Houston Heights

Houston Heights
05/14/10 1:19pm

The Great Houston Heights Fast Food Slowdown

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Woodland Heights
7 Comments

“I have to say, I have always had luck with Asian food in some sort of repurposed fast food building,” declares The Heights Life blogger Viula. Surely everyone hopes her good fortune continues: A Heights Asian Cafe (or, as the banner puts it, Height Asian Cafe) will soon lay claim to the booty that is the vacant Long John Silvers building on Yale at 22nd St.

Likewise, Jenni’s Noodle House expects to open its 3rd location in the former Mrs. Baird’s Bread outlet at 602 E. 20th (at the corner of Oxford St.) in less than 8 weeks.

Ah, but there’s more than Asian food moving in. Viula has the rundown:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Comments
05/13/10 10:06pm

Comment of the Day: Those Friendly Neighbors with the Chickens

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Houston Heights, Neighborhood Disputes, Quicklink
No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THOSE FRIENDLY NEIGHBORS WITH THE CHICKENS “. . . I feel obliged to disagree with the comparison between Lone Star [Poultry] and a train. We’ve never smelled chicken or been bothered by truck noise or anything. I heard from some old-timers that Lone Star used to be a problem but neighbors complained and it’s no longer an issue. Our interaction with Lone Star has been nothing but positive…one of the truck drivers had to make room for a load of chicken and gave us a whole sack of cabbage as we were walking by.” [Katie, commenting on Hangin’ with the Large and Lonely Homes of Bammel Lane Park]

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Homes for Sale
05/10/10 2:02pm

Coming Down from the Heights: How the Swamplot Price Adjuster Works

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Houston Heights, Price Adjuster, Price Reductions
No Comments

Whatever happened to that little Swamplot Price Adjuster feature — you know, the one where readers report on a property for sale that appears to need some pricing correction, and suggest a better price for it? It’s still waiting for your smart submissions! In the meantime, here’s some evidence that it actually works:

Last November, when a reader nominated the 1920 house perched on an 8,200-sq.-ft. lot at the corner of 10th St. and Cortlandt in the Heights, a bunch of you wrote in to suggest that the list price was a bit steep. The nominator gave a target:

Asking $600,000 for this is a joke and I think it should be at the most $350,000.

By December, the price had been lowered to $450K. And then, by late March, the house was gone from MLS. What’s happened to it since?

You guessed it: A brand new listing appeared at the end of April, with a new set of photos and — what? Is it listed at $350,000 now?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Houston Heights
05/04/10 4:25pm

Hooray for the Smallest Freestanding Commercial Office Building in the Heights?

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Office Buildings
10 Comments

A reader wants to nominate the tiny offices of Marine Offshore Electric Services, at 226 W. 18th St., just west of Yale, for . . . what?

It’s so cute! And really, this has got to be the smallest freestanding office structure in the Heights at least. What about a wider area? Bellaire, you got anything like this?

And what about retail? If someone will promise me there aren’t any old Fotomats or Fedex kiosks out there ready to trip me up, I’d like to nominate this place for smallest permanent freestanding non-foodservice commercial structure too. Is that category available?

  • About Us [Marine Offshore Electric Services]

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Bellaire
05/04/10 8:14am

Timbergrove Swing: Plenty of Pots, Pans, Parking Where SSQQ Is Headed

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Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Retail, Shady Acres, Shopping Centers, Timbergrove Manor
6 Comments



Come June, promise the owners of SSQQ, the popular social dance studio will reopen just to the west of Restaurant Depot, in the former Kmart beached on the asphalt shores at 20th St. and T.C. Jester near Timbergrove.

Last weekend, SSQQ shut down the Bellaire strip-center site it had occupied for 30 years. Why’d it up and leave? Doctors’ orders, reports the Bellaire Examiner‘s Steve Mark: First Street Hospital, which owns the center on Bissonnet just outside the Loop, is planning an expansion that would slice the center in half, knocking out SSQQ, Sweetwater Pool & Patio, and a Radio Shack. (Not all is lost, though: Charlie’s Hamburgers and that nail salon in the center at 4803 Bissonnet will get to stay.)

Besides easy access to restaurant supplies, what’s in store for students taking a swing at new Bachata and Whip moves at SSQQ’s new location?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Freeland Historic District
04/15/10 2:40pm

Freeland Rush: Your Best Chance To Mess with the Freeland Historic District

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Historic Preservation, Homes for Sale, Houston Heights, Neighborhood Disputes, Real Estate Marketing, Redevelopment
7 Comments

When last Swamplot visited the tiny Freeland Historic District at the foot of the Heights almost a year ago, Samantha Wood and her husband, architect Jack Preston Wood, had just given up on plans to purchase a little bungalow at 536 Granberry St., demolish it, and replace it with a new 1-1/2-story bungalow. The Woods’ earlier plans — to build two 4-story townhomes on the property — stirred up protests from neighbors and a rejection from the city historical commission.

Did all that hullabaloo in the newly-minted historic district scare off potential buyers? A Freeland neighbor says no — and suspects most of the neighborhood’s new attention is coming from builders:

525 Granberry Street (now listed on the tax rolls and MLS as 525 E. 5th 1/2 Street) went on the market last week. So many offers have been received they ask that final bids go in tomorrow, April 16.

Why would builders be so interested in this property?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Houston Heights
04/08/10 10:07am

Heights Welcome Wagon

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Quicklink
6 Comments

HEIGHTS WELCOME WAGON Taryn Peine scopes out the new kids on the block: “We have two new neighbors. Not one, but TWO. As I fight my way through my terrible case of new person anxiety (What if they just start showing up all the time? What if they ask us to do things for them? What if they’re the borrowing type, and we never see our step stool, our weedeater or a full carton of eggs again?) in order to make my way over to introduce myself, I’ve been super-secretly scouting them out. Memorizing their routines. Doing an inventory of the stuff in their garages. Making note of the fact that they already had window coverings on the very day they moved in, instead of waiting two years like we did. You know. Just making sure they understand there is a creepy neighbor on our street, and that creepy neighbor is me. . . .” [A Peine for Your Thoughts]

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Comments
04/07/10 2:56pm

Comment of the Day: The Best Kind of Neighbor for Your Lawn

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Gardening, Houston Heights, Landscape, Quicklink, Trees
2 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE BEST KIND OF NEIGHBOR FOR YOUR LAWN “I live on a large lot in the heights with a couple of mature trees. I haven’t bagged one leaf, actually I have picked up lawn clippings and leaves from neighbors that have been set out, and put both into my compost. I’ve filled 2 5′x25′ raised beds with the compost in the last 2 years. I now have a 3 pile/annual rotation taking up a 4′x12′ area. I doubt I will ever run out of capacity for waste generated by my property. Sorry but this arguement about not enough space is not a logical one.” [SaintCyr, commenting on New Rules for Yard Waste]

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Houston Heights
04/01/10 11:57am

A Hush in Retail Traffic from the Washington Quiet Zone

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Retail, Traffic, Transportation, Washington Corridor
28 Comments

Several retail outlets near the railroad tracks at the base of Heights Blvd. near Center St. are complaining that traffic changes accompanying the new Washington Ave. quiet zone have already hurt their businesses. Department of Public Works spokesperson Alvin Wright tells Channel 39’s Jason Volentine that Federal Railroad Administration requirements mandate that crossovers through the Heights Blvd. median near the tracks be closed off for the quiet zone to be implemented.

Without a quiet zone, train conductors are required to blast their horns at all at-grade crossings. The Washington quiet zone will extend from Sherwin St. north of I-10, to National, about a quarter-mile east of Studewood:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Comments
03/31/10 5:14pm

Comment of the Day: Heights Walgreens Strip Center Shuffle

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Houston Heights, Quicklink, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers
4 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HEIGHTS WALGREENS STRIP CENTER SHUFFLE “Woah is right. So how does this bode for the existing strip center across 20th where the old Walgreens is along with Kroger, etc.? Would love to know what the plans are for that whole strip now [that] that new Kroger is done and Walgreens seems to be going across the street. Anyone know?” [Mary, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Happy Hide a Way]

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Cancellations and Delays
03/24/10 4:12pm

Comment of the Day: The Rutland St. Scarecrows

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Comments, Construction Problems, Houston Heights, Quicklink
No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE RUTLAND ST. SCARECROWS “Those houses are still in various stages of uncompleteness. Woe looks to be the fate of anyone who tries to get anything done there. Bill Baldwin is now the latest to try and for his sake, I hope he succeeds. But those places have been eyesores for awhile now. Personally, I think that places like the old Eighth Avenue Elementary site and 2200-2207 Rutland serve as scarecrows of a sort, scaring off townhome developers, much like the ones at 15th and Yale used to before a community garden went in there. . . .” [Martin Hajovsky, commenting on Heights Home Composting: The Amazing Disappearing Waterhill Townhomes; previously on Swamplot]

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Construction Materials
03/22/10 12:42pm

Heights Home Composting: The Amazing Disappearing Waterhill Townhomes

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Construction Problems, Demolitions, Houston Heights, New Construction, Townhomes
20 Comments

Okay, tell us what was the plan for that block south of W. 8th St. along the new Heights Hike-and-Bike Trail, between Nicholson and Waverly?

This large, open space will be available for community gardens, both cultivated and natural, think edible weeds. Small animal husbandry, such as goats, chickens and rats could also be sustained. Compost houses flank the development to show clientele how their homes will indeed return to their natural state a lá the second law of thermodynamics, or something like that. Between the back row of Compost Homes are the E-condos. These models reflect real world living as they do not have plumbing or electricity.

Huh? Well, it’s not even a year since Houston Indymedia reporter Keefski tried to explain it all . . . but the Waterhill Homes at the Heights development is at last seeing some action!

What kind of action?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Buying and Selling
03/10/10 1:51pm

Comment of the Day: Islands of Value

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Comments, Home Prices, Houston Heights, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing
1 Comment

COMMENT OF THE DAY: ISLANDS OF VALUE “I have come to believe that what is nearby means nothing at all to a lot of people. The Heights just east of Shepherd was, just a few years ago, mostly shotgun shacks and run down rentals. That stopped nobody from building half million dollar plus homes. Now- that doesn’t mean this place isn’t overpriced – a comp is a comp. I’m just saying that there are apparently many people who love being the castle surrounded by the serfs.” [finness, commenting on Swamplot Price Adjuster: Brookesmith in the 200s]

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Comments
03/09/10 2:35pm

Comment of the Day: Imagining the H-E-B Heights Revitalization Plan

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Houston Heights, Quicklink, Retail, Washington Corridor
3 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: IMAGINING THE H-E-B HEIGHTS REVITALIZATION PLAN “The Sons of Hermann site would not have to be dry. There used to be a liquor store at the Boulevard and the bayou – Kims #1. Tapping in to all the people who now live within drunks-puking-in-your-driveway distance of Washington makes that site a good choice. Enter from Yale or Heights. Then maybe those condos that are 6 feet from the RR [tracks] would finally sell.” [finness, commenting on H-E-B Plans To Build a Montrose Grocery Store at Wilshire Village]

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