November 20, 2005
The far west frontier

I'm not surprised that the Grand Parkway out in west Houston/Katy is spurring lots of new development. That was the whole reason for the Grand Parkway, after all. I'm just amused by this:


For now, the area lacks the level of development seen in more established communities like The Woodlands or Sugar Land: the so-called lifestyle center. Essentially big outdoor shopping malls, these projects typically consist of upscale shops lining pedestrian walkways and surrounding a parklike setting that's supposed to act as a gathering spot for the community.

"It's the wave of the future," [Lance] LaCour said.

Early next year, construction will start on LaCenterra at Cinco Ranch, a retail and office project designed with an "old town Texas" theme.

"It harkens back to when all activities were centered around a Main Street," said Woody Mann, president of Vista Equities, the firm developing the project.


I love the idea of people moving out to brand-new suburban developments that mimic historic small towns, especially ones that get swallowed whole by said development. The joke has always been that new subdivisions are named for whatever got bulldozed in order to build them. This is clearly the next logical step.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 20, 2005 to Elsewhere in Houston | TrackBack
Comments

Actually, the new suburbs are quite an improvement over many of the small towns they are replacing.

Unless of course you just like to live around shoot-em-up beer joints and old broken down trailer parks filled with dope dealers and drunks on SSI who have "moved out to the country" in many cases to escape the law!

One of the truly fun aspects of today's so-called "country life" surrounding the "big citiy" in today's Texas: picking up your drunk neighbor out of a waterfilled ditch in a rain storm, after he has fallen in because he is too drunk to walk!

Posted by: ttyler5 on November 20, 2005 1:20 PM