VicMan Posted February 26, 2006 Share Posted February 26, 2006 Downtown needs to get more people living within its bounds.The people of Downtown need some community amenities. Downtown already has a YMCA and a Library.A few other things:* A county-owned community center (think Bayland Park or Tracy Gee)* A K-8 public school for Downtown residents and magnet students (9-12 students should be rezoned to Lamar HS)Are there any other community buildings that should be built? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ V Lawrence Posted February 26, 2006 Share Posted February 26, 2006 Downtown needs to get more people living within its bounds.The people of Downtown need some community amenities. Downtown already has a YMCA and a Library.A few other things:* A county-owned community center (think Bayland Park or Tracy Gee)* A K-8 public school for Downtown residents and magnet students (9-12 students should be rezoned to Lamar HS)Are there any other community buildings that should be built?An urban supermarket? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VicMan Posted February 26, 2006 Author Share Posted February 26, 2006 Oh, that too - Whole Foods could move in. Barnes and Noble could establish a Downtown branch too. Downtown needs more "neighborhood"-oriented businesses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Its easy to say what we want...but it would be far more enlightening if someone would suggest how we should go about getting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Its easy to say what we want...but it would be far more enlightening if someone would suggest how we should go about getting it.You can't say how you are going to get something until you know what you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VicMan Posted March 1, 2006 Author Share Posted March 1, 2006 Its easy to say what we want...but it would be far more enlightening if someone would suggest how we should go about getting it.How to get the school:See if spaces in HISD magnet schools are running low. If they are, one could suggest to HISD to build a new magnet K-8 in Downtown - The magnet school could also function as a neighborhood school.And as for rezoning to Lamar - Get Downtown residents to petition for Lamar zoning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 You can't say how you are going to get something until you know what you want.Perhaps, but so many of the ideas I hear on this board are recycled time and time again. Some of them, like arranging to have a magnet school downtown or to have downtown rezoned into another high school, may be relatively attainable. But most of the projects suggested are infeasible assuming market-rate economics are in play.What I want to see more from these boards are some folks that are visionaries, but who can back up their visions with realistic means to the ends. Sometimes that means altering the plan a little bit...tweaking it to make it work.Take the Envision Houston events that were held last year to try and set development goals for the region. It was such a joke because people were directly instructed not to consider intraregional conflicts of interest, city/county regulations within various jurisdictions, etc. HGAC is doing a better job at forecasting the future growth of the region, and that's a sorry thing to have to say. There's got to be some middle ground in urban planning, one that is rigorous enough to be valid in politically-fractured market-rate conditions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 I just want a fancy office supply store.Then I'd be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeebus Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 I just want a fancy office supply store.Then I'd be happy.It would be nice to actually have a Staples to go with all those damn "easy button" Staples commercials I have to watch every night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Original Timmy Chan's Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 I would like to see a medical marijuana co-op in downtown Houston...of course, that'll take a statewide referendum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 one of them two story targets would be cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VicMan Posted March 4, 2006 Author Share Posted March 4, 2006 one of them two story targets would be coolWell, there's already the Sawyer Heights Target going up in the Heights area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Yeah, but a Target would be great downtown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VicMan Posted March 4, 2006 Author Share Posted March 4, 2006 Yeah, but a Target would be great downtown.If we could get a lot of residents in Downtown in the future, a two story could be built in Downtown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 A downtown Target would also serve people on the East side, which is currently under-retailed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaphod Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 plus dont those urban stores have more stuff than regular targets(just making an assumption, maybe they are the same size just on 2 floors...)Of course, arent there other areas that could have a 2 story target too? there are supposed to be like 30 of them in the US, eventually houston or dallas or maybe austin will get one.Anyways, the sawyer heights target is just a regular one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 A downtown Target would also serve people on the East side, which is currently under-retailed.Its also under-populated with the households that fit Target's customer base.Actually, Wal-Mart would do extremely well if it could find a large block of land, perhaps in one of the East End's industrial districts, and set up shop either there, in the 5th Ward, or in the Near Northside. Those folks are less enthusiastic about Target coming inside the loop than they would be about Wal-Mart. In fact, if you ask a poor hispanic family in these Inner Loop areas what kinds of shops are missing in their neighborhoods, the overwhelming majority (over 70%) will reply 'Wal-Mart'. You outght to try it...the response will amaze you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverartfox Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 In the short time I've been living in the East End I've run into my neighbors while shopping at WalMart, Sam's Club, Target, PetsMart and JC Penney. We all have the same complaint: having to drive too far to shop at these stores. The Hispanic market in Houston seems to have been stereotyped and overlooked by a number of the larger retail chains, including grocery stores. A case in point: the small, dirty Kroger store on Polk Street. We don't always shop at the corner store or the flea market! Retailers take note: we're here and we've got money to spend, so give us some good stores close by where we can shop! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 In the short time I've been living in the East End I've run into my neighbors while shopping at WalMart, Sam's Club, Target, PetsMart and JC Penney. We all have the same complaint: having to drive too far to shop at these stores. The Hispanic market in Houston seems to have been stereotyped and overlooked by a number of the larger retail chains, including grocery stores. A case in point: the small, dirty Kroger store on Polk Street. We don't always shop at the corner store or the flea market! Retailers take note: we're here and we've got money to spend, so give us some good stores close by where we can shop!I don't mean to stereotype. I discovered this overwhelming trend while doing some consumer research in nearby and demographically identical areas. It may not even be racially-influenced so much as influenced by income, but I didn't have a significant sample of non-hispanic respondents, so I hate to apply the knowledge to all poor folks in general. And I'm not saying that relatively poor hispanics will never shop in stores oriented more toward middle-class consumers, but the question posed was "What kind of shops would you like to see open in your neighborhood?", and Wal-Mart was overwhelmingly cited.Its not that low-income areas are overlooked by higher-quality retailers or that capital improvements are just accidentally not made to stores in areas that aren't high-profile. Retailers, especially grocers, work off of extremely low operating margins, and they do look at all neighborhoods, but very few can meet the objective criteria necessary to justify a massive capital investment.I'm curious, by the way: what part of the East End do you live in and what are your impressions of it as a resident? There's something about the geography of the area that draws me to it...can't say why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 I don't think the lack of retail is a racial thing. It's not just the East End, almost all inside the loop, except for close to the Galleria, is lacking in significant retail. A Target or Walmart downtown wouldn't just be for the east side, it would also be great for the Heights, Montrose, 3rd Ward, etc. There Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h-townsfinest Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 you know, i think thats what its been, a lack of community stores, like a target, a grocery store, a school, i mean things people need, i dont really think suburbs has anything to do with it, its what those suburbs have that downtown doesnt, downtowns great if u wanna take out family and have a good time, but to live you just cant do it really, u have to go out of your way to find these sorts of businesses and once downtown does establish such businesses, you wont find many people there, i mean throw in things people need along with all these great projects, pavilions, the new city park, all our great arenas, etc. etc. and you have a thriving downtownwow i never really realized it until subdude posted that last comment, what would a wal mart do not only for downtown but for a lot of the cities core, i never realized how much the inner loop doesnt have and how much our suburbs do have, wow quite interesting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonPhish Posted March 24, 2006 Share Posted March 24, 2006 A Target and a Wal-Mart downtown? Right, that is just what we need. We can put in Chuck E Cheese right next to them. Maybe next to that we can add a strip center with a Starbuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted March 24, 2006 Share Posted March 24, 2006 its what those suburbs have that downtown doesnt, downtowns great if u wanna take out family and have a good time, but to live you just cant do it really, u have to go out of your way to find these sorts of businesses and once downtown does establish such businesses, you wont find many people therewow i never really realized it until subdude posted that last comment, what would a wal mart do not only for downtown but for a lot of the cities core, i never realized how much the inner loop doesnt have and how much our suburbs do have, wow quite interesting uhh...geez i'll have to go along the lines of dragon's sentiments and you're right, downtown isn't like the suburbs...thank goodness. and the "inner loop" can't be equated with downtown Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonPhish Posted March 24, 2006 Share Posted March 24, 2006 What I would really like is a small urban grocery within walking distance and for the CVS to stay open later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elecpharm Posted March 24, 2006 Share Posted March 24, 2006 'one stop shopping' seems to be the catch phrase.instead of multiple stops at different stores, ie: cvs for your toothpaste and shampoo, foleys for towels and cologne and randalls for grocery items, people have become accustomed to having everything under one roof in the form of a super walmart or super target. thus the strong desire for many to have one downtown.that being said, i'd still prefer a grocery store and some type of electronics store in the form of a circuit city or comp usa. although sears is a short distance away via the light-rail, their electronics selection is limited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h-townsfinest Posted March 25, 2006 Share Posted March 25, 2006 oh and thanx God we arent the suburbs, i agree, i just feel when people get accustomed to certain way of establishing retail, such as a big wal-mart that everyone gos too for everything, they want to see that everywhere because they are used to it, but id way rather have different stores for different things, like elecpharm said, a grocery stoore here, an electronics store there, and its happening that way, i mean when CVS first opened up i was happy, because downtown needs more community businesses, and im just saying, but dont u hate when people bash the downtown Foleys, i went there a while back and was quite impressed, its a normal foleys, not some suburban tidy whitey lokin place, lol, but a real city style store Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalparadise Posted March 25, 2006 Share Posted March 25, 2006 The biggest problem with establishing some legitimate (non Wal-Mart) retail in Downtown is number of residents. while there may be 200,000 people there from 9-5 M-F, there are only, what, 5000 people living in Downtown full-time? How many cities of 5000 people do you know that can support the kind of day-to-day retail we all claim to want?Instead, Downtown, because of a lack of residents must look to destination-type retail and entertainment/service businesses that draw people from elsewhere in the city. The problem with that is, the people Downtown draws to unique bars, restaurants and such already have good retail options close to their home. So, there's no real reason to go Downtown for another Banana Republic, or or some of the other things I've heard people wish for in the past. Yes, something like a Whole Foods or Eatzi's might be really nice for Downtown, but would be financial suicide for either company. Those kinds of places rely on the kind of traffic in one day that Downtown might offer in a week or two, just to survive.It all boils down to the old urbinization catch-22: you won't get residents without retail and significant retail won't happen without the critical mass of residents. That's why someone needs to bite the bullet and offer a flood of average-priced housing options in Downtown (say, $150K-$250K). It would be a gamble, but it might work to build up the numbers enough to entice some retail to take the plunge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h-townsfinest Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 yea thats true, we need more residential, get more people living downtown, now jumping to thw whole wal-mart topic, in case you didnt know wal mart can build up not just out, if your thinking i want some huge suburban style wal mart in the middle of the city, well ya wrong, if ya look at new york, you can find a target or a wal mart in any of those high rises, but i still understand what ya mean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston1stWordOnTheMoon Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 The housing prices are a little high for the area.....if they were to lower the prices, im sure there would be a flood of new residents in the downtown/midtown area Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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