At one point, the art festival became a fenced-off, paid-admission event held in the parking lot of a strip center at the intersection of Westheimer Road and Montrose Boulevard.
Eventually, the Westheimer Colony Association decided to vacate the Neartown area altogether, first moving to downtown Houston and later Memorial Park—reorganizing in the process as the Bayou City Art Festival.
The principal step was an agreement with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to prevent the issuance of so-called 'picnic permits' within the blocks covered by the festival.
The city then restricted the conditions for obtaining the permit: it would not be issued unless the applicant had taken out an insurance policy covering the event and hired sufficient clean-up, sanitation, and security to guarantee minimal impact on surrounding residences.
A frequent complaint from neighborhood homeowners was a chronic lack of portable toilets (and the attendant consequences), with minimal attention to post-event clean-up running a close second.
In 2003, Mr. Florez attempted to return his event to Neartown by unofficially piggybacking it onto the Annual Gay Pride Parade.
Initially called 'WestFest Compressed' and now known as 'The Westheimer Block Party', this event is the brainchild of Free Press Houston publisher Omar Afra.
Changes the Neartown area has experienced over the last twenty years rule out the possibility that the 'Block Party' will ever grow to match the original festival.