04/29/14 1:00pm

Map on Minimum Lot Size Flyer, Near Northside, HoustonSwamplot reader Triton reports receiving a flyer urging people to oppose a minimum lot size designation for the area just north of Downtown shown in the map at right. The authors of the bright yellow flyer, written in English on one side and Spanish on the other, identify themselves only as “a group of very concerned property owners in this neighborhood,” but the text doesn’t include the names of any organization or individuals — only a Quitman St. return address and a phone number. “If you are within the marked boundary of the map below we want to inform you that there is a minimum lot size application currently being processed by the city of Houston,” the flyer reads. It encourages readers to oppose the application, because (it claims) “your land will potentially decrease in value,” and “it scares investors away.

Here’s the text portion of the flyer:

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Bright Yellow Concerns
04/24/14 12:00pm

800-booth-16

800-booth-01

Little White Oak Bayou meanders by the back of a property (and so do a couple of uh, hikers in the background of the top photo) located east of N. Main St. and about 3 sidewalk-lined blocks from the Metro rail station at Fulton St. Is the Northside property located in De Noyles, as indicated in the listing, or is it Booth North Main, as recorded by HCAD for all addresses on the block? The listing’s all-cap message is all about redeveloping the acre-plus lot of land, not the 1960 home that sits on it at the end of a long driveway (above). A month ago, the asking price dropped to $1.1 million. Since January (and in a previous listing dating back to September 2013) it had been sitting at $1.6 million. But even that was down a bit from someone’s expectations: In 2008, a six-month listing’s asking price kicked off at $2 million.

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Mind the Gap
04/15/14 1:15pm

Near Northside Residents Holding Tampico Heights Signs, Houston

A dust-up begun in the comments section of a Houstonia magazine article has blossomed into a mini-campaign to squash a recently coined neighborhood nickname. Two websites have now been created to document the curious internet history surrounding the recent appearance of the name Tampico Heights, and to demonstrate residents’ steadfast opposition to Heights name creep.

“From talking to dozens of Northsiders, it is not a name that anyone has heard used for the neighborhood,” a reader tells Swamplot. So the reader (lightheartedly signing emails as the Tampico Heights Redevelopment Authority) created a timeline site, documenting usage of the term “Tampico Heights” — in a manner that might make the founders of the OED proud — “in hopes that people who write about our neighborhood, or any neighborhood, make a practice of talking to residents, and not inventing things from google searches.”

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Battling ‘Heights’ Creep
11/05/13 3:45pm

There’s been a Metro train siting at the new Quitman station of the North Line extension, just south of the train’s turnoff from North Main, reader Joel Balderas reports. Unlike earlier appearances, the train appears to be operating under its own power. Here’s the photo evidence:

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09/05/13 12:00pm

As many as 8 new bike-sharing stations could open inside the Loop in the next 2 weeks. Will Rub, director of Houston B-Cycle, tells Swamplot that permits are in hand and the bikes forthcoming for these 5 stations: Spotts Park, at 401 S. Heights Blvd; the intersection of Taft and Fairview, at 2401 Taft St.; the Menil Collection, at 1529 W. Alabama St.; Leonel Castillo Community Center, which is undergoing a restoration at 2109 South St.; and the intersection of Milam and Webster, at 2215 Milam St.

And Rub adds that 3 other locations are just waiting for their permits: Stude Park, at 1031 Stude St., and 2 others east, for the first time, of the Southwest Fwy.: Settegast Park at Garrow and Palmer in the Second Ward, and Project Row Houses at Holman and Live Oak in the Third Ward. Rub expects those to be ready to roll September 19th or 20th.

Photo of station at Lamar and Milam: Reddit user txsupernova

05/30/13 2:30pm

Overlooking Hogg Park and White Oak Bayou, the old Robert E. Lee Elementary school is being renovated into a community center for the Near Northside. The school was designed by Alfred C. Finn and dates to 1919 and 1920, though it’s been vacant in this historic district since 2002. Architecture firm PGAL is preserving 3 of the building’s walls and decorative geegaws as well as the arched entryway that faces South St.; new space for what’s been named the Leonel J. Castillo Community Center is being built out the back, as this photo shows.

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07/20/12 5:29pm

The Alamo reinforcements have arrived! Okay, they’re just temporary steel props, but they’re now holding the tilt-up concrete facade out of the mud around the tamale-themed strip center Warwick Construction is putting up on Houston’s Northside. The 23,000-sq.-ft. Alamo Tamale Company development at 809 Berry Rd. just west of Irvington will include a bakery, a reception hall, a restaurant and cantina, a dessert bar, and — yes — an on-site tamale-construction facility. Plus: a drive-thru meant to accommodate about 20 tamale-pickup vehicles.

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12/28/11 11:37am

Reader Heidi Hagen’s photos of construction on the North Line along N. Main St. north of UH-Downtown show the new bridge that’s “popped up outta nowhere” around Hogan St. No, there’s no rainbow at the north end of Downtown, but if you look carefully from the right far vantage point can see the elevated concrete and steel construction that’ll be carrying an extension to the existing rail line over the Union Pacific railroad tracks to further points north: Lindale Park, the Northline Transit Center, and 6 other newly named stations. More bridge pix from earlier in the month:

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10/05/11 12:50pm

A reader sends in this photo showing the results of a recent heavy metal delivery to the median of Fulton St. across from Moody Park: Rails, for the coming 5.3-mile North Line extension to Lindale Park. Swamplot’s Northside construction correspondent reports the street appears paved and ready for the tracks to be installed.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

08/15/11 6:19pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: LOOKING FORWARD TO MISSING YOU TOO “It’s weird to think that Rice Village had, at various times, a porn theater, a reggae bar, and a former gas station converted into a barbeque place called the Poor Man’s Country Club. A lot of the funkiness has gone, but that’s what the residents in the vicinity want. It’s an upscale neighborhood–and that tends to push out some of the more marginal businesses. But new funky neighborhoods are always coming into existence, so while I mourn the disappearance of great, unique neighborhood businesses, I welcome new ones elsewhere. Who knows — 20 years from now, Radical Eats might be a beloved neighborhood institution in a gentrifying neighborhood.” [Robert Boyd, commenting on Po’ Boys Priced Out of the Village]

08/15/11 12:36pm

Saves me money!!! Radical Eats owner Staci Davis has taken to Kickstarter — and this woozy video — to raise money to add a water filtration system, better air conditioning, and a beer and wine license to her new vegan Mexican restaurant location at 3903 Fulton St., just north of Moody Park. Davis, who jettisoned plans to work out of the kitchen at the Heights Ashbury Coffeehouse after only a few weeks there, took over the former Kiko’s Mexican Cafe location just before the July 4th holiday. So far, she’s raised $325 of $8,000 she hopes to net for improvements to the Radical Eats Cafe. What will you get for your contribution, besides — if the target is reached — the ability to buy and drink a meat-and-dairy-free cold one on site? For $5, a written thank-you note and a hug at each visit. For $500: a dish at the restaurant named after you or your organization, a few more goodies, and a custom-made hula hoop.

Video: Kickstarter

02/22/11 1:07pm

Has Metro ever made a more expensive mistake than spending $42 million on a contract with a Spanish rail-car construction firm that violated federal procurement rules? Now that the American subsidiary of Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles has agreed to return $14 million of that money, the answer is yes: That would be the $41 million Houston’s transit agency reports it spent on developing an intermodal terminal at the corner of Main and Burnett streets just north of Downtown. Metro CEO George Greanias confirms the agency has given up on the design (above), which would have included a giant octopus-like dome, bus bays, a commuter rail terminal, a “kiss-and-ride” area, and maybe a Metro RideStore, restrooms, newsstands, food stands, and gift shops. There will still be a Burnett Transit Center station with a North Line rail stop, but Greanias tells the Chronicle‘s Chris Moran the trashed design would have been too expensive to run. Metro may have even killed the bus station part: Greanias says they haven’t decided whether any other modes of transit will connect to the light-rail line at that location.

Image: Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects

05/22/09 10:44am

That North Main St. Intermodal Terminal planned for just north of the UH-Downtown business school has been renamed a little more humbly as Burnett Plaza, according to a note on the Metro website. And . . . it’s going to be just a little simpler than the fancy rendering shown above.

Rail watcher Christof Spieler points to a few key sentences that describe the downgrade:

The initial phase will include a half-circle on the east side of Burnett Station. There will be vertical circulation down to a 4-bay transit center with access to a “kiss and ride.”

METRO intends to construct the facility in phases, commensurate with funding and environmental clearances. Phase I transportation services will include METRORail, and local bus service, along with shuttle vans and taxis.

Spieler translates:

What this means is Phase 1 is an elevated light rail station with an elevated half-circle plaza with stairs down to a small parking lot with 4 bus bays.

Rendering: Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects