VelvetJ

They do that citykid09 because CNN and The Weather Channel are based in Atlanta. IMO, it's another PR move which I think is great. Atlanta is serious about putting itself on the map. Though times I think we can all agree they go a bit overboard, at least they are on the steam engine of trying to make that city the best it can be and if it means making sure the world is aware Atlanta is alive and kicking, I say good for them. We may think they are going overboard, but a lot of people are buying the hype. IMO Houston goes overboard in it's own mind of how great it is but the difference is the world is aware of it and isn't buying the little hype that is put out there. There is a certain spirit that Atlanta has, that quite frankly, I am jealous of and feel Houston no longer has. I also want Houston to be the best in the south, but as much as I love my city, I don't think we have what it takes or the gutts to do it. That thing that attracted the creative minds to Houston is all but gone. Houston has become too safe. The city is becoming more and more conservative in every way, and I don't think that is a good thing for a city that once had a world wide reputation for being forward thinking, on the cutting edge, futuristic and having a almost unmatched ability of being able to do the impossible. Houston doesn't take chances anymore and because of that, I really don't see us being the best in the south for a looooooong time.

Another one here who is surprised by this. He always seems to wiggle his way out of things. Regarding the election, as a Christian myself, Tom Delay is probably going to make a huge public speech about the situation and cleverly drop in a few words about how he prays every night, and a ton of people are probably going to fall right into his hands once again, blindly thinking to themselves, "how could anyone that prays at night and believe in God do anything wrong"? Although I would love to see a change, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if he is re-elected yet once again. Not meaning to sound cruel, however until he is in jail, I will consider him as somone who is "off the hook".

Moved to Houston as a mid to late teen, and AstroWorld was my first job. I have a ton of memories but they are due to having been employed there for 5 seasons. I met my two best friends, who are still my best friends to this day, at AstroWorld, I fell in love there, I got over my shyness there, I learned responsibility there, I met celebrities there, and I had some of the best and most bizarre times of my life there. I will miss it. Long live AstroWorld. *note*- Flower Child, Mongoose, Phsyco, and Reeper, where are you guys today? A lizard in the ketchup bottle at Shanghai Grill........you guys were insane. My goodness, the stories I could tell of my 5 years at that place.

Jeebus, To answer your question, I'm not sure if Disney would build here or not. If they did however, I don't think it would be in the traditional DisneyWorld/ Disneyland type format. IMO, it would be more like their most recent park in California called "Disney's California Adventure". I can see it now, introducing Disney's newest venture, " DISNEY'S TEXAS ADVENTURE"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If something like that did indeed come about, I don't think it would affect Disney World in Florida because it would be a different "animal". These types of "spin-offs" are much smaller. With regard to pro's, well I think the most obvious pro would be having a Disney Attraction near our city. The name alone will draw, not only from all over Texas, but from the entire region. Couple that with a brilliant campaign that highlights the Houston Galveston Region, that includes the beach, the cruise ship industry (who knows maybe Disney could introduce one of their cruise liners that departs from Galveston), Nasa, Gulf Greyhound Park, Historic Galveston, a new and exciting Downtown Houston, the Museum District, the Galleria, Kemah, etc. Disney could be the reason people came to Houston, and once they are here, they could discover the other attractions on their own as a bonus. And with it being in Katy, it would sit on I-10, which would be perfect considering it is major interstate that begins in Downtown Jacksonville and ends in Downtown Los Angeles. Thousands of people would stop like they stop in New Orleans and San Antonio because they sit on I-10. It couldn't be in a more convenient location in Houston. On the con side, well this is more of a personal thing for me. Disney is not known for it's thrill rides. That's not to say it is not a succesfull Company because we all know it is. But I am a thrill ride lover, and if Disney enters the Houston area, I think there will be a thrill ride void still left. Ideally, I would want a totally seperate thrill ride park adjacent to the ficticious "Disney's Texas Adventure", that could appeal more to the teens and adults. But I don't think Disney has ever done such a thing. A Disney Kiddie type park with a seperate gated Cedar Pointesque type of park with crazy thrill rides like Cedar point, would be perfection. There have been rumors of Disney one day being in Texas going around for years now. Who knows, maybe with Six Flags exiting Houston, this will give those rumors legs.

DJ, I totally feel you on what you want Houston to be. Since I have been in this city, I have always wanted Houston to be highly regarded. When people thought of Texas, the first thing I wanted people to think of was Houston, not Dallas. When it came to being on the cutting edge of Architecture, I've always wanted Houston to be right up there with the best of them, instead of only being referenced when a particular decade is mentioned. When people outside of Houston thought of cool American cities, I wanted Houston to be regarded as one of them, instead of cities much smaller than ours. But after many years of ups and downs I came to the conclusion that maybe Houston isn't those things, maybe it doesn't want to be those things, and maybe we are not meant to be those things. Who knows, maybe we think more highly of ourselves than we should. Barring the past couple of weeks, most people don't think of Houston, and many who do have a negative view of it. Instead of asking ourselves why this is, we have a tendency to shift into defensive mode, and answer every criticism with, "Houston is a great city with a diverse population". Sometimes I think we have a false sense of reality. We RAVE to the World about our Kemah Boardwalk. We RAVE to the World about AstroWorld. We RAVE to the World about our beaches at Galveston. And the world laughs. It's not that those places aren't nice.......for us. But there are so many other boardwalks that blow Kemah out of the water. There are so many other theme parks that blow AstroWorld out of the water. There are so many other beaches that blow Galveston away. But the funny thing is in many instances, we don't seem to be aware of it. And when we find out, we tend not to care. In my view Houston always seem to be an afterthought. We always seem to be a step behind. We always seem to "get it" after everyone else has. I have my own theories as to why this has happened but I really don't want to argue. But I will say we could use a leader in this city with vision. IMO, there isn't a visible balance of those in power who are progressive and who are conservative. Although there have been things about each mayor we have had that I like and dislike, for me, something shifted in this city after Kathy Whitmire left. There is no need for anyone to begin to point out here failures and her successes. I am aware. But again, when she left, it seemed the city began to loose that edge that we had. The ideas that came to this city began to decline in substance. We began to embrace mediocrity using "wise money management" as the scapegoat. We began to loose our ability to see the big picture of things and began to rely on short term fixes, which in turn retarded our city. Even our infamous Montrose seems to have lost it's edge. IMO, the vibe has changed dramatically. Again DJ, I want Houston to be the same as you described, but seriously maybe we just need to come to the conclusion that it is not and maybe isn't meant to be.

^^^^ WHAT?!?! On another note, I love Nnete, but Letoya Luckett fit in PERFECTLY on 97.9 the Box. That girl is hilarious. The last two times she has guest hosted the show while Nnete has been on vacation, have been some of the funniest I've ever heard on 97.9. Like a hand in glove, Letoya fits in on that morning show.

1. Worked there for 5 years 2. Met my first love. 3. Met my best friends, who are still my best friends to this day 4. Saw some of the most bizarre things I've seen in my life while there. 5. Just in general had some of the most memorable experiences in my life. I consider it a place where I grew up.

Jeebus, why do you think that man smokes? Did it ever occur to you that he may have been addicted to cigarettes? Have you ever done any research on the difficulties of breaking a habit or addiction to nicotine? Did you think about the stress the man probably has been under over the past two weeks? Did you know that stressful times are some of the toughest to get through for smokers who want to quit? Did you know that cigarettes tend to sooth smokers that are under stress? I am not a smoker, never have been a smoker, don't think I ever will be a smoker, and do not advocate smoking. However, I do know things aren't as simple as your judgement Jeebus. I do undertand that most people that smoke don't want to. It's not as simple as just telling someone to stop smoking. Jeebus, there are different layers to things and you have to try to be consicous of that. It's sort of like people that are severely obese. In many cases there are underlying things going on in their lives that people can't see. So it's not as simple as just telling them, "they should just stop eating". Life is deeper than just what you think you see on the surface. Dude, everything isn't just either black or white. Try to place yourself in someone elses position before you judge them and try to go a bit deeper before you make up your mind about a situation.

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! I just saw it. I'm sad about this for a number of reasons, however, maybe this will open an opportunity for Houston to have another park in the future with enough room for large multimillion dollar rides. "Cedar Point South" anyone?

Are you kidding? Link please.

I made a boo boo post, my bad.

The only thing I will say is Kinky makes me laugh. I love how he refers to the citizens of Kerrville, Texas as Kerrverts.

Wow Jeebus, my experience has been the COMPLETE opposite. I have found that the overwhelming majority of poor that need government assistance do so because they truly need it. It looks like your experience is most people on the system are abusing it and only a small percentage actually need it. Two different life experiences. Sometimes I think we need to shake ourselves so we don't lose sight of the fact that there is corruption in every aspect of life. There are corrupt police officers, corrupt politicians, corrupt grocery store baggers, corrupt teachers, corrupt priest and preachers, and believe it or not, there are even corrupt people that abuse the government asssistance programs. But just like most police officers are good people, most priest and preachers are good, most grocery store baggers are good, most teachers are good people, and most politicians have good intentions ( I would like to think so), most people that need assistance actually need it. But as in many things, the spotlight is placed on that small minority of corrupt people, which in turn, fuels the flames for their detractors. So in this case ,a few rotten apples only adds to the belief of some that their lives aren't as fulfilled because, " the poor is wasting OUR tax money" and that the poor is the cause of all of America's problems. Again Jeebus, our experiences obviously have caused us to view things differently, I suppose.

Does anyone know what happened to Tillman Fertitta's proposed redevelopment of the hotel out over the water on the pier ( the name of it escapes me at the moment)? It looks as if it has already been renovated and painted. Tillman's plans included a Roller Coaster, boardwalk games, carousel, etc. Anyone know if the project is still planned?

Another Galveston clean water witness here. The water can be quite beautiful with it's green colored crashing waves. I suppose you have to catch it on it's best days, which by the way is indeed in the spring and at times during the winter months. At other times, as we all know, it can look like chocolate milk.

What type of illness doe Cheryle Keck have? I noticed she had been missing from the morning news for a while but her picture was still on their website.

Crap, now I feel guilty for gossiping. Ok, no more. Well, my guilt got the best of me, so if anyone read my post before I deleted it, please pretend I never typed it. People's private lives are their private lives.

Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! It's true that many Americans seem to have NO concept of poverty and what that truly means. Honestly, I shook my head when I read Jeebus' statement about his disbelieve in that some people don't have $10.00 to their name. It reminded me of Mayor Bill White's statement during the whole Roadside Controversy a few months ago when he said, "If you can afford to drive a car, you should be able to afford $75 for a tow". It's also very much like those who don't understand how anyone with a full time job can be poor. Totally out of touch with the realities of many in this country. Although we as Americans have a reputation for placing ourselves in a bubble and being ignorant to the rest of the world, it is also quite evident we place ourselves in bubbles and become ignorant towards things in our own country.

eelimon, have you seen the Laguarda Low design? Have you compared the two? I think mediocre is the perfect word to describe what they have done in Houston so far. The Mercer alone has turned out to be a HORRENDOUS SCAR on the city skyline. So much so that channel 11 actually did a news story on the building's appearance. Many people have called the office to find out if the building could be made to appear better. Some were even afraid to even go in to enquire about a condo there simply because of it's appearance. IMO, any firm that could make such a huge asthetic blunder, should be in remedial design school, let alone designing something with such city changing potential as the Houston Pavillion. Take a look at their site and browse through the projects on the board they have for Houston. They are all just blah, imo. Houston, for once in recent history, let's do something with a little class instead of seeking out something soley based upon how cheap it can be done. This is a grand opportunity here, let's not screw it up with a design from a company that has a blazing track record of designs that are mediocre at best. Can someone investigate this whole thing to see if EDI will be responsible for this new Houston Landmark? Hey Redscare, do you see why I'm so brow beaten? This is another opportunity that our fair city could screw up. Let us all hope there is another reason EDI has the Pavillion on it's site and the actual design to be used is the one Laguarda Low released.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO No you DIDN'T take it there!!!!!! Coincidentally, Dream Merchant was the place I saw my first ever p*nis ring. The balcony was the place for a lot of the naughty things. What a cool place. By the way, I also remember Sound Exchange as well as Sound Plus. Not to mention the old Soundwaves in the strip center at the corner of Westheimer and Montrose. Had the best bootlegs. And, who could forget the Tower Theater? Can someone say Howard Rollins rocking that joint? Anyway........

Redscare, I got ya. I suppose I felt like preaching on yesterday, so I figured I would make you my one man congregation. I knew what you meant, that's why I included the little wink at the end of the paragraph. In all honesty the emotion that came with that post was not directed toward you. Although I meant what I typed, this was one of those times I admit I probably could have kept my calorie intaker closed.

Double Amen to this post Suzerain. Wanting Houston to progress in itself has nothing to do with trying to be like someone else. Maybe this is what has happened to our city. Fear of being like another city caused us to become stagnant. Or maybe it's because whenever a flaw is brought to the attention of our citizens, we come up with every excuse imaginable and find a way to defend it, like some consistently demonstrate on this board. Who in their right mind can defend the appearance of I-45 North? Well incredibly, a very well known business man in our city found a way to defend the appearance of it. It boggles the brain. It's almost like a particular American President who doesn't want to hear anyone that disagrees with him, so he creates his own world where everything is rosey despite the screaming evidence. That quote from Phillip Johnson was describing the Houston of that time. The Houston of today is different. Houston was on the cutting edge. It wasn't afraid to take chances. It was first to do things. It wanted to be the best of the best. It wanted to be like no other place. Those days are now replaced by a city that seems to be stifled with conservatism ( this has nothing to do with politics). Houston always seems to be a step behind now. We seemed to have embraced a, " as cheap as you can get it" mentality ( and this was evident before 9-11). I truly wonder what Phillip Johnson would say to the overall quality of buildings that have gone up recently in his self described "Showcase City"? With all due respect, but to ignore what has made the worlds greatest cities successful, out of fear of "becoming like other cities", is foolish. Not keeping up with the rest of the world in what is "hip" can leave you in last place, something that unfortunately is becoming a part of who we are. Personally, I can't say I'm exactly for zoning, however I look at the city's number one tourist attraction. It is in the most prestigous shopping area in the region. People literally come from other countries to Houston specifically to shop in this area. It is known across the world. It is Houston's hip stylish beauty mark. And right at the entrance of the 'Rodeo Drive of Texas', is a BIG OL' RED ZONE D' EROTICA SIGN. Folks, despite any argument that anyone makes on how awesome it is to have it there and how it shows how Houston is different from other cities, this is not something to be proud of, and our residents need to begin to understand WHY this sort of thing isn't cool. Redscare, after reading the last paragraph on your last post, I would swear you were describing a number of other cities around the country. I know you wouldn't want downtown Houston to become the way you decribed because that would be like trying to be like other cities, and I know you don't want that.

Now THAT would please me, which we all know is the most important thing.

There was a fantastic article in yesterday's Chronicle about Rice University and how it's having a hard time recruiting students from around the country and even from within Texas because it is located in Houston. Think I'm exaggerating? Check out the link below (Only those that subscribe to the chronicle and can provide an account number will be able to see it. Because it is from yesterday, I can't post a direct link because it is now archived). Link People, this image thing is no joke. Think what you will of the outside worlds negative view of us, but we are the one's being hurt by it. This has nothing to do with anything we have accomplished in our past. This is about who we are today and where we should be going in the future. So mentioning how many Stadiums the city opened within a few years of each other is not worth a hill of beans to me with regard to our image. There are some positive things in the article about a few students who have come to like Houston after being here a couple of years, but the subject of the article is about how the city of Houston itself turns students off and choose to go elsewhere. That is a HECK of a statment to make folks and should be something to think about.