Houston's transportation, nightlife lacking, Essence brass says

So we noted earlier this week that people who attended this year's Essence Music Festival whined about how Houston isn't New Orleans. And now festival organizers have joined in, saying Houston apparently didn't realize just how important the three-day music, shopping and education festival was.

Essence Communications President Michelle Ebanks said festivalgoers complained about the distance between Reliant Park, where the festival was held, and hotels, shopping districts and downtown. She said the fact that the city didn't arrange for free shuttles to take people back and forth — which city officials say would have cost between $300,000 and $400,000 — and that many local businesses didn't stay open extra-late showed that Houston didn't understand what a boon hosting the EMF really was.

"Had the city or county invested more we could have had a different result. If a $126 million economic impact doesn't register there's nothing more that can be said," said Ebanks.

Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau President Jurdy Tollett said the city accommodated many other requests from festival organizers, including extending MetroRail service hours, getting cab companies and hotels to offer discounts, promoting the festival in other cities for free and getting the EMF advertised in more than 100,000 visitor guides. "Everything Essence asked, we did it," Tollet told the Chronicle. "We did everything we normally do for a major event. This city knows how to put on a big event."

Tollett said the city will still try to lure the 2007 EMF to Houston, but there's a limit to how much it can do. "I'm going to put our best deal together," he said. "We're going to try everything we can to make adjustments." Ebanks said festival organizers want to make a deal within several weeks and announce the 2007 festival site by the end of August.