 instances of people walking or sitting naked in the middle of the street. In one case this was on Smith near Spec's during 5pm traffic. Not good.

Glad to be gone.

I read the article, because I shop at that Randalls regularly, not at 3:30am, but no matter the time of day, there's a homeless person in the parking lot, no matter their security guard who is usually inside doing something other than shooing the vagrants away.

Anyway, the way the story I read went was that the two workers had talked with the guy, then asked him to leave, he was leaving, but was also insulting one of the guys that worked there, and the guy that got stabbed took exception to the words and confronted the homeless dude, and got stitches for it.

I'm not saying that the homeless dude isn't guilty of stabbing the guy that worked at Randalls, but the guy that worked there is certainly guilty of not having enough common sense (or maybe too much pride) to ignore the comments, if that's really what happened.

edit: I'm guessing though that the security guard will be doing his job attentively for the next few months at least and keeping people from loitering in the parking lot.

[brian0123]

This was always a fear of mine. Last year a homeless guy approached me at the gas station across from Randalls while I was pumping. He was aggresive, mean, "You got money, I want money, I know you have some, just a dollar " etc... I was polite, told him I only give to organizations like Search and to have a good day. As I got into my car he rounded my vehicle fast and started to get up behind me (almost getting into the car). Despite all sound logic I lost it and went off on him in a tirade of "back the ___ up mother ___ don't try to get in my car etc. etc." as I rushed back at him. He got scared and jumped back, started yelling about praising Jesus, and after I jumped in my car and locked the door he got in my window and started yelling how he'd beat me (I called HPD right away). Needless to say, if the Randall's employee did do something similar... I can totally see where he might have been coming from especially when your adrenaline kicks in. I've dealt with plenty of guys w/out incident and just brush off anything they say... but if someone is overly aggressive and you tell them to back off out of self defense, it's a different story. The guy I dealt with was all big and bad until confronted. He only had confidence once my back was turned or I was in locked in my car. Sounds like this guy at Randall's was similar.

[Purdueenginerd]

I had a similar run in not long after I moved down here. I was getting home late from a wedding and I had a suit on. Homeless guy asked me for money. I stated I didnt have any on me and I apologized. He cut me off as I tried to walk by him 4 times in a row saying, "cmon man, cmon, I know you have some!"

I lost it the 4th one. Reaction was similar to yours Brian... "Back Off ***ker!" I jogged away, but he followed me for a few more minutes before I cut inside Russo's New York Pizza on grey. I probably should tone it down in the future

[west20th]

I had a similar run in not long after I moved down here. I was getting home late from a wedding and I had a suit on. Homeless guy asked me for money. I stated I didnt have any on me and I apologized. He cut me off as I tried to walk by him 4 times in a row saying, "cmon man, cmon, I know you have some!"

I lost it the 4th one. Reaction was similar to yours Brian... "Back Off ***ker!" I jogged away, but he followed me for a few more minutes before I cut inside Russo's New York Pizza on grey. I probably should tone it down in the future

Not sure this would work, just my opinion. Say nothing and keep on walking. You don't owe an explanation or an apology. If you acknowledge a panhandler they may think they still have a shot at getting some money from you.

[brian0123]

Not sure this would work, just my opinion. Say nothing and keep on walking. You don't owe an explanation or an apology. If you acknowledge a panhandler they may think they still have a shot at getting some money from you.

That's usually what I do and it works great. It only fails when pumping gas and they start knocking on your car.

[Ross]

I was in the Chevron station in Midtown one time when a guy came in and got all aggressive with the clerk. The clerk wasn't having any of it, and told the guy to leave. When the guy didn't leave, the clerk grabbed a bat from under the counter and whacked the guy in the ribs a few times, and then said the knees were next. The aggressive guy left shouting threats. That was the sort of thing that made us think moving to Timbergrove to raise our child was a good idea.

[Nole23]

ok enough about homeless people, they're in every major city. Back to Christmas wish lists lol...

[Andrew Broadfoot]

My Christmas wish is to find where that old shoe store was I would go to when I was a young kid. I think it was called Mr. Lippy's? And I believe it might have been somewhere in South Houston.

[Slick Vik]

I was in the Chevron station in Midtown one time when a guy came in and got all aggressive with the clerk. The clerk wasn't having any of it, and told the guy to leave. When the guy didn't leave, the clerk grabbed a bat from under the counter and whacked the guy in the ribs a few times, and then said the knees were next. The aggressive guy left shouting threats. That was the sort of thing that made us think moving to Timbergrove to raise our child was a good idea.

Sheltering kids might not have the intended effect