Author Topic: Houston Crime: “Galleria Is The New Greenspoint”  (Read 445 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Houston Crime: “Galleria Is The New Greenspoint”
« on: April 18, 2022, 10:46:26 am »
Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog 4/17/2022

https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=51196

In Houston, the Galleria (located centrally just outside the 610 loop at Westheimer) has long been the ne plus ultra of retail shopping, filled with high-end shops for designer clothing, jewelry, etc. While other malls built out, the Galleria built up, with four floors around a large open atrium and an ice rink. The Galleria was where rich people shopped.

My most vivid memory of the Galleria was my family taking us there to see Star Wars, where it was playing in one of only 50 theaters nationwide, right after a rave write-up in Time magazine.

We got there in the early afternoon, and not only was the next showing sold out, the line for tickets stretched all the way around the ice rink and halfway up the other side. It turned out that all showings until midnight were already sold out.

Needless to say, we didn’t see Star Wars that day.

Instead, we saw it a month or two later at the movie theater in Greenspoint Mall. Greenspoint was still pretty new at that point, built out on north IH-45 at Gears (later Greens) road just the year before, at a time when north Houston was experiencing rapid growth but there were still miles and miles of green fields interspersed with tracts of tall pine forests. It was a mall anchored by large department stores Sears and Foley’s (a Houston-area department store chain that Macy’s would purchase and largely ruin), which would later be expanded to include Joske’s (a Dallas department store later bought by Dillard’s), JCPenney, Montgomery Ward and Lord & Taylor. Greenspoint was a good mall where middle class Houstonians shopped.

As Houston grew, new malls opened in the northwest (Willowbrook) and northeast (Deerbrook). That, age and changing demographics changed the character of Greenspoint over the years. It went from being a mall where middle class Houstonians shopped to one where gangbangers shot at each other and your hubcaps got stolen. (Word was that if you reported getting your hubcaps stolen to the HPD, they didn’t even ask how many if it happened at Greenpoint; they just assumed it was all four.) Thus Greenpoint became know as “Gunspoint,” and stores started closing. Macy’s was the last anchor tenant, and closed in 2017. After that it was mainly known for the carnival in the parking lot. It’s actually unclear to me whether Greenspoint is still alive or not; I sort of assumed Flu Manchu killed it off, but are tweets from people this year that talk about visiting, so maybe not.

What brought back all these mall memories was the fact that there was a shooting outside the Galleria yesterday. Video below. (Language warning of the “black people talking about other black people” variety.)


Offline Elderberry

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Re: Houston Crime: “Galleria Is The New Greenspoint”
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2022, 10:52:23 am »
We waited in a line like that to see E.T. The only movie I ever saw at the Galleria.

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Re: Houston Crime: “Galleria Is The New Greenspoint”
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2022, 05:09:10 pm »
This is ominous for Houston as it is the single biggest shopping area in town, and attracts outsiders including international visitors.

Its decline will have ripple effects throughout the city on hotels, dining and entertainment.

Crime like this needs to be squashed like a bug.
No punishment, in my opinion, is too great, for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin~  George Washington

Offline catfish1957

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Re: Houston Crime: “Galleria Is The New Greenspoint”
« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2022, 05:19:23 pm »
This is ominous for Houston as it is the single biggest shopping area in town, and attracts outsiders including international visitors.

Its decline will have ripple effects throughout the city on hotels, dining and entertainment.

Crime like this needs to be squashed like a bug.

I know the Galleria is right just outside the loop, but I had made it a point that anything inside 610 wasn't worth the risk to visit.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2022, 05:20:40 pm by catfish1957 »
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Offline GrouchoTex

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Re: Houston Crime: “Galleria Is The New Greenspoint”
« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2022, 05:38:52 pm »
I know the Galleria is right just outside the loop, but I had made it a point that anything inside 610 wasn't worth the risk to visit.

I work in Harris County, but just barely, in Katy, 1 block from Ft. Bend county.
I have no desire to go there if I do not have to.
I don't believe I have gone there except to go to Hobby Airport, in 3 years.
I think the last time was to see the Astros in 2019.

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Re: Houston Crime: “Galleria Is The New Greenspoint”
« Reply #5 on: April 18, 2022, 05:43:17 pm »
I know the Galleria is right just outside the loop, but I had made it a point that anything inside 610 wasn't worth the risk to visit.
I lived within the loop prior to retirement, but now live elsewhere.

Still have to go there for wife's MDA cancer treatments, though.  I always carry.
No punishment, in my opinion, is too great, for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin~  George Washington

Offline Idiot

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Re: Houston Crime: “Galleria Is The New Greenspoint”
« Reply #6 on: April 18, 2022, 07:02:39 pm »
We waited in a line like that to see E.T. The only movie I ever saw at the Galleria.
I remember seeing Star Wars in Amarillo at a tennis tournament.  We must have sat in the first couple of rows, because I still remember it well. 

Offline Idiot

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Re: Houston Crime: “Galleria Is The New Greenspoint”
« Reply #7 on: April 18, 2022, 07:04:58 pm »
I know the Galleria is right just outside the loop, but I had made it a point that anything inside 610 wasn't worth the risk to visit.
Last time I was in Houston for a tennis tournament the tennis club had security guards, which I found strange.  Also, the grocery store close by had one of those guard towers with a policeman inside.  What a sad way to have to live.

Offline mountaineer

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Re: Houston Crime: “Galleria Is The New Greenspoint”
« Reply #8 on: April 18, 2022, 07:33:49 pm »
Criminal behavior on the part of a certain demographic is what killed a shopping mall near my mother's home in the Pittsburgh suburbs. She and other older people became afraid to go there because of the gangs of urban yoots who arrived via public transit and proceeded to commit various crimes, both petty and serious. The mall completely shut down a few years ago. No more JCP, Sears, Macy's, nothing. It sits vacant and deteriorating.

Unless officials take immediate action, I suspect the Galleria will follow suit.
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