Comments on: Discovery Green Thrives while Boston’s Greenway Struggles

By: Jessie M

Jessie M — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:45:34 +0000

Discovery Green would be just as dead without the organized events. Even on beautiful days and weekends it sits empty when I see it on the news cameras, unless there’s an event planned.

Most people do not go just because it is a beautiful park, which it is.

By: Mohammed

Mohammed — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:44:42 +0000

I agree with the person above me,

It isn’t that the Discovery Green was designed so much better than the Boston Greenway. The success is due to the lack of anything in Downtown to do. There is no other place like it in Houston. So people that live in the surrounding areas don’t really have an alternative.

This is where, in my opinion, the article lacked. It didn’t mention the void and absolute need for such a place in Houston. There are even people that drive in from the surrounding suburbs because there isn’t another place where one could enjoy the views in a safe park.

But that shouldn’t takeaway credit from the designers and builders of Discovery Green they did a good job, but it would be unfair to say that they did a MUCH better job than their counter-parts in Boston

By: Downtown grocery store coming – Off the Kuff

Downtown grocery store coming – Off the Kuff — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:33:34 +0000

[...] a potential winner to me. They ought to draw from the Discovery Green crowd, which is largely a destination attraction, and if they’re lucky some day from the Market Square crowd as well. In the meantime, [...]

By: Appetitus Rationi Pareat

Appetitus Rationi Pareat — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:20:41 +0000

Interesting story and I agree that Discovery Green has been a real plus for the city.

Couple of thoughts on the comparison. First is that the Greenway or whatever they call it is MUCH better than what was there before, the old central artery. It cut the city in two and isolated some real iconic neighborhoods of Boston like the North End.

Second, and this is nothing to take away from Discovery Green or the designers, before Discovery Green, Houston really lacked a real blockbuster, true, urban park. Herman Park and Memorial Park are nice, but they aren’t really what I think of a urban parks (they are for golf, tennis and running for example). The other parks in and around downtown are nice but small (they would be perfect neighborhood parks if more people lived downtown btw).

Part of Discovery Green’s popularity may be that it filled a void here in Houston. Now in Houston we have a nice place where you can just lounge around on the weekend, read a book and people watch amid the skyscrapers. Boston already has a lot of these types of parks.

Now if they could only get some decent bike-lanes in this city so you don’t take your life in your hands while cycling there!

Good article.