Rice Village already looks great, and now they’re about to transform it even more.
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OK…now…how about a “UH Village” with a transformative plan by UH to link the campus to hypothetical “UH Village?”
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Must be nice
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Not going to happen, unless if UH decides to lease the land the recreation soccer fields are on.
Go for it, big dog.
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This Rice Village plan won’t literally transform Rice Village. The essence of Rice Village has for the most part always been wealthy, white and welcoming to transplants.
As opposed to a “UH Village” which WOULD transform Third Ward entirely, thus displacing many African Americans who live there currently.
That’s why.
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Like one said - use the rec fields - the area behind McDonald’s is changing anyway so your not displacing many like you think
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For the 400th time, the Rice Village is successful not because Rice kids go to Torchy’s a few times a semester but because it is surrounded by neighborhoods with rich residents.
The Third Ward could not support a City Centre, Rice Village, or even a White Oak strip. And while the townhomes are moving in, it takes years for retail to follow the rooftops.
Also, Rice is a major real estate player. They own lots of land including the entire area of Midtown where they redeveloped the Sears into The Ion. They plan on adding graduate housing, retail, and more space for R&D.
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The Third Ward, with its current residential/economic base could not afford a City Center / Rice Village-esque platform. That I agree with. The only way that can happen would be with public money (which will never happen at that scale).
The irony is that UH Grads living outside of the Loop/Beltway want Third Ward to look grand and beautiful for UH’s sake, but they are not willing to pay for it themselves (which I am not judging, I get it believe me).
Theoretically, Third Ward Houston would be the second most valuable real estate by sheer location (second to River Oaks/Crestwood/Glen Cove).
There absolutely are real estate sharks waiting to take over Third Ward as I type this, but they can’t do it home by home. It needs to happen at scale, almost all at once because there would be a crime risk if only small portions of the neighborhood develop relative to the historic character of the neighborhood (African American, high crime, high homelessness)
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Wait…WHAT? A University CAN lead development connected to a University District adjacent to their campus…crazy!
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They can’t even keep the stuff on campus open, why would they build an entire off-campus district?
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We don’t need a place for rich folks to shop. We need a place for young professionals and DINKs to live. Luxury apartments and condos. They would support businesses most days while it would create a better game day experience for fans.
As far as gentrification, there’s always fair and equitable ways to redevelop areas. Unfortunately that’s not how it always works out. But the land won’t be stolen from anyone. People are offered money for their properties. A lot of these areas already have frozen property taxes. Expand that to the rest of the third ward for existing homes. Heck, offer folks with kids scholarships. There’s lots of things that can be done.
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Rice village is also surrounded by some of the states richest zip codes. They don’t need to rely on Rice students to stay alive.
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Here we go again with the excuses.
The City of Houston is the 17th richest city on planet Earth in terms of millionaires…plenty of wealth to go around IF you develop quality
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/ter01-millionaire-hubs-the-worlds-wealthiest-cities/
Yes, and most of the wealth in Houston is found with the inner loop, largely held by those in River Oaks and the like (news flash, not UH alumni)
Those people have no interest in making Third Ward a thriving place because it doesn’t benefit them. In fact, if Third Ward improved dramatically, it would probably make the cost of living in River Oaks even MORE expensive
Are Houston millionaires willing to go to the Third Ward to do some shopping or doing some dining?
Nope
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Let me rephrase it…
The University OF Houston sits in the 17th richest city in the world, in terns of # of millionaires, yet we can’t get a University District yet snall towns with a fraction of our wealth have thriving ones?
We have 50,000 students on campus EVERY DAY…they are already there.
Build somewhere they would hang out after class…we aren’t talking about a high end shipping District…just a District that caters to P4 College studehts.
Not hard!
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Again and we’ve discussed this many time before, Houston is an entrepreneurial city, if there was money to be made by developing some sort of district in the Third Ward, someone would have done it.
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3rd ward can’t support it but they’re forcing that bayou development in 5th ward - come on 