Mister X

Jackpot!

Remember I said "excessive". I realize that tattoos and body piercings are mainstream culture. And I know that 99.9% of the people who have them are not a threat just because they have them. I was just trying to think of ways to keep potential trouble makers from ruining the reputation of our new theme park (should it actually be built). I don't want families to be afraid to bring their kids there like they were at AstroWorld at the end. If bad asses are nice enough to give us warning signs, I say the theme park industry should use them to their advantage. That's enough of this discussion from me. I'm now officially sorry for bringing it up.

That's what I've heard. I've haven't actually been to a Six Flags park in about 2 years. I'm still bitter that they closed AstroWorld and have no intention of ever giving that company another cent of my money no matter what they do. (out of protest - as pointless as it may be). But I still think that the ban was a move in the right direction. The last Six Flags park I went to was Marine World (now called Discovery Kingdom) in Vallejo, CA (just outside San Francisco) It was the worse time I ever had in my life at a theme park. I was not offended by smokers or tattoos, in fact one of the persons I went with was a smoker and covered in tattoos (one of my best friends), but the line cutting was so out of control that day, that eventually I had to make a big scene, call for security and refused to let anymore kids (and adults) cut in front of me. This was a failure on park management to me, because they never had anyone monitering the lines. Although I got these people ejected from the park, the whole ordeal of this ugly scene was not worth it and the whole day was really ruined for all of us. It would have been better if I had just let these people pass and say nothing. But enough was enough. This line cutting happened about 5 times before on that day. Since then I have heard so many stories like this about Six Flags parks including, mini riots, an other confrontations that I decided to stay away from Six Flags until they got their act together. So yes, now I am a bitter snob who wants to control who gets let into family fun parks. And I have been condemned to the Jesus parks by Red Scare. (just kidding). I'm not religious, but I would go to a Christian theme park if they had some decent coasters. And there probably would be less chance of screaming and cussing because people were trying to cut in line. But alas, I could probably never even get into a Christian theme park because the ground would probably open up and swallow me if I tried to walk through the gate. I've broken too many commandments.

I am pretty liberal, I don't march in rallies or anything... I just hate seeing beautiful theme parks that are all about fantasy get turned into war zones like what happened to my beloved AstroWorld and other theme parks. (I'm exaggerating again). Perhaps banning trouble making teens by going on tell-tale appearances isn't the best policy, but I'm still glad a lot of theme parks have banned smoking.

That reminds me, I'd ban everyone that wore excessive religious symbols too. I'd take being surrounded by thugs on roller coasters than Jesus freaks on merry-go-rounds any day. My perfect theme park would probably only have about 10 people in it anyway. I hate long lines more than thugs or freaks combined. I didn't mean to offend anyone. It's just so easy though.

Good luck. People who know anything about what's going on behind the scenes in Houston don't give it up that easily. I guess you're new, you'll learn. But those who don't know anything about what's coming up next (like me) will give you plenty of emotional reaction. It would be great if we could pick out only the people we wanted responses from, but it's best to not expect more facts than opinions around here. That's o.k. for me - Sometimes I like the opinions better than the facts anyway.

AstroWorld was not the only park in America over run by unruley teens. I don't think that the proximity to bad neighborhoods was the problem. Those areas just to the east of AstroWorld were always pretty bad, but the park wasn't always over run by gangstas. (I'm exaggerating anyway, there might have been a problem - but it wasn't completely out of control on a daily basis). All the Six Flags park were having that problem. But Six Flags parks were catering to teens up until last year when they realized that teens don't spend any money in the parks. Families do. And the wild teens were scaring off the families. I heard cheap season passes were to blame, but when you concentrate on nothing but thrill rides and don't add family rides or keep up the appearance in your park, families are going to lose interest. Six Flags has now realized this and is trying to correct the problem. This is real easy for me to say because I am an non-smoker, but I think the new no smoking policy they have now implemented at their parks is a great idea. Something about smoking and teenage thugs go hand in hand. NOT SAYING all smokers are trouble makers or all non-smokers are harmless. I've known too many great and respectable adults who smoke. But I'm sure that many junior hoodilums won't step foot in a place if they can't show everyone how cool they are by lighting up. Call me a snob, but I would ban teens with excessive piercings, excessive tattoos and anything else that I thought might scare off families with small children and people with lots of disposable cash from coming and spending money at my theme park. Older folks that have all the typical rebel markings usually are mature enough to control themselves in public and are usually a threat to no one, but tough talking and looking kids with no authority figures in view is recipe for disaster. It's best to keep and open mind but the real trouble makers at theme parks usually give themselves away at first glance when they walk throught the gate.

Yes, especially when Houston (more specifically HAIFers) are salavating for all the places you listed. That was evil.

In that Houstonist article about the new 47 floor Hines building, it mentions (at the bottom) that the proposed Discovery tower project being developed by Trammel Crow is going to be 850,000 sq ft. In the old chronicle article it said that Discovery tower was going to have 630,000 sq ft. and be 31 floors. Does anyone think that Discovery Tower might have more floors now that more sq ft is being added on (assuming the Houstonist is correct). If Hines 47 (cute nickname) is to be 900,000 sq ft and Discovery Tower is to be 850,000 sq ft - wouldn't that bring Discovery up to at least 40 floors now?

Those are nice photos. The bay looks so blue and pretty in that shot from the bridge. I also like the one with the marina in the forground. What a great place to build an amusement park.

I think it is amazing that they were able to acquire 250 acres for this project this close to Houston. Not that I'm saying there isn't a plenty of vacant land within 30 miles of downtown in every direction. But, for a developer to use that many acres for a theme park project instead of a housing developement, shopping center, business park, industrial park or golf course is quite an accomplishment for Houston (or anywhere for that matter). I really thought that the most likely spots for a large theme park to be built were going to be on either on the Eastex Fwy north of Humble (the general area that they actually chose) or on the South Fwy anywhere south of the beltway. I also thought or more accurately feared that a new park might be built somewhere east, past Baytown or toward Crosby, because these areas are cheaper and aren't filling up with the usual sprawl stuff as rapidly as the rest of the Houston outskirts. If they had picked any other side of town, they would probably have to be at least 50 miles out. 30 miles out is not bad. It's closer in than a lot of other parks are to cities they serve. I couldn't be happier about the location they chose. That pine forest will be the perfect relaxing setting for a theme park. As far as customer satisfaction is concerned, it's all about escape and the piney woods are the closest thing we have to natural beauty anywhere near Houston. In fact, according to what I've read, that site was chosen from over 65 other areas in the U.S. BECAUSE of it's natural beauty. But I'm sure it also had something to do with Houston being such a large an untapped market for this kind of entertainment. Building this park in an area that isn't thick with suburban sprawl is a good thing. But if the park is sucessful, no doubt the sprawl will find it's way to the park area. That's why having a 250 acre buffer zone is so important. It will help to keep the escapism factor alive after New Caney, becomes Arlington, Santa Clarita, CA or Gurnee, IL. 250 acres is the perfect size for a theme park. Some theme parks have even more acres, but no theme park uses more than around 90 acres at most for actual amusements and attractions. That extra land is always used as parking lots, lakes, offices, buffer zones, ect. They could still have a nice park on 150 acres, but at 250 acres, the park will be able to keep up with the best of them. AstroWorld never had this kind of potential.

Back in the 80's, I remember Dan Patrick (I think he's a politian now) did the sports on Channel 11 and he made an embarring specticle of himself at every opportunity. I remember an original rap song he wrote and performed acapella while sitting at the news desk about Phi Slamma Jamma. (some basketball thing) He was tring to be funny, but it was just the most unprofessional moment you could ever imagine being on the news. I remember after he was done the camera cut to the disgusted and embarrassed face of Amanda Arnold (the respected serious news anchor woman) I was rolling on the floor. Not because Patrick was funny, but because of the awkwardness and aftermath of that highly unprofessional moment. This was like a 5 pm newscast, and I think he repeated it on the 10 pm newcast too. It's kind of hazy now, but it was a moment to remember in the long boring history of local newscast. The weatherman at channel 11 was kind of a riot too, I can't remember his name but I remember he always used to play with that poor anchor woman on the air and their exchanges always came out sounding silly and awkward. This was right before Belo came in and fired the lot of them.

The biggest thing that this park has going for it is that there is no competition in Houston. Unlike waterparks. Those projects you mentioned would have had to compete with WaterWorld, Splashtown, ect. But if you want a positive example of a project that did not fall through, look at Schlitterbahn. It was built as planned and wasn't scaled down. As long as AstroWorld existed there was little chance that someone was going to build another theme park in Houston. But now there is a wide open market with 6 million people just waiting to line up and give their money to the first company smart and brave enough to build a theme park. The investors seem to realize that all that entertainment money is currently headed to San Antonio and Arlington when it could be staying right here in the Houston area. I think that's why this project seems to be gaining momentum and growing in scope. Sure, a lot of things could go wrong before this place becomes a reality, but I am very confident that at some point in the not too distant future a large scale theme park will be built near Houston. There is just too much money to be had. My number one concern for any new park that may be coming to Houston is about quality. I really hope that the new park does not come off looking cheap, cheesy or too small. From every recent news story I've read, Earthquest sounds like it will be a quality park so I'm really optimistic about it. It didn't sound all that impressive to me when it was originally announced, but my guess is that there are more investors coming on board this project and want a piece of the action. The better quality experience they give, the more money they will make. Parks built on the cheap don't last long. It would be nice if they built large right away with lot of quality attractions, but more importantly I think there needs to be a quality infrastructure in place. As long as the park starts off with a high quality core with plenty of room to grow, it will be a great park. They wont need a lot of giant roller coasters right away, just the space to add them and other attractions in the future. All the best parks in America started small, but gave themselves room to grow. That was the problem at AstroWorld, I think the lack of quality infrastructure is what ultimately lead to AstroWorld's demise. AstroWorld did not own their own parking lot, there was little room left to do any major expansion, and the whole area was surrounded by an urban landscape. But Earthquest seems to have a lot going for it. The trees, plenty of land around, and the backing of investors that sound committed to quality. What else can we do but just hope for the best? I'm not expecting miracles, but so far this project really sounds like a winner. I can not wait to see renderings.

KPRC might get more respect if they just held the camera up to the New York Times and let people just read the news for themselves. Channel 2 should just go into the entertainment business like the Fox Opinion Channel. a banana and a tricycle, hilarious.

I noticed that too. But since the price is up to over $600 million, I would bet that rides are included, probably some good ones too. I bet HBJ didn't mention it because there was no mention of rides from the original announcement back in November. At 250 acres and the amount of money they are investing for the park, it would be ridiculous (not to mention suicide) to not include rides. They will need them to get the masses to drive 30 miles out of town. I don't think they could expect to get 2.5 million visitors a year with just some fiberglass dinosaurs.

As a devout bleeding-heart liberal democrat, I would vote for Perry as Queen of Texas if an election were held today. I might regret it tomorrow however. Signing legislation to make it easier for EQA to be built in Mongomery county may be the nicest thing (maybe the only one) he's ever done for the Houston area. Thanx Gov.

Yes, lets save that beat-up loser mentality for another day. Because even a 40 story tower would be great news.

I'm about to explode. If Houston Buisness Journal reports anymore good news today I may pass out. First the report of a new 47 story skyscraper for downtown Houston, then a report about the Astrodome Hotel Complex receiving fianancial backing, and now this story about EQA moving forward. The new report says that EQA is now going to be 250 acres and $600 million! And Disneylike! - Sounds like quality all the way baby. Who said that Friday the 13th was unlucky. As a theme park and skyscraper enthusiast, This may be the best news day in the history of HAIF! (so far)

Fernz, if you can't post a rendering (tall order at this stage I imagine), could you describe another existing building somewhere in the world that has a similar appearence. So we could get an idea. New skyscraper proposals for downtown always get me acting like a 8 year old on a sugar high. Angled walls sounds intriguing! Is the location, Main, Walker, Fannin, Rusk? (got that off the Montagu Hotel thread) On the satellite image, there looks to be several existing buildings on the lot.

Hey yeah. Maybe it's that thing people were talking about on Richmond and Post Oak near Windsor Plaza. That sounded like a large mysterious project that no one has elaborated on. EngCons...? Kinkaid...? Houston 19514...? Great Hizzy...? Niche...? PR Girl...? Houston Developement...? New Juniper...? anyone...? anyone...? Be nice to me - I'm one of your biggest fans.

Check out these photos from Jason Knutson at coasterphotos.com http://www.coasterphotos.com/maingallery/v...ageViewsIndex=1 http://www.coasterphotos.com/maingallery/v...ageViewsIndex=1 http://www.coasterphotos.com/maingallery/v...ageViewsIndex=1 http://www.coasterphotos.com/maingallery/v...ageViewsIndex=1 There are lots and lots more. He's been taking beautiful photos of the coaster since November, when there was nothing on that plot of land but a cement slab and a pile of lumber. I'm sure they will not paint it and I am very happy about that. They rarely paint wooden coasters anymore. Painted wooden coasters look horrible unless they get repainted on a regular basis. Remember how badly the Texas Cyclone aged? After years of neglect and peeling white paint, that coaster looked so beat up. Natural wood color is the way to go! I understand the lighting effect in these photos is permanent. I think it would be great if they added chaser lights too.

Normally, even the smallest wooden coasters ARE pretty massive. This one is an exception. All that track is so tightly wrapped in that small (less than one acre) plot that you can only see about 20% of the actual track layout from just looking at the coaster. The sensation of passing through all that thick, tightly compressed supporting structure through narrow passages at high speeds is going to be a total blast! This coaster is quite an accomplishment, it could set a trend, especially in small parks with limited space to grow. It wouldn't surprise me to see the Gravity Group (the designers of this coaster) be flooded with orders for coasters like this from around the country. It's not uncommon for a metal style coaster to be on a small plot of land, (AstroWorld had several of them) but wooden coasters need so much support and bracing that they usually require large amounts of space to construct. By comparison Judge Roy Scream at Six Flags over Texas is only 65 ft tall and covers almost 10 acres. It has no cross-overs. It's concidered an "out and back" coaster. The Texas Cyclone, The Texas Giant, and the Boardwalk Bullet are/were "twister" coasters. But the Bullet is the twistyest wooden coaster I've ever seen. This thing will ROCK! - especially at night!

Hey, don't listen to talltexan, I like being played with... it's fun to guess. Come back Engcons and tell us more. I just wanted to point out an observation that BLVD place had a new rendering that depicted 3 towers, and Engcons said the W hotel project also had 3 towers. BLVD place has the most votes on the poll, so it sounded like a match. No need for anyone to be rude or be driven away. We should all respect the insiders' need to limit the info they can post. Otherwise, we have NOTHING to go on at all around here about these speculative projects going up all over the place. HAIF would be dull without insider info - be especially nice to them, and save the hostility for the Dallas trolls (just kidding). So now, if we can eliminate BLVD Place, I would vote for - High Street/Westcreek. - But I'm still HOPING it will be downtown. Come back, Engcons

The Texas Cyclone was 92 ft., the Boardwalk Bullet is 96 ft. --Taller. The Texas Cyclone had 3180 ft. of track, the Boardwalk Bullet has 3236 ft. of track. --Longer. The Texas Cylcone (claimed) 60 MPH, the Boardwalk Bullet (claims) 51 MPH. --Not Faster. Not sure why, but roller coaster speeds are always kind of debatable. They do move at slightly different speeds depending on weather and temperature. The BB should be a very nice coaster, but it should not be referred to as MASSIVE in this day and age. Some full circuit coasters are over 300 ft tall now. Some launched coasters are over 400 ft. tall. But don't let the numbers fool you, a good coaster has nothing to do with statisics. Some of the highest rated coasters that exist today (by authority of internet polls, and enthusiast magazines) are no taller, longer or faster than the Boardwalk Bullet is. We will know very soon if this coaster can live up to the hype. The design is very unique - thats going to be a major plus in the coaster lover community. I predict that this coaster will be a big hit with my fellow coaster geeks and the general public alike.

Boardwalk Bullet makes the news. http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=...&id=5464948 I'm so there!