COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE LOST SCENT “It broke my heart when they closed down the location near my high school on Hilcroft many years ago. [It] was a great place for ‘off campus’ dining. Don’t even get me started about the closure of the original Taft location without warning. Don’t they know it takes decades to achieve that wonderful aroma from all those imported cheeses, olives, etc.? This is a smell my children (and I) will never experience again.” [jgbiggs, commenting on Po’ Boys Priced Out of the Village]
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: REMEMBERING BENNIGAN’S “It gets me thinking. I don’t remember when the original Bennigans closed. I can’t say I remember ever missing Bennigans. While I admit I ate at Bennigans a few times, I don’t remember a thing about it. It was neither good or bad–a remarkably unmemorable experience. I’m not sure about the new ones. . . .” [Will, commenting on The Texas Bennigan’s Begin Again]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE CASE FOR BUILDING CRAP “i’m no developer, but being that this is off Yale (and not washington) across from a wal-mart it’s safe to assume they’re not going to be pulling in high-margin clients. there’s no point building a nice shopping center catered to the area if you can’t lock-in clients that can afford the rent. rent’s are already going to be well above average for houston. better to have a generic crappy strip center than a bankrupt high-end strip center. they know they’re building in the middle of a double-dipping economy in an area that certainly has high average incomes, but is still in flux none the less. better to build crap and establish a proven income stream with sensible margins before going overboard and losing money. as for the store selection, it’s certainly nothing i’d patronize but it’s an expected utilitarian lineup. we live in the internet age, what do you really expect, an amazon pick-up storefront? it’s easy to criticize, but it ain’t my money so i’m not going to call people out for doing sensible things with theirs. you can’t run a business and support employees livelihoods by taking risks for communities that may never support you in the first place.” [joel, commenting on Piggybacking on the Washington Heights Walmart: Stripalicious Yale St. Retail at Heights Marketplace]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SHOPPING CENTER PARKING LOT OF THE APOCALYPSE “This is how I imagine the end of the world begins.” [Justin, commenting on For the Glory of Old Navy: Purple Martins’ Majesty Meets 59 Feeder Road Shopping Center Parking Lot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SALVAGE VALUE “I am not attached to the nice appliances, wood floors, etc. . . . but they have a very large and easily accessible resale market . . . its not being sentimental it is just not wasting money on something that can easily be resold. A mod house like this has a very small market. Only a select few like this style of house, and even fewer are willing to pay for them.” [Marksmu, commenting on Battle Over Swank Sugar Land Supermod Won By Komatsu Excavator]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BORDERS BIDS YOU ADIEU “Do what I did at my store when they announced it was liquidating in February. Immediately unplug the wi-fi router. Immediately section-off the cafe with caution tape. Immediately move all of the seating off the sales floor. This isn’t the time to lounge around, it’s the time to buy shit and get the fuck out. It’s also not the place to take your morning shit anymore, so make sure to also permanently close the restrooms to the public.” [Chris, commenting on Borders Liquidation Sales Begin]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HIDING YOUR SURPLUS SQUARE FOOTAGE “The saddest part of this discussion is that nobody would have known or cared if the Schillers had simply paid $50,000 for a 170-square-foot extension to their home, in the form of a fully furnished guest apartment, and decorated it as a ‘playroom.’ My home is not in River Oaks, nor near it, but one of its spare bedrooms is furnished as a play room. We also have a ‘quarters’ above the garage. I await the vigorous disapprobation of the swamplot crowd, and the river of suggestions that I should convert this playroom and those quarters into homeless shelters. I dare say that a good number of readers of this blog have spare bedrooms and/or quarters in their homes, and these spaces . . . go unused for a large part of the year. God knows, if everyone could just convert all their guest quarters and spare bedrooms into homeless shelters, Mankind would finally transcend into the Superior Beings we all deserve to become. Thank goodness we have the Commenters of Swamplot to Guide us along the Path toward Righteousness!” [J.V., commenting on The Fanciest Playhouse in River Oaks]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE VALUE OF A NEW CHAIN STORE, IN SMALL BILLS “But don’t yall think having a Kohls nearby is well worth the price of a few ducks?” [Joe, commenting on Comment of the Day: Mystery Neighbor for the Meyer Park Walmart?]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A BRIEF GUIDE TO MEYER PARK SHOPPING CENTER WATERFOWL “I would bet a dollar to a donut that these are domesticated Muscovy Ducks. Muscovy Ducks are non-migratory and are frequently bought to stock artificial ponds (they are not native to Texas). They are not very agile and could easily get run over by an inattentive driver. The only other duck that might be in Texas in July is a black bellied whistling duck. Black bellied whistling ducks are far more agile than a muscovy. Unless they get fed constantly (like the ones in Hermann Park), they will keep a good distance from humans. My guess is that the Muscovy ducks are waddling out into the parking lot to forage through all the garbage the Walmart customers leave in the parking lot. There is little anyone can do to stop them as they can get up in the air enough to get over any kind of barrier that could be put up between the lot and the pond. A nice duck crossing sign might be all that can be done.” [Old school, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Meyer Park Shopping Center’s Sitting Ducks]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE MEYER PARK SHOPPING CENTER’S SITTING DUCKS “Is anyone but me concerned about the poor ducks I see constantly killed in the Walmart parking lot at MeyerPark? I saw another one yesterday, killed with 2 of his buddies near his body, waiting to be killed by the throngs of people there. Their breeding ground is becoming a Kohls and they are unsafe, in danger, and being killed off. The management company should pay to have them relocated before they are all killed.” [Sharron Reilly, commenting on Comment of the Day: Mystery Neighbor for the Meyer Park Walmart?]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE WAY THINGS ARE GOING “So much hand-wringing over a store! Washington Avenue’s already peaking, and will be full of boarded up resturants and bars in a couple of years. The Heights will one day be covered in badly built townhomes, just like here in Rice Military. All that will remain is Wal-Mart. It’s just the way it is. Nobody or nothing can stop it.” [ricemilitaryboy, commenting on Washington Heights Walmart Companion Strip Stand-Ins: No-Names, Off-Brands, and Imports]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BACK IN THE WILD DAYS OF CASTLE COURT “I’m sure the townhouses on Mandell near Castle Court are quite nice, but what could ever compare to the story of the house formerly on the site that housed Hugo the gorilla? Thanks to a friend who lived nearby, seeing him remains one of my most vivid memories after over 40 years.” [Hellsing, commenting on Comment of the Day: You Can’t Buy Home Again; more info]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU CAN’T BUY HOME AGAIN “Real estate is more than new builds and teardowns, permits and profits. Real estate touches our lives in a very special way. I still remember like it was yesterday riding my homemade go cart down the hill at the end of our street in our little subdivision in the east where I lived as a little kid. I fondly remember lying on the warm driveway after coming home from a cold morning’s swim class and seeing the tulips pop up through the last of the winter’s snow in the front yard. Decades later, I returned to the neighborhood and was surprised at how small and cruddy the houses were compared to what you can get for 300k in Houston. And then I saw that my old 1800 sq ft colonial was listed for 600k. . . .” [Old school, commenting on Neighborhood of My Youth, Demolished Erased: Signs of Poetry in the First Ward]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SHOW US YOUR PIPES! “Thats not stupid to show that. Thats’ not the inside of a sewer line, but it is the tunnel the plumbers have to dig to install the new sewer lines. A lot of old slab houses have broken sewer lines and you might never know. That work costs some serious jack!!” [Freddie J Jones, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photos of the Day: Fresh Sewage, Pipes]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SIMPLY THE BEST “My favorite Red Light Camera is the one on San Felipe & 610 S Feeder. It is so awesome! I’ve tried them all, and that one is definitely the best. Everyone should have a favorite Red Light Camera. What’s yours?” [Jackson Corbett-Bean, commenting on Red Light Green Light]