Houston's Downtown Is, Like, Nothing But A Sea Of Parking Lots...

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

I dunno. I drove between Palm Springs and LA recently, and got off the 10/215 to see downtown Riverside since it's gotten a bit of attention on this forum. I was pleasantly surprised. I definitely saw more pedestrians in downtown Riverside in that afternoon than I ever have on any street in Houston. Not to mention, the surrounding residential neighborhoods in Riverside felt very old California to me. I thought it was quite charming.

Downtown Riverside is definitely a lot prettier than Downtown Houston, but prettier doesn’t necessarily mean more interesting. There are some serious “high culture” performance companies… ballet, opera, symphony, and a nationally renowned resident theater company along with major league baseball, basketball and soccer in Downtown Houston. Plus performance venues for touring music and theater productions.

If you want to see pedestrians in downtown Houston, you have to be lucky enough to be there when the weather is really good, and go to where people hang out when the weather is really good, namely Discovery Green and, to a lesser extent, Market Square parks. Discovery Green looked like this when I went one Tuesday afternoon in February 2020 (just before everything went “viral” ) when the weather was terrific:


Discovery Green Park on Flickr


Discovery Green Park on Flickr


Discovery Green Park on Flickr


Discovery Green Park on Flickr


Levitating in Discovery Green Parkon Flickr


Avenida de las Americas on Flickr


Avenida de las Americas on Flickr

Again, that was a Tuesday.

[JManc]

Market Square and Discovery Green are almost always active even when it's hot and humid out. I bet it if I went downtown right now (5PM and 96F) there would be quite a few people, at DG at least. Otherwise no, people aren't wandering around downtown like most traditional downtowns.

[Innsertnamehere]

Flex lanes are literally everywhere in Toronto, especially on major commercial streets.

Rush hour enforcement is generally pretty strict as well, with the City contracting tow trucks to go tow offenders every day.

Overall effectiveness.. a flex lane isn't going to 100% be open, but curb lanes are often occupied by pick up and drop off downtown anyway. It's certainly better than leaving the spaces as commercial parking for traffic.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Flex lanes are literally everywhere in Toronto, especially on major commercial streets.

This certainly looks like it to me. Signs say no stopping 7:30-9:30 AM and 3:30-6:30 PM.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6481...le.chrome.ios.

[Crawford]

Downtown Houston has been pretty dead when I visited, but a lot of the activity is in the tunnels.

West of Main it's basically an office park. Cool, with some of the best 1980's skyscrapers, but not much different than the Galleria area. East of Main you have all this crap (convention center, sports arena, bunch of connected complexes) that fill space but don't really create anything cohesive. Main Street isn't bad and about the only thing resembling a typical downtown. It has some nice infill and attractive renovations.

Kinda like LA, Houston's downtown is sorta irrelevant to the overall metro feel. You really understand the city better via all the various freeway-linked nodes.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

Or attract people who aren't working during work hours.

And it's depressing (or angering) to realize it wasn't always like it is now.


on Flickr

Wow! Great image.

Off topic, but I like seeing American cities during the interwar years, because being the vintage traffic sign/traffic control devices freak that I am, I think it's cool that Houston seems to always have had those "sideways"mounted traffic lights. During this era, Los Angeles had the ACME semaphores (STOP/GO), San Francisco had the birdcage traffic light, and NYC had the 2-color signals. Traffic signs/traffic lights weren't standardized until some time after WWII. I think well into the 1950s, traffic signs throughout the US, except for California, were yellow. California always had red stop signs.

OK, sorry for being off topic!

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Wow! Great image.

I think it's cool that Houston seems to always have had those "sideways"mounted traffic lights.

OK, sorry for being off topic!

No worries. Nothing is off-topic in one of my dumb threads.

Some of the new-ish traffic lights in DT Houston are now vertical. If you pan around in this street view you will see both types in the same intersection as well as in the preceding and following intersections: https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7585...5409&entry=ttu

Lots of intersections are like this.

I looked up the reasoning behind the horizontal lights. The stated main reason is they are easier for drivers to see the entire traffic light when stopped at an intersection. Also, horizontal hanging lights have two connections instead of one holding them to the wire... helpful in our... ahem... "interesting" ...weather.


ETA: I just realized that in the small photo on the bottom right, the next visible intersection beyond the one where the pedestrians are crossing is the intersection in this Google street view. The disappearance of retail has really ruined Downtown.

[DCReid]

Are these downtown buildings landmarked?

Interra Capital Group has acquired the 600K SF historic Esperson buildings in Downtown Houston through a foreclosure sale.

https://www.bisnow.com/houston/news/...closure-125416

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by DCReid

Are these downtown buildings landmarked?

I can't find them in any list of protected landmarks... which is typical.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Interra said it plans to maintain the historic character of the complex that at one point had been slated for an office-to-residential conversion.

“Our acquisition of the Esperson reflects not just an investment in real estate but also a commitment to preserving the historical integrity of significant properties."

They better not try anything...