Citizens National Bank At 402 Main St.

[editor]

Are there any of them as large as ours?

Yes. But I'm not sure what that had to do with anything.

[TheNiche]

Yes. But I'm not sure what that had to do with anything.

Name some.

[samagon]

Name some.

Downtown areas devoid of gimmickry, that are otherwise unremarkable...

I can't think of anything unique I've ever heard about downtown LA.

other than Hollywood is north of it, and the Pacific Ocean is west of it.

I guess you could make the case that Kennedy was shot in downtown Dallas, making it unique. I don't think they use that as a gimmick to get people to go there though.

downtown Phoenix?

Detroit? (maybe come see the blight that remains of a once prosperous city)

San Jose?

Jacksonville?

Charlotte?

that's just a few of the top 20 cities in population of the USA. I can't think of anything those cities have in the downtown area that is remarkable, or gimmicky.

Aside from some tall buildings in Chicago, is there anything unique/gimmicky/remarkable about downtown Chicago even?

[kylejack]

Aside from some tall buildings in Chicago, is there anything unique/gimmicky/remarkable about downtown Chicago even?

Lots and lots and lots of walking retail. Cargo cult-ish, in fact.

[KinkaidAlum]

The Financial District in Boston is pretty lame. It's mostly just office towers and is very dead at night. It's close to really great spots (Boston Common, North End, Back Bay/Newbury Street, South End, Beacon Hill, Chinatown), but there's really nothing there after 6ish. That said, lots of tourists stroll thru it on the Freedom Trail getting to and from historical sites and to check out Faneuil Hall (total tourist trap).

[ricco67]

Lots and lots and lots of walking retail. Cargo cult-ish, in fact.

Don't forget their abundance of bars, of which I can testify to during my stay there.

[mfastx]

Seattle has a nice downtown IMO. It's very similar to Houston's but it has more retail and less parking lots.

[TheNiche]

The only answer that I'm somewhat satisfied with is LA.

[editor]

The only answer that I'm somewhat satisfied with is LA.

You asked a question and a number of people answered. What makes you think other people are concerned with your satisfaction?

[TheNiche]

You asked a question and a number of people answered. What makes you think other people are concerned with your satisfaction?

What makes you think that I am concerned with their satisfaction?

[samagon]

Curiosity makes me wonder what disqualifies the other suggestions?

[TheNiche]

Curiosity makes me wonder what disqualifies the other suggestions?

Size, primarily.

[urbancowboy]

I'll add to that list Washington D.C., there downtown isn't really the most intriguing. Downtown Dallas, Los Angeles, even Miami.

[totheskies]

Size, primarily.

Nope. If you're going to open that can of worms, then you have to give further parameters. Size of buildings? Office pop? residential pop? Houston has a "big downtown", but only if you're measuring it by physical spaces. If you go by number of residents, it's small.

[editor]

Nope. If you're going to open that can of worms, then you have to give further parameters. Size of buildings? Office pop? residential pop? Houston has a "big downtown", but only if you're measuring it by physical spaces. If you go by number of residents, it's small.

Don't even bother. He made a statement. People provided examples showing he was wrong. Now he's trying to change the parameters to keep the argument going. It's simply not worth a response.

[TheNiche]

Nope. If you're going to open that can of worms, then you have to give further parameters. Size of buildings? Office pop? residential pop? Houston has a "big downtown", but only if you're measuring it by physical spaces. If you go by number of residents, it's small.

Physical plant or daytime population are good metrics.

[worldlyman]

Downtown is still a very handy urban resource to me. I sometimes take a long break from my job at the Med. Center on a Saturday night and downtown is still going on. It's not as hot as it was circa 1999-2001 but it's alive and well-used. There are still bars and clubs, with a decent flow of pedestrians from Houston Pavilions to Market Square to Bayou Place. There's not an insane crowd of people like you see in tighter, denser metros...but to see a lot of people going from place to place in downtown H-town is still good to see and enjoy. I like grabbing a slice from Frank's Pizza or sipping a blackberry iced mocha at Minuti Coffee's patio or grabbing something at no-tsu-oh. It's a mix of people, and the blacks, whites and Latinos who frequent downtown on Saturday nights seem to enjoy it without much tension. I don't sense tension there on a Saturday night, generally. But the Asian crowds of early 2K seem to have gone elsewhere for nightlife.

Sometimes on my Mondays off, I like doing tunnel walks. Again, considering Houston has many other different geographic points of commerce, there are people that still walk around downtown. It's not crowded but there are still people. I like walking down Main on a pleasant Monday afternoon. Then after burning some calories, go walk the tunnels and then wind up at Doozo's at Houston Center for their addicting dumplings.

And it's nice to enjoy a quiet day at Discovery Green with the wife...with the breeze on Monday. It's actually pleasant that it's not overrun by tourists. Let them have Kemah...or the future Earthquest for that. But when I want a busier Discovery Green, I'll just come back on the weekends.

For me, I've stopped seeing one particular point of Houston as an end-all, all-or-nothing topic that some other people do. There could be some improvements and additions, to be sure, but I've pretty much stopped comparing our downtown to that of others. I mean, does traditionally urban Chicago have these unique entertaining little side streets like Fairview or White Oak that have a semi-rustic flair (but still with urban context)? That's what I like about Houston. I can enjoy these knick-knacks here in H-town. On my Saturday breaks...I can take the METRORAIL down to downtown for some late night pizza OR get in my car and drive over to Onion Creek or 6th Bar or some place on Victorian, semi-rustic White Oak for a "Bad Ass Hot Dog" or a burger. On Saturday nights, it's cool to see people walk from place to place there in that Studewood/White Oak corner. You can have that funky Victorian bar crawl...or you can have that urban flair of downtown on a Saturday night, among many other environments we have in H-town. Heck, I even like sitting at the patio of Cafe Europe on Fountainview@Westheimer and watching people walk among the sidewalks in that shopping center from Taiko to Kentucky Club to Darband Grill...enjoying that Houston style urbanity.

But as it is, downtown still happens for me. The maturation and settling of it hopefully will continue. It's MUCH better than what I saw in the mid-90s, for sure.

Edited November 2, 2010 by worldlyman

[DrLan34]

Downtown is still a very handy urban resource to me. I sometimes take a long break from my job at the Med. Center on a Saturday night and downtown is still going on. It's not as hot as it was circa 1999-2001 but it's alive and well-used. There are still bars and clubs, with a decent flow of pedestrians from Houston Pavilions to Market Square to Bayou Place. There's not an insane crowd of people like you see in tighter, denser metros...but to see a lot of people going from place to place in downtown H-town is still good to see and enjoy. I like grabbing a slice from Frank's Pizza or sipping a blackberry iced mocha at Minuti Coffee's patio or grabbing something at no-tsu-oh. It's a mix of people, and the blacks, whites and Latinos who frequent downtown on Saturday nights seem to enjoy it without much tension. I don't sense tension there on a Saturday night, generally. But the Asian crowds of early 2K seem to have gone elsewhere for nightlife.

Sometimes on my Mondays off, I like doing tunnel walks. Again, considering Houston has many other different geographic points of commerce, there are people that still walk around downtown. It's not crowded but there are still people. I like walking down Main on a pleasant Monday afternoon. Then after burning some calories, go walk the tunnels and then wind up at Doozo's at Houston Center for their addicting dumplings.

And it's nice to enjoy a quiet day at Discovery Green with the wife...with the breeze on Monday. It's actually pleasant that it's not overrun by tourists. Let them have Kemah...or the future Earthquest for that. But when I want a busier Discovery Green, I'll just come back on the weekends.

For me, I've stopped seeing one particular point of Houston as an end-all, all-or-nothing topic that some other people do. There could be some improvements and additions, to be sure, but I've pretty much stopped comparing our downtown to that of others. I mean, does traditionally urban Chicago have these unique entertaining little side streets like Fairview or White Oak that have a semi-rustic flair (but still with urban context)? That's what I like about Houston. I can enjoy these knick-knacks here in H-town. On my Saturday breaks...I can take the METRORAIL down to downtown for some late night pizza OR get in my car and drive over to Onion Creek or 6th Bar or some place on Victorian, semi-rustic White Oak for a "Bad Ass Hot Dog" or a burger. On Saturday nights, it's cool to see people walk from place to place there in that Studewood/White Oak corner. You can have that funky Victorian bar crawl...or you can have that urban flair of downtown on a Saturday night, among many other environments we have in H-town. Heck, I even like sitting at the patio of Cafe Europe on Fountainview@Westheimer and watching people walk among the sidewalks in that shopping center from Taiko to Kentucky Club to Darband Grill...enjoying that Houston style urbanity.

But as it is, downtown still happens for me. The maturation and settling of it hopefully will continue. It's MUCH better than what I saw in the mid-90s, for sure.

Today I had some trouble downtown. I took some clients to the Rockets game tonight which was excellent. Afterwards, we attempted to find a place to get drinks and a good meal at about 10pm downtown. Everything was either closed or closing except pubs that sell bar food. Ok no problem, I'll go somewhere else. One of the guys suggests sushi so I try and find a sushi place. I searched on my phone and called about 5 different sushi places, most were already closed, or closing by 10:30. The only one that stayed open till midnight was Ra. So we go to Ra, and order immediately because the kitchen closes at 11pm. Sushi is badass and the atmposhpere is good. The only thing that kind of sucked here was not that Downtown was closing early, I expected that. However, I didn't expect it to be so hard to find a sushi place open past 10pm on Monday night in Houston. I always thought of Houston as a pretty a busy city, even late in the evenings...

[houstonartstudent]

Today I had some trouble downtown. I took some clients to the Rockets game tonight which was excellent. Afterwards, we attempted to find a place to get drinks and a good meal at about 10pm downtown. Everything was either closed or closing except pubs that sell bar food. Ok no problem, I'll go somewhere else. One of the guys suggests sushi so I try and find a sushi place. I searched on my phone and called about 5 different sushi places, most were already closed, or closing by 10:30. The only one that stayed open till midnight was Ra. So we go to Ra, and order immediately because the kitchen closes at 11pm. Sushi is badass and the atmposhpere is good. The only thing that kind of sucked here was not that Downtown was closing early, I expected that. However, I didn't expect it to be so hard to find a sushi place open past 10pm on Monday night in Houston. I always thought of Houston as a pretty a busy city, even late in the evenings...

I'm not a sushi person, but my friends really like Zake...and they're open until 11:30 on weekdays.

http://www.zakesushilounge.com/

[kylejack]

Yeah, 10 is just a touch too late, because that's the exact time that lots of stuff closes. Your options at 10 are all bars, Flying Saucer, Moon Tower Inn, Polk Street Pub (ugh..).

The Hilton Americas cafe/bar is right next to Toyota Center, is actually pretty decent and has some good stuff. That flat iron sandwich is excellent. It's open til 11 PM. I like to hit it before or after a show.

Edited November 23, 2010 by kylejack

[LTAWACS]

DT is limited on late night food. There are several places near DT that are open 24hours. Katz'zs'sz's is one that comes to mind... I dont know how the food is though...

[DrLan34]

guys, thanks for your suggestions, i will keep them in mind next time. greatly appreciated.

[CHiPs]

guys, thanks for your suggestions, i will keep them in mind next time. greatly appreciated.

"The Fish" on Gray. They're open til 11pm on weekdays.

[JJVilla]

Man these DT downers post were a bit to way off and I was hopping they were somewhat right this weekend when I was looking for parking! So if the parking was a sign of activity then there's plenty going on in DT these days.

[samagon]

Parking was rough Saturday night for sure.

I think there was something at Toyota Center, Rockets played at Chicago, so it must have been a concert.

I went to one of the bars at HP and it was much busier than it was a year ago (when I last went to a bar in HP). I suppose it will be a year again before I go back. drink prices are close to scandalous.

[kylejack]

Remember, street parking is free after 6 and all day Sunday. It can still be hard to find street parking around Toyota Center and Pavilions if there are concerts or games.

[DrLan34]

Parking was rough Saturday night for sure.

I think there was something at Toyota Center, Rockets played at Chicago, so it must have been a concert.

I went to one of the bars at HP and it was much busier than it was a year ago (when I last went to a bar in HP). I suppose it will be a year again before I go back. drink prices are close to scandalous.

I think Trans Siberian Orchestra was playing. I saw them last year, pretty sweet show.

[LTAWACS]

Never heard of them but cool.

[ricco67]

Never heard of them but cool.

Dude.

Really?

This AND Bob Dylan?

I know I've said you need to get out more, but...wow.

[TheNiche]

Dude.

Really?

This AND Bob Dylan?

I know I've said you need to get out more, but...wow.

I've been reading LTAWACS' comments for some time now. I'm pretty sure that he's just baiting us with outlandish comments. It's his persona, and it might be brilliant.

I could be wrong, though.

Whatever the case, it's best not to feed it.

Edited December 8, 2010 by TheNiche