We may have poked a bit of fun last year at the city’s New Year’s Eve celebration with its ascending, Chronicle-esque star, but what’s the deal this year? Last year’s KHOU-11 story made it sound like this was going to be an annual event:
City officials hope to someday rival the New York City ball drop, but for this year at least, the symbol stays small, and if all goes well, rises to the occasion without a hitch.
Mike McGuff also wonders what happened to New Year’s Eve Houston, and is working on a list of alternative events.
Has anyone heard about a city-planned party for this year?
UPDATE: And just like that, the Chron has a story today on what happened to the (almost) annual star-raising celebration:
The Downtown Entertainment District Alliance, a volunteer group of business owners around lower Main Street, organized the star-raising event last New Year’s Eve.
With a crowd estimated at 10,000 looking on, the star began to rise at 10 p.m., growing brighter as it ascended. It reached the top of the 12-story Binz Building at Main and Texas at midnight.
The volunteer group hoped to move the event this year to 3 Allen Center, a 50-story skyscraper on downtown’s west side, but a change in the building’s ownership complicated planning, said John Zotos, a downtown restaurateur who co-chairs the alliance.
Zotos said last year’s event was a success, but organizers wanted to move it away from the Main Street rail line, which limited space for crowds to gather.
Move it away from the Danger Train? Say it ain’t so!
Alvarado, whose district includes downtown, said several factors contributed to the one-year delay in repeating the event.
Planning should have begun sooner, she said, and city government and the Convention and Visitors Bureau must assume bigger roles in organizing and marketing the celebration.
“We didn’t want to just throw something together just to have an event,” Alvarado said. “And after the big events in the last couple of years, I think people were just a little event-ed out.”
Folks were too “event-ed out” to plan a New Year’s Eve party? That’s not very world-class!
Imagine where New York City would be (the city we are trying to emulate) if they didn’t plan a New Year’s Eve party because the planning folks were “event-ed out”?
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