What do you think the city should do with the Memorial Coliseum? (Victoria: real estate, rent)

[shaman13]

................?

[gabetx]

Tear it down and redevelop the land. That would be prime real estate in a great location.

[changeofpace]

There are so many vacant lots and vacant buildings along Shoreline and Ocean Drive now as well as vacant buildings of all sizes, not sure another vacant lot needing to be developed is what is needed. Perhaps our new mayor can get something going one way or another.

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by shaman13

................?

Community Gardens. Everyone could rent a plot and then grow veggies on his/her plot.

[SOM]

Three options, in order of preference:

1 - Fix it up and find a use for the building.

2 - Tear it down and find a use for the land.

3 - Let it rot in place.

Of course, we're currently following the *least* desirable one....figures.

[SOM]

I guess my post just kind of pointed out the obvious, whined, and didn't answer the question!

I would love to see it gutted....leave (and fix) the roof, but make it open-air. Put in some picnic benches, maybe a little food court, and somehow merge it with the two playgorunds on either side. Maybe add a stage for small events, maybe some bumper-cars....just kind of a downtown park / family are kind of thing.

[Marlow]

Originally Posted by SOM

I guess my post just kind of pointed out the obvious, whined, and didn't answer the question!

I would love to see it gutted....leave (and fix) the roof, but make it open-air. Put in some picnic benches, maybe a little food court, and somehow merge it with the two playgorunds on either side. Maybe add a stage for small events, maybe some bumper-cars....just kind of a downtown park / family are kind of thing.

That's what I want to see too, except for the bumper cars. An open, roofed, multi-use, low maintenance facility. With a smooth surface for roller skating for kids and old people not wanting to use the skate park, when it's not being used for something else.

[rednax]

Tear it down. And the rest of the dilapidated structures along there. Rip out the concrete and asphalt on all the "abandoned" lots, and remove some of the roads. Clean it up, green it up and make the early 20th Century "Bluff Improvement" beautiful again. The Seawall and the Bluff Improvement should appear to be of one piece. I think then that a F.L. Olmstead type of park (as with NYC or Buffalo) incorporating the current improvements could be the best choice for a Gulf Coast city. Downtown, the Bluff, the Marina and the Seawall: A greenbelt park of real size for day campers, picnickers, public events, etc.

What Chicago has done with their Lake Michigan parks, for example; and the events that draw people from all directions.

Streetcars should stop here (with direct connections from Interurban trains that can bring anyone from Kingsville to Victoria).

If you want buildings, then military convalescent centers (auxiliaries to ones above storm surge on the Bluff); etc.
A "pleasure pier" as in Santa Monica. (Kind of what North Beach used to be; and that should be worked in aesthetic cooperation).

WPA style project of beauty, using stimulus money to train artisans.

If we don't focus on the bigger picture of beautification (SPID a terrible eyesore) then we'll lose our natural advantages of mild winter, bearable summer and potential great beauty. Where is the indigenous architecture of the Coastal Bend that will survive hurricanes, use little energy, and be built for an age instead of a day? Great swaths of this city need to be redeveloped, and this could be an impetus for individuals in their own choices.

My grandmother and her parents used to winter here after the destruction of Galveston in the years before WWI. What would bring back them back today?
It won't be a dilapidated city center or suburban sprawl.

More Americans today base their decisions of where to live on non-job factors than ever before. Let's ride that horse. Our advantage is clear-cut.

[gabetx]

Originally Posted by rednax

Tear it down. And the rest of the dilapidated structures along there. Rip out the concrete and asphalt on all the "abandoned" lots, and remove some of the roads. Clean it up, green it up and make the early 20th Century "Bluff Improvement" beautiful again. The Seawall and the Bluff Improvement should appear to be of one piece. I think then that a F.L. Olmstead type of park (as with NYC or Buffalo) incorporating the current improvements could be the best choice for a Gulf Coast city. Downtown, the Bluff, the Marina and the Seawall: A greenbelt park of real size for day campers, picnickers, public events, etc.

What Chicago has done with their Lake Michigan parks, for example; and the events that draw people from all directions.

Streetcars should stop here (with direct connections from Interurban trains that can bring anyone from Kingsville to Victoria).

If you want buildings, then military convalescent centers (auxiliaries to ones above storm surge on the Bluff); etc.
A "pleasure pier" as in Santa Monica. (Kind of what North Beach used to be; and that should be worked in aesthetic cooperation).

WPA style project of beauty, using stimulus money to train artisans.

If we don't focus on the bigger picture of beautification (SPID a terrible eyesore) then we'll lose our natural advantages of mild winter, bearable summer and potential great beauty. Where is the indigenous architecture of the Coastal Bend that will survive hurricanes, use little energy, and be built for an age instead of a day? Great swaths of this city need to be redeveloped, and this could be an impetus for individuals in their own choices.

My grandmother and her parents used to winter here after the destruction of Galveston in the years before WWI. What would bring back them back today?
It won't be a dilapidated city center or suburban sprawl.

More Americans today base their decisions of where to live on non-job factors than ever before. Let's ride that horse. Our advantage is clear-cut.

Too bad our city council isn't and/or wasn't smart enough to be thinking this way.

[SOM]

Originally Posted by rednax

Tear it down.
<snip>
Our advantage is clear-cut.

Great post. The Bayfront is such a diamond in the rough. While I do NOT want to see a Kemah-style corporate development, there is so much more that could be done locally.