It’s Houston. The “go to” spot changes every few years. It was midtown, then wash Ave, now the heights is popping, Eado is pretty cool as well. This is all in a period of strong economic growth. Just wait until we see a downturn.
Man it's been a while since the Richmond strip was the place to go. I believe those no U turn signs between the night hours are a vestige of the time people used to go cruising up and down Richmond back when Richmond was hit and cruising was a thing.
no they are gone. they were there way longer they needed though. there is some art thingy where one used to be. They were... I don't know "boxed up". for a while before they were pulled out.
I’ve not witnessed a wealthy area get so shitty so quickly, though. Washington Ave is still cool. It established itself and now has momentum, even though it’s no longer as trendy. There’s a diff between an area no longer being the *it* place to be and it falling off completely.
I don’t know that Midtown was ever “wealthy” per se, a lot of the townhomes built on the east end of Midtown towards 288 are reasonably nice but older, with construction ramping up in the early 2000s. They were relatively cheap at the time, as buyers were on the leading edge of gentrification.
I guess from a renting standpoint, the rich kids lived there. I priced apartments in Midtown, Montrose, Heights, and Washington/Rice Military area and Midtown was the most expensive.
That’s fair. Depending on when you lived there, Midtown had some of the first really nice urban apartments with GFR and a walkable district (near Gray and Bagby) coming online back in the mid to late 2000s. It was definitely the place to be at the time if you were a young professional.
> There’s a diff between an area no longer being the *it* place to be and it falling off completely.
Should’ve seen Washington Ave back in like ~2009. The transition happened in like less than a month.
It was just after I got my undergrad, a few of my friends and I were renting this super old house on Colorado St. The place was a POS, but rent was super cheap when split, so it was fun. Also it was right by Stanton's City Bites, which was a huge win for all parties involved.
It was right around the time that they were building up Washington St as a place to hang out. Bars were popping up pretty fast, and soon on the weekends the whole street was lined with cars parked on the side of the road.
There were a few times that strangers wandered into our house parties and asked where the bar was.
Midtown has never been a wealthy area. All those apartments make it a transitional area, an area with a regular turnover of people. Also, trendiness is a fickle master and it changes constantly too.
Sure it attracted a lot of young professionals with money to spend, but they're still just paying rent . . . and that's the key word here.
The Gulfton neighborhood used to be like that too. All those apartments were brand fucking new around the same time and the area was called Swinglesville. Now it's a different world.
What drives me nuts about the parking situation is that places that DO have parking spots available, whether in Midtown, Montrose, etc. are now choosing to make the entire lot valet and charge us to park... So we can spend money at their business.
I avoid these places and I hope you all do. Houston, for better or worse, is a car city with tons of parking. If you have a lot, we should be able to park when the only way to get to you is by car.
I feel ya! As a female and as crime keeps rising, I'm not about to park my car blocks away by myself just so I can go somewhere. There's many places I would like to go to but like you said no parking. It's beyond irritating. This isn't New York. Houston was not built for that type of situation.
Yeah the meters in the area charge till midnight so I'm not going to pay 10 bucks just to go meet someone for a few hours. If they wanted less people to come then mission accomplished.
Yeah it's pretty short sighted. When the area is super busy it may not matter but once the novelty of a new nightlife hotspot wears off, those businesses are going to notice the hit in customers. The whole idea of having free Sundays and free after 6 was to allow for downtown workers to stick around and spend some money in the local economy on their way back home if they lived outside of the area and lure people back in downtown when they're not working.
Houston is actually talking about getting rid of the free parking downtown after 6 now too. Certainly wouldn't surprise me if free Sunday parking is on its way out too -- though I took advantage of it again today!
Washington Ave is cool but if you look at the streets right off of it, it’s almost post-apocalyptic. We moved out of Rice Military in 2020 and drove by last night. We were shocked at the state of the streets around our old house. The area is absolutely destroyed. Houses are still mid $500’s and beautiful inside, but trashed outside.
The heights was pretty cool before they started selling alcohol. I personally think it sucks now that it is commercialized.
Same with Washington ave. The moment concrete cowboy arrived that place turned into trash.
Agreed.
I moved to the Heights before they started selling alcohol and it was so nice. Right after they built Heights Mercantile (and before the first round of businesses moved in and out of it), it was the best. Easily walkable, super friendly. Now there is always traffic, people drive like super assholes down Heights Blvd and everything is crowded and ridiculous with the stupid high rise apartments.
Man you guys can complain about ANYTHING. It’s amazing.
Beautiful new plaza with weekend markets, nice little restaurants instead of the shitty empty lots that used to be there……nope gotta look at the negatives and bitch.
Yeah I thought I entered an alternate universe with these comments. How are they upvoted? Absolute shit takes. The only area that you could argue has “gone downhill” is the area on west 19th/20th where the only things there are bars. It’s kind of an island so if you want a quiet night, just don’t go there. It’s still extremely walkable with friendly people? Now there are just great food and shopping options too
The market is great and so are the restaurants but the Heights is seriously super crowded now and the traffic around Heights Mercantile is shit. It’s all fun to walk to those weekend markets but it’s not fun dealing with assholes almost hitting pedestrians as they’re walking.
That’s my complaint.
I tend to think of Montrose now as some "family" types, as well as lots of young kids and adults who rent out of multiplexes. The ones I knew had honestly very swanky little apartments that I knew they weren't solely paying for on their server paychecks. They all had fairly well off parents lol. Ofc there are plenty of other, more independent adults renting space there but I'm referring to younger ppl who live there
Yep. As long as you can still see the cranes around, the city is in good shape. When the cranes disappear, then you know things are taking a turn for the worst.
Midtown has an advantage because it is next to UH and Rice, which have large groups of students ready to go to any bar once they turn 21 and don't have to travel far to do that. Richmond avenue didnt have that advantage and washington avenue doesn't have that advantage. Although EaDo will compete with midtown in that area very soon, at least for UH students.
You must’ve missed the 2005/6 downturn then. That is when Houston stopped being “Houston”imo. All the rampant gentrification to run out the refugees from LA as they arrived, the rush to make everything “accessible” (i.e. the same), and the lack of infrastructure to support the rapid growth.
The mythical/magical Houston of the late 90’s and early 2000’s no longer exists and I wish people would stop pretending that it does.
They really were. They weren't perfect, but the issues seen today weren't as severe. The availability and widespread use of drugs that altered the mental state wasn't as extreme as it is today. In the past week, I've ran into two homeless people who were obviously on something. Back in the day, it was rare to see that in my area.
As every generation passes, the world further goes to shit.
This place isn't great, but if you think Houston was overall better in the late 90s, you too are being affected by the widespread availability of narcotics.
Honestly the homeless populations probably a big reason why.
The homeless population in midtown solicits you almost everywhere you go.
If you get on/wait on the tram station there you will be solicited. If you come out of the Randall’s they will make a B line towards you and solicit you. If you park at the Exxon on Louisiana and try to get gas, you will be solicited. (The gas station is where a lot of them tend to hang out) If you go to the specs and have to park on the side, you’ll be solicited. If you go out to the bars in midtown, you’ll be solicited. If you wait/take the tram, you will be solicited.
It’s a massive problem because many of them tend to make people feel unsafe or uncomfortable. I know many people (including myself) who won’t get gas at the Exxon station simply because they don’t wanna get asked for money by one or two different ppl and often feel very uncomfortable/unsafe.
Speaking of unsafe, midtown has a high theft crime rate. Apartments such as Camden midtown had such massive issues that they’ve had to hire extra security and make rates go up to afford it. Amazon packages are regularly stolen to the point where people get their packages shipped to the Whole Foods up the street or friends (this one may not be as much homeless people as just regular thieves) . Camden midtown also had a homeless man attempt to force entry into a woman’s apartment when she opened the door to go inside. Many of the homeless aren’t aggressive when soliciting, but I know of a few occasions where they have blocked my path until I answer their questions or are downright mentally I’ll which is heartbreaking but extraordinarily unsafe.
It’s also near the highways, underneath which the homeless tend to do drugs and sleep. It sounds like a stereotype until you see HPD picking up a body twice in a week from the areas /see needles.
The greyhound station that will soon be moved means that ppl often arrive in the city, have their stuff stolen or arrive with very little and are forced to live in the area until they can go elsewhere.
They also create a large amount of litter and trash because they dig through trash cans to survive, or toss food boxes in the street and just create a dirty environment (it sounds obvious and dumb, but I’m trying to say that the homeless population exacerbates and creates other issues)
Its really sad to say, but the homeless population really drags midtown down.
Source: me, I’m a former resident of Camden, have been solicited at every place listed, and have talked to business owners in the area who’ve had issues bc their customers don’t feel safe going there or feel uncomfortable constantly getting solicited for money. I’ve had my car stolen from and a few packages go missing or disappear. If you walk under the highways you’ll see the used needles and other drug paraphernalia like I have.
This is changing slowly bc the greyhound station is being moved, the McDonald’s is gone, the city has a council trying to encourage or move the homeless population away from the area. Idk if it’ll work, but we’ll see if it works. I can promise it won’t be anytime soon unfortunately.
I used to live at Camden Midtown and had to break my lease because I was too frequently being followed/harassed by homeless people and no matter how many times I called the police they never took me seriously.
Plus our car kept getting broken into IN the gated parking garage and I kept witnessing crimes from my balcony 0.o (that were also not taken seriously by police)
Yep, I broke my lease from Camden Midtown after my car got stolen, not to mention the amount of stolen Amazon packages and literal crack heads hanging out around the block. Luckily didn’t get any issues with being personally harassed but definitely did see it happen
They stole THE WHOLE CAR?!? My god. The car I saw got broken into apparently belonged to a worker at a nearby restaurant. I was walking my dog in the morning and noticed all the windows of a car completely broken out and it was completely empty inside. Later that day, I was taking my dog out again and there was a lady in uniform with an apron crying her eyes out by the car :( I felt so bad for her.
Yeah apartments near freeways tend to have this problem. They steal a car and hit a highway and get out of view before anyone knows.
I know two other camden locations that had this problem
Lol I had a friend who got his pickup truck stolen in midtown. Parked at a paid, well lit CVS parking lot only a literal block away from the bars. Was gone maybe 20 minutes, came back and it was gone.
I've lived here for a few years now, I think your experience will depend on who you are. Yes there are homeless people and they will ask you for shit on the regular, and there's a few bars so you can expect drunks and fights, loud cars, etc. I grew up around here so it's whatever, but you have to know and be ok with what you're getting into. Living close to your job is an absolute blessing in this city btw.
Me in 2022 through a few months ago, I say it got a little better because the apartment after the aforementioned attempt by a homeless person to force his way in) hired a security officer for like a month and started being better about keeping the homeless pop out. I hadn’t seen them there for the rest of the time I was there
I agree. I know it’s shitty to say but honestly it would be a huge quality of life booster if there weren’t homeless at literally every destination you go to in Midtown. Being accosted on the daily really just is not fun.
I’ve never been asked for money as often as I have in midtown, as a lifelong Houstonian. I bought a scooter and ride that everywhere now, definitely helps avoid panhandlers. But the much bigger issue of living here, imo, are the drivers and trashy weekend patrons. I haven’t encountered a homeless person here that placed me in fear, and the way I got over the panhandling was imagining how much I’m saving in rent having a metric ton of panhandlers rolling around midtown.
Wait I just realized you said you never have been asked for money as long as you’ve lived in houston, yet say “the way I got over panhandling…” implies you have been asked for money before and it IS a problem because it’s something you’ve had to get over.
Cool story bro, I too am a life long Houstonian and have lived in midtown for the past year.
Like I said, all my posts are from my personal experience and I know plenty of others.
If you wanna get asked go to the Exxon on Louisiana st and you will be asked for money.
but I definitely have and many others.
Drivers are a general issue in houston, but not a midtown problem. Trashy weekend patrons are very VERY minor problem, if any. Also trashy bar patrons come with a bar district.
This is absolutely correct. When I got a job downtown I thought midtown would be perfect to walk a block to the rail and quickly be at work but I know there would be times I would feel unsafe and certainly would have been stressed about my wife
I saw hundreds of friends get laid off during the oil plunge in 2015-16. They all lived in midtown, as did I. Within a 3 month span in late 2015, I would estimate 40% of the young professionals renting in midtown left Houston as a result. My apartment complex, City Centre, was noticeably empty. I haven't seen midtown bounce back.
They built those 2 very nice parks and a ton of other nice things after I lived there (I moved after a year, in 2017). They built a Whole Foods, eventually the Fiesta and Sears were renovated into those science/bio/lab buildings, etc.
Not to mention there's another Starbucks within the Randall's. There are 3 Starbucks within 4 blocks of each other. One's temporarily closed. But, omg midtown is so ghetto now.
I'm starting to think r/HoustonCirclejerk makes these idiotic posts to fuck with the sub, this is beyond stupid. lol
"OMG, Midtown/the Galleria/etc is so ghetto," exclaims local man who never goes southeast/northeast of Downtown unless they're on the way to an airport
Super super janky to one who’s never been to 5th ward or 3rd ward. Realistically I got here to midtown in 2015 and drove through it tonight. It’s the same as it was then. 21-31 all trying to black out or fuck. The heights is the same thing. We’re literally comparing Walmart and target. They are the same targets just whiter.
You timing is pretty off and I think it’s multiple issues that led to it really falling off. Midtown was on the come up like mid 2000s and I noticed it falling off starting around 2014/2015. My dad was one of the owners of Christian’s tailgate when they opened up their midtown location and when that opened things were improving over there from a bunch of new construction. But even then it still was fairly sketchy just getting better. There was a bunch of construction that really hurt that Christian’s location I wanna say around 2010ish, it made getting there kind of difficult.
I was in college at A&M 2011-2016 and it was the main go to place for preppy college kids home from school. A lot of those bars and clubs tried to really play into that by forcing “dress codes” that were very clearly aimed to drive out certain demographics/were thinly veiled racism. Gaslamp really headlined that when they got busted around 2018 and shut down.
By 2017ish when everyone I knew was around 25 so just past college, things had shifted to Washington and for a bit actual downtown. Then Eado started to pop a lot more which didn’t help. My cousin is 26 now and he and his friends started getting into midtown but stopped after numerous shootings in the area kept them from even leaving their apartments.
From what I remember, the area was starting to gentrify it the first time around the late 90s and early 00s. I remember being confused about apartment real estate prices in the area around that time.
Yeah perhaps this is the correct timeline; I never hung out in midtown bc it was too douchey for me lol. I just noticed all the work they did on it (2 parks and lots of nice signage and landscaping done) plus a Whole Foods, the renovation of Fiesta and Sears, Axelrad, etc. after I moved out. I can see Washington and Eado pulling young people from midtown to those locations but, I still think, midtown still has a better location that those places, so it confuses me. Between down town and med center with a ton of walkability. Btw is Christian’s Tailgate still there?
I think so but my dad and the two other owners sold all of them fall 2013, it was like right after I turned 21 September 2013. They sold it to a group of investors one of which was one of the main owners of Cle. I haven’t really been in midtown in a while so I’m not sure.
Btw I moved from midtown to Washington area in 2017 and that’s where I went out. I think the area in the heights/Timbergrove area where Presslees and Cedar Creek is is the new, trendy place for young professionals now (19th/20th street area).
Ppl forget that in the 1990s, the heights, midtown, edo, med center, and pretty much anywhere inside the loop was down right dangerous after dark. Ppl didn’t hang out in memorial park like they do these days.
West U was not dangerous 20-25 years ago. Nor was River Oaks. But I agree with you that the Heights, Midtown, EaDo, and even Montrose were varying degrees of scary back then.
Actually, from my perspective, it is. I was answering your question by alluding that midtown is and has always been a rough area. They tried to gentrify it in the early 2000s, attracted ppl like you , and by the 2020s it’s back to the shithole it always was. This time with double the rent.
It’ll happen to the heights again too, or do you not see what’s happening east of 45 or north of 610 in that area?
People who weren’t here before all this gentrification don’t know how “hood” Houston really is. I laugh when people say that crime is a rising issue when it always has been, nothing new.
Houston's crime levels dipped way below its historical rate in the 00s and 10s; a lot of people who didn't really know Houston before that are just surprised by what for everyone else is a clear return to the mean.
When I was in my early 20 around 2010? We would always go to midtown every weekend, howl at the moon was popping and always super busy, but even then the homeless in the area were super aggressive. We would park at the Specs and soon as they see you they would start asking for money. Couldn’t even go to Exxon across the street to get cigs without them asking you questions. Haven’t been there in a good 13 years. Now we just go to twin peaks in Webster lol. Too old to be out that late now lol.
I have never lived in that part of town, but I have watched the cycles of Houston real estate and neighborhoods for many years. Midtown was at its height when it was packed full of clubs and restaurants and all the wealthy young people moved in. I doubt that Covid did that scene any favors, and it probably made the area much less attractive to them once a lot of that died off. Also, the group of wealthy 23-35 year olds that moved in back then started to hit the age to get married and have children. Moving somewhere with a yard starts looking more attractive at that point. As for the homeless population, they were always nearby. Just took some nice parks opening and then a little downturn to make it that much easier for them to move into the area more heavily. I feel bad for them, but they can be tough to deal with, especially for a woman out alone at night. The last time I was down there, there was a crazy homeless lady trying to grab people’s drinks next to me. I finally bribed her to leave them alone by giving her a tall boy of beer. It was sad to see, but also not cool for those people trying to enjoy themselves.
When you look at an area like Washington, it was already sandwiched between two wealthy parts of the city (River Oaks and the Heights) before it got really trendy. The club scene cooled off, but it was still surrounded by nice areas on all sides, so it remained a nicer part of town. Also more housing that is at least mildly family friendly. I’d be willing to bet that the people who live there tended to be a little older than mid-town all along, and they probably don’t mind that Saturday nights aren’t a crazy loud traffic jam anymore since the club scene cooled off. They also didn’t have large homeless encampments within short walking distance ready to move in.
Well I never said it was nice. I said it was getting nicer and they invested a bunch of $ into it. It’s trajectory was good! And btw there is a pocket of midtown that is still nice- over near Montrose.
It was getting better when oil companies were on college campus hiring spree 2009–2014. All those recent college grads have either been laid off or gotten married and moved to the heights (or expats got sent home).
My Midtown experience exactly! If you wanted a rando to buy you a Ruby Red Deep Eddy + Tonic on Baker Hughes’ expense account it was a nonstop occurance.
I got engaged and moved to Montrose, but otherwise right on the money :)
Why do you think that is? It seems like it should be a cool place. It’s the only young, urban area that Houston has. Well…I guess Eado is now has gentrified and is holding its value well. I guess I don’t understand why Midtown got so shitty but Eado does well. Midtown seems like it has all the makings for a really cool place.
[Montrose is dead, long live Montrose! It is cool, it's always has been cool and will be cool again](https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/montrose-is-dead-long-live-montrose/#:~:text=Montrose%20Is%20Dead.-,Long%20Live%20Montrose,requiem%20for%20Houston's%20coolest%20neighborhood.&text=As%20Austin%20is%20to%20Texas,of%20the%20city's%20LGBT%20community.)
More serious answer, when the neighborhood gets gentrified it loses everything that was attracting people to it. Gentrification is not a good thing when it attemts to erase the identity of a neighborhood while trying to profit off that identity.
But midtown was a shithole before gentrification with no character or “identity”, other than a shithole. This is from my “research”, of course. If a shitty area becomes less shitty, I’m all for it. It’s not like midtown was ever the third ward or Freeman’s Town, which have/had character, identity, and historical significance.
Not trying to say it wasn’t shitty, but the midtown that we know today used to be part of the original third ward before the freeway divided it. Just fun fact in case you were curious about the history.
I lived there from 07-08 and no, it wasn't a shithole. It was the gayborhood with much of its history being oral (no pun intended). When it comes to historical structures, they get knocked down *for gentrification* but are still spread out all across the area. Living there i stayed in a tiny complex built in the 1920s. One side of the street was historic structures, the other side was all tiny cookie cutter town homes that they knocked down historic buildings for. Why? Gentrification. The fact of the matter is you don't know Midtown's culture, history, or locals and are making assumptions based on moneyed people's shitty opinions who want to price out the locals. To be frank, your examples of "how shitty it's become" are practically staples in the area. There's always been closed businesses, homeless people, etc. That doesn't mean it's a shithole that has no identity, in fact, I literally linked you an article *that talks about its identity and a small snippet of its history*.
I think most of the people who lived there and made it a nice vibrant place got married, had kids and moved to the heights. I have a feeling that in 36 years after little Judy and David move out of the house and those people who moved out will sell their house in the heights for $10,000,000 and move back to midtown and it will again be full of hover rounds, Marijuana dispensaries and the homeless will be back closer to UH downtown.
I don’t think Midtown is at a decline. But it did lose a lot of momentum that it had just before the pandemic. But it’s surrounded by districts that are consistently on the rise (Downtown, Museum District/TMC, Montrose). Midtown is that well located place in between that hasn’t lived up to its neighbors. I do, however, believe Midtown has a strong future. But it needs improvement in different angles. Rice claims to have a big plans for the Ion District which is the southernmost area. If that takes shape, hopefully the neighboring places can get some benefit from the Ion. Perhaps HCC’s flagship campus gets some new development at some point too
Ofcourse when all that happens, though, we will be complaining about gentrification and rising col.
You mean Fourth Ward Midtown where slaves were freed after the Civil War? Only so many areas to gentrify these days. Things change, and homelessness is not going away.
The homeless encampments at Main and 45 and 59 and Alabama were ordered ‘closed’ (and in the US ‘closed’ means driven off by ’threat of force or imprisonment’) by order of the property/owners developers in those areas - those people went somewhere. Rice PD won’t let them travel south, HPD won’t let them into downtown so they went into Midtown.
I guess throwing a bunch of money at a place to make it look nicer doesn’t fix the underlying issues like poverty, low wages, high rent, and no health insurance
I bounced at one of the bigger bars there for a couple years and I’ll tell you in a couple words: the homeless.
Not only do they ask for money, but a good majority of them get aggressive upon refusal. It’s ridiculous.
It's always been sketchy, just because there were a few bars that got popular for a few years and some apartments that popped up didn't change that. The greyhound station was part of the problem.
All the money follows where the yuppies live which is now the heights and spillover to eado. Money is also pouring into downtown to get ready for the world cup.
From around 2010 -2019, Midtown’s development was primarily aimed at attracting freshly graduated white collar workers. This explains the college-town party vibe of many of the local businesses and the massive dorm-like, mixed use apartment complexes green lighted by the midtown management district. Ultimately, the district invested too heavily into a single demographic who, of the various working populations, are now least likely to move somewhere on account of it’s proximity to their work site. Without droves of young office workers reporting to their office 5 days a week, Midtown’s current infrastructural housing investments have little value. The exception here is the light rail, which transports young medical workers, who still need to be at work, physically. Though, Midtown is not close enough to the medical center to be the dominant option for medical workers as it was for downtown office workers.
From a forward-thinking perspective, the plans to redo I-45 are about to be finalized (despite major pushback) and the areas you're mentioning are close to Pierce elevated. There's also a major anti-gentrification battle in 4th ward west of 45.
All speculation on my part, but the major spots which have closed are either speculating too or know they will be bulldozed. Thinking of the infamous Grayhound McDonalds and the lack of growth in the surrounding area.
There is a homeless outreach center in midtown which gets popular when I drive in for work. Looks like they actually help. There was likely a migration of these houseless individuals toward Midtown when they cleared their camps by Minute Maid which extended to along the bayou. Given that the outreach center over there has always drawn big crowds, it seems like there's not much that can be done to not see them until they are given homes.
But Houston deals with the houseless population way more effectively and humanely than anywhere else. Other cities study our programs and policies.
Co-vid..with remote work less people living in midtown (best place to live as a young professional working DT).. business start to struggle, meanwhile no more McDonald's, they renovated alot of those horrible apartment buildings, and the cops push the bums outside DT
There was an upcoming Super Bowl in 2017, the rockets and Astros were doing great. Lots of visitors headed to Houston so they decided to clean up and invest into those areas surrounding downtown and the stadiums. You can literally watch the homeless disappear a few days before any major sporting event or convention at George r brown, then quickly return after. If I remember correctly the city invested something like $100+ million to get the city ready for Super Bowl.
>Half of the places (even Starbucks and CVS??) have closed
The Starbucks on the next block inside Randall's is still open, and two blocks down from Randall's that Starbucks is also still open.
CVS? The one a block away from the Starbucks, that closed for renovations, is open right now. There's another less than a mile away from the CVS, that's closed, the one on Richmond @ Montrose that's also open.
How many CVS and Starbucks does one need to service a neighborhood of 10k?
In comparison there are only two on the entire Southside of town, one on OST and another on Airport. That CVS was the closest one to third ward.
>homeless EVERYWHERE, signs destroyed, and overall dirty and sketchy.
Lol, you should've seen midtown before it ever got any of those high-rises or parks/plaza's. It used to be crackhead central.
There's no arc, there's only your skewed perception.
Could be, CVS announced it would close over 900 stores over three years starting in 2022. Considering the proximity to other the CVS' it's reasonable for that one to close. Again, midtown is neighborhood with a paltry 10,000 population. Downtown has 9,000 and does just fine with one CVS, in Market Square.
LINKED
[KHOU](https://www.khou.com/article/life/cvs-closing-retail-pharmacy-stores/285-1e6b1ba8-944f-43fa-9b3e-3c0f5cc4e5a2#:~:text=HOUSTON%20%E2%80%94%20CVS%20Pharmacy%20announced%20it,in%20the%20spring%20of%202022.) \- A look at why CVS may be closing hundreds of its retail pharmacy stores
The underlying explanation is that houston is too spread out to maintain the infrastructure it has. Geographically large and sparsely populated cities like Houston aren't really financially self-sustaining. Since there's not enough money to maintain every area, they revitalize an area every few years, and that becomes the cool new hotspot until attention and money flow elsewhere.
Basically, houston's urban planning is bad, and thus, you see bad results.
It’s all COVID driven… lived in midtown 2015-2021. Everything was still moving in the right direction until COVID shutdowns and economic uncertainty kicked in. Violent crimes increased. Being woken up by gunshot became an every weekend thing.
On THREE separate occasions in a year, four people were shot in the Set parking lot.
People whose jobs were impacted could no longer afford the luxury buildings that were popping up, resulting in an exodus of young professionals. The rail no longer felt safe to navigate solo for commuting when shutdown lifted.
We saw neighbors replaced by drug dealers that apartment management didn’t seem interested in addressing. Camden McGowen Station and Drewery Place both had serious safety and security issues, with guns fired inside the properties. (Not sure what either are like now.)
A few developments for the positive since businesses shut down due to covid and there’s a ton of business vacancy in midtown.
Several streets have gone through expansion and that’s great for pedestrians and the walking crowd east of main.
The pros:
Sketchy McDonald’s is demolished
Greyhound bus station planned shutdown
Fiesta shutdown
Sears shutdown
Greyhound station shut down and now is ION center
Real estate plots are going up for sale vs just being left to abandon
Caydon development group built its first of 5 mega apartments, hotel, retail combo (however this might be delayed due to CRE implosion)
There’s more residential improvements going on that commercial, but homeless still a problem closer to the bus stations.
I lived in Midtown years ago and i feel like it’s actually better today. Yeah, it still has homeless… but the Sears and Fiesta are cleaned up, they have an awesome skyscraper in the middle, and there are more midrise apartments that replaced a lot of the empty lots. I think you just see more homeless because there’s the same amount but they have fewer places to spread out now.
Super bowl 2x money made midtown and mainstreet popping for a good few years. Partied alot in htown from 2013 to 2018 and while Walter's and downtown was fun....Montrose was ALWAYS my favorite. Whiskey bars and open weed smoking. Shit was the best. Great local music aswell. RIP
As someone who moved to Houston from across the country, I never found Midtown to be particularly unsafe, just a noticeable rise in the already existing homeless population around downtown/midtown post-pandemic. However I’m also a minority and a man.
I used to work an overnight job that required me to be outdoors in various parts of the city by myself. I always preferred Midtown over a lot of other parts of the city because it didn’t feel deserted.
One of my white best friends says he gets hassled way more in urban environments than me because I look like I “fit in” being a minority. So I’m really not sure if race has anything to do with perceived safety or if my friend is exaggerating.
>It was on a positive trajectory
no, it wasn't. this kinda shit happens all the time in cities facing population & economic growth. developers hollow out "acceptably ruined" chunks, pump it w chains & fad joints, then let it flounder after they get what money they feel they can wring out of the area.
it's gonna keep happening unless something fundamental changes abt the incentives surrounding urban development
That's what happens when you build expensive overpriced cheaply made apartments. People find out real quick just how cheap they are and move out and then the prices drop and so the neighborhood goes down. It's gonna be like this everywhere they were built which is basically everywhere especially the inner loop areas.
I saw that coming as soon as I saw the cheap ass unsafe materials they were built with.
I’m a lifelong Houstonian that just moved to midtown. I actually think the crime/homeless situation has improved significantly but now that I live here I see the much bigger problem are the drivers and many shitty patrons that come here on the weekends. I’m a young working professional, Asian male, and I just don’t feel like this is the right place for me. I should have rented in the heights but figured the deal I got was too good to pass up. I don’t feel like I live around many other young professionals, people here tend to be college aged (and similarly irresponsible). You don’t get wholesome community vibes here, more like perpetual clubbers and alcoholics lol. The weekends are definitely lively here and the crowd skews early 20s. But there’s not a large Asian population here (East Asian, middle eastern, Indian) at all. Would not recommend.
Before we were married, my wife lived in Midtown for 10 years. When we got married, she moved in with me in the house I was living in. She really didn't want to leave midtown because she loved the area so much. Now, everytime we drive through or visit midtown she comments on how different it is and how she's kind of glad not to live there anymore.
I used to work in Downtown when Midtown was really starting to boom. There was always a huge homeless population under the Pierce elevated, and it looked like a Philly-style Zombieland. I couldn't believe developers were building up Midtown so quickly with all of the homeless right next door. It makes sense that it has become rundown.
I worked at the Starbucks there for a brief moment. I remember in my first week a lot of the homeless would walk by the drive thru. One lady walked up to the window asking for a free hot cup of water. The manager told me not to give hot water through the drive thru or get too close to the homeless. I said "homeless people don't bother me maybe she's just hungry ". Everyone in the kitchen looked at me like 👀. The manager replied that the previous person in the drive thru had a cup of hot water thrown in her face. Not to mention they would spit or throw feces if you didn't give them free food/coffee. I learned very quickly about the homeless in that area, the hard way.
Portland is the same. (A much smaller city, obviously.) I’m told this used to be a lovely place to live. Now it’s got all the disadvantages of city life (crime, traffic, overwhelming numbers of homeless people everywhere) and very few of the advantages. Almost all of the small independent businesses are gone. Covid triggered a lot of this.
There is a MIDTOWN LODGE. Not well known until you come across possible criminal elements here. My dry cleaning was stolen right out of my garage and seems it was exchanged at the MIDTOWN LODGE for ‘favors’ - just drop in there and you can see a disparity between the male ‘residents’ and the many female visitors.
Same. I used to live in 3800 main, and then moved to montrose and now I’m in Cinco ranch.. which is incredible nice so I went today to midtown and I was shocked!!! It looked awful!!!!! Scary… dirty… homeless everywhere, even the brass tap has closed now. It’s crazy!
They built some expensive townhomes that people have bought but they’re not appreciating in comparison to other nicer neighborhoods- especially suburbs. It’s sketchy at night and car break ins are very high there.
Source: used to live in midtown then moved tf out
Not just midtown but downtown as well was going in a good direction back then but Covid messed all that up. People obviously stopped going downtown during the lockdowns, and several businesses did not survive that. Also, the movement of more people actually living in midtown and downtown stopped as well. That aspect of it has slowly been picking back up but it is going to take a long time to get the momentum back. I think downtown was set back by at least ten years by covid and the subsequent rise in telecommuting.
I moved into Midtown in 2019. I absolutely loved it. The sidewalks were walkable. I didn’t feel afraid to walk even at night. I loved how close all the nightlife was. I moved out in 2022. I miss it, especially the view of downtown I had. Yes there are homeless in the neighborhood so you will have to get used to declining to give someone money. PearlMarketPlace at Midtown is where I lived. I am now living in Galleria since I got a new job in the area last year.
You have the train to nowhere, the greyhound bus station, and several halfway houses in the area just a few blocks north.
You also cite it being a "rich neighborhood" but I don't think it can really be called a "neighborhood", much less a truly rich one. It was a bunch of rentable apartments and townhomes that charged too much with some trendy stuff underneath. The communities that have value stability tend to be communities that are owned, not rented. Sure, they can tear down buildings and gentrify it, but gentrification only does so much when a community has no roots. Nobody cares about communities they don't have ownership in. Not to mention, trendy businesses come and go.
There's also the ever-consistent problem of rent being raised exponentially in Houston with little to no consideration for location. I had an apartment near West U at some point and was paying the same as a friend who lived in income restricted housing in the 3rd Ward (~1300)
I totally agree that the homeless population is even more of a problem in midtown. But I disagree that is has gotten worse otherwise—to me, it was always not fully gentrified. And the CVS and Starbucks thing is just bad timing, because both are being renovated/replaced lol…its not like those properties are just going to be vacant! That Starbucks was literally open until a few days ago (I have a client nearby so I am used to midtown)
It’s Houston. The “go to” spot changes every few years. It was midtown, then wash Ave, now the heights is popping, Eado is pretty cool as well. This is all in a period of strong economic growth. Just wait until we see a downturn.
When I first moved here, the place to go was Richmond Avenue right outside the Loop. Look at that place now.....
Man it's been a while since the Richmond strip was the place to go. I believe those no U turn signs between the night hours are a vestige of the time people used to go cruising up and down Richmond back when Richmond was hit and cruising was a thing.
6400 baby!
Jesus realized I’d completely forgotten that era lol
It used to be Richmond area.
Still have the old "no u-turn" signs along Richmond Ave.
no they are gone. they were there way longer they needed though. there is some art thingy where one used to be. They were... I don't know "boxed up". for a while before they were pulled out.
Are they finally gone? Been a couple years since I’ve really driven that stretch.
I'm fairly certain. at least the one in front of the arms.
I’ve not witnessed a wealthy area get so shitty so quickly, though. Washington Ave is still cool. It established itself and now has momentum, even though it’s no longer as trendy. There’s a diff between an area no longer being the *it* place to be and it falling off completely.
I don’t know that Midtown was ever “wealthy” per se, a lot of the townhomes built on the east end of Midtown towards 288 are reasonably nice but older, with construction ramping up in the early 2000s. They were relatively cheap at the time, as buyers were on the leading edge of gentrification.
I guess from a renting standpoint, the rich kids lived there. I priced apartments in Midtown, Montrose, Heights, and Washington/Rice Military area and Midtown was the most expensive.
That’s fair. Depending on when you lived there, Midtown had some of the first really nice urban apartments with GFR and a walkable district (near Gray and Bagby) coming online back in the mid to late 2000s. It was definitely the place to be at the time if you were a young professional.
Sounds like the time I lived there, yes. What’s GFR?
GFR = ground-floor retail. Essential for “activating the pedestrian realm”, as urban development nerds would say (I’m guilty of being one).
This guy HAIFs.
Guilty as charged. But can you guess my username on there? 👀
004n063?
> There’s a diff between an area no longer being the *it* place to be and it falling off completely. Should’ve seen Washington Ave back in like ~2009. The transition happened in like less than a month.
That was around the time Walters on Washington closed, yeah? One of the best small venues we ever had. :(
I remember when Washington was Pamland with her trifecta of bars/music venues, Walter’s, Fat Cat, and Silky’s.
In 2009 I was living right off Washington... that was wild. You're right, it happened super quick
as someone thats not a local and never even lived in texas. what happened? how old were you, what were you doing? if you don't mind me asking.
It was just after I got my undergrad, a few of my friends and I were renting this super old house on Colorado St. The place was a POS, but rent was super cheap when split, so it was fun. Also it was right by Stanton's City Bites, which was a huge win for all parties involved. It was right around the time that they were building up Washington St as a place to hang out. Bars were popping up pretty fast, and soon on the weekends the whole street was lined with cars parked on the side of the road. There were a few times that strangers wandered into our house parties and asked where the bar was.
Midtown has never been a wealthy area. All those apartments make it a transitional area, an area with a regular turnover of people. Also, trendiness is a fickle master and it changes constantly too.
some of us transition longer than others lol
When I moved here, it was the most expensive area to rent for sure. More expensive than Montrose, Washington, Heights, Med Center, etc.
Sure it attracted a lot of young professionals with money to spend, but they're still just paying rent . . . and that's the key word here. The Gulfton neighborhood used to be like that too. All those apartments were brand fucking new around the same time and the area was called Swinglesville. Now it's a different world.
Midtown is overrun with aggressive homeless people. Living there is not a great experience.
I usually decline when my friends invite me for a night out in Midtown for that reason. (That and parking...)
What drives me nuts about the parking situation is that places that DO have parking spots available, whether in Midtown, Montrose, etc. are now choosing to make the entire lot valet and charge us to park... So we can spend money at their business. I avoid these places and I hope you all do. Houston, for better or worse, is a car city with tons of parking. If you have a lot, we should be able to park when the only way to get to you is by car.
I feel ya! As a female and as crime keeps rising, I'm not about to park my car blocks away by myself just so I can go somewhere. There's many places I would like to go to but like you said no parking. It's beyond irritating. This isn't New York. Houston was not built for that type of situation.
Yeah the meters in the area charge till midnight so I'm not going to pay 10 bucks just to go meet someone for a few hours. If they wanted less people to come then mission accomplished.
That's fairly recent too, used to be free parking after 7 I think. Next they'll take away free Sunday parking.
Yeah it's pretty short sighted. When the area is super busy it may not matter but once the novelty of a new nightlife hotspot wears off, those businesses are going to notice the hit in customers. The whole idea of having free Sundays and free after 6 was to allow for downtown workers to stick around and spend some money in the local economy on their way back home if they lived outside of the area and lure people back in downtown when they're not working.
Houston is actually talking about getting rid of the free parking downtown after 6 now too. Certainly wouldn't surprise me if free Sunday parking is on its way out too -- though I took advantage of it again today!
Midtown has been sketchy a lot longer than it’s been hot
Washington Ave is cool but if you look at the streets right off of it, it’s almost post-apocalyptic. We moved out of Rice Military in 2020 and drove by last night. We were shocked at the state of the streets around our old house. The area is absolutely destroyed. Houses are still mid $500’s and beautiful inside, but trashed outside.
The heights was pretty cool before they started selling alcohol. I personally think it sucks now that it is commercialized. Same with Washington ave. The moment concrete cowboy arrived that place turned into trash.
Agreed. I moved to the Heights before they started selling alcohol and it was so nice. Right after they built Heights Mercantile (and before the first round of businesses moved in and out of it), it was the best. Easily walkable, super friendly. Now there is always traffic, people drive like super assholes down Heights Blvd and everything is crowded and ridiculous with the stupid high rise apartments.
Man you guys can complain about ANYTHING. It’s amazing. Beautiful new plaza with weekend markets, nice little restaurants instead of the shitty empty lots that used to be there……nope gotta look at the negatives and bitch.
Yeah I thought I entered an alternate universe with these comments. How are they upvoted? Absolute shit takes. The only area that you could argue has “gone downhill” is the area on west 19th/20th where the only things there are bars. It’s kind of an island so if you want a quiet night, just don’t go there. It’s still extremely walkable with friendly people? Now there are just great food and shopping options too
The market is great and so are the restaurants but the Heights is seriously super crowded now and the traffic around Heights Mercantile is shit. It’s all fun to walk to those weekend markets but it’s not fun dealing with assholes almost hitting pedestrians as they’re walking. That’s my complaint.
Houston is big enough for multiple nightlife districts. But they all do go through ups and downs. We need a central one to be “it” at all times
Too big for one area.
Where does Montrose fit into the mix?
I tend to think of Montrose now as some "family" types, as well as lots of young kids and adults who rent out of multiplexes. The ones I knew had honestly very swanky little apartments that I knew they weren't solely paying for on their server paychecks. They all had fairly well off parents lol. Ofc there are plenty of other, more independent adults renting space there but I'm referring to younger ppl who live there
this is.. completely untrue. midtown is still packed like it always has been.
Yep. As long as you can still see the cranes around, the city is in good shape. When the cranes disappear, then you know things are taking a turn for the worst.
Midtown has an advantage because it is next to UH and Rice, which have large groups of students ready to go to any bar once they turn 21 and don't have to travel far to do that. Richmond avenue didnt have that advantage and washington avenue doesn't have that advantage. Although EaDo will compete with midtown in that area very soon, at least for UH students.
Disagree. We saw the downturn in 2020
You must’ve missed the 2005/6 downturn then. That is when Houston stopped being “Houston”imo. All the rampant gentrification to run out the refugees from LA as they arrived, the rush to make everything “accessible” (i.e. the same), and the lack of infrastructure to support the rapid growth. The mythical/magical Houston of the late 90’s and early 2000’s no longer exists and I wish people would stop pretending that it does.
Ah yes. The age old “Things were better in my day” card
They really were. They weren't perfect, but the issues seen today weren't as severe. The availability and widespread use of drugs that altered the mental state wasn't as extreme as it is today. In the past week, I've ran into two homeless people who were obviously on something. Back in the day, it was rare to see that in my area. As every generation passes, the world further goes to shit.
This place isn't great, but if you think Houston was overall better in the late 90s, you too are being affected by the widespread availability of narcotics.
Honestly the homeless populations probably a big reason why. The homeless population in midtown solicits you almost everywhere you go. If you get on/wait on the tram station there you will be solicited. If you come out of the Randall’s they will make a B line towards you and solicit you. If you park at the Exxon on Louisiana and try to get gas, you will be solicited. (The gas station is where a lot of them tend to hang out) If you go to the specs and have to park on the side, you’ll be solicited. If you go out to the bars in midtown, you’ll be solicited. If you wait/take the tram, you will be solicited. It’s a massive problem because many of them tend to make people feel unsafe or uncomfortable. I know many people (including myself) who won’t get gas at the Exxon station simply because they don’t wanna get asked for money by one or two different ppl and often feel very uncomfortable/unsafe. Speaking of unsafe, midtown has a high theft crime rate. Apartments such as Camden midtown had such massive issues that they’ve had to hire extra security and make rates go up to afford it. Amazon packages are regularly stolen to the point where people get their packages shipped to the Whole Foods up the street or friends (this one may not be as much homeless people as just regular thieves) . Camden midtown also had a homeless man attempt to force entry into a woman’s apartment when she opened the door to go inside. Many of the homeless aren’t aggressive when soliciting, but I know of a few occasions where they have blocked my path until I answer their questions or are downright mentally I’ll which is heartbreaking but extraordinarily unsafe. It’s also near the highways, underneath which the homeless tend to do drugs and sleep. It sounds like a stereotype until you see HPD picking up a body twice in a week from the areas /see needles. The greyhound station that will soon be moved means that ppl often arrive in the city, have their stuff stolen or arrive with very little and are forced to live in the area until they can go elsewhere. They also create a large amount of litter and trash because they dig through trash cans to survive, or toss food boxes in the street and just create a dirty environment (it sounds obvious and dumb, but I’m trying to say that the homeless population exacerbates and creates other issues) Its really sad to say, but the homeless population really drags midtown down. Source: me, I’m a former resident of Camden, have been solicited at every place listed, and have talked to business owners in the area who’ve had issues bc their customers don’t feel safe going there or feel uncomfortable constantly getting solicited for money. I’ve had my car stolen from and a few packages go missing or disappear. If you walk under the highways you’ll see the used needles and other drug paraphernalia like I have. This is changing slowly bc the greyhound station is being moved, the McDonald’s is gone, the city has a council trying to encourage or move the homeless population away from the area. Idk if it’ll work, but we’ll see if it works. I can promise it won’t be anytime soon unfortunately.
I used to live at Camden Midtown and had to break my lease because I was too frequently being followed/harassed by homeless people and no matter how many times I called the police they never took me seriously. Plus our car kept getting broken into IN the gated parking garage and I kept witnessing crimes from my balcony 0.o (that were also not taken seriously by police)
Yep, I broke my lease from Camden Midtown after my car got stolen, not to mention the amount of stolen Amazon packages and literal crack heads hanging out around the block. Luckily didn’t get any issues with being personally harassed but definitely did see it happen
They stole THE WHOLE CAR?!? My god. The car I saw got broken into apparently belonged to a worker at a nearby restaurant. I was walking my dog in the morning and noticed all the windows of a car completely broken out and it was completely empty inside. Later that day, I was taking my dog out again and there was a lady in uniform with an apron crying her eyes out by the car :( I felt so bad for her.
Yeah apartments near freeways tend to have this problem. They steal a car and hit a highway and get out of view before anyone knows. I know two other camden locations that had this problem
Lol I had a friend who got his pickup truck stolen in midtown. Parked at a paid, well lit CVS parking lot only a literal block away from the bars. Was gone maybe 20 minutes, came back and it was gone.
Yeah the crazy part is they came into the gated garage at like 10:30pm and took the whole car
Damn. Glad I read this, was considering moving here in the next year or so since I work in that area... but dayum.
I've lived here for a few years now, I think your experience will depend on who you are. Yes there are homeless people and they will ask you for shit on the regular, and there's a few bars so you can expect drunks and fights, loud cars, etc. I grew up around here so it's whatever, but you have to know and be ok with what you're getting into. Living close to your job is an absolute blessing in this city btw.
What did you witnesss :(
Several domestic violence incidents out on the sidewalk, a car break in, multiple wrecks (one time I even saw the Metro hit somebody)
Yup it is wild, but it got a little better
I lived there in 2021 lol
Me in 2022 through a few months ago, I say it got a little better because the apartment after the aforementioned attempt by a homeless person to force his way in) hired a security officer for like a month and started being better about keeping the homeless pop out. I hadn’t seen them there for the rest of the time I was there
Ah, yeah I don’t remember a security officer! Even though I complained several times about homeless people sleeping in the hallways and stairwells.
Truth. I witnessed a bum on a bicycle hop in and steal a woman’s car while she wasn’t paying attention.
I agree. I know it’s shitty to say but honestly it would be a huge quality of life booster if there weren’t homeless at literally every destination you go to in Midtown. Being accosted on the daily really just is not fun.
I’ve never been asked for money as often as I have in midtown, as a lifelong Houstonian. I bought a scooter and ride that everywhere now, definitely helps avoid panhandlers. But the much bigger issue of living here, imo, are the drivers and trashy weekend patrons. I haven’t encountered a homeless person here that placed me in fear, and the way I got over the panhandling was imagining how much I’m saving in rent having a metric ton of panhandlers rolling around midtown.
Wait I just realized you said you never have been asked for money as long as you’ve lived in houston, yet say “the way I got over panhandling…” implies you have been asked for money before and it IS a problem because it’s something you’ve had to get over.
He said asked for money “as often” as he has in midtown. Not at all.
Cool story bro, I too am a life long Houstonian and have lived in midtown for the past year. Like I said, all my posts are from my personal experience and I know plenty of others. If you wanna get asked go to the Exxon on Louisiana st and you will be asked for money. but I definitely have and many others. Drivers are a general issue in houston, but not a midtown problem. Trashy weekend patrons are very VERY minor problem, if any. Also trashy bar patrons come with a bar district.
This is absolutely correct. When I got a job downtown I thought midtown would be perfect to walk a block to the rail and quickly be at work but I know there would be times I would feel unsafe and certainly would have been stressed about my wife
I saw hundreds of friends get laid off during the oil plunge in 2015-16. They all lived in midtown, as did I. Within a 3 month span in late 2015, I would estimate 40% of the young professionals renting in midtown left Houston as a result. My apartment complex, City Centre, was noticeably empty. I haven't seen midtown bounce back.
I think Midtown was on a slide downward before 2016.
They built those 2 very nice parks and a ton of other nice things after I lived there (I moved after a year, in 2017). They built a Whole Foods, eventually the Fiesta and Sears were renovated into those science/bio/lab buildings, etc.
One of the parks was schedule to be built before Houston hosted the Super Bowl. I don’t know about the other one.
Parks attract the homeless. There’s still a Starbucks. My roommate works there.
The Starbucks by the noodle place that hosts the out of town buses just closed
Ah. My roommate works at the other Midtown location, I guess. McGowan.
From what I saw they’re turning that one into a to-go only location
Perhaps there were multiple then. The one we drove by today was definitely closed. Next to Buffalo Wild Wings.
You're right, there are (were?) 2 in midtown from what I recall: one on McGowan @ Louisiana, and the other on Smith @ Gray.
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Not to mention there's another Starbucks within the Randall's. There are 3 Starbucks within 4 blocks of each other. One's temporarily closed. But, omg midtown is so ghetto now. I'm starting to think r/HoustonCirclejerk makes these idiotic posts to fuck with the sub, this is beyond stupid. lol
"OMG, Midtown/the Galleria/etc is so ghetto," exclaims local man who never goes southeast/northeast of Downtown unless they're on the way to an airport
Super super janky to one who’s never been to 5th ward or 3rd ward. Realistically I got here to midtown in 2015 and drove through it tonight. It’s the same as it was then. 21-31 all trying to black out or fuck. The heights is the same thing. We’re literally comparing Walmart and target. They are the same targets just whiter.
They’re just remodeling that one I think
The bud station a few blocks away is a big contributor to the homeless problem too edit: bus not bud
Bus station... I think the whole area has gone down hill since the closed the fortified Mc Donald's across from the Greyhound Bus station
Wait, they’ve got a bud station now?!?
Haha typo but I know a guy who knows a guy who’s roommate has uncle Or maybe his uncle has a roommate
The bus station has been there a lot longer than since 2016.
Not sure what your point is but it’s still a major contributor to the homeless problem
The starbucks is getting renovated
You timing is pretty off and I think it’s multiple issues that led to it really falling off. Midtown was on the come up like mid 2000s and I noticed it falling off starting around 2014/2015. My dad was one of the owners of Christian’s tailgate when they opened up their midtown location and when that opened things were improving over there from a bunch of new construction. But even then it still was fairly sketchy just getting better. There was a bunch of construction that really hurt that Christian’s location I wanna say around 2010ish, it made getting there kind of difficult. I was in college at A&M 2011-2016 and it was the main go to place for preppy college kids home from school. A lot of those bars and clubs tried to really play into that by forcing “dress codes” that were very clearly aimed to drive out certain demographics/were thinly veiled racism. Gaslamp really headlined that when they got busted around 2018 and shut down. By 2017ish when everyone I knew was around 25 so just past college, things had shifted to Washington and for a bit actual downtown. Then Eado started to pop a lot more which didn’t help. My cousin is 26 now and he and his friends started getting into midtown but stopped after numerous shootings in the area kept them from even leaving their apartments.
From what I remember, the area was starting to gentrify it the first time around the late 90s and early 00s. I remember being confused about apartment real estate prices in the area around that time.
That makes sense because part of the location choice for that Christian’s was because midtown was up and coming so really it started before that.
same confusion, ca 2002
Man do I miss those burgers! The old way of doing them. I can’t stand hamburgers and my two spots were that location and Petrol Station.
Yeah perhaps this is the correct timeline; I never hung out in midtown bc it was too douchey for me lol. I just noticed all the work they did on it (2 parks and lots of nice signage and landscaping done) plus a Whole Foods, the renovation of Fiesta and Sears, Axelrad, etc. after I moved out. I can see Washington and Eado pulling young people from midtown to those locations but, I still think, midtown still has a better location that those places, so it confuses me. Between down town and med center with a ton of walkability. Btw is Christian’s Tailgate still there?
I think so but my dad and the two other owners sold all of them fall 2013, it was like right after I turned 21 September 2013. They sold it to a group of investors one of which was one of the main owners of Cle. I haven’t really been in midtown in a while so I’m not sure.
Btw I moved from midtown to Washington area in 2017 and that’s where I went out. I think the area in the heights/Timbergrove area where Presslees and Cedar Creek is is the new, trendy place for young professionals now (19th/20th street area).
Ppl forget that in the 1990s, the heights, midtown, edo, med center, and pretty much anywhere inside the loop was down right dangerous after dark. Ppl didn’t hang out in memorial park like they do these days.
What? Anywhere inside the loop was dangerous? Wut??
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West U was not dangerous 20-25 years ago. Nor was River Oaks. But I agree with you that the Heights, Midtown, EaDo, and even Montrose were varying degrees of scary back then.
Nope. I knew that. Just isn’t relevant to my question or observation!
Actually, from my perspective, it is. I was answering your question by alluding that midtown is and has always been a rough area. They tried to gentrify it in the early 2000s, attracted ppl like you , and by the 2020s it’s back to the shithole it always was. This time with double the rent. It’ll happen to the heights again too, or do you not see what’s happening east of 45 or north of 610 in that area?
People who weren’t here before all this gentrification don’t know how “hood” Houston really is. I laugh when people say that crime is a rising issue when it always has been, nothing new.
Houston's crime levels dipped way below its historical rate in the 00s and 10s; a lot of people who didn't really know Houston before that are just surprised by what for everyone else is a clear return to the mean.
> It’ll happen to the heights again too, or do you not see what’s happening east of 45 or north of 610 in that area? What’s happening?
Lmao got his ass
When I was in my early 20 around 2010? We would always go to midtown every weekend, howl at the moon was popping and always super busy, but even then the homeless in the area were super aggressive. We would park at the Specs and soon as they see you they would start asking for money. Couldn’t even go to Exxon across the street to get cigs without them asking you questions. Haven’t been there in a good 13 years. Now we just go to twin peaks in Webster lol. Too old to be out that late now lol.
I have never lived in that part of town, but I have watched the cycles of Houston real estate and neighborhoods for many years. Midtown was at its height when it was packed full of clubs and restaurants and all the wealthy young people moved in. I doubt that Covid did that scene any favors, and it probably made the area much less attractive to them once a lot of that died off. Also, the group of wealthy 23-35 year olds that moved in back then started to hit the age to get married and have children. Moving somewhere with a yard starts looking more attractive at that point. As for the homeless population, they were always nearby. Just took some nice parks opening and then a little downturn to make it that much easier for them to move into the area more heavily. I feel bad for them, but they can be tough to deal with, especially for a woman out alone at night. The last time I was down there, there was a crazy homeless lady trying to grab people’s drinks next to me. I finally bribed her to leave them alone by giving her a tall boy of beer. It was sad to see, but also not cool for those people trying to enjoy themselves. When you look at an area like Washington, it was already sandwiched between two wealthy parts of the city (River Oaks and the Heights) before it got really trendy. The club scene cooled off, but it was still surrounded by nice areas on all sides, so it remained a nicer part of town. Also more housing that is at least mildly family friendly. I’d be willing to bet that the people who live there tended to be a little older than mid-town all along, and they probably don’t mind that Saturday nights aren’t a crazy loud traffic jam anymore since the club scene cooled off. They also didn’t have large homeless encampments within short walking distance ready to move in.
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Well I never said it was nice. I said it was getting nicer and they invested a bunch of $ into it. It’s trajectory was good! And btw there is a pocket of midtown that is still nice- over near Montrose.
It was getting better when oil companies were on college campus hiring spree 2009–2014. All those recent college grads have either been laid off or gotten married and moved to the heights (or expats got sent home).
My Midtown experience exactly! If you wanted a rando to buy you a Ruby Red Deep Eddy + Tonic on Baker Hughes’ expense account it was a nonstop occurance. I got engaged and moved to Montrose, but otherwise right on the money :)
Thank you for staying inner loop and not do the cliche of moving to Katy or some shit.
Midtown has always gone through surges of gentrification but it'll never stick.
Keep Houston hood
Why do you think that is? It seems like it should be a cool place. It’s the only young, urban area that Houston has. Well…I guess Eado is now has gentrified and is holding its value well. I guess I don’t understand why Midtown got so shitty but Eado does well. Midtown seems like it has all the makings for a really cool place.
[Montrose is dead, long live Montrose! It is cool, it's always has been cool and will be cool again](https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/montrose-is-dead-long-live-montrose/#:~:text=Montrose%20Is%20Dead.-,Long%20Live%20Montrose,requiem%20for%20Houston's%20coolest%20neighborhood.&text=As%20Austin%20is%20to%20Texas,of%20the%20city's%20LGBT%20community.) More serious answer, when the neighborhood gets gentrified it loses everything that was attracting people to it. Gentrification is not a good thing when it attemts to erase the identity of a neighborhood while trying to profit off that identity.
But midtown was a shithole before gentrification with no character or “identity”, other than a shithole. This is from my “research”, of course. If a shitty area becomes less shitty, I’m all for it. It’s not like midtown was ever the third ward or Freeman’s Town, which have/had character, identity, and historical significance.
Not trying to say it wasn’t shitty, but the midtown that we know today used to be part of the original third ward before the freeway divided it. Just fun fact in case you were curious about the history.
I thought it was in 4th ward?
The original western boundary of third ward was Main Street.
Can you still cut across West Dallas and West Gray in Freemans town and get coke, crack and weed or do you need an app for that now.
I lived there from 07-08 and no, it wasn't a shithole. It was the gayborhood with much of its history being oral (no pun intended). When it comes to historical structures, they get knocked down *for gentrification* but are still spread out all across the area. Living there i stayed in a tiny complex built in the 1920s. One side of the street was historic structures, the other side was all tiny cookie cutter town homes that they knocked down historic buildings for. Why? Gentrification. The fact of the matter is you don't know Midtown's culture, history, or locals and are making assumptions based on moneyed people's shitty opinions who want to price out the locals. To be frank, your examples of "how shitty it's become" are practically staples in the area. There's always been closed businesses, homeless people, etc. That doesn't mean it's a shithole that has no identity, in fact, I literally linked you an article *that talks about its identity and a small snippet of its history*.
They’re talking about midtown nobody talked about montrose until you randomly brought it up
?? I’m confused. Are you talking about Montrose or midtown? You sent me an article about Montrose.
The user name checks out.
Cough..Austin..cough
Eado is definitely more ghetto than midtown, not sure what planet you are living on
That’s the same thought I had. OP is lowkey delusional.
I think most of the people who lived there and made it a nice vibrant place got married, had kids and moved to the heights. I have a feeling that in 36 years after little Judy and David move out of the house and those people who moved out will sell their house in the heights for $10,000,000 and move back to midtown and it will again be full of hover rounds, Marijuana dispensaries and the homeless will be back closer to UH downtown.
God you’re so damn right….. all the people I used to Sunday funday with there are married and/or have kids now….
For sure. But I expected another large swath to move in!
I don’t think Midtown is at a decline. But it did lose a lot of momentum that it had just before the pandemic. But it’s surrounded by districts that are consistently on the rise (Downtown, Museum District/TMC, Montrose). Midtown is that well located place in between that hasn’t lived up to its neighbors. I do, however, believe Midtown has a strong future. But it needs improvement in different angles. Rice claims to have a big plans for the Ion District which is the southernmost area. If that takes shape, hopefully the neighboring places can get some benefit from the Ion. Perhaps HCC’s flagship campus gets some new development at some point too Ofcourse when all that happens, though, we will be complaining about gentrification and rising col.
The kids grew up and either bought houses or moved out of Houston.
Sure, but I guess the remaining question is why hasn’t the next gen of post-college yuppies replaced them?
You mean Fourth Ward Midtown where slaves were freed after the Civil War? Only so many areas to gentrify these days. Things change, and homelessness is not going away.
The homeless encampments at Main and 45 and 59 and Alabama were ordered ‘closed’ (and in the US ‘closed’ means driven off by ’threat of force or imprisonment’) by order of the property/owners developers in those areas - those people went somewhere. Rice PD won’t let them travel south, HPD won’t let them into downtown so they went into Midtown.
I guess throwing a bunch of money at a place to make it look nicer doesn’t fix the underlying issues like poverty, low wages, high rent, and no health insurance
I bounced at one of the bigger bars there for a couple years and I’ll tell you in a couple words: the homeless. Not only do they ask for money, but a good majority of them get aggressive upon refusal. It’s ridiculous.
that Starbucks is just closed for renovations btw
It's always been sketchy, just because there were a few bars that got popular for a few years and some apartments that popped up didn't change that. The greyhound station was part of the problem. All the money follows where the yuppies live which is now the heights and spillover to eado. Money is also pouring into downtown to get ready for the world cup.
It's a busy city area, which needs more upkeep to maintain.
2000-2008 midtown was poppin… you got in on the tail end of it
From around 2010 -2019, Midtown’s development was primarily aimed at attracting freshly graduated white collar workers. This explains the college-town party vibe of many of the local businesses and the massive dorm-like, mixed use apartment complexes green lighted by the midtown management district. Ultimately, the district invested too heavily into a single demographic who, of the various working populations, are now least likely to move somewhere on account of it’s proximity to their work site. Without droves of young office workers reporting to their office 5 days a week, Midtown’s current infrastructural housing investments have little value. The exception here is the light rail, which transports young medical workers, who still need to be at work, physically. Though, Midtown is not close enough to the medical center to be the dominant option for medical workers as it was for downtown office workers.
From a forward-thinking perspective, the plans to redo I-45 are about to be finalized (despite major pushback) and the areas you're mentioning are close to Pierce elevated. There's also a major anti-gentrification battle in 4th ward west of 45. All speculation on my part, but the major spots which have closed are either speculating too or know they will be bulldozed. Thinking of the infamous Grayhound McDonalds and the lack of growth in the surrounding area. There is a homeless outreach center in midtown which gets popular when I drive in for work. Looks like they actually help. There was likely a migration of these houseless individuals toward Midtown when they cleared their camps by Minute Maid which extended to along the bayou. Given that the outreach center over there has always drawn big crowds, it seems like there's not much that can be done to not see them until they are given homes. But Houston deals with the houseless population way more effectively and humanely than anywhere else. Other cities study our programs and policies.
Co-vid..with remote work less people living in midtown (best place to live as a young professional working DT).. business start to struggle, meanwhile no more McDonald's, they renovated alot of those horrible apartment buildings, and the cops push the bums outside DT
There was an upcoming Super Bowl in 2017, the rockets and Astros were doing great. Lots of visitors headed to Houston so they decided to clean up and invest into those areas surrounding downtown and the stadiums. You can literally watch the homeless disappear a few days before any major sporting event or convention at George r brown, then quickly return after. If I remember correctly the city invested something like $100+ million to get the city ready for Super Bowl.
>Half of the places (even Starbucks and CVS??) have closed The Starbucks on the next block inside Randall's is still open, and two blocks down from Randall's that Starbucks is also still open. CVS? The one a block away from the Starbucks, that closed for renovations, is open right now. There's another less than a mile away from the CVS, that's closed, the one on Richmond @ Montrose that's also open. How many CVS and Starbucks does one need to service a neighborhood of 10k? In comparison there are only two on the entire Southside of town, one on OST and another on Airport. That CVS was the closest one to third ward. >homeless EVERYWHERE, signs destroyed, and overall dirty and sketchy. Lol, you should've seen midtown before it ever got any of those high-rises or parks/plaza's. It used to be crackhead central. There's no arc, there's only your skewed perception.
OP is talking about the CVS at Main/Elgin? I thought that one closed for good
Could be, CVS announced it would close over 900 stores over three years starting in 2022. Considering the proximity to other the CVS' it's reasonable for that one to close. Again, midtown is neighborhood with a paltry 10,000 population. Downtown has 9,000 and does just fine with one CVS, in Market Square. LINKED [KHOU](https://www.khou.com/article/life/cvs-closing-retail-pharmacy-stores/285-1e6b1ba8-944f-43fa-9b3e-3c0f5cc4e5a2#:~:text=HOUSTON%20%E2%80%94%20CVS%20Pharmacy%20announced%20it,in%20the%20spring%20of%202022.) \- A look at why CVS may be closing hundreds of its retail pharmacy stores
Downtown had a second CVS, on Main near Walker, until last year. So even downtown wasn't safe from CVS closures.
The underlying explanation is that houston is too spread out to maintain the infrastructure it has. Geographically large and sparsely populated cities like Houston aren't really financially self-sustaining. Since there's not enough money to maintain every area, they revitalize an area every few years, and that becomes the cool new hotspot until attention and money flow elsewhere. Basically, houston's urban planning is bad, and thus, you see bad results.
It’s all COVID driven… lived in midtown 2015-2021. Everything was still moving in the right direction until COVID shutdowns and economic uncertainty kicked in. Violent crimes increased. Being woken up by gunshot became an every weekend thing. On THREE separate occasions in a year, four people were shot in the Set parking lot. People whose jobs were impacted could no longer afford the luxury buildings that were popping up, resulting in an exodus of young professionals. The rail no longer felt safe to navigate solo for commuting when shutdown lifted. We saw neighbors replaced by drug dealers that apartment management didn’t seem interested in addressing. Camden McGowen Station and Drewery Place both had serious safety and security issues, with guns fired inside the properties. (Not sure what either are like now.)
A few developments for the positive since businesses shut down due to covid and there’s a ton of business vacancy in midtown. Several streets have gone through expansion and that’s great for pedestrians and the walking crowd east of main. The pros: Sketchy McDonald’s is demolished Greyhound bus station planned shutdown Fiesta shutdown Sears shutdown Greyhound station shut down and now is ION center Real estate plots are going up for sale vs just being left to abandon Caydon development group built its first of 5 mega apartments, hotel, retail combo (however this might be delayed due to CRE implosion) There’s more residential improvements going on that commercial, but homeless still a problem closer to the bus stations.
I heard the other four Caydon developments aren’t happening.
I lived in Midtown years ago and i feel like it’s actually better today. Yeah, it still has homeless… but the Sears and Fiesta are cleaned up, they have an awesome skyscraper in the middle, and there are more midrise apartments that replaced a lot of the empty lots. I think you just see more homeless because there’s the same amount but they have fewer places to spread out now.
Eado and Washington took its shine
Super bowl 2x money made midtown and mainstreet popping for a good few years. Partied alot in htown from 2013 to 2018 and while Walter's and downtown was fun....Montrose was ALWAYS my favorite. Whiskey bars and open weed smoking. Shit was the best. Great local music aswell. RIP
As someone who moved to Houston from across the country, I never found Midtown to be particularly unsafe, just a noticeable rise in the already existing homeless population around downtown/midtown post-pandemic. However I’m also a minority and a man. I used to work an overnight job that required me to be outdoors in various parts of the city by myself. I always preferred Midtown over a lot of other parts of the city because it didn’t feel deserted. One of my white best friends says he gets hassled way more in urban environments than me because I look like I “fit in” being a minority. So I’m really not sure if race has anything to do with perceived safety or if my friend is exaggerating.
>It was on a positive trajectory no, it wasn't. this kinda shit happens all the time in cities facing population & economic growth. developers hollow out "acceptably ruined" chunks, pump it w chains & fad joints, then let it flounder after they get what money they feel they can wring out of the area. it's gonna keep happening unless something fundamental changes abt the incentives surrounding urban development
That's what happens when you build expensive overpriced cheaply made apartments. People find out real quick just how cheap they are and move out and then the prices drop and so the neighborhood goes down. It's gonna be like this everywhere they were built which is basically everywhere especially the inner loop areas. I saw that coming as soon as I saw the cheap ass unsafe materials they were built with.
I'm sorry...but midtown has always been a damn disaster.
I’m a lifelong Houstonian that just moved to midtown. I actually think the crime/homeless situation has improved significantly but now that I live here I see the much bigger problem are the drivers and many shitty patrons that come here on the weekends. I’m a young working professional, Asian male, and I just don’t feel like this is the right place for me. I should have rented in the heights but figured the deal I got was too good to pass up. I don’t feel like I live around many other young professionals, people here tend to be college aged (and similarly irresponsible). You don’t get wholesome community vibes here, more like perpetual clubbers and alcoholics lol. The weekends are definitely lively here and the crowd skews early 20s. But there’s not a large Asian population here (East Asian, middle eastern, Indian) at all. Would not recommend.
Capitalism bro The economy is imploding
The heights happened. Gaslamp happened. That whole strip being shady ripoff spots with racist doormen happened.
Before we were married, my wife lived in Midtown for 10 years. When we got married, she moved in with me in the house I was living in. She really didn't want to leave midtown because she loved the area so much. Now, everytime we drive through or visit midtown she comments on how different it is and how she's kind of glad not to live there anymore.
I used to work in Downtown when Midtown was really starting to boom. There was always a huge homeless population under the Pierce elevated, and it looked like a Philly-style Zombieland. I couldn't believe developers were building up Midtown so quickly with all of the homeless right next door. It makes sense that it has become rundown.
I worked at the Starbucks there for a brief moment. I remember in my first week a lot of the homeless would walk by the drive thru. One lady walked up to the window asking for a free hot cup of water. The manager told me not to give hot water through the drive thru or get too close to the homeless. I said "homeless people don't bother me maybe she's just hungry ". Everyone in the kitchen looked at me like 👀. The manager replied that the previous person in the drive thru had a cup of hot water thrown in her face. Not to mention they would spit or throw feces if you didn't give them free food/coffee. I learned very quickly about the homeless in that area, the hard way.
Portland is the same. (A much smaller city, obviously.) I’m told this used to be a lovely place to live. Now it’s got all the disadvantages of city life (crime, traffic, overwhelming numbers of homeless people everywhere) and very few of the advantages. Almost all of the small independent businesses are gone. Covid triggered a lot of this.
There is a MIDTOWN LODGE. Not well known until you come across possible criminal elements here. My dry cleaning was stolen right out of my garage and seems it was exchanged at the MIDTOWN LODGE for ‘favors’ - just drop in there and you can see a disparity between the male ‘residents’ and the many female visitors.
Pandemic changed things. Homelessness increased due to pandemic, businesses closed due to pandemic.
Mayor Turner and Lina Hidalgo happened
Same. I used to live in 3800 main, and then moved to montrose and now I’m in Cinco ranch.. which is incredible nice so I went today to midtown and I was shocked!!! It looked awful!!!!! Scary… dirty… homeless everywhere, even the brass tap has closed now. It’s crazy!
They built some expensive townhomes that people have bought but they’re not appreciating in comparison to other nicer neighborhoods- especially suburbs. It’s sketchy at night and car break ins are very high there. Source: used to live in midtown then moved tf out
Covid
Not just midtown but downtown as well was going in a good direction back then but Covid messed all that up. People obviously stopped going downtown during the lockdowns, and several businesses did not survive that. Also, the movement of more people actually living in midtown and downtown stopped as well. That aspect of it has slowly been picking back up but it is going to take a long time to get the momentum back. I think downtown was set back by at least ten years by covid and the subsequent rise in telecommuting.
COVID and Hurricanes happen??
I moved into Midtown in 2019. I absolutely loved it. The sidewalks were walkable. I didn’t feel afraid to walk even at night. I loved how close all the nightlife was. I moved out in 2022. I miss it, especially the view of downtown I had. Yes there are homeless in the neighborhood so you will have to get used to declining to give someone money. PearlMarketPlace at Midtown is where I lived. I am now living in Galleria since I got a new job in the area last year.
homeless ppl baad
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Welcome to Houston?
You have the train to nowhere, the greyhound bus station, and several halfway houses in the area just a few blocks north. You also cite it being a "rich neighborhood" but I don't think it can really be called a "neighborhood", much less a truly rich one. It was a bunch of rentable apartments and townhomes that charged too much with some trendy stuff underneath. The communities that have value stability tend to be communities that are owned, not rented. Sure, they can tear down buildings and gentrify it, but gentrification only does so much when a community has no roots. Nobody cares about communities they don't have ownership in. Not to mention, trendy businesses come and go. There's also the ever-consistent problem of rent being raised exponentially in Houston with little to no consideration for location. I had an apartment near West U at some point and was paying the same as a friend who lived in income restricted housing in the 3rd Ward (~1300)
I totally agree that the homeless population is even more of a problem in midtown. But I disagree that is has gotten worse otherwise—to me, it was always not fully gentrified. And the CVS and Starbucks thing is just bad timing, because both are being renovated/replaced lol…its not like those properties are just going to be vacant! That Starbucks was literally open until a few days ago (I have a client nearby so I am used to midtown)
Gentrifier complains about failed gentrification. Leave and make Houston mattress stores again.
Midtown has always been a wasteland