Downtown’s great when the weather’s not unbearable
It’s been a while since blogged about living downtown so maybe it’s time for an update. After last Saturday’s fun and the great weather this weekend it’s been the perfect time to enjoy the experience downtown by getting out. Last weekend started off with Chalk It Up sponsored by ArtPace. It’s a collection of artists, students, and children who use Houston Street from about Main Street to Alamo Plaza as their canvas. Lots of kids got to have some fun playing in the street and drawing their most creative impressions. What was even better was to see the other people who came down to enjoy the art and weather. But that’s just the start of the fun happening downtown.
During the week I had the opportunity to participate in the Downtown Residents Association‘s National Night Out held at the Radius Center. Yes, even downtown has a residents association where people living downtown can get together and organize activities just like any other resident or neighborhood association. I met some wonderful people and found out about even more cool places to live downtown. Amazingly the downtown area has many places tucked away in between the office buildings and hotels. As more and more places open up the downtown area is becoming a more vibrant place. Next week we have an mixer in the top of the Vidarri on the 20th floor so it will be interesting to see downtown from that vantage point. Now if we’ll just have one in the Tower here at the Vistana we can see what that incredible space looks like.
Later that day I stopped by La Villita for the International Accordion Festival to enjoy Argentinian tango music in the Arneson River Theater. While there I got the chance to chat with some friends and their friends and told them about Oktoberfest happening at the Beethoven Maennechor. I had visited it the night before with a friend and enjoyed the great German music and food under their incredible pecan grove. Getting their was a snap by taking the bus from downtown and catching it for the ride back. I’m finding you get pretty much anywhere in the town with VIA, provided you don’t have a lot of transferring to do.
Today has been a great day but I’m pretty much spending it watching the UT-OU game, or rather struggling through the game. I could get into a rant about the Longhorns right now but I think we all have our issues with the team these days. I’m agreeing with the polls of putting Alabama ahead of the Horns last week. We’re not playing as a #2 team and really don’t deserve the slot. The only reason I think we’re still in this game is because of Bradford’s injury and turnover city.
Back to downtown though. I took lunch off and found the Subway Shop on Houston Street which is open on Saturdays and may Sundays (not sure about that). It was full of high school students in town for a journalism conference. Grabbing my sandwich combo I decided to head to Main Plaza and enjoy the weather eating outside. Main Plaza has been an issue for downtown. What was supposed to be a cool redevelopment has turned into the never ending project. It seems to be getting closer to completion but there’s still a lot of work to be done.
Some people have asked me about groceries downtown. Actually that has turned out to not be a problem. I have a Dollar General Store a half a block away and HEB is about 8-10 blocks down Commerce and right on a couple of bus lines. It’s pretty convenient actually and if need something I can usually pick it up on the way home. So putting a grocery store downtown might be cool but it’s not the biggest of my worries.
I have found that having a VIA bus pass is the best thing to invest in for downtown. With so many buses and trolleys running around downtown it’s just too easy to use when zipping around downtown. I have used it to get to King William, spots along San Pedro, and try to commute once or twice a week to and from USAA. When I’m not walking, I’m riding.
So, living downtown is turning into a pretty cool experience. Besides, if something’s happening downtown I’m there in a jiffy. I’m heading down now to meet some friends on the Riverwalk who are watching the game and called me. You can’t beat that kinda convenience.
