Here are some pics of the rail-ridin’ townhouses Urban Living is developing in East Downtown. These gated 2-story, 2- and 3-bedroom homes crowd in on the lot bound by Lamar, Roberts, and the Southeast Line, which curves away here from the Columbia Tap bike trail and veers toward Scott St.
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No cars allowed on the tracks!
Below: Locals have already expressed a desire, painted in cryptograms, to possess the fence:
Only half of Lamar St. is paved, currently. But listings show that all the homes are sold or have gone option pending; most start in the $250,000s.
These are just a few blocks from another CitySide Homes development under construction on Polk St.
- Southeast Line/Purple Line Landing Page [Go Metro Rail]
- Previously on Swamplot: Signs of Townhomes Coming to Polk St. in East Downtown
Photos: Allyn West
Seen this last week and I have a question. What’s to keep neighborhood kids from walking out into an oncoming train at the intersections of this line, the bike path and the roadway? I did not see any crossing gates like they’re putting at the intersection of Scott and 45 south feeder. Just curious…
-d-
Urban Living becomes more than just a hipster corporate name when you can watch the rail roll by from your rooftop, can hit the hike-n-bike in less than a minute from your door and your new fence gets tagged before you even move in. Add a few homeless pushing shopping carts down the tracks in the middle of the night and the scene will be complete.
Developers still laying down inadequate sidewalks eh? Bump those widths up in places like these.
Gated townhomes. Like watching the American Dream do a triple gainer dive into an empty concrete pool.
@Kineticd:
The same thing that prevents you from walking across a freeway: instinctive self-preservation.
Why wouldn’t it be gated, the roaming hordes bent on separating you from your possessions are everpresent in the area and quite motivated.
Ah yes…we couldn’t possibly have a post about the 3rd Ward or East End with out the always effervescent “commonsense” commenting about crime. Gee, I wonder what he is getting at?
“the roaming hordes bent on separating you from your possessions are everpresent in the area and quite motivated”
Assuming these roaming hordes actually exist, is that little gate going to stop them?
Every generation wants something different than the one before, and one generation’s “American Dream” is different than the past. I know that a suburban style ranch house with a yard is no dream of mine. I would purchase one of these townhomes before wasting my valuable time fighting traffic out on the freeway every single day just so I can have a perfect lawn. What kind of crazy is that?
@heights guy, if I’m not mistaken; freeways are not only grade separated, but they have these huge things called impact barriers that are 30 inches tall. I hardly see any school children trying to hurdle these in preparation for the next Olympics.
or you can get a home with a lawn and have the same commute you do here, just head down telephone, or harrisburg a mile or so. Lawn, short drive, freestanding home, no homeowners association. you have to build your own gate, if that’s what you want, but a brinks security sign in the yard is sufficient.
Bobby P,
I wasn’t making an urban vs. suburban argument. It’s more about the gated, closed off nature of these homes. Face the street, plant some trees, and build a neighborhood. You can still be just as urban.
No amount of warnings will stop Neanderthals from cruising the tracks, saw one chap this morning ambling along the track (in the direction of train travel), not a care in the world, waiting for Darwin to put him in his place. But signage & fencing & curbs are really there to satisfy liability insurance requirements.
I want one. The close proximity to the METRO rail, the graffiti tagged fence and the Inner Loop urban hipster snob appeal.And they’re built by one of the high quality contractors represented by Urban Living. They’ll be sold before you can say:”call the realtor”.
What the heck??!!
They couldn’t even put in underground power lines? Amazing.
@WR:
If they bury the lines, where will people hang their shoes?
Seriously though, I’d live one of these in a heartbeat. A little too much concrete/asphalt, but container gardening can fix that.
Urban Living is the Michael Pollack of the 21st century. Just cheesier, with a certain sleaze appeal.
The power lines were already there. Centerpoint isn’t going to bury a block or two of power lines in front of a development. The lines are probably buried within the development.
I don’t see this on the Urban Living website. The cheapest they show starts at $300K.
Graffiti on the fence before the houses are even done? This, Houston, is why you can’t have nice things.
Surely we need a name for a group of townhomes.
A wild trove of townhomes are spotted in their natural habitat, the gentrified urban plains. Watch as their clunky bulk attracts the attention of short-lived bars and paint cans prowling in the nearby brush.
A group of crows is a Murder, so a group of townhomes in a ward should also be called appropriately a Murder.
Mike: “Gated townhomes. Like watching the American Dream do a triple gainer dive into an empty concrete pool.”
Someone needs to print those words on a t-shirt and sell it at Hello Lucky on Studewood. Those words are poetry. I’ll take one in green.
@ #22, commonsense:
That makes no sense.
Where are the crows? How do you come up with this stuff?
If I have to explain the punchline, it ain’t funny anymore. It’s a double entendre, as in, because the townhomes are located in a Ward, you will be Murdered or there will be a Murder committed on the property. It’s a satire on the above argument about the crime in the area.