- 3,000-Acre Tract in Montgomery County on the Market [HBJ ($)]
- Vigavi Realty To Start Construction on 2 Spec Industrial Buildings in Pasadena [Realty News Report]
- Chinese Developer Yihai Group Breaks Ground on Master-Planned Community Grand Oaks Reserve in Cleveland [HBJ ($)]
- First Model Homes Open in Land Tejas Community Balmoral in Humble [Houston Chronicle]
- Apartment Occupancy Up in Houston, Finds Berkadia Report [Realty News Report]
- Majority of Lake Houston Residents Want More Farmers Markets in the Area, Finds Community Survey [Houston Chronicle]
- Restaurants Nobu, Fig & Olive Coming to the Galleria [HBJ]
- Katy ISD’s New $72.1M Legacy Stadium To Open for Public Tours Following Today’s Dedication Ceremony [Houston Chronicle]
- Concrete About To Pour To Build New State Highway 288 Toll Lanes [Houston Public Media]
- Dan Friedkin Latest Local Billionaire To Express Interest in Buying the Rockets [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- City Compiling List of Confederate Statues in Houston, Will Consider What To Do About Them Next [Houston Press]
- Is Houston Prioritizing Industry Over the Health of Its Communities? [Texas Monthly]
Photo of mural at 1848 Airline Dr.: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
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I think erasing history (good and bad) is idiotic and very communist like. The War of Northern Aggression shall never be forgotten.
I’m waiting for the shoe to drop when someone realizes what that sixth flag of the Six Flags Over Texas is.
Putting aside their feasibility as a business model, what kind of person answers “no” to “Do you want more farmers markets in your area?” Who is this anti-farmer’s market caucus and what are their values?
@GoogleMaster – so correct. History is just that – history. Took place in the past.
Re: Confederate statues
Dylann Roof, the church shooter, loved to pose with Confederate flags. Guess that means there is no link between hate and the Confederacy.
Tear them all down!
Native Houstonian: you’ll go far
@ TheNiche
Produce Department Managers.
@ Commonsense
Taking down Confederate monuments has nothing to do with “erasing history” any more than putting them up in the first place (mostly in the 20s and 60s ) had anything to do with remembering history. No, it was about reminding black people who was in charge. Both eras were times when the Klan was particularly active and times when Black people were asserting their rights. If it were about remembering history, you’d see a lot more statutes of Fredrick Douglass and a lot fewer of Robert E. Lee. A statute in a public space is a place of honor intended to commemorate the most venerable citizens. It is not a place to remember traitors who conspired to keep an entire race of people enslaved. No, the Civil War will never be forgotten, much like the WWII. We don’t need a statue of Hitler in our public parks to remember that war.
Glad to hear the city is seriously considering taking down these hateful monuments. Long overdue! The traitorous Confederacy can be “remembered” without being memorialized and glorified on top of a pedestal.
Charolottesville was the last nail in the coffin for these Confederate monuments. They were put up at the beginning of Jim Crow as a message to African Americans that the end of slavery did not mean the end to white supremacy. They are now being embraced by a new group of white supremacists for pretty much the same reason. Removing Confederate monuments does not erase history. It sets the record straight.
Well, might as well start tearing down the statues of Andrew Jackson and Custer too. They are reminders of the oppression of whites against the Native American Indians. And since they were acting under the flag of the United States, that flag is considered a sign of oppression to them, too.
People, get a grip. These are remnants of our history. Use them as an example to learn from the past. If you say these are a sign of the oppression you still feel, turn the tables and use them as a reminder that you don’t have to be a victim. Constantly bemoaning being a victim is just a crutch. Way too many examples of those who picked themselves up out of the dirt and became successful, past and present.
No one who fought AGAINST America should be venerated in the public realm. Have some commonsense and take em down; they belong in a museum.
Agree with Heightsresident – take them all down! Put them in a cemetery or museum if you must.
So if we have to keep the symbols of defeated evil around, do Germans have to put all those swastikas back up?
im ok with people taking down ones like robert e lee or jefferson davis if that’s what makes them happy, but they better not take down this kickass statue over in heritage park:
http://swamplot.com/naked-confederate-birdman-downtown-unflapped-by-renamings/2016-06-10/
maybe they can just remove the plaque instead. sweet winged guy with sword isnt hurting anybody.
Can we at least get rid of the Jaybird monument in RIchmond? The Jaybirds were a “White Man’s Union” created to keep black people from voting from Reconstruction up until the 1950s (or 1960s, or …). We should definitely preserve the history, but can we stop celebrating oppression?
My American story started when my family came from Germany via Galveston at the beginning of the Civil War. They were three brothers. They joined the Confederate Army. They did not own slaves. All three fought together at the Battle of Vicksburg. One brother died. One went North. The other went back to Texas. Roughly a million people died in the Civil War. Removing the statues is a dishonor to the dead and to the family’s that erected them. Removing them is saying the war never happened. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. You cannot change history but you can learn from it.
Robert E Lee actually fought for quite a large chunk of America between 1846-1848. He happened to fight alongside Grant. After the outcome of that war, which gave you the ground you are standing on today in TX, Grant moved around quite a bit from various farms and plantations that used slave labor and at one point even owned one himself. Both Lee and Grant opposed the next war they fought in together, both thinking it would be detrimental to the country and a disservice to the founding fathers who worked so hard to establish it…. What’s happening now is doing just that, tearing the country apart. A lot of these streets, schools, and statues have been around for over 100 years and now all of a sudden they all have to be removed because it’s somehow offensive to someone. It all feels very Orwellian to me…..
The “Spirit of the Confederacy” statue in Sam Houston Park has stood there since 1908. It’s stood through both World Wars, the civil rights movement, and 9/11. I don’t find it offensive in any way. I’m a black man and I see it as a piece of art that would be quite challenging to reproduce in the 21st century. I think it should remain where it’s been for over 100 years.
Also, isn’t there a statue of George Hermann in his namesake park? If so, will it be included in the inventory? George Herman fought for the Confederacy.
Eagerly awaiting those HISD name changes. Definitely worth the millions of dollars. I’ll drink a beer in celebration when the school nearest to me changes names.
Taking down the statues seems like a total waste of time and money. We’re pretending like Americans haven’t committed atrocities against others? Christopher Columbus is venerated as a saint even though through his “discovery” millions of native Americans were subsequently killed over the following decades and eventually round up to live on reservations. Many founding fathers owned slaves, we still have plantations in various states with slaves quarters (to remind us of their terrible living conditions), we exploited the Chinese to build the transcontinental railroad, we exploit Latinos to build our homes and pick our food. The list goes on and on…
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How many people even knew what HISD schools were named after people involved in the Confederacy? Same goes with streets…
Replace all confederate statues and replace with a statue of the man who invented granite countertops.
I think the boiling point in our city will be when they try to take down the Sam Houston (slave owner) monument at the entrance to Hermann Park.
Perhaps funds might be more efficiently used, if rather than dismantling and moving them, we instead buy some silly hats and sunglasses to disguise them all.
I’m surprised that not more is talked about the Dowling statue in the Medical Center.
My favorite is driving down Leeland and seeing the giant Emancipation Ave signs, and then see brothers tacos with Dowling street still painted on their building. Clearly they are too busy printing money to feel oppressed by a street sign.
These statutes don’t need to be destroyed, but need to be re-contextualized so that we understand the people who commissioned and erected these monuments as well as those depicted. George Washington and Sam Houston both had key roles in creating institutions that define our lives today. Robert E. Lee’s legacy is fighting for the destruction of America. The “States Rights” argument in defense of the Confederacy rejects the idea of Union altogether. The South could not have won the war, but a Union defeat would certainly have led to further disintegration. The only thing that bound them together was Union aggression, not slavery, right? So take that away and what happens next?
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The people that serve as a backstory for these statues are at least as shameful as those they “honor”. We cannot have any measure of truth and reconciliation until their story is told, in all its unholy glory.
Commenter7 “Replace all confederate statues and replace with a statue of the man who invented granite countertops”
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Comment of the year