COMMENT OF THE DAY: DESIGN AFTERLIFE “After all, today’s design cliche is tomorrow’s vacant lot. It is the circle of life. One day, hopefully soon, the ‘lick and stick stone’ will be in heaven with the stucco turrets and craft rooms.” [Shakes the Clown, commenting on Favorite Houston Design Cliché: Vote for the Official Nominees]
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: TRUST THE WEBSITE “I live in a bungalow in cottage grove . . . since 2005. [7677 Homes] bought the house in 8/2006. We have paid our rent on time and have asked SEVERAL times even as short of time as 3 months ago (when I saw land being surveyed next door) if they had plans on doing something with our home. They reassured me no worries the market is bad and we would give you 90 days to 6 month notice before doing that. Told me how well we have always paid, yada yada yada, well guess what found out Saturday they have plans on demolishing the house, only after we had to pay 155.00 so we could have heat, we have a 4 yr old in the house. They gave us 30 days to move (verbally) . . . and ofered us “another†house for 200 more a month, and failed to tell me it is listed as being demolished as well. I really thought the men were nice when we met them, but to do this behind our backs when we asked them to please give us alot of notice. Sad thing is, it is Christmas, times are hard, and they have had our house on their website to demolish since September and we never knew it or else we could have had all this time to save money to move. . . .” [Susan Dugas, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Truck Tired]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: PAY AS YOU GO “I don’t want greater density, walkable neighborhoods and I sure don’t care about my carbon footprint. I’m not one of the mass of zombie manbearpig believers. None of these things is going to improve my quality of life. Having more money in my pocket through lower taxes will improve my quality of life. If you want high density walkable neighborhoods I suggest you build them with your own money. . . . Do you just assume that everyone wants to live in some kind of high density urban la la land. Maybe you want to but I don’t want to pay for your lifestyle. Pay for your own.” [jgriff, commenting on John Culberson to Metro: Stop This Train!]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: NOT SO DRY IN THE HOGAN-ALLNOCH DRY GOODS BUILDING “I looked at this building for a client last month and can tell you that it is in BAD shape. Despite what the court may have decided, Harris County has already accomplished ‘demolition by neglect’ on this building. It has MAJOR structural problems and pieces of the building are literally falling on the sidewalk below. The masonry wall is coming apart due to extreme settlement, failing lintels, and 80 years of water infiltration. The most amazing thing about this building was to see that most of the wood joists in the building have twisted and cracked as the floors have moved due to the settlement of the exterior walls. The only way to save the building would be to literally tear it down brick by brick and rebuild it one brick at a time. Additionally large portions of the heavy timber structure would have to be replaced due to the cracking but also due to water damage on the south facade. There is a Walter P. Moore report that confirms most of this. In the interests of public safety, (unfortunately) the wrecking ball is the only solution for this building.” [mt, commenting on Old Building Still Blocking 27 Cars from Parking Downtown]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: ENDEAVOUR RESCUE PLAN “Original asking prices for the 80 unit tower ranged from $425k to $2.5 million. After all the hype about sales, it looks like the developer was only able to sell 36 units. Now Regions has unloaded 44 units for an average price of $216k plus back taxes and interest. OUCH! And what can we read between the lines of this comment? ‘The group also said it would pay normally budgeted homeowner assessments for 2010 for any condo owner current on their assessments for 2009.’ It sounds to me like MANY of the 36 original buyers are behind on their maintenance fees. Wonmore is trying to incentivize them [to] get current by offering to pay all their fees for 2010??? That sounds like an awfully big incentive? Are they trying to solve an awfully big problem? When condo associations go broke, look out below. . . .” [Bernard, commenting on Wonmore in Bankrupt Endeavour]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: REPORTS OF THE DEMOLITION OF 946 ARLINGTON HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED 
“7677 Home IS remodeling and enlarging this home. The demo permit is for the awkward addition on the back of the home and some of the existing structure to start the remodeling process. The property is under contract and the plans show that most of the existing structure will remain.” [Heights Realtor, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Truck Tired]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE UNCHARTED INNER LOOP “. . . you really haven’t got a clue if you think that suburban soil toxicity is a good reason to live inside the loop. The oldest parts of the city experienced the longest duration of industrial activity prior even to the creation of the EPA, much less even an understanding of what chemical agents were toxic. Check out the EPA’s EnviroMapper applet for an account of all known toxic waste sites (you’ll be amazed at the number), and even then bear in mind that that information is far from complete because there’s no telling what kind of crud was being mindlessly dumped on bare earth way back when and never reported. The Inner Loop isn’t supplied with well water anymore, so the toxic soils below us fortunately aren’t much of a problem…but that redeeming characteristic is shared by most of the City of Houston. The municipal water supply certainly doesn’t just abruptly stop all at once at the 610 Loop.” [TheNiche, commenting on My Toxic Houston Childhood]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: COMMODITY, FIRMNESS, AND NOTORIETY “The design can’t possibly be that bad. People are talking about it. When was the last time anybody remarked on the designs of Energy Tower III or Energy Crossing II?” [TheNiche, commenting on There Will Be No Tours of the Death Star, and Other Details About the Hospital in the Belly of the Memorial Hermann Tower]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT’S GALVESTON GOT THAT HOUSTON DOESN’T? “Interesting that two nearby residents both say that the old Tudor at 1212 Hyde Park was not salvageable. I’m sorry that it became a home for crackheads and that it was neglected for so long, but I have real trouble believing that it was not salvageable. I’ve seen too many historic houses in Galveston that are older than this one and worth less than this one restored and put on display in home tours. I’ve seen burned-out, collapsed, flood-damaged houses which looked far, far worse than 1212 Hyde Park rebuilt in Galveston, many times. I don’t really think the economic conditions, pre-Ike, were all that much better on Galveston. What’s the difference? A city government that is actually committed to preserving historic houses? I’m actually serious about that question.” [marmer, commenting on Swamplot Price Adjuster: Last Resort in Montrose]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE ROYCE BUILDERS LEGACY “I think the real story is all the trades and other businesses who wound up getting stiffed out of tens of thousands of dollars in some cases. Royce was a poorly managed company… especially in its final year. They built an empire building houses on credit and pocketing entirely too much cash. When the loans on new starts stopped, Royce found themselves way over their heads in debt from the thousands of spec homes sitting on the ground. But the cash was in their pockets… so they walked out and left all the trades and homeowners to drown. Anyone ever stop to think how this effected small companies like Conkir Electric or all the painters and sheetrock crews who worked for pennies anyway?” [Former Royce, commenting on A Chance To Relive All the Excitement That Was Royce Builders]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE MARKET HAS SPOKEN “TO ANYONE WHO CARES – THE HOUSE HAS SOLD FOR $415K. NOT quite what we were hoping, but clearly the original poster, who claimed this should be priced in the mid 300Ks, is rather mistaken.” [Justin, commenting on Swamplot Price Adjuster: Your Cherryhurst Neighbors]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: DEMO ADDICTS “I read the demolition report nearly every day, hoping to see our neighborhood’s crack houses on the list; but way too often I see gorgeous houses like the one here being wasted instead. Depressing.” [Jen Mathis, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Herod’s Fall]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LANDING THE BRUCKER SURVIVOR CAPSULE “My grandfather, Milton Brucker – designer of the capsule, passed away in 2007 at the age of 94. He would have been delighted to see your innovative use for it!” [Michael Brucker, commenting on CLUI in Houston: Attack of the Pod People]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THAT HOUSE THEY WERE GIVING AWAY IN THE OLD SIXTH WARD? 
“This house was torn [down] yesterday…very sad. [The] large house that is next to it was still there this morning. We will see if its there when I go home today. There is another small house on the same lot that was torn down about a week and a half ago.” [Casey, commenting on An Old Sixth Ward House To Take Home with You]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BRING YOUR MUD BOOTS “There are too many high-speed arterials, especially outside the Loop, with no sidewalks. I was taking the bus to work for about a month earlier this year (I work in an office on the North beltway). There are bus stops there but no sidewalks. Speeds on the feeder road tend to be 45 to 50 mph. There are few pedestrians (for obvious reasons) but there are some; bus commuters like me, kids walking to school every day, etc. They will walk on muddy paths to avoid walking in the street. And bus riders with wheelchairs or strollers are simply SOL. I liked riding the bus, but not the sidewalk-free walk at the end of the ride.” [RWB, commenting on Where the Sidewalks End]