Mister X

In the latest BLVD place rendering there are 3 towers within the complex behind the retail stuff. It's all adding up now. I vote for BLVD place.

I wish I could find some photos of San Francisco after the 1906 quake, it makes me wonder why they have continued to build there for the last 101 years also. How many years have those old buildings in Kemah been standing? How long have those old buildings been standing in Galveston? 100 years or longer? Yeah, Tillman should just close down the boardwalk right now. Doesn't he see that the Texas coastline is filled with nothing but thousands upon thousands of ruins of structures that have been constantly battered by hurricanes year after year. One's probably on the way right now! I wish I could be more negitive, I'm sure life on the coast would be much more enjoyable. But seriously, Tillman's probably not worried about doomsday senerios because, like all his neighbors and everyone else who builds near the water, he's paying out the wazoo for insurance. Besides, that coaster will pay for itself in a year - if we can make it through just ONE year without another major disaster on the west Galveston Bay shoreline.

I admit, it's going to be chaotic. It's hard to imagine how this place will evolve. It's going to be a big mess. But I think if I were the owner of a half acre plot of land near the boardwalk, I would try to figure out a way to make some money off the proximity to the park. People could turn their land into pay parking lots, taco stands, freak shows, or even buy a couple of cheap carnival rides and have their OWN tiny amusement park feeding off the crowds that the boardwalk will be bringing in. Thats what happened at Coney Island back in the 1920s. The whole area became an amusement park district with several different parks - all with different owners, all feeding off the crowds that the other parks brought near them. By figuring out a way to sponge off the crowds the Boardwalk was bringing to your land, you would have a nice source of income to build yourself a bigger, nicer house further down the bay, away from the crowd, and probably with a nicer view. If you can't beat them, join them! ...or at least suck off of them. Even with chaotic traffic, the Boardwalk will be fun. Crazy traffic problems never stopped the Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, CA from functioning over the last 100 years. You have to see that place to believe it. It's total hell getting to it, but if you like that kind of stuff (like me) it's worth it.

Except the Kemah people are too late. The coaster should be finished and running within a few weeks. Plus, Tillman didn't break any laws. I feel bad for some of the people who will forced to deal with the noise and crowds that the Boardwalk will bring, but this amusement park and especially the roller coaster will bring a lot of joy to millions of people over the years. There's only a few dozen families that will be negitively effected by Boardwalk. An amusement park on the bay serves the greater good of the community. I may not being saying this if AstroWorld were still open or there were a whole lot of choices of places to go in the Houston area for this type of entertainment. With the new theme park planned in New Caney, the possibility of coasters at Splashtown, talk of amusement rides coming to parts of Galveston, and maybe even that crazy fake snow mountain thingy (Grand Texas River Walk), things may be looking up in the family fun business in Houston. The Kemah Boardwalk may or may not be able to compete in the future. But those other parks are years away if they happen at all. Today, the Boardwalk is the only game in town. I can't wait to give my money to Tillman for building this coaster. And if he builds another one next year, I'll be giving him even more of my money.

Maybe the "Woodlands/Conroe" section could just be retitled "Northern Suburbs" and that would include everything north of the beltway and in between the Tomball Pkwy and the Crosby Fwy. That might help people figure out where to put post regarding any developments near Spring, Lake Houston or around the Eastex Fwy without removing anything from the existing Woodlands/Conroe section. Other suggestions for a re-title of the "Woodlands/Conroe" section are... 1. Northern Forest Communities 2. NorBurbs 3. The Northern Pines Naming regions in Houston is fun to play with because none of the areas have a strict name. Here's your chance to create some, who knows maybe they will stick like "midtown" did. Just ignore this if it sounds stupid - it isn't my place to suggest anything around here, but I couldn't resist throwing in my 2 cents.

There's not enough profit in it.

Maybe Tillman thought he could buy that house for future boardwalk expansion at a reduced price if he built a loud, obnoxious (yet beautiful and much needed) roller coaster inches away from it. I hope they keep the coaster running 24 hours a day! I want to see more rides on the boardwalk next year. go man go!

I wouldn't get hung up over this list. It's just some blogger guy's opinion isn't it? It's old and I don't even see a name attached to it. Judging by the comments below that blog, there seems to be a lot of disagreement. And why was the list stopped at 18? That seems like an odd place to stop counting. Top 10, 15, 20 or 25, I could see, but 18? Maybe this guy just wanted to get Dallas on there. We could all create our own list, post it somewhere on the internet and it would have just as much merit. In fact, I would be more interested in Editor's list than some anonymous wierdo's. At least the webmasters here have some accountability and credentials. I couldn't make a list because I'm too jaded and opinionated for it to have any meaning, plus I don't even know or care about places like San Paulo. But the rest of you could.

I'm not answering for Dalparadise, but all fun is just a little stupid. That's what makes it fun. I guess the true definition of stupid would be investing in these projects and they fail. On the flip side, if they succeed then the developers are brilliant for having created a new market.

Truer words have never been written. If anyone were to go by the message boards at HAIF, they would think that Houstonians must be the unhappiest people alive. Luckily, I know better. I can't believe anyone would complain about people taking action to improve the appearance of 1960. The cars can crash into each other head on for all I care, 1960 needs this in the worst way. (kidding about the crashes, babies) Who knows, if they are successful maybe they can take on I-45 next. I have nothing but admiration for folks that make an ACTUAL EFFORT in trying to improve the aesthetics of Houston. More power to them! Where do I send my donation?

I read some of the articles at skirebel.com about the Bear Fire Resort (the Fort Worth version of this idea) and it reads pretty much the same as the article regarding this project. Kind of mysterious, no author, some details revealed, some details missing. I'm not saying that I believe these projects will or will not happen, but since the Bear Fire project has made an official announcement of their plans, there may be reason to think that the article regarding the Houston version of this project MIGHT have some basis in fact. However, I wouldn't get overly excited about it until I read about "the Great Texas River Walk" from a more credible news source. BTW, thats a strange name for an Alpine themed fake ski resort that's not even in downtown San Antonio. Skirebel.com is just a blog website, not news. But, that doesn't mean that the bloggers/ski enthusiasts haven't heard some legitimate inside info from 'Unlimited Snow'. In other words, who the hell knows if this is for real or not. Flip a coin. But if it is real, they GOTTA change the name. The name "River Walk" is taken! They might as well call it "the New Improved Alamo East". Got anything to add Niche? Just use a different handle and no one will know it's you.

It's hard to visualize all the things they are talking about building in the article in one spot. Condos? An Alpine themed mall? Apartments? Water park? and more. This thing sounds massive and really expensive to build. It sounds like a resort - not just a big fake mountain. So if it fails, there will be a lot more blight than just a cheesy micro mountain. That article is wierd though. It doesn't sound like it was written by a journalist or a professional copy writer. Maybe it was written by a fanatical skier or some lowly employee connected with "Ultimate Snow" with the same leaked information that Niche knows about.

It probably is cheesy, but who cares. Playing in a fake beach at a waterpark is cheesy too, but that doesn't stop people from enjoying it. This project sounds like it's on par with the sillyness of that thing in FW. A fake beach stills sounds like more fun than a fake mountain to me and nothing could be as wonderful as riding roller coasters while looking at fake dinosaurs. But, I guess if these projects happen and are successful, we will just have to learn to deal with it and let the people who are having fun with it do their thing. As cheesy as these things are, Houston needs all the fun things it can get. So does DFW for that matter. Houston has a wonderful serious business climate, but it will be nice to see some investing in some fun, non-serious things designed to make people happy for a change that don't have anything to do with stadiums, shopping or eating. It may be too early to compare fake skiing facilities but, having the fake skiing on fake snow in a climate controlled area sounds more enjoyable than fake skiing on real plastic matts in the real Texas heat to me. If this project happens, I'm glad they are going indoors - skiing in the heat does not sound like fun. What's next - a fake vacation on the moon? Cool!

Where are they putting this? It might be fitting to put this type of attraction or whatever it is near the Earth Quest Adventures park up in New Caney buried behind the tall pines, and then Houston will have its own little version of Orlando just up the highway. It sounds kind of like the ski thing in FW except the skiing will be indoors and on real fake snow instead of outdoors on white plastic. Real fake snow sounds more fun, because you will be able to have fake snowball fights. At the one in FW you will have to tear off and roll up scorching pieces of plastic and throw it. >

Who cares if it's a smart idea or not, I'm thinking about the coolness factor a W would add to the HP area. The reality of the actual hotel business is too boring to care about, give me risky and stupid anytime. Is it downtown? If someone guesses right, will you let them know, ENGcons? No one in the industry will know you spilled the beans. Besides, the W people probably don't come to HAIF, so theres no need to worry. Is the answer among the locations listed in the poll? - "somewhere else" doesn't count! If you can't give info about where it will be, can you tell us WHEN we might be hearing an announcement? Will it be July?

Park acres are kind of a funny measurement to go by. The numbers always seem to vary depending on where they come from. The figures I keep seeing on SFoT is that it is 200-212 acres, I just did a google search and typed "six flags over texas acres" http://www.google.com/search?client=safari...-8&oe=UTF-8 But how many of those acres are used for the actual park? I would guess it's right around 85 acres for the part that people walk around and the rides are built on. SFoT has a very large parking lot which is probably 75 acres, a large pond near the front drive which is probably at about 40 acres, and several acres that are used by for offices, maintanance and storage areas. AstroWorld was on a 109 acre plot. The actual park including the last few vacant areas was about 75 acres, the water park was about 15 acres. I would guess about 10 acres were used for offices and maintenance areas. Some of it was leased to the car dealership (I think). They never included the parking lot in the count because they leased that from Harris County. Discovery Kingdom (formerly Marine World) near San Francisco is on 135 acres, the parking lot is only about 50 acres and the actual park feels about as big as SFoT. I would guess they use about 75-80 acres for the actual park. There is a large animal section, 8 roller coasters, several theatres, and many flat rides. But I agree, I also hope they add another 50-100 acres as a buffer zone to EQA, but the only thing that really matters is how they use the acres. I wouldn't be surprised if the county secures more acres for the park. The area they are talking about is west of 59 near Caney Creek. On the satellite image it looks like about 500 acres of continuous forest around that area. But I don't know exactly where the 150 acres are within that pocket that they are talking about building the park on. I think to get a real idea about what to expect from EQA would be to check out the illustrations and model of the new Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach. It is being built on 140 acres and is costing $400 million. Project Rex claims to be spending $100 million more for EQA, so I hope that means it will be even cooler than HRP. Here is a link to the rendering of Hard Rock Park. Try to find the photos of the model of HRP - it is awesome. http://www.hardrockpark.com/press/J_Hard_R..._Rendering2.jpg

I'm sure we will be hearing plenty from the disgruntled neighbors. Luckily the project seems to have the blessings and cooperation of East Montgomery County, but no doubt there will be some people screaming about a project this big and all the people it will bring into the area which will interfere with their nice secluded lifestyles. Personally, I would love to have a roller coaster in my back yard, but I admit I'm not normal. Yeah, SFoT is very good, but it isn't as great as parks like BG and Disney when it comes to providing an escape from reality. But even though I rag on DFW all the time and SFoT may not be the perfect theme park, I would be very happy if EQA was modeled after it. I've always liked the way the paths at SFoT were like getting lost in a maze. Because it was one of the the first theme parks built anywhere, it grew and evolved in a unique way. I remember as a kid, it was so easy to get lost there. I think that adds to the fantasy. But more than likely a new park will be built in a circular layout like Islands of Adventure and Hard Rock Park. There is a certain logic to it, people don't get lost as easily, but I think it's cool trying to find your way around a theme park and not knowing whats around the bend. But really I'll be happy with any layout as long as the park is pretty and the atmosphere is good.

I agree, AW wasn't always a bad theme park. I really thought that any problems it had could have been fixed if only the company that owned it cared about it. I grew up going to AW and had a season pass for several years when I was a teenager, but even at it's peek, I remember my friends and family always complaining about how AW wasn't as good as Six Flags over Texas. Everyone I knew thought it was too small and would constantly compare AW's shortcomings to the better overall experience that SFoT provided. Back in the 80s, the coaster collection at AW was very good (for the time), the park was kept clean and well-maintained but even then AW always had to take a back seat to the better theme parks in the nation. I always thought it had something to do with the lack of shade trees and the fact that you could always see so much of the city from inside the park. Although AW started out life with very good theming, you could see the Astrodome, the freeway and power lines from inside the park. It was probably just built in a bad location from the start, although the views of the Houston skylines was pretty cool from the tall rides. AW wasn't a shady park in the early 80s (and before) and it always seemed less comfortable (too much hot sun in the face) than SFOT. Just when the trees were finally beginning to mature enough to supply the park with a better atmosphere is when the operations started going down hill. This is why it burns me up that all the trees were removed, it took almost 40 friggin' years to grow them and only a couple of months to cut them all down. AW started off as a barren, swampy field and after everything that was done on that piece of land over the last 37 years it has returned to the barren field from which it came. Unbelievable! I've drove by New Caney on HWY 59 about 10 years ago, I remember nothing but a thick pine forest along 59 from Humble to Nacogdoches (that was my destination). It sounds like the park will be near Caney Creek. It would be awsome if somehow they could incorporate the running creek and all it's natural beauty into the park layout and landscape. Busch Gardens in Virginia has a river running right through the middle of it. Stuff like that is what will give a theme park a good atmosphere. It isn't always about the rides or even the size. I think it is about escaping reality for a few hours every summer. I don't want to see the harsh mechanics of the real world (utility lines, freeways, ect) while in a theme park, only fantasy or at very least well-groomed natural settings. If EQA turned out anywhere near as good as BG, then life would be complete.

How many people live within 300 miles of New Caney? That would include the Houston Metro, DFW metro, SA and Austin Metros, Corpus and RGV, East Texas, most of what's left of Louisiana and all the little towns in between. I would guess it's somewhere around 20 million. The parks in Virginia may serve a larger market, but there are at least a dozen other large theme parks that they have to compete with that also serve the same 55 million that the Virginia parks do. This park might turn out very nice based on the size, location and money they are spending (keeping fingers crossed), but I think when the developers say they are going to focus on the regional crowd, they mean the immediate 6 million in the Houston area in 2011 or 12. This will be a regional park. 6 million is more than enough to create a strong base of support. And there will be a lot less parks to compete for the 20 million people within the 300 mile radius of EQA than the 55 million within the 300 mile radius of the Virginia parks. I can only think of 3 big theme parks in Texas. Whatever the population figures are for EQA, they were about the same for AstroWorld. But there were a lot of factors working against AW that a park in New Caney won't have to deal with, specifically, parking issues, space to grow, a bad reputation, outdated attractions, the neglect of an evil, poorly managed, heartless corporate empire. (Don Lessum says that EQA will be the culmination of his life's work - I consider that a very good sign) Some of the older press releases about this park say that they expect EQA to be the second highest tourist attraction in the state in their second year, only behind the Alamo. I'm optimistic about the success of this park but unless they are planning something extremely unique and spectacular, it's hard to imagine EQA drawing more attendence than Six Flags over Texas, SeaWorld, or Six Flags Fiesta Texas in only 2 years of existance. But what do I know? I'm sure the newness factor might bring in a few extra tourist from outside the Houston area. But personally, I'd just be ecstatic for a nice-sized, clean park with a pleasent atmosphere and lots of good coasters, theming, and landscaping (everything that AstroWorld wasn't), something Houston can be proud of and will be able to hold it's own in the enchanted, yet brutal world of theme park competition.

I thought that article sounded like good news, why all the negitivity about these projects? BTW, are they talking about the old AstroWorld sight when they mention the 120 acres near the Fannin South light rail station? I can't stand the thought of that land being vacant or used for anything awful. Too much was lost on that spot. (sweet personal memories). Dispite how anyone feels about the loss of the old theme park, it is sickening how they ripped up all the trees on that 100+ acre plot of land. Anything that a future developer might want to build in AstroWorld's old spot would have been better (or at least looked better from the freeway) had they left the trees alone.

Free Chick-fil-a food???? Sounds overpriced.

You set yourself up for this, wxman. Anyone who starts out saying "I don't want to sound like a racist, BUT..." will always come out sounding like a racist. Especially when he follows up the sentence with his "insightful" observations about "foreigners". Lumping nationalities or races with particular activities will get you into trouble every time. Best to keep an open mind about stuff. No one blames you or cares whether you like soccer or not. Just like Galveston tourism, soccer will survive with or without the support of all the people YOU know in the Woodlands. My 12 year old nephew and his friends who live in the Woodland love soccer (a lot more than I do), so I know it's not a city vs. suburb thing. I think it's a generational thing not a cultural thing. I didn't grow up playing or watching it so it took me longer to get in to it. But the kids watching it now (all races and nationalites) could really turn the MLS into something huge in a few years. Cool new stadiums built in the downtowns of major metro areas will only help the sport. I bet everyone in the MLS is hoping this downtown stadium happens in Houston. It will make the entire league look better and seem like a force to be reckoned within the American sports world. Especially when the winning Dynamo starts stealing people away from the losing Astros.

Another thing to like about soccer is that there are a lot less commercial interuptions than the other big sports. The action is continuous. I'm surprised ESPN covers soccer at all since they can't break in every other minute to sell Viagra.

Damn, I thought this one was out FOR GOOD. Nice drawing though.

I thought Houston's USFL team was called "The Houston Gamblers". A silly name based on some Kenny Rodgers song called the Gambler. I thought I remembered hearing that Kenny Rodgers was the owner, but it was so long ago it's all just a blur now. I hated the name Texans when I first heard it. I wanted them to name the new NFL team the Apollos and wrote posts in every chat room I could find on the internet to try to convince people that the name Texans was a stupid , and unoriginal name for a football team. Right around the time the name was made official (I can't remember if it was before or after) I saw a documentary on the History Channel about the cowboys from Texas in the 1800's that would head the cattle drives from Texas to the railroads in Dodge City, Kansas where the cattle was then shipped to the east via railroad. ANYWAY, these rough house cowboys would come into the town every year and tear up the entire town (booze, prostitution, gambling, shooting people who looked at them crooked, ect.) The town put up with it to some extent because these cowboys spent a lot of money and drove the economy. So what you say? Well, these special cowboys with the bad ass reputation were known as "The Texans" to the locals. "Oh $hoot, the Texans are coming to town, hide the children!" The Texans were feared and welcomed at the same time. So after that I didn't hate the name "Texans" anymore. Plus now that I have had a few years to live with it, the name Texans probably sounds tougher than Apollos, and in football thats an asset. Of course, unless you know the minute details about your American history or watch too much t.v., you would just think that the football team from Houston just couldn't think of an original name. But everytime I think of the name Texans, I think of cowboys - only meaner, rougher, and wilder than your regular everyday cowboy. Now, if they'd only play that way. I still don't know what to think about the name "Dynamo". I mean, it sounds a little silly, yet it does bring up imagery of power and excitement, which is something I think is appropriate for the city of Houston. I keep thinking the name will grow on me like the Texans did. Or like soap scum grows on my shower door - it's not so bad once you get used to it.