Lubbock catches hell, but I think there's at least a few other cities in Texas that are guilty too. Midland comes to mind here. Midland is actually looking to demolish several of their mid rises from the 50s and 60s because they're completely vacant. I read somewhere that some of the 10 and 12-story buildings there are for sale and are only asking $100,000 for them! There's at least 3 buildings that are being considered for demo. And to think that back in the 70s and 80s the place was booming. I read that at one time Midland had three 500 footers planned, one of them was to be designed by I.M. Pei.
Odessa, its neighbor to the west is right now demolishing one of its tallest buildings, a 10-story office building.
Amarillo, Abilene, Waco, Beaumont and Tyler on the other hand are encouraging. They've made strides in renovating old buildings and encouraging downtown living. These still have a way to go, but it's awesome that that these small and mid-sized cities are at least making the effort while others give up. Beaumont and Tyler still have a ways to go compared to the others, but they're headed in the right direction at least with their efforts.
I really have to give props to Waco. They have several mid rise residential buildings in downtown. One building which is an old office building from the 1920s had 3 extra floors added and is now completely residential. Another building is a residential building geared towards students from Baylor University. And their 2nd tallest which used to be a hotel originally, then was used for senior citizen living, is now being renovated and will contain residential, some office, retail and restaurant space. Their old Hippodome Theatre is still open in downtown. They also have a downtown plaza and bus stop. And the downtown is anything but vacant. There's plenty of shops and restaurants. Still, you don't see a huge amount of people on the street, although, I'm usually there around Thanksgiving, so that might be why.
Even Abilene is encouraging. I've been downtown as late as midnight in January with the temperature at like 25F with ice in the trees and people were still hanging out in the clubs downtown. Their old downtown theatre, (the name escapes me), is still in use. Outside of downtown, though, Abilene is fairly suburban, even rural just on its edges. But it's still one of the only cities in Texas period, that their 2nd tallest is used for residential purposes. Even the big cities can't brag about such things, (though Austin is trying).
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