Houstorian James Glassman sends this photo of a shiny new blue tile street sign along a Westheimer Rd. curb just east of Kirby Dr., where months of road and sidewalk construction is wrapping up. The fresh mosaic is in the style of those installed around Houston in the 1920s and into the 1950s before the rise of auto traffic made foot-level street markers less practical than eye-level signage.Â
The new sign doesn’t yet appear on the online map maintained by Joey Sanchez of the Blue Tile Project, which documents the locations of the original tile markers, though Sanchez noted the sign this morning on the project’s Twitter feed:
Westheimer Blues
“For anyone who lived here through the mid to late 70s through the early 80s, we are all too aware of how things were just thrown up as fast and as cheaply as possible: cracked slabs were de rigueur, flooding issues, aluminum wiring, as well as a whole host of other issues . . . If you don’t think a lot of these same mistakes are being repeated now, you’re probably delusional, especially with all the awful stucco being used near ubiquitously around town — go look at some of the ones built within the last 10 years and you’ll see failing stucco, poor construction, shoddy methods . . . how many townhome collapses do you need to see before you realize this is history repeating itself for a new generation of ‘suckers’?” [
“The condo where I live is connected to the tunnels. It makes it very easy [to get] to and from work, home for lunch, etc. And during the rush hours I don’t have to worry about avoiding cars, delivery trucks, and unsightly ‘street people’ hanging out around Main Street Square. I hope that many of these new residential developments downtown can be connected to the tunnel system.” [
