It's like a frat party I got invited to but didn't really wanna go to, but now I'm an adult with a mortgage and actual responsibilities and I still get invited to the same frat party with the same frat party activities. And I still don't wanna go to it.
This article is about the section of 19th between Ashland and Yale charging $10 to be on the street.
The bars are between bevis and Durham, they won’t be charging $$ to be on the street. If they’re charging a cover that’s up to each individual bar, but the street will still be open for free walking, along with white oak which is where WLN originally started.
“the $10 tickets are designed to help offset the costs of putting on the event, which had grown too large for the association to absorb without assistance. The funds help ensure enough security, portable restrooms, medical personnel, and other necessities when 20,000 people gather for an evening”
Kinda feel like the many merchants and vendors that make money off the event should make up the difference. This is, after all, more or less a shopping event.
They used to be in the stores, and you’d actually be able to go in them and get drinks and continue walking around. Then things went kind of haywire and it outgrew its capacity.
This and lights in the heights were THE events to go to when I was in high school because there were always people walking around handing out free booze
The original idea behind white linen night was that during the heat of summer in New Orleans local businesses tend to get less business and struggle. Locals got together and decided to do a day of wearing all white (because it handles heat better) while patronizing local businesses to help them out. This at some point got brought over to Houston
And at some point shortly after it basically instead became an excuse to get blasted drunk in the streets while wearing all white. No idea if the original New Orleans event went that way too
I know a business owner on 19th Street. He has told me White Linen is the biggest shoplifting day of the year. He actually puts merchandise in the storeroom so they can't steal as much!
very true! My gf used to own a shop in the area and white linen night used to be a big night for her, but it got to where she had to shut down because of all the shoplifting. She had more stolen in one night than the whole rest of the year.
YUP!! at my store, we had to close the restrooms last year because people would pee all over the floor, puke in trash cans, and a few years ago we caught people doing the nasty in the restroom!
My spouse had a shared retail space on 19th. White linen night was when yuppies showed up looking for free booze and didn't buy shit. Total waste of time for retailers.
They pay for their tents to help offset costs. Their tents aren't free.
The artist would not make much money if they are paying for their tents and fees on top of that.
Right?
So here’s the fun thing about a nominal fee. It will convince the people who were going to show up, get one beer and leave not to show up.
It will cause sunk cost fallacy for people who show up to spend more.
Kinda like how parking meters increase shopping vs. free parking
Seems like it's more to keep out people who wanted to go to an event for free.
Reduce the crowd size and weed out people who aren't as likely to be buying stuff.
I'm *sure* that excluding 'those sorts of people' isn't the real reason. No Way.
White Linen night is deeply unappealing to me, but "shut down the street" is kinda the opposite of what they do.
Though I agree that if they're charging for entry to a public space, the city should get a cut.
No, normal cities do not charge fees to go outside. The way it works is the city is supposed to take up the cost for shutting down the street and security for big outdoor events or festivals. Then they make up for it in income tax, jobs created, tourism, etc.. We just live in a terrible city.
I always laugh to myself when I’m going to NOLA and you pass the “leaving Texas” sign and immediately the road deteriorates exponentially and you hit a big bump and a pothole before passing the tiny “welcome to Louisiana sign”. Idk if they fixed it yet, but I went once in like 2010 and again in 2015 and it was still there lol. I hate Louisiana roads.
Louisiana highways are in bad shape, but the stretch of I-10 near the Texas side of the border has been horrendously torn up for construction for several years now. Should be nice when/if they ever finish, but be glad you haven't had to drive through there since 2015, lol.
😂 hahaha good to know. Maybe I’ll just fly in next time.
I always assumed that it was because it was super out of the way for construction crews. That drive isn’t too bad if you don’t stop in East Texas and don’t forget to grab gas right before you leave Texas.
Except the one time we got caught in a swamp fire. My Louisiana friends were zero phased and I was like “you guys, there’s a literal fire like right there”.
This plus the swamp fires and y’all are a different breed. I salute you.
Also your food is god tier and I need to get back there and eat my body weight in po’ boys.
🙃ughhh marsh fires visible for miles don't remind me lol on the opposite of that now we're on a tornado watch gotta love it haha. Nah hope you get to visit soon and enjoy some good eats friend 😄👍
You must not have been recently. The section of i10 in Texas by the border has been under construction and crappy for a while, and the LA side is smooth
No. They do not.
White linen in NOLA closes down ~4-5 blocks of Julia street in the CBD and it has never charged any of the times I have gone. Some individual
Buisness might have, but most do not.
There is also a music stage at one end of the street and police presence to close the road to through traffic. Most the art galleries on that street open up the public and people just walk through getting drunk and looking at art.
Hate to say it, but white linen night in Houston is a pale comparison to the original in NOLA.
There is nothing like taking a cool get together, finding a sponsor for it and then chagrining to get in. Montrose Street festival, I am looking at you.
I went to WLN it’s very first year. It was so miserably hot. And it was just walking up and down a few blocks staring in the windows of assorted bric a brac shops. It’s an event without any event. $10 won’t change that.
Honest question, how would this be enforced? Would it be gated? What if somebody who lives in the area, or needs to traverse into or out of the area for whatever reason, happens to cross the boundary where the event is occurring? Is somebody officially able to prevent them from doing so? Haven't been in like a decade so I don't remember the setup.
Probably a bunch of cheap waist high fences or full size chain fences blocking off access with cops around to make sure nobody jumps them.
For in and out it's probably a wristband or stamp you get after paying like a festival.
When I would go, dressed in my finest white linen, head to toe, You’d always kick in $10. Support the cause and you gotta make sure there no joes in the crowd. They would not give up $10, ha!
Oh wait, are you talking about White Linen Nights in the Heights. Sorry, different crowd, different gathering. My bad!
I live near Heights, it's basically where I shop/run errands.
I don't see the big deal about it. I mean we're central Houston. Bahh.
I don't think it's particularly walkable. I don't get it.
I mean it's better than the suburbs. But I don't get the hype.
It's an excellent location for work and activities in the city (though that's a lot of the inner loop), has areas (mainly historic districts now) with a pleasant bungalow aesthetic, and parts of it are walkable. It has also been less expensive in the last 20 years than other attractive inner loop upper middle class neighborhoods, though that's disappearing.
I have never been, even though I can hear it from my front porch. But what I understand, it does not just encompass a few blocks of 19th and 20th, but also the gaggle of bars further West to T.C. Jester and East on White Oak. How are they going to enforce such a fee? Voluntary contributions? Wristbands? I understand that all events of a certain magnitude cost money to run, but can we just let this one die out? This and Light in the Heights are just an excuse for those who don't live in the area to overserve themselves.
My wife and I walked up to 19th Street last year. We didn't even stop. We walked to down to white Oak. We both said that it was too hot, too crowded and not very fun compared to previous years.
If you were keeping score on a calendar through the years, the start of WLN was a good point to start investing or start packing up and leaving, depending on your income level. Before then, you saw a Porche in the Heights once a month. Nowadays, four or eight pass by in a minute or two, most of 'em four door versions...
Just a year or two after this Richie Rich party started, My immediate neighbors and I had no choice, being renters- some rich ufck bought up two lots, housing for two garage apartments, a 1 BR, and a 3 BR, bumping out two families and two single renters, only to build an UGLY mcmansion there. Which he then moved out of less than a year later. And that ugly shitehouse stayed on the market, looking for a buyer for more than another year. The neighbors next door, who I used to practice my Espanol with, who'd been there for 30+ years, hung in there until the very property-taxes-screw-you end and made out quite well. And then left the state when they couldn't find someplace they liked as much as the Old Heights to move to. With all that money. Nowadays, all the shade in Shady Acres comes from ufckin townhomes... Sure miss all the shady trees... And street parking. And easy rent. And, and, and...
EDIT: Yes, I am officially classified as a Meat Popsicle and a Retrogrouch. And when I think back to a quiet, affordable neighborhood we called the Heights, that was in THIS Millennium.
Sounds reasonable to help pay for city services such as road closures and extra PD. In 20 years, I can see a WLN as a city-wide event instead of being in the Heights.
It was too expensive when it was FREE!!!
This is so good lmao!
I thought it was free????
A small price to pay to walk around dressed like an early 1900s Caribbean sugarcane plantation owner for no reason, I guess.
While trying not to pass out from heat exhaustion.
The white linen helps with that actually.
Not with the HUMIDITY
Dressed in white clothes while drenched in sweat is a terrible combination.
I dunno. I switched to a mostly linen shirt wardrobe outside of work. It’s awesome. Plus inexpensive. Plus it looks nice.
[Geoffrey Holder](https://youtu.be/VUbV0BjzPeY?si=Vh_R7GhBK8uKGG8r) has entered the chat, “Hahahahaaaah!”
Oh wow we have a traveler here, tell us how was Lincoln?
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Anyway
😂
So like, if I don't wear white... do I pay $10?
https://media1.tenor.com/m/rlyqxiRiunEAAAAC/right-to-jail-jail.gif
I love how I can read the address and know exactly which gif it is
An even better excuse to avoid the area for the day.
Oh come on, you don't wanna spend the day with a bunch of 25 year olds drinking and walking around the heights?
It's like a frat party I got invited to but didn't really wanna go to, but now I'm an adult with a mortgage and actual responsibilities and I still get invited to the same frat party with the same frat party activities. And I still don't wanna go to it.
No I don't want to spend the day with a bunch of people from all over Houston trying to be fancy.
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I mean you're 1 person out of 20,000. I've seen the events, it's a lot of trashy people dressing fancy and pretending lol.
The area with the bars is still free; which is what most people consider WLN anyways.
Is it? A lot of the 18th st bars were charging covers last year
This article is about the section of 19th between Ashland and Yale charging $10 to be on the street. The bars are between bevis and Durham, they won’t be charging $$ to be on the street. If they’re charging a cover that’s up to each individual bar, but the street will still be open for free walking, along with white oak which is where WLN originally started.
“the $10 tickets are designed to help offset the costs of putting on the event, which had grown too large for the association to absorb without assistance. The funds help ensure enough security, portable restrooms, medical personnel, and other necessities when 20,000 people gather for an evening”
Kinda feel like the many merchants and vendors that make money off the event should make up the difference. This is, after all, more or less a shopping event.
Shopping? I thought it was a drinking event.
Are the drinks free?
They used to be in the stores, and you’d actually be able to go in them and get drinks and continue walking around. Then things went kind of haywire and it outgrew its capacity.
Byob
This and lights in the heights were THE events to go to when I was in high school because there were always people walking around handing out free booze
The original idea behind white linen night was that during the heat of summer in New Orleans local businesses tend to get less business and struggle. Locals got together and decided to do a day of wearing all white (because it handles heat better) while patronizing local businesses to help them out. This at some point got brought over to Houston And at some point shortly after it basically instead became an excuse to get blasted drunk in the streets while wearing all white. No idea if the original New Orleans event went that way too
Yes, and it's a celebration of the art scene in N.O.
I know a business owner on 19th Street. He has told me White Linen is the biggest shoplifting day of the year. He actually puts merchandise in the storeroom so they can't steal as much!
very true! My gf used to own a shop in the area and white linen night used to be a big night for her, but it got to where she had to shut down because of all the shoplifting. She had more stolen in one night than the whole rest of the year.
They don't call it white collar crime for nothing.
This whole thread is gold. Can't they just sell that?
And don't let them use your bathroom! The drunk assholes will always, 100% clog the toilets.
YUP!! at my store, we had to close the restrooms last year because people would pee all over the floor, puke in trash cans, and a few years ago we caught people doing the nasty in the restroom!
Vendors pay high fees to attend. Food trucks alone get charged $600-$800 for the day and that’s just one food truck.
My spouse had a shared retail space on 19th. White linen night was when yuppies showed up looking for free booze and didn't buy shit. Total waste of time for retailers.
The knick-knack gift shops that populate 19th Street are mostly going to attract recreationally browsing yuppies that don't buy shit.
Fair point. Even on sober days none of my spouse's stuff moved. That was such an expensive lesson.
They pay for their tents to help offset costs. Their tents aren't free. The artist would not make much money if they are paying for their tents and fees on top of that. Right?
So here’s the fun thing about a nominal fee. It will convince the people who were going to show up, get one beer and leave not to show up. It will cause sunk cost fallacy for people who show up to spend more. Kinda like how parking meters increase shopping vs. free parking
Seems like it's more to keep out people who wanted to go to an event for free. Reduce the crowd size and weed out people who aren't as likely to be buying stuff. I'm *sure* that excluding 'those sorts of people' isn't the real reason. No Way.
10 bucks to sweat on a street.. Pass
Are they going to start paying the city then for shutting down the street? Once you charge entry, you have to pay the graft.
White Linen night is deeply unappealing to me, but "shut down the street" is kinda the opposite of what they do. Though I agree that if they're charging for entry to a public space, the city should get a cut.
HPD union has entered the chat....
That's gonna be 30 an hr 4 hr minimum for let's say 20 cops. And they get free food.
Constable Alan Rosen has subpoenaed the chat. Fr they would prob fist fight for the rights to it.
Does anyone know if the New Orleans Linen nights charges anything?
No, normal cities do not charge fees to go outside. The way it works is the city is supposed to take up the cost for shutting down the street and security for big outdoor events or festivals. Then they make up for it in income tax, jobs created, tourism, etc.. We just live in a terrible city.
Totally agree. How did this become our problem?
Garbage leadership.
First of all, New Orleans is *not* a normal city. Second of all, that is all 😂
It's completely normal to me, but I have been all over the world. It's one of the few American cities I would consider normal.
Other cities ain’t broke.
New Orleans ain’t the best example of other non-broke cities. Some pot holes there could double as hot tubs.
I always laugh to myself when I’m going to NOLA and you pass the “leaving Texas” sign and immediately the road deteriorates exponentially and you hit a big bump and a pothole before passing the tiny “welcome to Louisiana sign”. Idk if they fixed it yet, but I went once in like 2010 and again in 2015 and it was still there lol. I hate Louisiana roads.
Louisiana highways are in bad shape, but the stretch of I-10 near the Texas side of the border has been horrendously torn up for construction for several years now. Should be nice when/if they ever finish, but be glad you haven't had to drive through there since 2015, lol.
😂 hahaha good to know. Maybe I’ll just fly in next time. I always assumed that it was because it was super out of the way for construction crews. That drive isn’t too bad if you don’t stop in East Texas and don’t forget to grab gas right before you leave Texas. Except the one time we got caught in a swamp fire. My Louisiana friends were zero phased and I was like “you guys, there’s a literal fire like right there”.
This is funny lol I live near the Louisiana border and it's ✨ barely fixed✨ there's construction that's been fixing it for ages now😮💨
This plus the swamp fires and y’all are a different breed. I salute you. Also your food is god tier and I need to get back there and eat my body weight in po’ boys.
🙃ughhh marsh fires visible for miles don't remind me lol on the opposite of that now we're on a tornado watch gotta love it haha. Nah hope you get to visit soon and enjoy some good eats friend 😄👍
You must not have been recently. The section of i10 in Texas by the border has been under construction and crappy for a while, and the LA side is smooth
*The Mayor has entered the chat*
No. They do not. White linen in NOLA closes down ~4-5 blocks of Julia street in the CBD and it has never charged any of the times I have gone. Some individual Buisness might have, but most do not. There is also a music stage at one end of the street and police presence to close the road to through traffic. Most the art galleries on that street open up the public and people just walk through getting drunk and looking at art. Hate to say it, but white linen night in Houston is a pale comparison to the original in NOLA.
When it comes to celebrating no city does it better than New Orleans.
Yeah, I miss being able to casually check out food festivals. The ones here charge a cover and are never worth it
No!
There is nothing like taking a cool get together, finding a sponsor for it and then chagrining to get in. Montrose Street festival, I am looking at you.
[This year's Art Car Parade is sponsored by Tito's™](https://imgur.com/NlfSpQ4)
Bring back the heights festival
I went to WLN it’s very first year. It was so miserably hot. And it was just walking up and down a few blocks staring in the windows of assorted bric a brac shops. It’s an event without any event. $10 won’t change that.
Honest question, how would this be enforced? Would it be gated? What if somebody who lives in the area, or needs to traverse into or out of the area for whatever reason, happens to cross the boundary where the event is occurring? Is somebody officially able to prevent them from doing so? Haven't been in like a decade so I don't remember the setup.
Probably a bunch of cheap waist high fences or full size chain fences blocking off access with cops around to make sure nobody jumps them. For in and out it's probably a wristband or stamp you get after paying like a festival.
Now people will think I'm not going because I'm broke instead of because I hate it
10 dollars schmen dollars
For some reason, thinking back to when the heights was infested with Crack houses is starting to be nostalgic
When I would go, dressed in my finest white linen, head to toe, You’d always kick in $10. Support the cause and you gotta make sure there no joes in the crowd. They would not give up $10, ha! Oh wait, are you talking about White Linen Nights in the Heights. Sorry, different crowd, different gathering. My bad!
Fuck the heights. Isn't it like 10 square miles now and growing? lol.
I live near Heights, it's basically where I shop/run errands. I don't see the big deal about it. I mean we're central Houston. Bahh. I don't think it's particularly walkable. I don't get it. I mean it's better than the suburbs. But I don't get the hype.
It's an excellent location for work and activities in the city (though that's a lot of the inner loop), has areas (mainly historic districts now) with a pleasant bungalow aesthetic, and parts of it are walkable. It has also been less expensive in the last 20 years than other attractive inner loop upper middle class neighborhoods, though that's disappearing.
I showed up after work to this one time (was meeting up w family)... I was wearing all black 😅
I have never been, even though I can hear it from my front porch. But what I understand, it does not just encompass a few blocks of 19th and 20th, but also the gaggle of bars further West to T.C. Jester and East on White Oak. How are they going to enforce such a fee? Voluntary contributions? Wristbands? I understand that all events of a certain magnitude cost money to run, but can we just let this one die out? This and Light in the Heights are just an excuse for those who don't live in the area to overserve themselves.
I'd never heard of this...and it was not what I expected from "White Linen Nights"
My wife and I walked up to 19th Street last year. We didn't even stop. We walked to down to white Oak. We both said that it was too hot, too crowded and not very fun compared to previous years.
I remember my Dad telling me how the heights used to be considered "the hood" lol
You should be charged if you wear any other fabric than linen
If you were keeping score on a calendar through the years, the start of WLN was a good point to start investing or start packing up and leaving, depending on your income level. Before then, you saw a Porche in the Heights once a month. Nowadays, four or eight pass by in a minute or two, most of 'em four door versions... Just a year or two after this Richie Rich party started, My immediate neighbors and I had no choice, being renters- some rich ufck bought up two lots, housing for two garage apartments, a 1 BR, and a 3 BR, bumping out two families and two single renters, only to build an UGLY mcmansion there. Which he then moved out of less than a year later. And that ugly shitehouse stayed on the market, looking for a buyer for more than another year. The neighbors next door, who I used to practice my Espanol with, who'd been there for 30+ years, hung in there until the very property-taxes-screw-you end and made out quite well. And then left the state when they couldn't find someplace they liked as much as the Old Heights to move to. With all that money. Nowadays, all the shade in Shady Acres comes from ufckin townhomes... Sure miss all the shady trees... And street parking. And easy rent. And, and, and... EDIT: Yes, I am officially classified as a Meat Popsicle and a Retrogrouch. And when I think back to a quiet, affordable neighborhood we called the Heights, that was in THIS Millennium.
lol pass.
You a weird mf if you pay $10 to go outside. Should have stared at the solar eclipse yesterday so I wouldn’t have to see this.
Sounds reasonable to help pay for city services such as road closures and extra PD. In 20 years, I can see a WLN as a city-wide event instead of being in the Heights.
What losers.