Taken down to its studs: This home’s renovation project is in the works on a quarter-acre corner lot backing up to the feeder road of the North Loop at Yale St. That’s in Garden Oaks, or so says the neighborhood signage on the property’s easement.
Listed last week at $350,000, the future version of this 1950-built cottage will have new siding, windows, plumbing, hardwood and stone floors, custom cabinetry, and granite counter tops. The kitchen is already displaying the bones of its new, barrel-vaulted ceiling:
A group of 25 or so cats still hanging around the 2-and-a-half-acre grounds of the recently vacated Courts at West University apartments at 3810 Law St. have apparently not been informed of the 5-story Alexan West University complex set to go up on their old stomping grounds. 
The federal government is still paying more than $3.3 million a year for the (as of last September) only 21 percent occupied 117,000-sq.-ft. U.S. Attorney’s office at 919 Milam St. Downtown (the lease expires in June 2013; the offices are moving to Wells Fargo Center). And over at Three Allen Center (at left), a much smaller lease for more than 11,000 sq. ft. by the General Services Administration that expires in 2014 is only 1 percent occupied. Those are the top Houston highlights in a report detailing unused office space the GSA is spending big bucks to lease. According to Texas Watchdog reporter Mark Lisheron’s scouring of data unearthed by a report in the Washington Examiner, 
A mere 189 homes and businesses will be knocked down beginning Saturday, designated by Mayor Parker as the city’s third annual Demo Day. That number is down a bit from last year, when the city marked the occasion by beginning the destruction of more than 400 structures deemed blighted (it took a while). Members of the Houston Contractors Association will be donating their bulldozing services for the citywide event. Most of the structures appeared on Swamplot’s 
Comment of the Day: Feral Cats, the Scourge of Hyde Park
“Okay, I have been dealing with ferals for about 3 years, ever since moving to Hyde Park. They drive me nuts, but you can get the population reduced by spaying all the females. If you neuter or remove a male, another will come in. I still have problems with neighbors who don’t completely understand the gravity of the situation — ie, they mean well, but they don’t help. I have worked extensively with a neighborhood friend to help reduce the numbers and have been very successful. And for those who don’t think ferals are a problem: 1) They crap EVERYWHERE and are a potential source of disease. 2) Toms are aggressive towards our dog and us. 3) They kill songbirds, A LOT of them. 4) They get run over on a regular basis — perhaps Darwinism at work, but a potential serious accident waiting to happen for those trying to avoid hitting them, and a nasty mess in the street when they die. 5) They come into your yard and are aggressive to your cats who have every reasonable right to be in your yard. 6) They are a nuisance. Sure, kittens are cute, but they can have a litter of 4 in about a year. Guess how many cats can be produced in just 7 years from one pregnant female and her offspring? 370,000. Staggering. Of course, you aren’t realistically going to see those numbers, but you get the idea. If you can trap them — trap them humanely. Take them to the SPCA, or to BARC. If you can afford to get them spayed or neutered, do so and get them back in the same neighborhood. I know this sounds silly, but even if you got rid of 99% of a colony in your neighborhood, you will wind up with them being replaced. If you spay or neuter, it seems to stabilize. And trust me, doing that is easier than convincing some neighbors to help stop the cycle.” [Bruce, commenting on Cats Still Hanging Around West U Apartments, Unaware of Redevelopment Plans]