COMMENT OF THE DAY: CHANGING TASTES AT THE CORNER OF MONTROSE AND WESTHEIMER 
“Dallas invading Houston with its bland ‘designer tacos’ made for yuppies. Right across from Austin’s Uchi, where the waitstaff tells you what you’re suppose to taste as you eat. I remember when you could get a blowjob for $20 in this neighborhood. This is sad.” [MW, commenting on Edge Realty Now Seeking To Fill Bright Orange Box with Neighbors for a Montrose Velvet Taco] Photo: Swamplot inbox
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It’s just boring expensive town homes and over priced themed restaurants. There’s character but not the charming and queer character montrose is known for
Yeah, property taxes and the city red taggers have pretty much made running affordable apartments near impossible.
Pffft. You can still get a $20 blowjob in Houston. You just need to head down to Bissonnet between 59 and Beltway 8. And real Mexican food still abounds around many places in Houston.
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Unfortunately, from what I can tell the thought of going to these parts of town is terrifying to most Inner Loopers. They’d rather sit in their bubble in the Gentrified parts of town and lament the loss of $20 blowjobs and real Mexican food.
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It was so refreshing when Anthony Bourdain came to town for Parts Unknown. He eschewed the hoity-toity yuppified Inner Loop places for really awesome ethnic joints in out of the way places. Places I wish I had the balls to go to. I wish more people would stop whining and follow his lead. (Myself included)
While not applicable to everyone, a modern townhome is a way to live in a location and not have to care about the community, however defined. It could be montrose or mars, as long as downtown is driveable in 15 minutes and popular new bars and restaurants are in walking distance. Montrose has both. People are buying the location, not the neighborhood. Then, the neighborhood changes into something new. Pretty standard process.
MW – The hero that Swamplot needs want but doesnt deserve. I look forward to more insightful input on the correlation of gentrification to BJs.
Considering how many folks living in the Montrose aren’t even originally from Houston or moved back to retire, it makes perfect sense though.
@ZAW,
You wish you had the balls to go to Hillcroft and 59? Pretty much the entire episode at or near that intersection.
You really do need to grow a pair since it’s: 1) not that far from the inner loop bubble; and 2) not at all dangerous (at least not during daylight hours).
@Bama, Pretty sure that exact area was ZAW’s long time stomping grounds. He was referring to us yuppiefied inner loopers though.
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But to be fair, one of the primary reasons people choose to live in the montrose/inner loop area is the convenience of NOT having to get on freeways to go out to eat or entertain. It’s not about fear, it’s about free time and walkability.
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I don’t think I’ve hopped onto a FWY to go out to eat in over a decade. It takes special occasions just to get me to go down to S. Main or N. Shepherd areas.
Joel, that makes you sound more provincial than your typical Houston suburbanite. You should hop in a car and explore what this city has to offer sometime. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Oh, and I thought Bourdain’s Houston episode made our city look like a third world hell hole. You’ve got to balance the low brow with the high end to get a proper feel for any city. Also didn’t appreciate the pickup truck/cowboy imagery supposedly representing the “bad” or “boring” aspects of our city. The stereotypically Texan aspects of the city add to its rich tableau.
I don’t care what the wait staff tell you to taste, Uchi is wonderful. Velvet taco is pretty mediocre in my opinion though. Still, it’s better than that awful empty lot.
Thank you, Joel. Exactly what I was getting at. People in Houston spend too much time lamenting the loss of the old hip neighborhoods to end stage gentrification, and too little time finding new neighborhoods to make hip. At the same time (and perhaps because of it) poorer neighborhoods tend to wallow in despair instead of improving. And the City gets more and more segregated as a result of these two interrelated phenomena.
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That’s always been my view of it: at least since I lived in Brays Oaks from 2007 to 2015. It hasn’t changed since then.
@Bama, Don’t worry I was born and raised in stinkadena, schooled in galvatraz and never made it out. With a daily commute through the west end I’m provincial by choice….and very glad to be able to afford such an option in a large city.
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@ZAW, I’m afraid I AM your example though. Having to commute to the energy corridor means options are very limited without having a dramatic impact on commute times. School zoning and quality parks take priority with kids.
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I thinks it’s worth noting that Houston has never had a strong demographic base to churn the wheels of gentrification and sprawl probably kills all of it pre-emptively. Lack of mass transportation and density makes established commute patterns far more important than in other large cities and housing options make reaching critical mass in different neighborhoods exceedingly difficult. We don’t seem to have a lot of small young businesses capable of taking up lower rent space in underutilized parts of town.
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UH is a commuter school so it’s taken what feels like more than an entire generation for the UH / East End areas to slowly go through the motions.
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With the Heights/Washington areas accessibility to high paying job centers it seems like they quickly just went straight to end game gentrification, move along.
This intersection currently has a Smoothie King on one corner, a Valero on the other with a Burger King sitting next to it, and across the street there’s a bland strip mall with a Mattress Firm. The store in question is filling a vacant lot next to the Smoothie King. Tell me again how this isn’t an improvement?
I lived when it was male and female hooker row a ND on Friday and Saturday every kid from the suburbs packed into cars trucks ECT to cruise up and down the street and it clogged cross traffic even with a light something fierce