June 22, 2004, 09:48 PM
Covering the Dallas news important to Houstonians
Dallas is closing its downtown pedestrian tunnels, and Thomas Korosec of the “Hoston Chronicle Dallas Bureau” (nice spelling, guys) has the scoop:
When city officials began considering one of Mayor Laura Miller's bolder campaign promises last month — closing the city's downtown pedestrian tunnels — Naim Alasaad wished he had been tapped for advice.
“I'd tell her we have two seasons, cold and hot. Both are no good for business on the street,” said Alassad, who runs a bagel franchise in the tunnel, just off the marble-lined basement lobby of the Bank One building. “When it's hot, nobody is going outside for lunch.”
Alassad should know. When he ran a street-level barbecue stand in the 1990s, Dallas' triple-digit summers shriveled his lunch trade by more than half, he said.
Pardon my bluntness, but why would Houstonians care?
I think Korosec must have felt the need to answer that question halfway through his article, so this attempt at local relevance is spliced in:
“Clearly, [the tunnels] work like a giant vacuum. They suck people off the street,” said Jodie Sinclair, spokeswoman for the Houston Downtown Management District. “I had a woman visiting from Manhattan ask me, `Where are all the people? It's Wednesday at 1 in the afternoon.' I told her, `Dear, they're all underground.' ”
Over the past decade, Sinclair said, Houston has come to terms with its tunnels, even though “behind the scenes, people wish they weren't there.” A loop in the system was completed in the 1990s, and the city's newest office tower, at 1000 Main Street, was designed to merge the tunnels and the outside world.
No they don't! Most Houstonians who actually earn a living downtown — instead of playing social engineer for METRO and other “planning” agencies — love the downtown tunnel system! Especially during our brutal summers, and during our downpours. Sinclair's comment is just way out in left field.
But then, if that's out in left field, this article about Dallas's downtown being published in Houston's major daily newspaper is like something from outer space.
By the way, did any of you even realize the Chronicle HAD a Dallas news bureau? And can anybody tell me why?
An Austin bureau I can understand. A Washington, DC bureau seems like overkill for the quantity and quality of copy it actually produces, but I can understand that it makes the Chronicle feel like a major newspaper. But a Dallas bureau?
I say relocate 'em all and create a Conroe bureau!
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