Allow me a brief moment to vomit my thoughts about the fate of the Astrodome all over your nice new shoes: I know that many are up in arms about the decision by the voters of Houston to not allow for $217,000,000 in renovations to be drawn from the public coffers. The apparent result, of course, is that the Astrodome will be scheduled for demolition. Now I have in excess of 100 memories formed at the old girl: countless Astros games, Oilers games, numerous rodeos, a handful of concerts, etc. I had many great times in that stadium. I also have a profound love of history. I love old books, I love old buildings, I love old plays. What can I say? I really like old things. The cry of the defeated has been, the Astrodome is the Eighth Wonder of the World, Billie Jean King, Final Four, and so forth. Ive also heard, it is the symbol of Houston, and, would New York City tear down the Statue of Liberty? Lets all take a step back here for a moment. The Astrodome was a marvel in its time. Theres no doubt about that. It was an engineering and architectural feat of no small water. That being said, domed stadiums soon became commonplace. The Astrodome was one of dozens of even more remarkable structures. It eventually became dated, old, and was no longer a viable venue for major events. So it was replaced with Minute Maid Park and not long after, Reliant Stadium. Both of these stadiums blew the Astrodome out of the water. Nobody in their right mind would have preferred to be in the Dome. So there was a vacant, derelict eyesore that could unsafely seat 70,000 people crouched in the shadow of Reliant stadium - costing the Houston taxpayer $2M a year to rot away. Now that it is doomed by the local voters, there is an outcry? Where was this outcry BEFORE the election? Where was it during the 15 years that the stadium was filling with feral cats and dust? Come to think of it, who are the people that wanted to see the Astrodome in the first place? Ive never had one person in my entire life come to visit me in Houston and ask to see the Astrodome. I dont know any resident who includes it on their Must See List for visitors. It is an unattractive structure in an unattractive area of town. When was the last time a resident said, I really want to go down and look at the Astrodome, because all of these amazing things happened there. After the Astros moved out, I never went back nor would I go back even if it was to be renovated. I would argue that nobody particularly cared about the Astrodome since the Astros moved out either, as evidenced by its extraordinary level of neglect that still cost us $2M a year. But now that it will likely be going away, its become their most favored structure in the city? I find that very hard to believe. If you want a travesty in Houston historical architecture? Look at the north side of the River Oaks Shopping Center. The beautiful Art Deco structure that Weingarten Realty allowed to be crapped on (which included the building of the monstrosity that is the *soon-to-be-closed* Barnes and Noble) is a far greater sin to me than the demolition of the black hole of tax dollars that the Astrodome is. I will always have the memories I made at the Dome. No wrecking ball can take them from me. Id wager the same can be said for everyone else too.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 20:26:54 +0000
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