Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The East Quarter area of Downtown is just now taking off and will be a great area connected to Deep Ellum, the Farmer’s Market District and the City Center areas.
Sure. The data may be old but all 3 have been growing their core populations.
Yeah, that data you provided is very outdated. As far as daytime population, Atlanta has to be much higher now. One thing Atlanta has that Houston doesn't is a combined 80,000+ college students in the heart of Downtown/Midtown. Add in corporate office space and one of the largest Federal centers outside of D.C., as well as the State Capital complex. Throw in a top 5 convention center with 14,000+ Downtown hotel rooms as well as a massive wholesale trade mart, and pre-COVID the core had a very solid daytime population.
Yeah, that data you provided is very outdated. As far as daytime population, Atlanta has to be much higher now. One thing Atlanta has that Houston doesn't is a combined 80,000+ college students in the heart of Downtown/Midtown. Add in corporate office space and one of the largest Federal centers outside of D.C., as well as the State Capital complex. Throw in a top 5 convention center with 14,000+ Downtown hotel rooms as well as a massive wholesale trade mart, and pre-COVID the core had a very solid daytime population.
Don't overlook the rapid growth of the University of Houston, now the 3rd largest after the flagships of UT-Austin and Texas A&M!
Five Points, the original town grid, has largely been eschewed. The major skyscrapers are outside of the area, in the adjacent non-congruent grids. I was surprised that the Bank of America Center is in Midtown, more similar to the Williams Tower in the Uptown/Galleria district in Houston, than the Chase Tower in Downtown.
Meanwhile in Downtown Houston, the new midrises that were just completed are on the boundary with the Historic District (the first few rows of blocks along Buffalo Bayou when Houston was founded in 1837). This area is mostly residential and county governmental ("Civic Center" in California terms) with funky clubs and restaurants on street level.
Wholesale trade marts have become more convention centers since manufacturing has been offshored. It's more common to meet with suppliers in the Chinese factories than to visit an exhibitor showroom these days. Of course coastal port cities are still relevant, especially with offshoring being vogue!
Yeah, Atlanta had better schools, but that doesn't mean Houston doesn't have any.
UH has like what 40-50k students South east of downtown, UH Downtown has about 15,000, then HCC has another 60,000 students but as I understand it only about half of that go to the midtown campus. So without even counting the nearby Rice University, Texas Southern University and St Thomas University you can't say that a large student population ain't downtown is something Atlanta has that Houston doesn't.
I think there's a Law School downtown Houston too. So overall there's over 100,000k students in and around downtown/ midtown Houston.
And just south of that is TMC with Baylor College of Medicine, UT Houston McGovern school of medicine, A&M has a medical school there too, then there's a ton of professional schools in the med center too.
Also, Houston has a major convention center downtown too.
Yes the data is old, and yes the core of Atlanta had been growing but so has the others.
Dallas has been growing a lot in the adjacent to downtown neighborhoods while Houston had been growing in and around downtown. There was some residential initiative that caused the housing units to more than double in downtown Houston.
Don't overlook the rapid growth of the University of Houston, now the 3rd largest after the flagships of UT-Austin and Texas A&M!
Five Points, the original town grid, has largely been eschewed. The major skyscrapers are outside of the area, in the adjacent non-congruent grids. I was surprised that the Bank of America Center is in Midtown, more similar to the Williams Tower in the Uptown/Galleria district in Houston, than the Chase Tower in Downtown.
Meanwhile in Downtown Houston, the new midrises that were just completed are on the boundary with the Historic District (the first few rows of blocks along Buffalo Bayou when Houston was founded in 1837). This area is mostly residential and county governmental ("Civic Center" in California terms) with funky clubs and restaurants on street level.
Wholesale trade marts have become more convention centers since manufacturing has been offshored. It's more common to meet with suppliers in the Chinese factories than to visit an exhibitor showroom these days. Of course coastal port cities are still relevant, especially with offshoring being vogue!
AmericasMart has several annual shows that routinely draw over 100,000 people. They sell out all hotel rooms in the Metro. The complex is massive, taking up several blocks and containing several million sq feet of showrooms.
Yeah, Atlanta had better schools, but that doesn't mean Houston doesn't have any.
UH has like what 40-50k students South east of downtown, UH Downtown has about 15,000, then HCC has another 60,000 students but as I understand it only about half of that go to the midtown campus. So without even counting the nearby Rice University, Texas Southern University and St Thomas University you can't say that a large student population ain't downtown is something Atlanta has that Houston doesn't.
The 88,000 combined students of Georgia State and Georgia Tech are in Downtown and Midtown respectively. The HBCU's of Clark Atlanta, Morehouse, the Morehouse School of Medicine and Spellman are directly adjacent to Downtown with 9,000 more. Georgia State has a beautiful Law School that takes up an entire block.
Quote:
And just south of that is TMC with Baylor College of Medicine, UT Houston McGovern school of medicine, A&M has a medical school there too, then there's a ton of professional schools in the med center too.
I don't consider the TMC to be a part of Downtown.
Quote:
Also, Houston has a major convention center downtown too.
The Georgia World Congress Center is in the top 5 in size and attendance, hence the reason for over 14,000 hotel rooms Downtown. Houston isn't in the top 10.
Houston's top ten convention center is NRG not George R Brown
Houston has multiple large convention spaces. That's why there are less hotel rooms in downtown Houston than downtown Atlanta. I think Houston has 10,000. But anyway the thread isn't limited to downtown
I didn't say TMC was downtown Houston/ Midtown I said it's just south of that area. And they are like 3 stops down from midtown. Rice is two stops from midtown. St Thomas is just blocks from midtown. HCC and there 30,000 students are in midtown. University of Houston downtown and South Texas School of law are both in downtown. Texas Southern and UH are a mile away
Houston's top ten convention center is NRG not George R Brown
Houston has multiple large convention spaces. That's why there are less hotel rooms in downtown Houston than downtown Atlanta. I think Houston has 10,000. But anyway the thread isn't limited to downtown
I didn't say TMC was downtown Houston/ Midtown I said it's just south of that area. And they are like 3 stops down from midtown. Rice is two stops from midtown. St Thomas is just blocks from midtown. HCC and there 30,000 students are in midtown. University of Houston downtown and South Texas School of law are both in downtown. Texas Southern and UH are a mile away
Okay. It's still not the critical mass we have here, though. And sorry, but Houston is not a top 10 convention city, no matter which venue you include. We also have multiple convention centers. The largest are adjacent to the Airport (directly connected to ATL by the Airports Skytrain) and in the Cumberland/Galleria area, near the new Braves stadium - connected to the stadium by a new pedestrian bridge over I-285. And just as an fyi, Atlanta has approximately 96,000 hotel rooms in the Metro.
We were not duscussing convention cities, we were discussing top convention centers by size and I think NRG is like 8.
What critical mass are you talking about? All 3 have developing cores, none has that critical mass yet and Houston had the biggest core of the three but all core are tiny.
The number of hotel rooms in the metro means little to how urban the central city but fyi Houston had about 90,000 in the metro also. Means nothing as Orlando and Vegas probably kill in those categories. They are also top 5 for conventions too.
The only reason why I entertained those thing is that in the core they add to vibrancy. But you don't have to be the very top to benefit from the vibrancy and conversely the ones at the top doesn't necessarily mean it translates to bring urban.
Your comments about Atlanta has students around downtown and midtown but Houston doesn't, Atlanta has top convention centers but Houston doesn't just shows that you need to look at this more objectively. I think Houston and Atlanta are closer than you think and neither is that fabulous. Dallas is similar too but I just think it's a little below the other two. But sometimes we talk like these cities are so much ahead of each other in urban layout while in reality they are very similar
We were not duscussing convention cities, we were discussing top convention centers by size and I think NRG is like 8.
What critical mass are you talking about? All 3 have developing cores, none has that critical mass yet and Houston had the biggest core of the three but all core are tiny.
The number of hotel rooms in the metro means little to how urban the central city but fyi Houston had about 90,000 in the metro also. Means nothing as Orlando and Vegas probably kill in those categories. They are also top 5 for conventions too.
The only reason why I entertained those thing is that in the core they add to vibrancy. But you don't have to be the very top to benefit from the vibrancy and conversely the ones at the top doesn't necessarily mean it translates to bring urban.
Your comments about Atlanta has students around downtown and midtown but Houston doesn't, Atlanta has top convention centers but Houston doesn't just shows that you need to look at this more objectively. I think Houston and Atlanta are closer than you think and neither is that fabulous. Dallas is similar too but I just think it's a little below the other two. But sometimes we talk like these cities are so much ahead of each other in urban layout while in reality they are very similar
We were discussing daytime core populations, and there is more critical mass due to a larger and more attended convention center as well as two major universities actually in the core - not around it. It's totally relevant, as are the larger number of Downtown hotel rooms to support the conventions, trade shows and the growing tourism element that Houston simply doesn't have.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
