Last Chance To See 600 sq mi: Hidden
Missed Connections: Gefilte Fish...and "Chain Connections"
H-Town Rock
Rock Talk, Vol. IX
So if you didn't party too hard yesterday, you'll probably remember the Essence Music Festival, held in Houston for the first time this year as its traditional home, New Orleans, struggles to get back on its feet. We knew the festival events would go on as usual — at Reliant Park rather than the Superdome — but the big unknown was how festivalgoers would react to Houston. As we've heard over and over again post-Katrina, Houston is not New Orleans, but the city hoped no one would really notice and the EMF would help propel Houston into the ranks of world-class minority tourist destinations.
Well, according to the Chronicle, officials shouldn't hold their breath: The paper talked to several people who attended the festival, and they all bitched about Houston. Why? Houston doesn't have Bourbon Street, parking is expensive, they didn't like the local food and the acoustics in Reliant Stadium are bad. Oh, and Houston is really spread out.
Tamarra Hill, a first-time visitor to Houston from Philadelphia, lamented how she spent money on cab rides from the airport to her hotel in the Westchase area and then from Reliant Park to a party at the Red Cat Jazz Cafe downtown. Hill said she finally figured out how to take the bus to Reliant Park."My airfare was less than what it cost me to get around the city," said Hill, adding that her cab ride from the airport to her hotel was $60. "I would not come back to Houston for the Essence Festival."
Another festivalgoer, Janine Jackson of Washington, D.C., said she won't attend the 2007 EMF if it's held in Houston for the same reason: "You can't really connect" because the city is so large, she said. We understand where Jackson is coming from — in New Orleans, you can walk from the Superdome to the parties with no problem, but you have to work to get anywhere from Reliant Park. And we really feel sorry for Hill — it would take a year's salary for us to take a cab from the airport to Westchase to Reliant Park to downtown, and we probably wouldn't be able to figure out how to do it by bus. We imagine she fell victim to some "convenient hotels," "short cab rides" and "pedestrian-friendly" city nonsense.
It's not clear yet how many people attended the EMF in Houston; 232,000 showed up last year. And it's also not clear whether the festival will return here next year, though tourism officials hope it will. According to Essence magazine's editorial director, Susan Taylor, U.S. Rep Sheila Jackson Lee suggested the EMF alternate between Houston and New Orleans. And with the hardest-working woman on Capitol Hill behind it, we're sure we can guess how that proposal will turn out.
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I-10 East is that-a-way. Follow the signs.
If you don't know how to read, just follow the bald guy in the expensive suit who keeps blaming Bush for his problems.
If Ms. Hill did even the tiniest bit of investigation, she would have realized that she could have gone from Reliant to the Red Cat for all of $1 by taking the MetroRail (or spulge for the 24-hour pass for $2!).
Anyone visiting Houston knows (or should) that renting a car will be essential if you will not otherwise have access to a car. The cost of a weekend rental, even in Houston, is cheaper then taking a cab to/from IAH to Westchase.