- Texas Association of Realtors Finds Houston Home Sales Slowed Down in Third Quarter [HBJ]
- Greenspoint District Has Changed Its Name to the North Houston District [HBJ]
- State Awards Houston $25.4M to Defray Cost of Putting on the Super Bowl [Houston Chronicle]
- Fifth Location of The Union Kitchen Announced Inside Elan Memorial Park [Eater Houston]
- Chef Chris Shepherd Puts Out Teasers for January Steakhouse Opening on Instagram [Eater Houston]
- Homeowners Threaten To Sue Over Pearland ISD’s $220M Bond Proposal [Houston Press]
- Where Have All the Inner Loop Dive Bars Gone? [Houstonia]
- Art Installation Opening in Cistern Next Month Will Project Video on the 221 2-Story-Tall Columns [Houstonia]
- Iconic Giant Crab Statue To Return to Roof of Gaido’s Seafood Restaurant This Week [Galveston County Daily News]
- How Donald Trump Gives His Buildings Extra Height [New York Times ($)]
Photo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Greenspoint will always be “Gunspoint” for me …. that was set in stone after I found spent bullets in a parking lot there.
Is this supposed to be an article somewhere???
You’ll always be “Gunspoint” to me North Houston District. [Sigh]
Poor managers of the Greenspoint district is why they changed the name. Poor managers is probably what they should’ve thought of reinventing and changing of the area.
Fun fact: the NFL is expected to pass $13.3 billion in revenue this year. But hey, no problem, we can fork over $25 million to make things pretty for them, and continue to subsidize stadiums.
Is there any documentation on cost/benefit to hosting a Super Bowl? I have a hard time believing it’s a win for both sides.
@WR Bullets or shells? If it was bullets, that would be some kind of luck.
Re: State Awards $25.4 million to help out Super Bowl committee
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I love how the Chron’s article noted that the state’s trust fund has been found to have lax oversight and its efforts are dubious at bringing home the bacon.
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Plus, I have to agree with j: does the Super Bowl really bring in more than it costs to put on?
The problem with Greenspoint is a lack of police presence combined with a high concentration of run down apartment complexes and section 8. Changing just one of those three factors would have a significant impact. Security = Safety = increased investment as the area is strategically located near the airport and benefits from the now completed east side of beltway 8 and the growing new communities springing east of Mesa Dr.. Lobbying for greater police presence will likely fail and the area will end up paying extra for constable patrols. I call this being double taxed in order to supplement current and inadequate police presence which is already paid for via property tax as this is technically part of Houston city limits. Houston is just simple way too big to police itself with current police levels. The last two go hand in hand as rundown apartment complex owners do not want to invest in their properties as they likely bought low and are banking on an increase in property values while at the same time receive premium rents from section 8ers to supplement the low rent charged to non section 8 residents. The North Houston District has quite a long road ahead but what is working in their favor is time and the city core inside 610 continues its upward trend of being expensive.
http://web.williams.edu/Economics/wp/mathesonSuperbowl.pdf
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Sounds it like it says cities can expect a 1/4 of the revenue that the NFL or their paid think tanks will calculate up, but that overall it’s a net expense for the cities.
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Naturally, one would ask why a city that makes practically nothing on tourism would be keen on hosting an event that would only cost it money in the short term with no potential for revenue gains in the long term.
North Houston!…NoHo…we don’t want no hoes no mo!!!!!!
I guess this is another one: http://college.holycross.edu/RePEc/spe/Matheson_SuperBowl09.pdf
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Again, leave it for the tourist cities. When the super bowl does arrive, I intend on not spending a single cent in the city of Houston that entire weekend and would encourage others to do the same. Hopefully someone will actually be interested in and looking at the numbers.
(a different “j”)
Joel: I suspect you know this already, but it’s akin to the control premium afforded those who stand astride public companies. The pols who kowtow to the NFL get to go to the stadium, take pictures with athletes, and pretend they are important for something other than frittering away their constituencies’ hard-earned dollars for personal gain.
@J, I would assume as such, but I do try to be fair and consider less insidious motives.
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I mean, “I got the super bowl” probably looks very very good on a resume for a private lobbyist which my understanding is the end goal for all politicans whether it be a city mayor or a 5 star general.
Joel- i sure hope they don’t go bankrupt because you boycotted them!
Haverstock Hills might be a nice name to consider for this area
@HeyHeyHouston
spent bullets, not casings … one and then again 10 months later. I was amazed too.
PS – Shells are for shotguns ….
Good luck getting an increased police presence. Areas like this all over the country will just get worse. They are about to be completely left to their own devices. This is thanks to leadership in this country completely undermining the authority of peace officers and the rule of law. Even the few officers that are assigned to these areas are going to avoid the worse parts. Why risk your life to stop a criminal when he is just daring you to pull a weapon or taken him to the ground. He knows if you don’t, he gets away and if you do, he gets to be a martyr.
conventions. that is the (hoped for at least) lasting effect of a superbowl.
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people who organize and bring these events to a city don’t care about the game, they don’t care about the players, the fans, any of that. They care about the large corporations that will attend the superbowl, for whatever reasons.
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a lot of the events of the weeks leading up to the superbowl are in and around the convention centers in town. this is a showcase of the convention center to try and bring in more business. just look at all the flurry of activity in houston leading up to the superbowl. it hasn’t been on updating the areas around the stadium, it has barely been on updating the stadium. they put in new wifi and updated some seats?
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where millions (and not even hundreds of millions) have been spent on the stadium, billions have been spent updating the convention area. a new facade on the convention center, a new world class hotel, dozens of restaurants in the convention district. this was done in a huge push to show that Houston is capable of hosting any event.
Rebrand all you want. Declaring a turd to be a truffle doesn’t change the fact that it’s a turd.
“Plus, I have to agree with j: does the Super Bowl really bring in more than it costs to put on?”
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I don’t know, but like the Olympics, there is pretty fierce competition to be selected. If it were a negative, cities would be passing on the chance.