- TIRZ Funding, Management Districts, Incentive Programs Seen as Key to Revitalizing ‘Largely Abandoned’ Richmond Strip [Houston Chronicle]
- 9 New Houston-Area Medical Office Buildings Opened in Second Half of Last Year; 6 More Under Construction [HBJ]
- Houston Office Vacancy Rates Could Reach 15%, Rental Rates Likely To Drop, CBRE Predicts [HBJ]
- Homebuilders Now Focusing on Million-Dollar Homes in Houston, Northeast, California, Minneapolis [New York Times]
- Speedsportz Racing Park To Break Ground at Grand Texas Theme Park in New Caney Next Month, Open in Late 2015 [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Heights Restaurant Asia Market To Move Restaurant Part to 4822 Fulton St., Keep Market Part at 1010 Cavalcade [Culturemap]
- Bovine & Barley Set To Open Downtown on March 17 in Former El Centro Space at 416 Main [Food Chronicles; previously on Swamplot]
- East End Property Owners Oppose East End Zoning Proposals, Complain They’re Not Being Represented [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Montgomery County Commissioners Approve May 9 Election To Vote on $350M in Proposed Road Bonds [Houston Chronicle]
- Galveston City Council To Vote Thursday on Revival of Trolley System Put Out of Operation by Ike [Houston Chronicle]
- Conservation Groups Step Up Efforts To Preserve Peckerwood Garden Near Hempstead [Houston Chronicle]
- Bill Proposed by Texas Senator Would Block Sale of Alamo to Foreigners [Texas Tribune]
Photo of Houston Ship Channel: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Those blue helmeted thugs are trying to buy the Alamo!!!
Maybe one way to fix Richmond is to bring back the demographic featured in the pictures in the Chronicle article. One would need a time machine though.
This part of Richmond ave like many streets in Houston is complete garbage, pot holes are the least of the problems in this area. Chimney Rock and Richmond completely flood when it rains even a little, west of that the street is uneven, and west of hilcoft the craters will consume a small Japanese car. The turn lanes are too short and the traffic is a hot mess all the time not to mention the backup from frequent gridlock on 59/610 interchange. This stretch needs a total do over
Yeah flea markets and an immigrant soccer leagues (which both use my back fence as a restroom) really do class up a neighborhood, oh i’m sorry I forgot the used car dealerships. This should show you how pitiful Richmond really is when these are mentioned as the highlights of the area.
The lower end properties are a breeding/habitat for crime in the area. A HPD officer told me that you can’t throw a rock and not hit someone with a felony or misdemeanor at those apartments.
In short the area is outside of loop far enough away from uptown, so nothing is going to be done. We will see a change when the area looks like the slums of a 3rd world country and an Investor can pick up the land cheap. So maybe 4 more years.
Re:Richmond Strip.
All a TIRZ does is siphon money away from the general fund and puts it in the hand of an unelected and somewhat unaccountable board and adds another layer of bureaucracy to local government. All these TIRZ have sprung up because of Houston’s revenue cap and it merely shifts the debt incurred for new capital projects off COH’s books and on to the TIRZ. And look no farther than the worthless Montrose Management District that has done little more than put up bike rental racks and operates a haphazard graffiti abatement program. Granted Upper Kirby’s TIRZ actually puts money to work with various road and drainage improvements but it seems like all Houston has done is create 24 separate fiefdoms to cover it’s monumental failure in handling Public Works and maintaining its infrastructure. That said, yeah Richmond has seen better days as a hotspot but you don’t see much vacancy on that strip so maybe it is serving its audience. It is no more or less visually blighted than many other major commercial arteries around town. Mike Laster you are an earnest and nice guy
but your focus should be on all the ratty apartments in the Gulfton Ghetto and the Bissonnet/59 area.
I second JT’s comments. TIRZs work best when they focus on areas that are strategically key to the development of the rest of the city. You can make a good case for Downtown and Uptown IMO, but elsewhere their efficacy is much more dubious and issues of social justice begin to crop up.
Management Districts should be relied upon instead to raise additional revenue from those neighborhoods that consent to the idea — and even then, I think that they should be subject to a higher hurdle for creation and also to greater public accountability.