ARMY CORPS TO HOUSTON: IS THIS UNFUNDED PLAN FOR AN IKE DIKE SOMETHING YOU COULD GET BEHIND? 
Last Friday the Army Corps picked a favorite from among the 4 massive coastal defense plans it’d been studying — all variants of ideas Rice and A&M researchers proposed following Ike and said Houston needed to build in order to stand a chance against the next gigantic hurricane. The chosen one — a $23 to $31 billion undertaking — suggests constructing new levees that’d span all of both Galveston Island and of Bolivar Peninsula, upgrading Galveston’s existing seawall, and tying the whole thing together with a giant gate between the 2 islands that’d prevent storm surge from shooting the gap between them and entering the Ship Channel. A so-called “ring levee” — indicated above in red — would also shield Galveston’s backside from high water retreating back into the Gulf after a storm. For 75 days, the Corps will be taking comments on the plan in writing, or in person at any of the 6 public meetings it plans to host in November and December. Once the plan is finalized, “it will be eligible for congressional funding” — reports the Texas Tribune‘s Kiah Collier — “a phase with no deadline that many think could take years.” [Texas Tribune; full Corps study; previously on Swamplot] Map: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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Here’s another highlight from the city council’s meeting this morning: Plans to get rid of the cloverleaf interchange that moves traffic between Waugh Dr. and Memorial Dr. got the green-light and will be sent over to the Houston Galveston Area Council as part of an application for funding. The idea first emerged in the Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s 2002 Master Plan as a way to make room for more bayou-side park space at the crossroads. Right now, all the land adjacent to the ramps — shaded gray in the map above — is vacant, except for the portions lassoed by the circular roadways, where 4 isolated tree groves continue to undergo seasonal color changes. You can see they’re gone in the east-facing rendering at top included in the Partnership’s plan — replaced by inlets, islands, stormwater detention, and what looks to be a boathouse at the southeast corner of the 2 roads — all accessible from a network of new walkways that link up to existing bayou-adjacent trails.
In total, 16 new acres are expected to become part of the park — providing a continuous swath of green between Spotts Park and Cleveland Park, shown below on opposite sides of Waugh in a map from the 2002 plan:
PAVING THE WAY FOR A BIKE LANE ON W. FUQUA 
This morning, City Council plans to vote in support of some roadwork that’d add on-street bike lanes to W. Fuqua St. between Chimney Rock and Houston’s border with Missouri City, just west of Fondren Rd. Over that 1.7-mile stretch — which crosses over the Fort Bend Pkwy. — a couple upgrades for cars would be put in as well, including turning lanes at Fondren and traffic lights at W. Ridgecreek Dr. in place of what’s now a 3-way stop. It’s all lumped into that application the city plans to submit to the Houston Galveston Area Council in order to get funding for a bunch of other transportation projects around town, too, like that widening and heightening effort on Dairy Ashford. [Houston City Council; previously on Swamplot]
- Where Apartment Rents Rose and Fell the Most in Q3 [HBJ ($)]
- Chevron Demolishes Former Downtown Auto Dealership Turned Houston Press Building [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- San Jacinto College Schedules Groundbreaking on New 57-Acre Campus in Generation Park for Next April [HBJ ($)]
- Vinny’s Pizzeria Opens in East Downtown This Week [Eater Houston]
- Fourth Location of Grill-It-Yourself Japanese Barbecue Chain Gyu-Kaku Planned Near Willowbrook Mall [Eater Houston]
- A Look Around Dun Huang Plaza’s Culinary Offerings at Bellaire Blvd. and Beltway 8 [Houston Press]
- Alamo Drafthouse Will Close All Locations on Election Day Until Mid-Afternoon [Entertainment Weekly]
Photo of O’Quinn Medical Tower: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
- 10707 Criswell Dr. [HAR]
SOUTHWEST KEY SEEKS CONTRACT EXTENSION FOR FACILITY IT HASN’T OPENED YET 
A spokesman for Southwest Key, the nonprofit that houses immigrant kids, tells the Chronicle’s Mike Morris that federal officials are giving it more time to open its stalled Casa Sunzal facility 3 blocks from BBVA Compass than they’d originally allowed now that the deadline of October 28 has passed. That’s the date by which Southwest Key previously claimed federal officials would terminate their contract for the facility if it wasn’t yet open. What’s been the holdup? Local officials, who — the nonprofit claims in its ongoing lawsuit against the city — are refusing to grant it the permits it needs to operate. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: LoopNet
Add 6 more locations to the list of Mattress Firm stores the company has decided to close as part of its recent Chapter 11 filing. They are: across Hwy. 6 from the Missouri City H-E-B off Sienna Pkwy., at Baybrook Square across from Baybrook Mall (already home to Mattress Firm Final Markdown that’s sticking around for now), in the Oak Ridge North Shopping Center across I-45 from The Woodlands Mall, off 290 north of Spring-Cypress Rd., and in the Portofino Shopping Center off I-45 in Shenandoah. There’s also one closing within Houston proper: the 5409 S. Rice Ave. store, which fronts the Walmart off 59. The map above shows all the closures — including standard locations (red), Final Markdowns (orange), and Clearance centers (yellow) — the chain has announced so far.
- Previously on Swamplot: Your Map of All the Houston Mattress Firm Stores Getting Axed So Far; One of the 2 Side-by-Side Mattress Firms at Westheimer and Montrose Is a Goner; Mattress Firm Has Filed for Bankruptcy; The Latest Casualty of Mattress Firm’s Chain-Wide Slump Is on Westheimer Next to NJoy Thai; Mattress Stores Making a Sleepy Retreat from Shepherd; A Mattress Store Has Closed in Montrose; Mattress Firm Now Wants To Shut Down Redundant Storefronts; How and Where Mattress Firm Is Conquering Houston, One Sleepy Strip Center Storefront at a Time
It’s not just the Shepherd Square flagship store that’s biting the dust: Locations in the eponymous New Territory Randalls Center (pictured at top) off the Grand Pkwy. and in the Windvale Center (pictured above) on the northern edge of The Woodlands at College Park Dr. and FM 1488 are goners, too. All 3 stores will shut down around December 1, a spokeswoman tells Swamplot.
At the Windvale Center, the closure will leave behind a nearly 57,000-sq.-ft. hole in the middle of the property, mapped out in this old leasing flyer:
RANDALLS READY TO SLIP OUT OF SHEPHERD SQUARE 
A spokeswoman for the grocer tells the Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff this morning that the Shepherd Square Randalls Flagship store will be closing, but doesn’t say when. It’s been at Shepherd and Westheimer for about the past 2 decades, back before the brand got bought in 1999 by national chain Safeway — which itself was acquired by Albertsons in 2015. The 128,000-sq.-ft. shopping center housing the store went up in 1989. (It’s shown above before Randalls’ signage was flipped, elevating the “Flagship” branding to a spot above the retailer’s own name.) Over the past year, several Houston-area Randalls have already shut down: at the Coles Crossing shopping center in Cypress, on 34th St. in Oak Forest, and on W. Bellfort in Stafford. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Denise W.
- Wash Ave.’s Kitchen 713 Gets 86’d [Culturemap]
- 363-Unit Apartment Complex Incoming Across Taylor St. from Sawyer Heights Village [HBJ ($)]
- Coworking Chain Called Spaces Signs Up for First 3 Floors of Two Post Oak Central [HBJ]
- Former Imperial Cleaners Building Now Sports a Full-Facade Mural of Beto O’Rourke as Superman [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
- Checking In on the Houston Cricket League’s 4-Field Complex off 290 [Houstonia]
Photo of Arne’s Warehouse: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
- 55 S. Longspur Dr. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SURF’S UP, JUST OUTSIDE THE GRAND PKWY. 
“I was cycling out beyond Katy a few months ago and found this neighborhood called Katy Lakes. Several artificial lakes in the middle of nowhere. People put their boats on the water, etc. and I thought, you could barely drive your boat 1/2 mile before you were done. I guess it’s a great use of retention land, but it still struck me as odd.” [Purdueenginerd, commenting on Man-Made Lagoon Experts’ Second Houston Swimming Hole: 12-Acres Big, 10-Ft. Deep] Photo showing under-construction August Lakes subdivision and existing Lakes of Katy subdivision behind it: August Lakes
The indie coffee shop and practitioner of advanced siphon-brewing techniques suspended its service last Wednesday so that big-name instant and pre-ground coffee producer Cafe Bustelo could take over barista duties inside for the week. The photo above shows the storefront going off-brand with temporary fixtures that dub it a “Cafecito” using Bustelo’s classic color scheme. Closer to ground level, you can see the new matching window dressings, too — added on too along the store’s glass facade.
Even Siphon’s standalone sign at the corner of W. Alabama and Greeley St. has been transformed:
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: THE ‘FOOD HALL’ THRESHOLD 
“A food COURT is a cluster of food vendors, often with shared seating, in a place whose primary purpose is something else (shopping mall, airport). A food HALL is a cluster of food vendors, often with shared seating, in a place whose primary purpose is serving food.” [Angostura, commenting on Ranking Houston’s Pricey Rentals; Bellaire Food Street Picks Up Popsicle Vendor; Jersey Village’s New Office-Park Brewery] Photo of Lyric Market at night: Random Sky Studio
This recent aerial survey of Australian developer Caydon’s 357-unit Fannin St. apartment tower between Drew and Tuam streets shows just how much it now sticks out from the rest of Midtown’s surrounding flatlands, the buffer between Downtown and the Med Center. Though the apartment’s planned 27 stories aren’t complete yet, it’s already one-upped everything in the nearby building-scape — most dramatically, the tiny park structures that occupy the superblock on the other side of Main St.
And there’s more where that came from: The developer still plans to get started on 2 more adjacent towers — in place of the departing Art Supply store and on the block that’s bounded by McGowen, Fannin, Dennis, and Main streets. Both will include all kinds of street-level retail (depicted in renderings that have now been scrubbed from the internet) and should begin rising after the apartments going up now are complete.
- Previously on Swamplot: Flying Biscuit Cafés Cleared To Land in Caydon’s Midtown Tower Trifecta, Across from Memorial City Med Center; Australian Developer Now Has All 3 Midtown Blocks Lined Up for Incoming Highrise Trio; Caydon Properties Wants To Build These Second and Third Towers Next to McGowen Station in Midtown; How That Second Planned Midtown Highrise Will Rise Above Mental Health Site, Rail Line, Midtown Park; Multiple Excavators Divide and Conquer Former Midtown Mural Hub; Mural-Slathered Former MHMRA Building Readies For The End; Daily Demolition Report: Willowbroke
Video: Phillip White