Houston: Incident(s) Avoided

[PBratton]

Have to second BDickens' comments.

Been in the Houston area since 1970, with a 7 year stint in Dallas, been back in Sugar Land for 8 years now.

Only time I've ever been close to unholstering my firearm was one time in Dallas...

Houston is no different from any other area of it's size, good parts, bad parts and the parts you don't discuss.

[ELB]

Why does this restaurant need a guard?

I'd heard this was one to try, now I'll scratch it off my list.

I wonder what the criminal class finds attractive about this place?

I dunno, maybe that's like saying "why does this guy need a CHL?" All kinds of people wander up and down the streets, maybe they had some door crashers in the past looking for handouts or something.

So elb, no running gun battles down the highways? No wave of zombies attacking your car while sitting at red lights?

How many times did you almost get sideswiped off the road? I had two near misses yesterday driving home from work. Always a fun time commuting in Houston.

Zombies? I did see a few strange beings wandering the street (which is why I think they had a door guard). Sideswipes? Eh, I don't count near-sideswipes in my personal crime stats. Just part of the daily risk of living. I have driven in worse. Actually traffic was pretty light -- we got into Houston about 11-ish on Monday, departed around 1300-ish on Tuesday, so no rush hour mob. Traffic was moving around 75 and not crowded at all -- fast lane was actually open for passing. Didn't even have to slow down for the one wreck off the side (looked like someone had driven into some lumber sticking out the back of a truck -- ouch!)

Actually, I think lunch is only about 30 bucks , it's dinner that's around 50 smackers

Wife (who was in charge of the bill) told me lunch was $35 -- I don't know if that included our water and tea or not. Suspect wine and beer are extra, and that would push the total to $50 easily. I really wanted a glass of good red wine to go with all that great meat, but I had a three hour drive back to Seguin after a heavy lunch as it was, didn't need to be napping on the way back. BTW the filet mignon was just outstanding. yum.

[Excaliber]

Why does this restaurant need a guard?

I'd heard this was one to try, now I'll scratch it off my list.

I wonder what the criminal class finds attractive about this place?

I can't answer that specifically, but considering the cost of having an armed officer doing dedicated duty at the establishment, you can bet the answer justifies that considerable expense and it's probably a real good idea.

During my periodic visits to Houston, I've been to several mid priced restaurants (e.g. Pappadeaux) that also had armed officers on dedicated duty. From what I know about that city, I was happy to see that and patronized those places because by my reckoning they lowered my risk considerably while there.

The ones I worried about were the ones without dedicated officers and signs telling you that if you left something in the restaurant when you departed near closing time, you weren't going to get back in to retrieve it.