A SECOND MIDRISE ALEXAN PLANNED RIGHT BESIDE THE FIRST ONE ON YALE 
The Leader reports that notices have gone out to Heights neighborhood groups indicating that Trammell Crow is planning a second Alexan-brand apartment complex on Yale. This one, writes Cynthia Lescalleet, would also be 4 stories set atop 2 levels of parking. It would sit on a 4.9-acre lot on Yale between 5th and 6th, immediately south of the 3.5-acre lot targeted for the proposed Alexan Heights — the rendering for which is shown here — bound by 6th, Allston, Yale, and the Heights hike and bike trail. Lescalleet quotes from the notice sent around by city council member Ellen Cohen: “TCR has the site under contract and is currently performing preliminary due diligence, and they expect to close the purchase of the property by the end of the year. Once TCR establishes a site plan and unit count, they will perform a new traffic study that will include roadways and intersections included in their previous TIA, while also including new intersections on Yale St., Heights Boulevard, and I-10, as well as pedestrian counts.†[The Leader; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Trammell Crow Residential
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These developments will ruin the Heights. Traffic is outrageous and transient renters do not have anything invested in the neighborhood.
First, let me say that I live very close to these developments, but not so close that I can see them from my house. I do live close enough that traffic is a concern, but come on, does one really think they can live without traffic in the middle of Houston? And in the middle of an increasingly desirable neighborhood inside the loop? I guess people preferred the Heights when it was filled with crack houses and gunfire and little traffic… Yes, I do think that nearby residents should be vocal on the traffic issue, because that is how we will get TCW to address those concerns, which are real, but traffic is an inevitable by-product of living in a big city. Second, these tracts of land are nothing to be proud of. I would much rather have residential, whether it be multi or single family, than industrial in my neighborhood. Therefore, this is at least an improvement. Plus, these tracts are on Yale–does anyone really think that building single family homes on Yale is a great option? Or one that would even ever happen? I feel lucky that these aren’t becoming strip malls with title loan businesses…Really, it could be a lot worse than high-rent apartments. Everyone screams about density, but when density comes to your neck of the woods, it is no longer good. You know what density means? Traffic. I just find it amusing that people really think that the huge swath of inner-loop land that makes up the greater heights can escape some amount of densification. It is coming to every other part of inner Houston, including River Oaks and West U. I, for one, am happy that people want to live and play in my part of town–that’s one reason I bought there. And to say that because someone doesn’t own the property, they can’t be good citizens is frankly insulting. With increasing land values in the Heights, renting an apartment is the only way that many people can live in and contribute to the eclectic vibe that we all enjoy…
LOL at silly humans that think Heights is going to stay the way it is, we as developers see heights as a vast wasteland of property to be bought and developed at the whim of the market. Time to find a new area to grasp onto nostalgia and your pretentiousness.
@thedudeabides
Well stated!
You know what else these apartments bring… the highly desired restaurants and commercial retail that you can walk to, which every heights resident doesn’t understand why they won’t build now (not enough people to support it, in case you didn’t know). As well your property value is about to go even further up, but if you prefer you can sell now and move to a shitty suburb and throw your money out the window and live solitarily.
I cut through that neighborhood every day on my bike. I work across the street from where these projects will go. Absent massive infrastructure improvements, this area cannot take even one of these behemoths, much less two.
Dudeabides: Yes, density means traffic, but that rendering makes Yale and 6th or 5th or whatever look like the corner of Westheimer and Kirby. Yale is a pinched little four-lane, and the backstreets in there are about 12′-1′ wide. They are hard to navigate now on a bike, much less a car, and there aren’t a thousand new people living there yet.
12′-14′ wide I mean. If that.
It’s gonna be a Yuppie Favela up in that piece.
I’m all for density, but the transportation infrastructure MUST keep pace with development. Of course, developers don’t care about that. Houston has a bad habit of not upgrading/widening streets as the area grows in population, and pretty soon, traffic will reach ridiculous and intolerable levels, even for this car-centric city.
Yale is how I get into the Heights, and since they built the Kroger, it now takes 3-4 traffic light cycles to get through the Yale/I-10 intersection.
@commonsense, I’m not surprised you’re a developer, given your arrogant comments on this blog. The Heights is NOT a vast wasteland just waiting for those of your ilk to transform it into a soulless neighborhood. People are moving to the Heights for the very character you want to destroy.
Trammell Crow is starting to remind me of Michael Pollack.
Dude, you gonna love it there in about 10 years, when those two shiny turds lose their luster.
Commonsense- what a gross comment. I wish you would post under your real name, Mr Developer.
@Roadchick – I bought in the Heights (4 years ago) for exactly the culture the developers are trying to build. I was priced out of Montrose and, in the Heights, could get a livable house on dirt that’s going to appreciate as the area densifies.
@thedudeabides – very well said.
Michael Pollack! Now, that is a blast from the past.
As I see, Heights, Montrose & Midtown is turning to a “Blockhouse” type living space. Have a empty lot?, throw up a condo.No character, no depth and no value. signs of a transient city more and more. Ugliness in the making. Disneyland at best, people come in fuck it up then leave. Good Luck HTX!
@roadchick
I don’t want to be rude, but have you ever lived in a different city? If traffic is problem at all in Houston, it’s only on the freeways or outside the loop. Our nice, gridded streets mean there are always multiple routes, so traffic gets spread out more than it otherwise might be.
Regarding these two buildings: theyre located on the edge of the Heights near the freeway, not deep in the heart of the neighborhood on some side street. Does Yale have some issues? Sure, but the big one is its obsolete bridge, which needs to be replaced regardless.
Apartments en masse are always bad for neighborhoods. Yale is a residential street being forced into a traffic load it was never designed to carry. Not long ago, I could zip in and out of the Heights using Yale. No more. The charm of the Heights is that it had a small town feel rapidly being ransacked by developers with city backing.
If there was only a way to plan for traffic and infrastructure by knowing the density that a site will have in the future… Oh yeah, its called Zoning. Then you know the worst case development scenario. And if you ever want to build bigger than you have to upgrade the infrastructure first. Nah, why do that, we can just let people build as big as they want and try and fix the problems later. Unless you are for zoning and rules than you can’t complain about traffic. They are the same.
@D’town Boy; the majority of what these pseudo developers are bringing to the HTX are speculative developments. If the renters don’t come as expected or there is too much a surplus of these properties, then we’re REALLY screwed!
In a City that has no zoning, weak political accountability and a bulldozed it mentality. It is the developers who win. I’ll throw the gauntlet down right here. If any of the property owners of these historical neighborhoods want to preserve their identities. Form an HOA, I’ll even help you navigate the process…
@John Nova Lomax; hahaha “yuppie favelas”. Thx man! That is FUNNY. And yea that rendering and street scenario is just a “little” miss-leading. If people think it is bad now? Just wait 2-3 years…
I nominate Yuppie Favelas for the best invented phrase of the year. Truly, the personal helicopter service I’ve proposed in the past for the area seems more & more possible as a valid business. More seriously, this does seems like overload–and just because land had old and outdated and possibly abandoned construction on it, doesn’t mean it has to be developed ‘Right Now Dammit!’ Take a valium and think about development that make real sense, not just $ and $en$e.
I’ll play the naive fool here and suggest that this would not be a bad place to site a lot of new residential units if the new residents were to bicycle or Metro it to work. There is good and reliable infrastructure for both at hand (MKT and Heights Blvd for bikes, 34 to the Med Center and 50 to downtown for Metro). A lot of shopping is reasonably close. Unfortunately, the incentives in this town to encourage alternative to cars are weak and unlikely to spark meaningful and real transit-oriented development.
The MKT crossing at Yale will be one of carnage, no doubt, once these projects are on-line.
I don’t have a problem with that, but the traffic issue has to be addressed. The intersections at I-10 and Yale and Heights are out of control… the issue is more of how the traffic lights are programmed. If you are traveling on Heights or Yale, North n South… the traffic lights allow about 5 or 6 cars to pass before turning red, and sitting on red for several minutes. There is NOT that much traffic coming off I-10 for that.
They have occassionally had traffic cops during peak hours which has somewhat worked, but lets face it… there isn’t even ample parking in the strip centers that are situated between Yale/Heights.
At some point… Yale might need to be turned into a one-way street from 6th street to Center in order to ease traffic.
This is already becoming an area that I avoid due to traffic, and I live in the Heights.
These things all look the same!
@Texasota: But we don’t have a nice grid, because when Will Hogg platted River Oaks, he saw to it that there would be no thoroughfares bisecting its pristine beauty. And so today there are no north-south backroads in the western inner loop between Kirby/Shepherd and 610. I can’t think of another major American city with such a huge, affluent traffic forcefield right in the middle of town. Can you?
So…Imagine that Houston had zoning and that every super neighborhood had to allocate a quota of land for potential multifamily development, you know, just to keep things nice and egalitarian. One of the requirements is that the allocated land area cannot all be clustered into one place; that is, because we know that some parts of neighborhood wield more power (for instance, Houston Heights would allocate everything east of Main and up against I-45, throwing Brookesmith under the bus). Another requirement is that land zoned for new apartments must be at least one acre in size and suitable in terms of deed restrictions and other existing ordinances; that is, to prevent them from allocating land that cannot realistically be expected to change land uses in the foreseeable future.
So the Greater Heights SN #15 gets together and has a meeting. All the angry white people agree that apartments are fraught with undesirable externalities. (People not white or not angry don’t get heard, in effect.) They’d like to identify sites that are at the edge of the neighborhood, shifting most of the impacts to the next SN over. They’d like the sites to be next to freeways and as close to as many jobs as possible so that nobody is cutting directly through the SN to get to work. (Shady Acres and Sunset Heights get spared.) That there are transit options and bike paths nearby should be viewed favorably, again to mitigate traffic. The sites should not be inherently desirable in their existing use; they should ideally be industrial or post-industrial, not already enhancing the quality of life of the neighborhood in any form or fashion.
Question: So where do you zone for multifamily (or other high density, in general)?
Answer: Brookesmith and the southwest quadrant of Yale @ 7th Street. FRICK’N OBVIOUSLY. Shady Acres, too, if the city forces you to have a third cluster.
What TCR is proposing is pretty much as good a fit for the Heights as the NIMBY crowd is ever going to have. NIMBYs should be promoting this as the right type of development in the right place. Standing in TCR’s way would undermine the future credibility of the Heights NIMBY movement as intending to accomplish anything for the common good of the city at large.
@ John Nova Lomax: Traffic forcefields? Austin comes to mind (particularly with the blocking of Barton Skyway, which my grandparents were admittedly and shamefully involved in), but there’s not the same sense that fault lies with a few snooty antagonists. Austin democratically shoots itself in the foot. Over and over.
Build,build,build. It’s the Houston way!!! Quality of life be damned. Look at our crappy streets/roads: they’re in the worst condition in over 20-30+ years. Mayor Parker would win re-election by proposing a $ 1-2 BILLION bond issue to fix/repair/replace our God awful roads/streets/sidewalks/gutters/storm drains/sewer/water drainage systems. Or if an opponent runs on that as the MAIN issue, he/she just may WIN. Back to PROPOSED TCR Alexan apartments on Yale St. Since there is NO HOA , there is very LITTLE to NOTHING area residents can do to stop new construction. The NIMBY’ers always complain/bitch/whine/kevetch and make a lot of noise and ,most of the time, the projects get built. The architects/builders/contractors/engineers, aka the building lobby, make HUGE contributions to our ELECTED officials -who in their quest for higher office- use us the concerned citizens and disregard our concerns and ALLOW some very unwanted projects to be built. UNTIL the pissed off/angry residents form a STRONG,well funded lobbying contingent NOTHING will go in favor of the neighborhoods.Our ELECTED officials will,par for the course, pay minimal lip service to us /LIE through their teeth while smiling that SLEAZY politician grin and move on. Only recourse: strong HOA’s, with enforced deed restrictions. And ZONING.
Okay Swamplotters, let’s test something. The City claims by calling 3-1-1 and complaining about the signal lengths at I -10 and Yale, Heights and Montrose/Studemont, we might be able to change it. So everyone who thinks they are completely mistimed contact 3-1-1 today and see if anything happens.
@ John Nova Lomax
West of Kirby is outside the range of the Heights, so I’m not sure how it applies here.
East of Kirby we have Shepherd/Durham,Yale, Heights, Studewood, Taylor and Houston.
I’ll agree that traffic gets worse as you move west (and the grid dissolves), but I don’t think even the worst I’ve seen on Westheimer between Kirby and the loop compares to traffic everyday on Hennepin in Uptown Minneapolis.
traffic is out of control on richmond in front of costco and there are about 2198036 new apartments about to open nearby.
Before the financial crash in 2008, developers were giddy to get large lots such as these and develop them into townhomes or high-end single family residential. See, for example, the townhomes that sit up against the railroad tracks on Center Street that now have a view of the Wal Mart parking lot. Or the gated community at Washington Ave. and Memorial Heights.
Since then, I’m seeing more of these parcels developed into mid rise apartments, or shopping centers. Did something change in regards to bank financing or is this a response to more out of town money investing in Houston because it’s a “hot market”? Does anyone here know the answer?
I always thought those lots were going to be for the candy farting unicorn park.
One more thing, the presence of rental property does not a ghetto make. Large numbers of rental apartments has not made the Upper East Side of Manhattan into an undesirable area.
There are not multiple route options.
Nice gridded streets do not extend out of the Heights & over I-10. Yale/Heights/Studewood/Sawyer have already slowed considerably due to recent construction on all those streets.
Traffic will be forced onto Shepherd, Paterson, TCJester.
people are silly to blame the developers, its obvious that they are not building for themselves. They are filling the need; if anything blame the people that want to live in the area for the same reasons you do.
Why cant you share the Heights with others? Stop being greedy.
Capitalism and no zoning, we all get it.
As someone who lives off Yale and has young kids, I think that BEFORE either one of these places are allowed to build, the city/TRC has to put in a decent RIGHT TURN LANE for Yale to access the I-10 service road and the speeders need to be neutralized. Just this morning on the way to work, I was passed by a silver mini convertible with paper plates who had to be doing 60 mph through what will be a school zone in a little over a month (right north of the bike path). The bike path is hard enough to cross now and the city thinks it will be okay to add over 1,000 cars a day to this mess?!? Really? TRC bosses don’t care about messing up our single family zoning north of 6th as long as it doesn’t invade their rich neighborhoods. In addition to the mass traffic that will be brought to us, has anyone addressed the pet waste problem that comes along with it? I feel sorry for the people in the 6/7 hundred block of Allston.
Ana: And a megaplex is almost finished on TC Jester, and another might be in the works on Shepherd, at the site of the HS for Law Enforcement.
We are complaining about apartment complexes, but what about the two warehouses and semi truck lots that are two blocks away from this area. Plus they are putting a huge apartment complex ON A BIKE TRAIL. We keep whining about traffic, but a selling point for these people is going to be a bike trail that takes them to the Target (which no proper Heights person whines about), it is biking distance to the Wal-Mart (which every proper Heights person whines about) and is within biking distance of the two main Krogers (Studemont and Shepherd).
Of course, the sign of being a true Houston Heights-tonian is utilizing the privilege of being able to complain about every new buildilng that goes up and then complaining even louder when a road is expanded to meet up with the development.
The “Forcefield” John mentions is wealth enduced zoning.
As for the Yale development, those whining about traffic sounds like people with the giant french fry on Bissonet. We live in a CITY, remember? There should be traffic. Maybe these apartments will reinvigorate some of those small shops on Yale too.
Those new lights at I-10 leave a lot to be desired.
One more thing: how many of you have explored the streets behind where these projects will go? The Lawrence Park area was until recently a ghetto section of the Heights. The ditch-lined streets are as narrow as any in town and there are no sidewalks. There are lots of dead ends — it’s a bit of a rabbit warren. I almost flattened a toddler on my bike the other day after he darted out from behind a moving van on his scooter. Yale is the ONLY practical means of heading south out of there, so ALL the cars in those complexes will be using Yale, which is already showing signs of strain, even before these projects, AND the new ones near the Wal-Mart have opened.
As far infrastructure goes, the developer had to do feasibility and traffic studies before buying the property otherwise the bank would never finance it, so it will either support it (on scientific basis, not “oh the humanity!” basis) or will be improved accordingly in short order.
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Just because you live in the Heights, the Heights does not belong to you, you merely own a patch of land legally and socially disconnected from every other patch of land. Since there are no deed restrictions or HOA’s, Heights is NOT a neighborhood but a Wild West town.
—
If you want to change that, try to implement deed restrictions… which I don’t see happening because not everyone wants to throw away their future property values out the window. Or try to form a strong and active HOA which I don’t see happening either because it takes money and you people never put your money where your mouth is. In either case the way deed laws work, these would not apply to current generation owners anyway.
The people on this board crack me up y’all need to find something else to do with your time!!!
UN’s Agenda21, folks. Look it up.
You’re being played for suckas.
If the infrastructure is inadequate for this development, is that the fault of the developer or the fault of the city? Heights residents will have more luck using the developments to get the infrastructure done than they will using the infrastructure to get the development blocked.
Frankly, I think it’s absurd that an area that pays as much property taxes as the Heights does still has open drainage ditches on 80% of the streets, with apparently no plans to upgrade (the city has stopped accepting petitions for curbs and gutters).
At the very least, this should be the push that’s needed to get a HAWK signal at 7th and a right turn lane at Yale and I-10.
I have never had to wait more than a few seconds to cross Yale on the trail, even during higher traffic times. (i’ve never tried during morning rush hour because i’m working at that time). It doesn’t seem too difficult to me for the city to engineer safer crossing if the traffic volume truly increases significantlly enough.
“And so today there are no north-south backroads in the western inner loop between Kirby/Shepherd and 610. I can’t think of another major American city with such a huge, affluent traffic forcefield right in the middle of town. Can you?”
Philadelphia has some of these in its inner suburbs. At any rate, the other big reason there is no north/south road between Shepherd and West Loop is Memorial Park, which nobody wants to be sliced through. Remember when HCTRA proposed a tollway along the railroad ROW through there? That idea didn’t last long, and it wasn’t because of River Oaks.
#25: Yes, too bad, The Niche, that your grandparents et al prevailed and there’s not a bridge over the greenbelt right about here:
https://irs0.4sqi.net/img/general/width960/L1jMuF-zCuv-TfBnnfBKm1iuhjMHynKwRxn4vADahXU.jpg
&#%!@?!!
@Shady Heightster. quite simply it comes down to the $ per foot of land.
@ commonsense: I’ve never, not once, had a prospective lender on any multifamily project that I have been involved in request a traffic study. Not once. They don’t care.
You have a perspective on the subject and that’s fine. It happens to agree with my own, and that’s fine too. But let’s keep it honest.
Well, the city gave us a bike trail, and for awhile it was fine, but now that thing is getting congested with moms and their double-wide strollers and their sometimes jittery and vicious dogs walking abreast and hogging both lanes. (One of those dogs got loose and bit me because its mommy was too busy showing pics of her kids on her iPad to her buddy.) And the other day a Crossfit class saw fit to invade the bike trail and hijack it for calisthenics. As a cyclist, I can’t wait for thousands more of these people!
@TheNiche, the preliminary traffic study is part of the Feasibility study to show that that size of a project is even feasible on that site and if the city is likely the approve the required permits. A more extensive traffic study will have to be done at a later date during architectural process. A bank ALWAYS wants to know if you can build what you are planning to build on that site.
The is a fantastic use for this land. Yale has been a wasteland for decades. I’m glad I live in a city where supply is allowed to meet demand.
The traffic comments are just plain silly. Every major city in the world has traffic problems. Houston traffic is no where near as bad as other cities.
Houston is adding jobs. Lots of smart people with money to spend are moving to Houston to fill these jobs. I’m glad we are building lots of new places in town where they can work and live.
More jobs. More people. More money. That’s how you build a city. Do you want all this to go to the suburbs?
It’s fantasy to think that you could ever have a consensus regarding how and when to redevelop a site or a neighborhood. No one will ever agree. Politicians are the worst folks to decide this sort of thing. The best thing to do is let private property owners do as they like. That’s the Houston way. That’s why this city kicks so much ass over any place else.
#36- “I feel sorry for the people in the 6/7 hundred block of Allston.”
I really feel sorry for them because they have to look at or live in the ugly townhouses popping up. Have you seen the new construction popping up in that area?
Most of the comments here are entirely predictable. Existing residents wanting to retain the character of their neighborhood and developers wanting to change the character of a neighborhood.
In the end, it’s about control.
It is odd that some feel a developer should have free-reign to dominate the form, use, and feel of a neighborhood by simply buying a portion of it… but homeowners have no right to retain the existing form, use, and feel of the neighborhood they already own a piece of.
Apts are inevitable and density has its drawbacks but at least these won’t be gang-breeding units.
heights mom is awesome, setting the tone early.
heights mom, you need to get out more often, lease agreements that last a year or more do not a transient make, rents that will surely be well above $1200 a month do not a transient make.
Come on over to the east end, or hell, anywhere east of downtown and take a look at some of the 1 br apartments with month to month renters paying $300-400 a month and they stack 3-4 people into them.
You need to get out of your cozy comfort zone and gain some perspective.
@ John Nova Lomax, so that was you… better be careful that toddler aint’ scared of nothing (according to his old brother)I thought you were down for the count.
Incidentally on Yale, currently, around where these projects are going in, people actually park IN THE STREET sometimes (making it one lane). Funny for a “major thoroughfare” that people are allowed to park randomly and block 1 of 2 lanes going in a given direction.
The appropriate thing would be to have the infrastructure projects needed to support the project done either before or in conjunction with the project itself. Not begged for by the taxpayers after.
You should read some of the comments regarding this development on the internal message board of the West Houston Heights. The “holier than thou” and “I know better than you” attitudes are astounding. I’m thrilled there will be apartments on these blocks as opposed to a gas station, strip mall, 420 shop, etc. I want density, my neighbors want density, and the end result will be a true city neighborhood that still maintains the Heights charm. If you don’t like it, I hear The Woodlands is nice.
Density with adequate infrastructure is a wonderful thing. Density with inadequate infrastructure is a favela.
I agree, John, but that’s the city’s job…a job they have been inadequately performing.
@john nova lomax: It’s funny, I thought it was the HIKE & Bike Trail? I guess the mom’s with strollers should walk on the street or on the terrible sidewalks in the neighborhood. The real shame is that the city cannot provide adequate sidewalks for people to use. When I walk my kid in the stroller on Heights sidewalks I worry that her head will fall off. That is, when there’s a sidewalk to even walk on. You also have to watch every car like a hawk, because apparently a pedestrian is a rare bird in Houston.
Per John lomax
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urbanarea lane miles roadway per thou pop
–
houston 2.79 utopia
dallas 2.75 favela
detroit 2.48 favela
phoenix 2.29 favela
atlanta 2.23 favela
boston 2.04 favela
losangeles 2.01 favela
districtcolumbia 1.97 favela
philadelphia 1.82 favela
sanfrancisco 1.81 favela
chicago 1.80 favela
sandiego 1.80 favela
miami 1.64 favela
newyorkcity 1.41 favela
–
by arterial detroit moves to second place over dallas
–
by freeway only dallas becomes more utopiaer
–
if I include all 50 of the largest MSAs in the tot lane miles
oklahomacity
richmond
memphis
kansascity
birmingham
nashville
milwaukee
rochester
are all utopiaer (I can see Milwaukee being considered by some as more utopiaer, pretty cool city)
–
I think Houston has plenty of roadway. If you want to talk about better transit, one of the prerequisites for better transit is more density.
I have to agree with the ones for the complex. Every major city has mid-rise apartments. The affordable housing (below $400k) is very tough to find here now. The density, pedestrian traffic, tax roll increase, pressure to bring more retail and restaurants to the Heights completely overcomes the traffic objections. The worse traffic gets, the more likely Houstonians are to abandon their cars. If you want to see traffic, try going up 290 at any time of the day. Some people have an 1+ hour commute each way. I’d much rather have a denser Houston than have more trees cut down 70 miles from here so someone can live in a $200k tract home.
oh yea,
Thats from the Texas Transportation institute 2000 mobility report
lane mile and population data
does anyone know what is going on with the mid rise at 11th and Studewood near the Someburger ? the work seems to have slowed down.
More density is coming to the Heights and every other inner loops neighborhood, because the economic factors at work are unstoppable. Barring a a disaster wrecking Houston (natural or otherwise) or an economic crash, more people are coming, and lots of them will want to live near the central parts of the city. All we’re debating is how that will happen. Will needed infrastructure improvements happen? Will there be better transit? Will the density be added in a way to preserves the original neighborhood, and what does that look like?
I have no problem with this kind of development along Yale or Studewood. I think an ideal outcome is main streets with good transit access and dense housing, retail, etc. will historically significant neighborhoods preserved nearby. I think what Arlington County, VA has done along these lines stands as an excellent example.
And the idea that renters bring a neighborhood down is just stupid. unless your idea of a dynamic Heights is one where the average age is 50.