Houston's Correct Design

[Guest Plastic]

We here in the 21st Century are trying to decide what should go here and there for Houston. Houston has been around for 170 years. By now you'd think we'd have some sorts of plans for traffic, transportation and our innercity. But however we still don't.

What I want to talk about is what direction Houston have gone in. WHy are we on the road we're on now. If I can clock back Houston should have be look harder into around the 1940s. It couold hav been as early as the 30s. This(the 40s) is when I'm guessing Houston started to first grow out.People started leaving inner communities and going out. This depends on when you think the original Houston ended and sprawl started.

A wide range could be anywhere from the 20s to the 50s.

Whenever it started people should have started looking after this city. "More people are moving out,outer thourroughfares are getting higher usage,businesses are moving out, Downtown is becoming vacant,we need a civic square, and we someday are gonna need rail." somebody should have thought.

On the last one Houston was the spot of the first rail. Well while we had streetcars in mean monorail. SOmetime ago the first monorail was built in Houston as an expermental line along the Gulf Freeway. This is the route people thought was going to becoming Westheimer or The Southwest Fwy.

WHile Houston's population's boomed planning hasn't. The only reason we saw building and people Downtown was the oil companies that hit record highs in The 70s and 80s. One of the biggest projects that I see as a failure is the attempt to revitalze DOwntown. City Centers are some thing that grow gradually over time. YOu just can't flop down a schematic and say I'm going to shoot miracle grow into Downtown. WHa they ar eplanning is a big problem. 50,000 people (The population of COnroe) are planned to be moved into Downtown. Thi s disaster is going to be increasesd 5 folds by the lack of shopping,eating, and transportation Downtown. I used to complain that we had only 2 McDonalds Downtown .........well now there's only 1 excluding ones in the tunnels. This is bad when a place lik New York has a Mcy D's ever 3 blocks.

I'm just opposed to Downtown revitilazation. Houston has been and will likely always be a spread city with automobiles. We'd have to have a serious train system ,and Gran Central Station up as soon as we moved 50,000 residents Downtown. DOwntown doesn't need this revitilazation of Arenas ad stadiums. It need a gentler one that should have been inplace 40 years ago. The work need sot be done in shops,eateries, sidewalk entertainment. Oh and for the love of good put some restrooms by the bus stops. We ought to atleast have some on or near the train stations. I would be pushing it asking for ATMA but other places have places you can park your car along train routes. WHat I'm saying is we shoud lay off the sporting venues, the should have been built al ong time ago,don't move so many people in, and concentrate on small shops and eateries.

Although I don't liek it Main street is sort of an idea witht he clubs and bars. Only thing is that's about it. There's still nothing else on it besides a couple resteraunts, Macy's and The University of Houston. The star of building a DOwntown or a city for that matter is a central sqaure. Like TIme's Sqaure, shops and eateries will build around it, the large volume of traffic will require a large transit station, peole will want to move and work near it, and wallah you've got the start of a city.

I still think Houston's gonna need a big airport in the next 20 to 40 years. If we want to become a big international city that hosts The Olympics we needa big named airport like LAX,JFK,or O'hare. Why Houston has no major attractions or events I don't know. And for the love of GOd, please connect rails to The airports!!!!! T he few mircales Houston has worked on are The HOW lanes,feeder roads, and loop highways. We leand the country on those things. One thing that plagues us is that Houston is not a 24 hours city. Other cities like LA< New York, CHicago, and DC are 24 hour fun spots. All things are going on in the middle of the night. Shopping, movie theaters, and of course tranport. Houston I must say has let us down on that one.

Not only do we need a city sqaure we need smaller sqaures. SPread all over the town we could have 3 or 4 in each subdivision and 10 or 11 major ones around Housotn i places liek Greenspoint,TOwn&Country, The Galleria, Sugarland, Katy, Clearlake, Willowbrook, and The Woodlands. We kind of have this with our shopping centers and malls, but they are not true public places with all sorts of things 24 hours a day. We'll truely have Houston developed when we see people walkign around in places for no reason. We also need more big companies. While we have mroe FOrtune 500 companies in Texas than in New York they're mostly oil. Outside of oil, Continetal Airlines,and the former Compaq, one of Houston's biggest companies is Sysco

................a trash managment company :-( . The probelm is we don't have the major things, then we can get the ball rolling. Although we have Science,and Engineering without oil Houston is nada.

If we start(ed) the ball rollign with major plans, rail and a town sqaure other people would come along and want to improve on that. We could have mroe events in town. The SUperbowl, NBA&MLB Allstar games, finals,and Essence Festival wouldn't be all that's coming to town. Outside of the the biggest events are The Souther Baptist Convention,Offshore oil convention, and Rodeo Houston. I wanna see DIck Clark drop the ball in Houston for once.

No ones happy ,excited to be in their town. There's no Houston spirit. WHat's the Houston way? What's our style? What kinds of music came from Houston(not artists)? What's a Houston styled resteraunt? WHat the style of clothes that originated rom Houston? What's Houston styled pizaa pie? When am I gonne see Larry King, Tom Brookaw, Peter Jennings, Oprah Winfrey, or Montel Williams sign off from Houston? I wanna hear"Hi I'm Charles Gibson, I'm talking to you from Lonestar Sqaure in Houston Texas and this is Good morning America!". I wanna see trailer park trash fight it out on a Jerry Springer styles talkshow. I wanna see over exploited teen cream their lungs out on TRL in Houston. I would fall out if we ever got the Disneyworld. When am I gonne see movies set in Houston. When are people gonna look at movies and say, "Yeah that's that big landmark in Houston."? We could start it out by having awards shows in our city.

The Grammy's/ AMA's,Mtv VMAs,Billboard Music, andAcademy awards are all something that could greatly benifit Houston. Recall all the oarties and non superbowl events that happened during the Superbowl........and that was just a ball game.

I can't put my hand on it btu hot town are hotbeds for smart people. The usually have lots of higher institutions,sohisticated corportations, group conventions, and company seminars in their towns. We do have quite an engineering program at U of H and the IV Leagelike Rice University but still Houston isn't thought of as a Harvardish town. Have we ever had any models walk the runway in Houston? How many major record companies and studios are based in Houston?We we have groups and companies having their functions in Housotn people will just come to the town for the hell of it. People would just walk aroudn our town and say I love Houston. Besides oil, the ship channel, and NASA the only other reason people have to come to Houston is to have their surgery done at The Medical Center.But now thee's no reason to talk about Houston. I want to see rockets launched out of Houston. We have no particle accelerators in Houston.We need people to make speeches in HOuston. No sunny weather, no grea vistas or panramas, no music scenes, no archetecture. I mean, how many songs have we heard about Houston. I've heard New York New York, and I left my heart in San Fransisco but they only song I've ever heard about Houston was a Country Western song. Why aren't there any military bases? And for Christ's sake fix the radio!!!!!! We need people to marvel at our streets in Houston. Everybody's heard of Rodeo, SUnset,5th Avenue, Madison Ave, Ocean Drive, The Washington Mall, and The Las Vegas Strip. When are people gonna talk about Westheimer andd FM 1960? I want people to say I love Houston, they get things done there, nobody doesi t liek Houston.

What I'm saying is what are we known for. Before the Superbowl the only reason people had to talk about Houston was the cock roaches.,

[DaTrain]

Once Houston is spread out, it'll never go back. Nuff said, good day. Houston did have movies set here, you are too lazy to look (Urban Cowboy, Jason's Lyric.) HOW lanes????? I'd comment more, but I'll come back later and sift thru the misspellings.

[musicman]

Don't take this the wrong way but i have to ask this question. How old are you?

[Guest Plastic]

29.00

[webdude]

A rant but a very passionate one.

Can be summarize into:

When will houston get some respect, so that we citizens can get some self esteem.

Edited November 1, 2006 by webdude

[Houston1stWordOnTheMoon]

29.

You are an old man Plastic. I will lend you my walker sometime

I dont get why you dont like the dwntwn revitalization. It is the Central Business District and i would like to see it grow and become a much more attractive place for businesses and residences alike. i think a key to that would be some sort of rental discounts and tax breaks.

[musicman]

29.

thx. Question #2: Do you know Bobby Brown personally?

[Gary]

Earth calling Plastic, Come in Plastic.

[RedScare]

Umm......Sysco is a food products company.

Waste Management is the trash company.

Both are the largest companies in their sector.

I reject your conclusions about Houston, but I have neither the desire nor need to explain why. I'll leave that to you to figure out. I know why I like it, and I do not particularly care why you and others do not.

Edited November 1, 2006 by RedScare

[nmainguy]

I don't know plastique. Mission Control, the TMC with world class medical care, the second highest number of Fortune 500 companies in the US, Rice, UH, the second highest number of theatre seats in a US downtown, world class museums and architecture, theatre, opera, symphony and ballet-but that's just window dressing, right? Houston really sucks. But what's worse is we are building a huge downtown park, a 3 block long multi-use center on Main, a revitalized Buffalo Bayou, new world-class cancer treatment and rehab facilities in the TMC, core neighborhood centers for latch-key kids, a new DT cathedral with expanded programs for inner city kids and single moms with AIDS, revitalized inner-city neighborhoods, major league sports teams to rival the Arlington Rangers and Irving Cowboys and a world class port. I know there are other negatives I've missed but I'm betting others here can fill in the blanks.

Seriously though, we have so much going on we're too busy to compare ourselves to other places. If you want runway models then you need to look elsewhere. If you want to live among an eclectic population that is secure in itself while being open to new things, then hang around. I'll be glad to give you a tour.

Edited November 1, 2006 by nmainguy

[nmm]

Houston is a great city to live in. Cheap and affordable. You dont have to work 65 hours a week for a 2 bedroom house.

But its not a touristy town. I mean it offers alot (or tries to) but what it does offer can be found in other big cities as well. NASA is overrated.

I notice, from personal experience, that family guests staying with me appreciate San Antonio/Dallas more then Houston. They dont understand Houston.

I remember one of my Uncles asking me if the Galleria was the 'downtown' of a seperate city.

:Uncle points towards Galleria skyline:

Uncle: So is this Houston's Sister City?

nmm: Uh...no.

I had to explain the no-zoning laws.

But thats what Houston is. Its not Boston or Denver or Seattle or Los Angeles. Its Houston.

[Guest danax]

No ones happy ,excited to be in their town. There's no Houston spirit. WHat's the Houston way? What's our style? What kinds of music came from Houston(not artists)? What's a Houston styled resteraunt? WHat the style of clothes that originated rom Houston? What's Houston styled pizaa pie? When am I gonne see Larry King, Tom Brookaw, Peter Jennings, Oprah Winfrey, or Montel Williams sign off from Houston? I wanna hear"Hi I'm Charles Gibson, I'm talking to you from Lonestar Sqaure in Houston Texas and this is Good morning America!". I wanna see trailer park trash fight it out on a Jerry Springer styles talkshow. I wanna see over exploited teen cream their lungs out on TRL in Houston. I would fall out if we ever got the Disneyworld. When am I gonne see movies set in Houston. When are people gonna look at movies and say, "Yeah that's that big landmark in Houston."? We could start it out by having awards shows in our city.

The Grammy's/ AMA's,Mtv VMAs,Billboard Music, andAcademy awards are all something that could greatly benifit Houston. Recall all the oarties and non superbowl events that happened during the Superbowl........and that was just a ball game.

I

None of that stuff matters to me. I knock Houston too but sometimes we miss what's in front of our face being too busy blaming or comparing. It happens in marriages too.

Slow down the world, turn off the TV and media barrage and drive around, or better yet, take a bus or rail and stand at a few bus stops, like I did today in Rice Military. The place looks nothing like it did even 5 years ago. The Washington area is alive with change, but it's quiet so you must see, you cannot depend on the media to feed you. There is a LOT going on here and, if citizens can't even notice sometimes, how can you expect citizens of other cities to? Don't let the ever-present negative features, that all cities have, cause you to miss the show. Open your eyes and see.

What I see is a city that can be anything it wants to be and can turn on a dime.

[TJones]

How much PURE oxygen do they have you on over at the Coma center Plastic ?

Drop the Times Square Ball in Houston ? WTF ? Is there some OTHER city, that Dick has ever dropped it in ?

Movies ? Reality Bites, I Come in Peace(that should be right up your alley), Armageddon, Tin Cup ?

How come everytime you post something, there are a million and one answers for you ? Yet, you seem to never be able to know any of them before you make these longwinded posts ?

Oprah signed off earlier this year from Houston, when she built those homes for Katrina victims, sorry you missed out on the free car. If you stopped watching shows like Jerry Springer, and read someone else's posts besides your own on here, you would have learned that.

I didn't realize that all you had to do to get an Olympics was have a "name brand" airport. I wonder what the name of Squaw Valley's International Airport is ? When did Chicago host the Olympics ?

I do love reading your stuff though Plastic. Keep up the good work. My ribs hurt in the morning from the giggling, but it is worth it.

[TheNiche]

Movies ? Armageddon?

No kidding. If you watched closely, Armageddon was all about this city. It is a story of how oilmen save the world. We also have the distinction of having got nuked in Independence Day.

[Trae]

Too bad we haven't been mentioned in Jericho.

[Houston1stWordOnTheMoon]

Movies ? Reality Bites, I Come in Peace(that should be right up your alley), Armageddon, Tin Cup ?

Once Bitten, Houston Knights, THEA, RoboCop2

[MiDTOWNeR]

Seriously though, we have so much going on we're too busy to compare ourselves to other places.

OMG, I have heard it all now. I can R.I.P.

[Montrose1100]

So many favorites to choose from...

"Houston has been around for 170 years. By now you'd think we'd have some sorts of plans for traffic, transportation and our innercity. But however we still don't.

"Downtown is becoming vacant"

"Houston was the spot of the first rail"

"SOmetime ago the first monorail was built in Houston as an expermental line along the Gulf Freeway. This is the route people thought was going to becoming Westheimer or The Southwest Fwy."

"The only reason we saw building and people Downtown was the oil companies"

"50,000 people (The population of COnroe) are planned to be moved into Downtown. Thi s disaster"

"we shoud lay off the sporting venues"

"I still think Houston's gonna need a big airport in the next 20 to 40 years. If we want to become a big international city that hosts The Olympics we needa big named airport like LAX,JFK,or O'hare. Why Houston has no major attractions or events I don't know."

"The HOW lanes,feeder roads, and loop highways. We leand the country on those things."

"Outside of the the biggest events are The Souther Baptist Convention,Offshore oil convention, and Rodeo Houston."

"but still Houston isn't thought of as a Harvardish town."

"Besides oil, the ship channel, and NASA the only other reason people have to come to Houston is to have their surgery done at The Medical Center."

", no archetecture."

"When are people gonna talk about Westheimer andd FM 1960?"

"Before the Superbowl the only reason people had to talk about Houston was the cock roaches."

[MiDTOWNeR]

I don't know plastique. Mission Control, the TMC with world class medical care, the second highest number of Fortune 500 companies in the US, Rice, UH, the second highest number of theatre seats in a US downtown, world class museums and architecture, theatre, opera, symphony and ballet-but that's just window dressing, right? Houston really sucks. But what's worse is we are building a huge downtown park, a 3 block long multi-use center on Main, a revitalized Buffalo Bayou, new world-class cancer treatment and rehab facilities in the TMC, core neighborhood centers for latch-key kids, a new DT cathedral with expanded programs for inner city kids and single moms with AIDS, revitalized inner-city neighborhoods, major league sports teams to rival the Arlington Rangers and Irving Cowboys and a world class port. I know there are other negatives I've missed but I'm betting others here can fill in the blanks.

But what about the people. The people are the heart and soul of any town. But no mention of any of them in Houston. interesting.

[TheNiche]

But what about the people. The people are the heart and soul of any town. But no mention of any of them in Houston. interesting.

Famous people from Houston:

Roger Clemens

George Foreman

Molly Ivins

Mike Jones

Nolan Ryan

Vince Young

Walter Cronkite

Carlos Coy (South Park Mexican)

Beyonce Knowles

Lyle Lovett

Dennis & Randy Quaid

Dan Rather

Brent Spiner

Patrick Swayze

Renee Zellweger

Michael Dell

Howard Hughes

Jesse Jones

Red Adair

Joel Osteen

Glenn McCarthy

Tilman Fertitta

I'm sure I've left a number of folks out. And I realize that you were probably referring to Houston's average Joe...but the original poster probably cares more about the famed folks. And there's not too much to say about the average joe, except that many folks aren't.

[TJones]

Shame on you Niche, you forgot Paul Wall and TV Johnny on your list. BOOOOOOOOOOO ! ! !

BTW Plastic, It would truly be a miracle if Peter Jennings EVER signed off from Houston or anyplace else on Earth for that matter. He really has a tough time talking AT ALL ! I'll let you go figure out why, my little sheltered wonder you.

..........and the Superbowl is JUST a ballgame? The only other question I guess I have for you Plastic......Did it hurt when you got dropped on your head ?

I swear, reading your posts makes me feel like I am reading an article from http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Houston . Simply amazing. Too have absolutely no insight whatsoever, about any subject, is just AMAZING to me.

Edited November 2, 2006 by TJones

[Guest Plastic]

I had the problem of explaining to my relatives from out of town that Houston has more than one skyline.

I'm always on the bus and rail.

Houston hasn't had nearly as many movies set here as other places. And I mean the important ones. All the big budget movies where a city gets destroyed seem to happen in LA. New York even got it Se[t 11. the world's most watched reality show. The only time Houston's ever been destroyed is when the bomb's dropped in Independence Day.

[nmainguy]

I had the problem of explaining to my relatives from out of town that Houston has more than one skyline.

I'm always on the bus and rail.

Houston hasn't had nearly as many movies set here as other places. And I mean the important ones. All the big budget movies where a city gets destroyed seem to happen in LA. New York even got it Se[t 11. the world's most watched reality show. The only time Houston's ever been destroyed is when the bomb's dropped in Independence Day.

[Houston19514]

I have never understood how it is such a "problem" explaining that Houston has tall buildings in places other than downtown. While Houston's may be taller and bigger than other cities', it is not all that unique in this respect. NYC has midtown, downtown, and Brooklyn, skylines (plus suburban skylines). Chicago has tall buildings outside of the Loop. LA has tall buildings outside its downtown. Washington DC has skylines downtown, Arlington, Tysons Corner, etc. Atlanta has downtown, midtown, Buckhead, etc. How many times have Dallas trolls listed their multiplie "skylines" on this board? For crying out loud, even Oklahoma City and Tulsa have tall buildings (some even in groups that could be called a skyline) outside of their downtowns.

[webdude]

Seems a lot going for houston, so we need to ask why we not getting the respect and recognition we deserved. Other cities with less are getting more respect. Or do the great stuff that we have going not appeal broadly enough. I think tourisy stuff gets respect, preception builds reality.

Edited November 2, 2006 by webdude

[TJones]

I had the problem of explaining to my relatives from out of town that Houston has more than one skyline.

I'm always on the bus and rail.

Houston hasn't had nearly as many movies set here as other places. And I mean the important ones. All the big budget movies where a city gets destroyed seem to happen in LA. New York even got it Se[t 11. the world's most watched reality show. The only time Houston's ever been destroyed is when the bomb's dropped in Independence Day.

Look Forrest, it is painfully obvious that you will never be able to grasp anything in the Real World <----not the TV show either). Your reference to Sept. 11th as a reason to be upset that it didn't happen in Houston, so that "all eyes would be on us" is absolutely ludicrous. Plastic, you are without a doubt the biggest IDIOT I have ever witnessed, on this Forum or anywhere else for that matter.

It is my hope that you are sterile or will soon become sterile, so that you won't infect the world with your seed, and some poor woman doesn't have to go through life explaining to other parents WHY her child has to constanly be on a respirator, because you are the father of that child, and the kid is sooooo dumb that he forgets how to breathe.

[torvald]

I don't know plastique...

is that your cat?

Edited November 2, 2006 by torvald

[nmainguy]

is that your cat?

Yep. Her name is Jane. I think TJ has a thing goin' n for her...

[Guest Marty]

The Undertaker and Booker T are from Houston and don't forget about ZZ Top.

[torvald]

and where did that graphic come from in post #23?

meaning, why is it there? when not in the original post?