THE FUTURE OF HOUSTON IS ON HILLCROFT NOW 
Armed with a few stats, Monica Rhor takes a look at Hillcroft Ave, ground zero for the Great Houston Influx: “More than 1 million immigrants — one of every four residents — call Harris County home, and the percentage holds true across 10 surrounding counties. From 2000 to 2010, Houston gained 400,000 foreign-born residents, more than any other U.S. city except New York. Last year, the county received 4,818 refugees from 40 different countries, the most of any county in Texas. The newcomers have done more than shift our demographics. They have created a metropolis where one-third of business owners are foreign-born, where the number of Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus has tripled in the last three decades, where more than 100 languages are spoken by students attending Houston public schools.” Hillcroft, of course is only the area of greatest concentration: “Immigrant communities are dispersed across Harris County — from the southwest side to The Woodlands, from Spring to Pasadena. Over the last two decades, even as the number of foreign-born residents has increased, segregation levels have decreased. Two out of every five people speak a language other than English.” [Houston Chronicle] Map: John D. Harden
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Hilllcroft
HILLCROFT HOUSTON CELL PHONE SNATCHING THROUGH THE ROOF 
Here’s a view from earlier today of the ceiling inside Rizwan Siddiqi’s Cell Phone Wholesale shop at 3633 Hillcroft. Shortly before 4 this morning, a thief dropped into the store and grabbed as many as 80 smartphones before climbing back out the way he came, through the roof. Surveillance video shows the phoneburglar missing on his first attempt to jump back into the plenum space, hitting the display case before crashing back onto the floor. A tall stool placed on top of the case eventually allowed a gentler exit. The shop is carved out of one side of the Valero In-N-Out store at the corner of Windswept. [abc13] Photo: Phillip Mena/Click2Houston
The same organization that campaigned successfully several years ago to place that statue of Mahatma Gandhi next to the herb garden in Hermann Park is now proposing another Houston honor for the slain spiritual leader. Abc13’s Sonia Azad reports that Houston’s India Cultural Center wants to rename the section of Hillcroft Ave. between Highway 59 and Westpark to Mahatma Gandhi Street.
Or should that be Mahatma Gandhi Avenue?
[City Council Member MJ] Khan says he will support changing Hillcroft’s name to Mahatma Gandhi Avenue, if that’s what the community wants.
“Our city is a very international city so I think it will help if we start branding that area,” Khan explained.
Store clerk Inder Buhtti believes Gandhi Avenue could curb crime and violence in the area.
He said, “Everything he wants he wanted in a peaceful way, not with guns or with bombs.” . . .
Spanish, Guatemalan, Chinese and Persian businesses in the area attract an array of customers. Azar Delpassand from Iran says the street’s name should reflect that diversity.
She said, “In here, this street, you have Arabic stores, you have Indian stores, you have Persian stores. So excluding others because of Indians, I don’t think (so). It’s not fair.”
Photo of Gandhi statue in Hermann Park: Keri Bas
Looking for a home in an in-town location, but don’t want to miss that exhilarating feeling you get from East Side neighborhoods near the Ship Channel?
Why not start your search near Bayland Park, at the corner of Bissonnet and Hillcroft, just west of Bellaire? It’s outside the Loop, far to the west of Houston’s industrial areas, close to some of some of the city’s most dynamic neighborhoods . . . and recently was rated one of the most consistently smoggy places in Houston.
That’s right: Smog is worse on the West Side.
The data may surprise many Houstonians who associate smog with the chemical refining and industrial byproducts that foul the air in East Harris County.
In fact, the highest ozone readings in the city are routinely captured by monitors located on Houston’s densely populated southwest side. Recent data shows Bayland Park, just west of Bellaire, to be one of Houston’s smoggiest neighborhoods. According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Bayland Park monitor, located in the 6400 block of Bissonnet Street, recorded 45 days in the last three years when ozone levels violated public health standards.
During that period, the monitor registered ozone concentrations as high as or greater than those recorded by monitors in the Ship Channel region.
Howzat happen?
University of Texas chemical engineer David Allen analyzed data collected by the Bayland Park monitor in 2006. He and others determined that climate patterns explained the high ozone concentrations on Houston’s west side. Based on computerized modeling of weather patterns, Allen said nearly every incident of excessive ozone levels in Bayland Park that year happened on days characterized by the same weather pattern: hot and sunny, with still air in the morning and light winds from the east blowing in the afternoon.
“The east winds pick up Ship Channel air and carry it all the way into west Houston where it settles over neighborhoods,†Allen said.
That’s the smell of money.
- Dubious honor: Bayland leads in bad air [Bellaire Examiner]
Photo: Harris County Precinct 3
