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I aspire to be more pampered in SL than has been the case so far.
With supposed advances in telecommunciations technology (finer glass in fiber optics, and wave-division multiplexing) and virtual reality, that could be very possible.
I aspire to be more pampered in SL than has been the case so far.
I hear ya! I would, too, considering.
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Yeah, I haven't heard about crime specifically at Sugar Land Town Square yet but they might want to re-think their current advertising campaign that says, "Sugar Land Town Square...Always Happening."
But I think EA is right - easy in/out access from the FCM parking lots. Very similar to the The Woodlands Mall parking lots, too.
I know that. That's why I'm not ashamed to say I liked/frequented Westwood and went to the Westland YMCA off of Fondren when I was little. My parents moved here in '82 as my dad got a job working for a company called Centercom Technologies -- (they are now defunct and the building they worked out of is now the Sugar Land Fire Dept. headquarters off of Corporate Dr). My mom was going to nursing school at Wharton and would talk about going to Sharpstown Mall on the weekends. I was born at Sharpstown Hospital which is now a vacant shell. Though that era you are speaking of (Fondren being a hot area) was a little before my time, even as someone born in the mid-80's I can recall how SW Houston & Fondren in particular was still a pretty bustling place. For instance, I remember there used to be an old-school Gap store at Fondren and W Bellfort, the First City Bank failing, etc. I'm 25, man -- I'm not that young.
I certainly meant no offense whatsoever; I was ADDING TO and AGREEING WITH your post, not tearing you down.
I do pretty much die laughing when people tout "lifestyle centers" like City Centre (which is very nice and which I like, btw) as "New and Exciting!" when it looks exactly like the shopping centers I grew up being dragged to by my Mom in her 63 Impala station wagon. I mean, they're the same thing, just with updated architecture. I was just smiling and saying, "everything old is new again", which is what all MY relatives told ME.
I will, however, point out: I was 28 when you were born. The point was not "look how young he is!" but just to give a little Houston history which some other people on the thread might not have.
As I said in the pm (Alpha graciously pm'med me; a class act), no apology necessary. It's hard to convey things on a message board sometimes.
I agree completely with your original post. Westwood Mall was a very nice mall when I lived here, and it was full of "upscale" people (of all ethnic groups, but upscale). It had all the major mall stores, and that big carousel. I loved that Sears; bought all kinds of stuff there (I'm a sucker for the "Craftsman" and "Kenmore" brands...). I still have some of that stuff.
Houston, as has often been said, is a moving target. Areas come and go. Just because an area goes "bad" doesn't mean it won't come back. Westbury got kind of "iffy" there for a while, but has come roaring back.
It's going to be fascinating to see what this city looks like 10 years from now.
Interesting perspectives on Houston hx
Thx Malvie and others
Much of why I admire both TX and CA is their continual eagerness to innovate; tear-down; move; build new-tech stuff, etc etc
Suspect just as major cos. move office campuses every 15-20yrs to some new-tech campus, many people like to reside in a new-tech house in a good locale (and those locales are somewhat moving targets)
And many major cos. in SiliconValley already have many of their workers tele-commuting which has implications for commute/traffic patterns in every major region in US (SV traffic is already some of fastest in world, likely due to these changing work patterns and mobile tech making physical offices and commutes less relevant)
And many tech-savvy people already buy much of their mundane stuff on-line making much of retail space irrelevant
Sort of like how Kindles (and presumably iPads) will make superbookstores and public libraries the stuff of Luddites
I'm still trying to understand why anyone builds these massive, costly new stadiums (like the one in DFW) when one can see any game better with latest TV in comfort of own home (for far less money)
Guess some changes will take more time, esp in less innovative regions...but in any major region in US, most major cos. (and new start-up cos.) are already HQd in distant newer suburbs like Irving or Cupertino or MountainView, not in a Luddite city skyscraper....will be interesting dynamics of newer suburbs vs old cities/suburbs, in many dimensions, over next 10-25yrs
I'm still trying to understand why anyone builds these massive, costly new stadiums (like the one in DFW) when one can see any game better with latest TV in comfort of own home (for far less money)
In order for his dream to happen, a football field will have to be built in a soundstage in L.A. (Where would you hold a football game if not in a stadium?)
All you youngesters just wait till you get to be an old fart like me. Then you will have seen the cycles come and go, as I have.
Those much-vaunted "Lifestyle Centers" used to be called "Shopping Centers" and that's what we had before the malls. They were all over the place. Rice Village was the example in Houston; Dallas had Preston Center and Wynnewood Village; Ft. Worth had Seminary South. That's where my mother took US, because there were no malls. The shopping centers were usually surrounded by nice neighborhoods and an apartment complex or two (nice). We all thought it amazing when they built these huge malls that were *air conditioned* so you didn't get in the heat, and enclosed so you didn't get wet.
The malls came and the malls went; now the "lifestyle centers" are vogue and everything old is new again.
As to Southwest Houston, when I moved here fresh out of college in 1979, southwest Houston was the happening place for singles. We ALL lived out on the southwest side somewhere. Sharpstown Mall was solidly second-tier (along with Memorial City, Baybrook, and Northwest Mall), and frankly, Sharpstown and Memorial City were tied for #2 (The Galleria was #1 from the day it was built). The area around Sharpstown was VERY nice, not Memorial but the next level. The first wave of "little" malls had begun their decline: Northline and Gulfgate, specifically, though both were still "ok". Greenspoint was another as nice as Sharpstown and Memorial City, it was just "all the way north"; it was the very northern end of Houston.
Asians lived south of downtown ("Midtown") in Chinatown, of course. Washington Avenue was a place to get shot; Montrose was the gay mecca and the Medical Center was a whole lot smaller. The Shamrock Hotel still stood, there were cranes all over downtown Houston, and "inside the loop" wasn't all that big a deal (in fact, other than River Oaks and West U, many of those areas were pretty "iffy"). The Summit was where the Rockets played basketball, and the Astros were in their Dome, as were the Oilers.
Westwood Mall was brand new when I lived on Bissonet (along with thousands of other singles); we all went to Richmond Avenue for excitement (and it wasn't the strip club mecca then, there were lots of nice restaurants and clubs). Westwood was as nice as any of the other malls; not nearly as big as Sharpstown and Memorial City. Fondren Southwest was where, when you saved enough money, you went to buy your first condo. Westbury was a lovely residential neighborhood, as was Sharpstown Country Club Estates.
The oil bust of the early 80's devastated southwest Houston, and that's when the changes started happening. I was shocked when a friend of mine bought a condo in Fondren Southwest (!! -- where I couldn't even afford to look in 1979!) at auction using her Visa card. That's when all that happened.
I was talking with my nephew the other day, trying to describe Houston without the Beltway or the Tollways, when Sharpstown was cool and when the 3-lanes-on-each-side part of the Southwest Freeway ended at Bissonnet (it was a 4-lane-with-grass-median rural interstate after that), when Sugar Land was this small town featuring a sugar refinery and a prison and they had built this new neighborhood waaaaaaaaaaay out on Highway 6 (and it was ONE neighborhood/subdivision) called "First Colony"; when Highway 6 was "Jackrabbit Rd." and was out in the country; when Andrau Airpark sat where Royal Oaks is now; and when "the Loop" was the ONLY "Loop".
He didn't believe me. Oh, he believed me, but he couldn't wrap his brain around it.
Wow, amazing history lesson. Thank You. I wonder if this would ever happen again and where.
All you youngesters just wait till you get to be an old fart like me. Then you will have seen the cycles come and go, as I have.
Those much-vaunted "Lifestyle Centers" used to be called "Shopping Centers" and that's what we had before the malls. They were all over the place. Rice Village was the example in Houston; Dallas had Preston Center and Wynnewood Village; Ft. Worth had Seminary South. That's where my mother took US, because there were no malls. The shopping centers were usually surrounded by nice neighborhoods and an apartment complex or two (nice). We all thought it amazing when they built these huge malls that were *air conditioned* so you didn't get in the heat, and enclosed so you didn't get wet.
The malls came and the malls went; now the "lifestyle centers" are vogue and everything old is new again.
As to Southwest Houston, when I moved here fresh out of college in 1979, southwest Houston was the happening place for singles. We ALL lived out on the southwest side somewhere. Sharpstown Mall was solidly second-tier (along with Memorial City, Baybrook, and Northwest Mall), and frankly, Sharpstown and Memorial City were tied for #2 (The Galleria was #1 from the day it was built). The area around Sharpstown was VERY nice, not Memorial but the next level. The first wave of "little" malls had begun their decline: Northline and Gulfgate, specifically, though both were still "ok". Greenspoint was another as nice as Sharpstown and Memorial City, it was just "all the way north"; it was the very northern end of Houston.
Asians lived south of downtown ("Midtown") in Chinatown, of course. Washington Avenue was a place to get shot; Montrose was the gay mecca and the Medical Center was a whole lot smaller. The Shamrock Hotel still stood, there were cranes all over downtown Houston, and "inside the loop" wasn't all that big a deal (in fact, other than River Oaks and West U, many of those areas were pretty "iffy"). The Summit was where the Rockets played basketball, and the Astros were in their Dome, as were the Oilers.
Westwood Mall was brand new when I lived on Bissonet (along with thousands of other singles); we all went to Richmond Avenue for excitement (and it wasn't the strip club mecca then, there were lots of nice restaurants and clubs). Westwood was as nice as any of the other malls; not nearly as big as Sharpstown and Memorial City. Fondren Southwest was where, when you saved enough money, you went to buy your first condo. Westbury was a lovely residential neighborhood, as was Sharpstown Country Club Estates.
The oil bust of the early 80's devastated southwest Houston, and that's when the changes started happening. I was shocked when a friend of mine bought a condo in Fondren Southwest (!! -- where I couldn't even afford to look in 1979!) at auction using her Visa card. That's when all that happened.
I was talking with my nephew the other day, trying to describe Houston without the Beltway or the Tollways, when Sharpstown was cool and when the 3-lanes-on-each-side part of the Southwest Freeway ended at Bissonnet (it was a 4-lane-with-grass-median rural interstate after that), when Sugar Land was this small town featuring a sugar refinery and a prison and they had built this new neighborhood waaaaaaaaaaay out on Highway 6 (and it was ONE neighborhood/subdivision) called "First Colony"; when Highway 6 was "Jackrabbit Rd." and was out in the country; when Andrau Airpark sat where Royal Oaks is now; and when "the Loop" was the ONLY "Loop".
He didn't believe me. Oh, he believed me, but he couldn't wrap his brain around it.
I remember some of the crest of that era, as a teen, after my family moved here in the great Summer of 1982. Memories. Great memories. Hell, I still love going through Alief. My bro came back for a visit from Seattle and I told him after we ate at Boracay Filipino Cafe off Bellaire (near Synott), "Well, the food in Alief has gotten MUCH better since our teen days."
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