COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: FEAR OF CRIME EPIDEMICS “A good friend of mine lived in Third Ward up until about four years ago. Never had a problem with crime. Seriously. I recall stopping at a little convenience store on MacGregor, a bit nervous being the only white guy in the place, but god how stupid I felt when the worst I encountered was a hello, and an enterprising young man selling pirated DVDs out of his car in the parking lot. Meanwhile, up here in Oak Forest, we’ve got residents going positively bananas every time a car gets broken into or a mysterious car is seen driving slowly around the block. Check out the Oak Forest Facebook page. It’s an astonishing epicenter of paranoia. It’s so bad that I think it’s actually hurting efforts to make a good community. We can’t go a week without some poor black guy having his picture plastered on the page with somebody asking if anybody recognizes him. And most of the time, it’s a plumber or an electrician or somebody going about their work. And now we’ve got a group handing out shotguns to everyone in the name of security. I’m sure that’s going to work out just fine. It’s not that I don’t feel safe here; I absolutely do. I just get tired of the gossip passing for actual news. I want to live in a place where people are happy and engaging and hospitable, but I worry that it’s not going that way at all. And as somebody with a mixed-race child, I admit that I do worry about some crazy neighbor calling the cops because she’s out riding an expensive bicycle or something. And that makes me almost as paranoid as some of my neighbors.” [Anse, commenting on Comment of the Day Runner-Up: Splendors of the East]
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Oak Forest
A deep-lot pocket of Oak Forest near White Oak Bayou appears to have escaped the area’s new-build frenzy, getting some second-story work instead. This property, for example, added an upstairs master suite with pool-view porch as part of a previous overhaul. The 1955 home landed on the market last month and has a $499,000 price tag. It last sold in 2009 for $359,190, just a tad higher than the $359K asking price.
Two years ago, this previously renovated 1949 Oak Forest home sold for $189,000. Its listing last week comes with a $293,000 price tag. The property, on a street that’s mostly original housing stock, is located east of Rosslynn Rd. and around the corner from the Frank Black Middle School campus entrance on Piney Woods Dr. The back of Oak Forest Elementary School is a longer hike east toward 43rd St.
A one-of-a-kind Oak Forest home doubles up on many of its features. Two chimneys form a sassy kind of turret above the front porch. There’s a second formal entry. And both wings of the home have their own garage. Plus, the property occupies an oversized corner lot, so it’s got twice (or maybe even thrice) the yard of its neighbors. The 13-year-old custom home appeared on the market last weekend. Its asking price: $925,000.
A shadowy presence pervades most of the wide-angle listing photos for this 1965 ranch-style home on the western front of Oak Forest near the Northwest Fwy. The spotty behavior starts on the green carpet of the living room (top) . . .
A reader sends in this photo of the Oak Forest Mobil at Ella and 1201 W. 43rd St., the death sentence of which was published in the Daily Demolition Report last Thursday. Once the station’s torn down, reports the reader, a Berryhill Baja Grill will be built on this corner; that’s according to a post the reader saw on the members-only Oak Forest Homeowners Association Facebook page. A bit more evidence: A since-deleted brief that appeared in the Houston Chronicle in March 2012 notes that Berryhill had been granted a sales permit at this address.
- Previously on Swamplot: Daily Demolition Report: Running on Empty
Photo: Swamplot inbox
- 4318 Donna Bell Ln. [HAR]
THE ART GUYS TO START UNRAVELING 
This is the route the Art Guys say they will be taking tomorrow morning when they stage the 5th of the yearlong series of monthly celebratory stunts they’re calling “12 Events:” Titling this one “A Length of String,” Jack Massing and Michael Galbreth will unwind a spool of thread they’ve had sitting around since 1983 while walking along White Oak Bayou between W. Tidwell and T.C. Jester, just north of the Loop, and then they’ll turn around . . . and wind it back up. Last month, you’ll remember, they donned tuxedos and conducted the sounds of the Ship Channel from the Santa Anna Capture Site in Pasadena. [Art Guys; previously on Swamplot] Map: Art Guys
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A WELL-DESERVED COUPLE DAYS OF REST FOR 77018 “Has Oak Forest fallen out of favor or have all the houses already been torn down, because we haven’t see any permits issued this week.” [miss_msry, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Buzzkill]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THAT’S A DIFFERENT KIND OF GROWTH IN OAK FOREST “The new $550k mcmansions in Oak Forest are replacing other housing units one for one, and the types of households that are getting displaced were already reasonably well-off and were all also living in houses that were just as sufficient to accommodate large families as the houses that are replacing them. By comparison, neighborhoods like Montrose, the Washington Avenue Corridor/Rice Military, and Uptown/Briargrove have been actively displacing small lower-income households with vast numbers of affluent households. I’d wager that there isn’t much of an increase in the number of people per household either, but the sheer number is increasing in a way that the deed restrictions in Oak Forest or Garden Oaks ensure will never happen there. Meanwhile, a $550k mcmansion in one of the single-family neighborhoods in those parts of town is often pushing the $1 million mark, and I’m sure that that also correlates to the types and profit margins of groceries that are purchased. So if you’re wondering why you don’t have urban core amenities in the suburbs . . . it’s because you live in the suburbs. They got built out a long time ago, the retail base is already established, and improvements will be slow and incremental.” [TheNiche, commenting on Apartments To Be Knocked Down for New H-E-B, Apartments on San Felipe]
Austin-style eco-landscaping finishes out the front of this renovated 1940 Oak Forest home new listing, which comes with an initial asking price of $319,000. The property’s far greener outback includes a fenced-off veggie-herb-fruit garden. Next to it, an air-conditioned treehouse stands guard; a balcony allows visitors to the raised clubhouse to keep a watchful eye on errant vegetation. Inside the main house, meanwhile, a super-sized master suite occupies a goodly portion of the total living space.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SHORT TIMERS “I’ve lived in Oak Forest now for 11+ years, zoned to OFE, in an original house just north of 43rd, west of Ella and about 5 years ago began receiving sporadic letters to buy the house site unseen. That stepped up a bit a year ago and we now get 2-3 a month from random builders/real estaters trying to purchase our house with promises to close within 30 days. Granted not all the original homes are gems, some need to be torn down, but there aren’t many of those now left, and other originals are well maintained and still solid, smaller by today’s standards, but that’s a preference for me. The kids enjoy the bigger yard. I don’t mind the new bigger homes that much, but unfortunately the new homes on the block have had owners that lived there for about a year before they put it back on the market. Both are back up for sale again at the same time. The block is pretty tight, we know each other, but really never got to know the folks in the new builds. That is the underlying issue for a lot of the folks in the neighborhood with the old vs. new, it’s the perceived mindset or commitment to the neighborhood.” [greg, commenting on Comment of the Day: That Brand-New Neighborhood Called Oak Forest]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THAT BRAND-NEW NEIGHBORHOOD CALLED OAK FOREST “So, any Oak Forest residents out there? I was wondering whether builders are just buying up everything that comes on the market or are they making cold solicitations to homeowners? I looked at moving to Oak Forest a few years ago and remember seeing new construction here and there. I drove around the neighborhood a few weeks ago and it looks like someone is building a new subdivision but didn’t notice that people were still living there.” [Old School, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: The End of Pleasures]
OAK FOREST’S 350-FT.-TALL HOAX TOWER 
Two signs posted last week on a half-block west of Ella at 1250 Du Barry Ln. that appear to serve notice of a 350-ft. tower coming to the site — and include reference to a permit number — are some kind of trick, Charlotte Aguilar assures us. Planning Dept. spokesperson Suzy Hartgrove tells her the permit number may be connected to a 5-year-old project; the listed city phone number is obsolete. She says she doesn’t “know why anyone would do that.” [The Leader] Photo: Charlotte Aguilar
ICE CREAM MAN REOPENING MYTIBURGER 
Oak Forest’s Mytiburger, which shut down 2 weeks ago, is expected to reopen tomorrow under new ownership. Shawn Salyers, the owner of a local Baskin Robbins franchise 9 blocks away, noted the lines out the door at the tiny burger joint at 2211 W. 43rd St. after owner Kathy Reynolds-Smith announced her intention to close up shop. Salyers plans to add free Wi-Fi, a touch-screen ordering system, and an outdoor seating area under a tree outside. He’s also hired Reynolds-Smith, who ran the restaurant for 24 years after taking over for the previous owner — as a consultant. [The Leader] Photo: Charlotte Aguilar
