Osler's Razor

How about a Messianic religious cult living in a compound on the edge of town....

No, I guess you've already tried that.
 

an Alamo Drafthouse!
 

Enough manufacturing jobs so that we don't have double the national average for poverty.

Also, a Whole Foods would be great.
 

HEB is the only thing I miss about Texas!!!
 

Hockey team. It would cool everyone off.

I can see Mt hood from my house yet it still blew up. So mountain views are not the key to happiness. And today I bought a tuna sandwich from Trader Joe's that was like an old sponge.
Waco is probably really nice, you just need to leave it once in a while.
 

an outlet mall

i second the Whole Foods comment
 

Coco's Top 5:

1. More jobs. Specifically, in film. Even more specifically, something that would hire a lazy film student who's lounging around MY apartment.
2. I second the Alamo Drafthouse comment--or just any theatre that would have the cajones to kick people out who act up and talk throughout the whole darn movie.
3. A local music/movie store. Poo on Baylor for treating Disc Daddy so poorly when they took over Ivy Square. I've resorted to buying DVDs and music online ever since, and it just ain't the same. I want recommendations from That Guy Who Listens to Everything and Knows His Stuff when I shop for music.
4. They're working on it, and I'm glad, but they've got to finish up making downtown a cool place to hang out. Restore the buildings. Bring in quirky local businesses. Etc.
5. More good local restaurants--we can't have enough. A nice Italian place closer to campus would be awesome. We need a decent 24-hour eatery a la Austin's Kerbey Lane. And better delivery food. I don't want to get out in this heat, man...but I would love some tempura delivered to my door. Wings and pizza just don't cut it, and the Chinese joint that delivers here is pretty nasty.

Honorable mentions:
6. A Nordstrom. Shooooooes!!!
7. A decent music venue. Scruff's, Treff's, and Common Grounds aren't quite it. We need somewhere with a decent sound system, plenty of room for people, and some better acts.
 

First, I'm against a Whole Foods. I think it says something about Waco that we don't have one, and I like what it says.

Second, better acts at Scruffys?? Have you seen Scrotundo?? Doesn't get much better than that!!

Third, I agree that Waco needs a good record store, but am afraid that the number of us that still purchase music in a store has shrunk so much that it may no longer be plausible.

I'm also for a legit music store. I need a place where I can go and play 20 different guitars just for fun.
 

Maybe the tyd family will move to Waco and open up Chapin Guitars again. Then you can come in and play "Smoke on the Water" Reallllly loud for HOURS until 2 am...."

I actually put up a sign once - a la Wayne's World - that read "NO SMOKE ON THE WATER," but Bill made me take it down.

But we cannot move there until you get a mountain and a Whole Paycheck (uh I mean Whole Foods) so its not looking good...

I 'm not seeing the WF coming to Waco. I have never been there, but any town that has a restaurant like the one called Health Camp I don't think will support a store that sells stuff like environmentally friendly cat litter and all that kind of stuff. Besides, WF is stupid anyway. The only reason to go there is to buy their pre made Thanksgiving dinner, and probably everyone in TX can cook so why would they need to go there to get their Christmas Tofurkey or Harvest Loaf?
 

RRL, what is wrong with Whole Foods? Unless you don't like having a huge selection of fresh, organic produce. I agree with a decent music store, especially since the one on Lake Air closed down. I'd like to have a nice used bookstore akin to Recycled Books in Denton or the Half-Price Books chains, but I realize that probably won't happen anytime soon.

I agree about the live music venue, particularly because I'll never set foot in Scruff's again if I am lucky. I hate that place.
 

Scruff's might be pretty decent if the sound system was a little better.

Everything just sounds scratchy in there to me.
 

Maybe throw a Jesse James Days festival once in a while. Of course, the townsfolk of Waco, TX did not capture a dangerous outlaw when many police efforts to do so had failed (which I still find hilarious), but it worked for Northfield...
 

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As a Waco native, I thought I'd drop in my two cents.

1 - There are enough manufacturing jobs. Having worked in a Waco factory and interned with the AG Child Support Division, the problem isn't enough jobs; Waco's problem is (believe it or not) not enough (willing) workers.

2 - We tried a hockey team when I was in junior high: the Waco Wizards. Look'm up. They were part of the Western Professional Hockey League and played in the H.O.T. Coliseum. But nobody really got it, so even though they finished 2d in the league a couple times, they always finished last in attendance. So they folded. And then everybody forgot about them.

3 - You're absolutely right about the local restaurants issue. I don't know why Waco doesn't have famous local restaurants, but they don't and never have.

4 - MiLB rocks! We had a team way back in the day (Babe Ruth played one game at a ballpark downtown that got destroyed in the '53 tornado), and people have tried a couple times, but it always falls through. There's an ABA team (go Waco Wranglers!) that gave Waco a shot, but they moved up to Dallas.
 

1) Movie theater downtown: There are enough people in the urban area to make this profitable and it could generate more businesses: restaurants, bars, etc. There's plenty of room downtown if some condemned buildings come down.

2) Recreation on the Brazos: To be fair, I haven't perused what's there, but my sense is that potential is wasted here. The area could become a hotbed of activity, like the Kemah Boardwalk near Houston. The development should include free/inexpensive activities for local families, though.

3) Used book/music store: Half Price Books would be a good model to follow because they stock used books, CDs, DVDs, and records: something for everyone, and it puts media within reach for more people.

4) A second independent coffee shop: Common Grounds is often packed, and when it's hot and there are no tables inside, that's it. During the day there's the The Olive Branch, but they close early. Another cool place to study and read would be appreciated.
 

SH- I'd argue that the Brazos has lots of entertainment. Cameron Park abuts the Brazos, as do several small er parks on the North side, along with restaurants such as Buzzard Billy's and the Lake Brazos steakhouse.

Also, I'm curious to know what manufacturing jobs there are, particularly on the north side of Waco. I've seen some but not enough to justify chalking the high poverty rate up to laziness. I know there's the Mars factory and a few other small ones, but for a town of over 100,000 there is relatively little manufacturing/low level industry work, at least as far as I can tell.
 

I saw the Waco Wizards on opening night in the HOT Colosseum. There was a layer of fog rising up from the ice that was about waist high that prevented you from seeing the puck. No joke. Shortly thereafter, they installed two huge dehumidifiers on either side of the rink that took care of the problem. There also was a huge community uproar at the time about having a sports team in Waco with a Wizard being the mascot. 3/4 of the people in attendance at home games (which usually equaled about 175 people) had no idea about the rules of hockey and would just come for the cheap beer and to cheer at people getting hit.
 

1. Better racial integration
2. A drive-in that is in town so you don't have to drive to Gatesville
3. Better paying jobs. Too many working poor here.
4. Pestilence elimination - no more fire ants and poisonous snakes.
 

1. Whole Foods or Central Market - I'm sorry, but the HEBs around here more often than not have crap for produce. I wouldn't give a rabbit some of that stuff. Of course, the HEBs in Austin weren't bad, so maybe it's just Waco. Either way, I just want fresh produce.

2. Another vote for Half-Price Books.

3. A proper dog park. There are open spaces (like 2) at Cameron Park, but nothing with a fence. I'm impressed by people who have such control over their dogs that they don't need a fence, but most do. A place for dogs to socialize is also a place for people to socialize and there's a great lack of proper places to do that in Waco - bars excluded.
 

Waco's big manufacturing plants include: Sanderson Farms, MasterFoods (Mars), Coke, Trane, Pilgrims Pride, Caterpillar, Alcoa, Davis Iron Works, Sturdisteel, Time Mfg, Jones Mfg, Packless, Sherwin Williams---the list goes on. If you drive down Imperial in Hewitt, you'll see about two dozen plants and warehouses. And that doesn't include the common carriers that operate out of Waco. When I worked at Trane, they couldn't find enough workers to fill all the positions. My dad still works out there, and he tells me they're handing out incredible benefits (stuff that would make union workers drool), and still can't staff the assembly line. When I worked for the OAG, people kept saying they couldn't find a job, but we had the Workforce Commission out there handing out decent jobs paying $10+/hr. Maybe those plants and jobs aren't in north Waco, and maybe that's a problem. But they're there.

Maybe people aren't lazy, but there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of decent jobs waiting for you if you can pass a drug test. (Maybe that's the problem.)
 

How 'bout a Dollar Store that offers The Product Of Quality Good and Value? I really am seeing a deficiency in the amount of fake Chinese knock-offs that are imported into the U.S., which really makes me wish that a town so close to Mexico had a Buying Place of Century Quality!
 

Justin T:

It's hard for me to criticize what's there because, as I said, I haven't explored it. But since the area (including Cameron Park) has been empty every time I've driven by it, I assume it's being underused.

I imagine that park of the waterfront could contain a small entertainment district with restaurants, a music venue, some shops, etc. It could be all together in one area so it's walkable. Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm pretty new to Waco) but the things that are there are distanced from one another, right? There could also be more going on in the parks on the weekends to draw people in, like concerts, etc. Someone should also rent paddleboats, kayaks and canoes for recreation use; this is done on Town Lake in Austin and it's highly successful.

Details aside, my point is that having a water element in a city is a huge advantage. Look what San Antonio did with part of its river. But I just don't see Waco taking full advantage of the Brazos.
 

SH- Cameron Park often looks empty because it's so big (~416 acres). However, you also have to realize that the Brazos isn't as easily capitalized on because the section that runs through Waco is kind of dangerous... it's full of trash, water moccasins, debris, and the water level is constantly changing. It's a nice water element but it's not really that accessible. Baylor students are able to rent kayaks and boats and stuff, but no one really does because of the way the river generally looks. I don't mind it so much, but I can see why a lot of people do. There are, however, 2 good disc golf courses on the river, which I do enjoy.
 

Justin T:

I guess the size element makes a difference, but I'm used to seeing park and walking trails packed with people and pets. Also, I've only been here in the summer months, so maybe Cameron Park becomes a hotspot when the climate cools down. It remains to be seen.

If kayak and boat rentals were available to people other than Baylor students, perhaps more people would use them. Baylor doesn't constitute the only population source in Waco.

Trash in/along the Brazos can be picked up. Changing water levels shouldn't prevent development along the banks, provided that measures are taken to prevent/deal with potential flooding. If the world can galvanize resources and build in the Netherlands, I can't imagine that building things along the Brazos is out of reach.

I no ideas about how to combat the water moccasins.
 

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I'm thinking that Huaco needs more white-collar jobs. Most Baylor grads don't want to use their degree on things like manufacturing--that's why a lot of them leave, IMHO.

I also love the drive-in idea. Why on earth is the Circle a flea market? Renovate that sucker and start showing films again!
 

What's a water moccasin?
 

SH - There are several developers with plans for major projects along the Brazos in downtown (check the Trib website for more details). The primary planned development involves tearing down the old Buzzards building on U Parks to replace it with a four star hotel, shops, and even a paved walking path down the Brazos under I-35 towards the law school. The constant water level issue was "fixed" two years ago when the damn below the law school was rebuilt.

One major problem with downtown development of the existing buildings is that they are primarily owned by one old guy who will not pay for asbestos abatement nor will he sell his buildings. Nearly all of those old buildings are chock full of asbestos.

The new Downtown Waco Merchants Association is made up of many of the under-35 downtown business owners, and they are working on increasing the number of TIF funds available to abate abestos from the buildings which are for sale. Additionally, as Waco Town Square and the new Wells Fargo building are completed, the area from 5th Street and Mary to U Parks will be almost entirely new businesses. The same developer who purchased the Buzzards building has also been approved to purchase a huge lot around 2nd Street and Mary, and he has committed to "attempting" to bring a new grocery store to that location. He's already developed a large tract in Kyle, Texas that is anchored by HEB, so there's a possibility he'll be able to get a mini Central Market to come to town. These are positive developments we should see completed in the next few years. All we have to do now is be sure to patronize all of the downtown merchants because the majority of the downtown workers will continue to bail at the end of the workday.

Now, for my "Addition to Waco" - an on campus football stadium. Baylor owns the land on the north side of the Brazos across from the law school and the new football practice facility, land formerly offered to the President for his library. I think "Dr Pepper Stadium" has a nice ring to it, and if AT&T is willing to pay for the rights to name Texas Tech's stadium which is not on a major thoroughfare, then surely somebody would be delighted to pay to name a stadium along I-35.