KHOU-11’s Karla Barguiarena reports on downtown’s once-thriving bar/restaurant scene, which continues a steady decline:
You don’t need to walk more than a block to see downtown Houston businesses are hurting.
It is a stark contrast to the way things used to be.
[snip]
Many people believe crime and the sirens that follow are keeping the crowds away.
Take this past weekend for example.
A young man was shot and killed inside the nightclub “Next.”
It is located on the eastern edge of downtown.
Business owners tell 11 News they are feeling it in their pocketbooks.
Lately, one bar and restaurant after another has been closing its doors.
The latest victim is St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin.
“St. Pete’s was the probably the toughest one of the bunch, the most determined to stay but almost everything is closed now,” said Bill Sadler who used to own the restaurant Solero’s. Sadler says he has watched downtown go downhill. “It started out the A-list was going Downtown and construction just drove them out and in their absence a lesser element moved in. You got kind of a gangster crowd.”
Downtown really is starting to resemble a ghost town again, compared to what it was like around the Super Bowl. It’s a shame to see St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin go, as it was always one of the classier joints downtown and a personal favorite.
While the story cites crime as a likely contributor to the collapse of bars/restaurants downtown, parking issues and the worsening problem with vagrants have probably played a part as well. Who wants to head to a place that is thought to have a crime problem, with the added fun of paying for parking and dealing with the pushy vagrants who have been allowed to take over downtown over the past couple of years?
We’re sure Discovery Green and the Pavilions will fix everything, though!
PREVIOUSLY: KHOU: Downtown or ghost town?, Nothing says world-class like parking garages and eau de urine, KTRK CrimeTracker: There’s some percentage of crime downtown, we think.
BLOGVERSATION: Houston’s Clear Thinkers.
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