Critters

Construction Problems, Critters, Historic Preservation, Quicklink, Renovations

9 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE KINDS OF CRAP DEVELOPERS DON’T WANT TO DEAL WITH “It is in the developers best interests to retain historic structures whenever possible. They know that if you remove them all, you lose the sales value of the area. They arenâ€™t stupid. They are just realistic about what people are going to live in and what is structural worth saving. Would you live in a home thatâ€™s had a hundred different animals [defecating] on the walls and floors for years? It looks structurally sound, but would you live there, where the pee has soaked into everything including the shiplap?” [Heights Weirdo, commenting on Proposed Historic District Changes: No Will Mean No, 67 Percent Will Mean Yes]

Comments, Construction Problems, Critters, Historic Preservation, Renovations

07/21/10 1:51pm

Letting It Go in Riverside Terrace

Gardening, Landscape, Riverside Terrace, Streetscapes

39 Comments

A reader writes:

There is an overgrown 12 foot wide city-owned “alley” behind my house in Riverside Terrace that due to weeds and trees is no longer navigable by anything larger than a “mini hydraulic excavator.” I know this because Centerpoint drove one back there when they put in my new gas meter in October.

My busy-body retired neighbor informs me that I am responsible for maintaining the alley by keeping the weeds and grass down, though when I look a few houses down in both directions from my house, I see a forest – and no one other than my neighbor complaining about it.Â So I quit mowing it 2 months ago, much to her chagrine.Â I’d like to treat it more like a green belt.Â Occasionally I’ll see a screech owl hunting back there during the late evening from its perch on my wooden fence.Â IMO the more trees, the better.

Am I really legally bound to mow back there?Â Mowing that small strip of grass would equate to another 2 pints of sweat lost, according to my experiences this past month.â€

Photo: Swamplot inbox

77004, Alleys, Critters, Gardening, Landscape, Riverside-Terrace, Streetscapes

Attractions

06/04/10 12:45pm

Swamplot Street Sleuths: Electric Horse Mystery Tour

Critters, Home Design, Renovations, Riverside Terrace, Taxes, Willow Meadows, Willowbend

1 Comment

Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood youâ€™d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we canâ€™t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:

Some answers to your questions!

Riverside Terrace: Homeowner and eternal contractor Charlie Fondow told the Houston Press back in 2001 that his continually expanding house on Wichita St. just east of 288, where he’s lived since 1980, “is the love of my life. I don’t know how to live in a house that’s finished.” Clair de Lune comments on his towering and turreted Queen Anne show:

I wonder how Charlie is doing these days, and (since the story doesnt mention a family) what will happen to the house after heâ€™s gone. I also wonder if the interior is as interesting as the exterior? It might be time for a follow-up.

Hey, all you local journalist types who use Swamplot as a tip sheet: How about it?
Willowbend: Commenter Sihaya explains that the horses gently grazing under the high-voltage power lines in the easement west of Stella Link below the South Loop are the animal benefactors of agricultural-use leases set up by Houston’s power company in order to lower its property taxes:

77004, 77025, 77035, Attractions, Critters, Home Design, Property Taxes, Renovations, Riverside-Terrace, Willow Meadows, Willowbend

06/01/10 9:27am

Swamplot Street Sleuths: Power Horses, Wichita Mystery House

Home Design, Riverside Terrace, Willow Meadows, Willowbend

13 Comments

Got an answer to either of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Hereâ€™s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.

Willowbend: Reader Robert Kimberly has been trying to find out what the story is behind the horses grazing under the power lines west of Stella Link below the South Loop:

This vast green area is home to a collection of horses, as well as stables and maybe a riding paddock. But the fences on the north end (W. Bellfort) and south end (Willowbend) are unlabeled and no amount of Google-Fu gets me any closer to the answer.
Riverside Terrace: A number of readers have been asking about this well-watched house on Wichita St. between 288 and Dowling — usually in phrases like:

What’s going on here???

Looks like a little of this:

77004, 77025, 77035, Attractions, Critters, Home Design, Riverside-Terrace, Willow Meadows, Willowbend

Comments

04/30/10 3:30pm

Comment of the Day: Game Birds of the South Belt

Critters, Quicklink, South Belt

2 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: GAME BIRDS OF THE SOUTH BELT “There is a gun range close to 288 and Beltway 8 that has about 10 Peafowls (just found out only the male is actually called a Peacock) running wild. Itâ€™s crazy to be shooting your gun and right next to you is a curious bird that is completely unphased by the banging of the pistol. Very beautiful, LARGE birds that are used to being around people and guns! Very strange!” [AJ, commenting on The Feral Peafowl of Nottingham Forest]

77047, Comments, Critters, South Belt

04/29/10 12:02pm

Killing a League City Apartment Intruder: Not a Good Idea To Smile So Wide in Front of the Leasing Office

League City

5 Comments

Just how tough and efficient is the security at the Signature Point Apartments off Marina Bay Dr. in League City? Last week a visitor that showed up in front of the leasing office was detained for several hours by authorities and then put to death. The visitor had been found earlier in the month in a complex parking lot fronting a canal connected to Clear Lake.

That time, game wardens trapped and released the 7-foot-long alligator into the canal it had crawled from. But they began to suspect apartment residents were feeding the animal, and tried a different strategy on the next encounter:

[Apartment manager Susan] Cogbill said game wardens took the animal to a secluded area of the complex and shot it. Tanuz declined to comment how the animal was killed.

Game wardens did not move the alligator or release it into the water behind Signature Point because it was too comfortable around humans, [Galveston County game warden supervisor Capt. Edward] Tanuz said. Bayous across Galveston County are natural habitats for alligators, but they typically avoid humans, Tanuz said.

What a waste, huh? Oh, no:

77573, Apartments, Critters, League City, Leasing, Parking-Lots

Comments

04/27/10 1:03pm

Comment of the Day: Bring Those TV Cameras Too Close and ZZZZAP!!!!

Critters, IAH, Proposed Developments, Public Art, Quicklink

3 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: BRING THOSE TV CAMERAS TOO CLOSE AND ZZZZAP!!!! “Itâ€™s actually a bug-zapper to bring Wayne [Dolcefino] â€¦ he is attracted to the glow of money being spent on anything other than polyester suits and Golden Corral.” [PaxMcKatz, commenting on IAHâ€™s New Welcome to Houston Sign: We Hope Your Splashdown Was Pleasant]

77032, Comments, Critters, IAH, Mosquitoes, Proposed Developments, Public Art, Sculpture, Signs

03/26/10 9:30am

At Home with the Wildlife in Waterbrook West

Fort Bend County, Gardening, Hazards, Missouri City, Quicklink, Waterbrook West

9 Comments

AT HOME WITH THE WILDLIFE IN WATERBROOK WEST A relaxing, light-suburban lifestyle with plentiful opportunities for hunting and re-landscaping — who says you can’t have it all in Fort Bend County? “Within the past five [months], Missouri City began a program to attempt to decrease the number of hogs in the Waterbrook West community after hearing complaints from several residents. The city authorized two independent contractors to work in the area to trap in the neighborhood and the surrounding property, and other properties as access is granted. So far, 60 hogs have been caught and removed. Unfortunately, the animals breed so quickly those 60 will likely soon be replaced with 60 more. According to Michael Weiss, a State Game Warden with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Law Enforcement Division, the hogs have two or three litters per year, and the babies are ready to breed at around one year. . . . The animals are considered ‘exotic’ and not a native game animal in Texas, so they can be hunted year-round and there is no limit to the number hunters can kill. Weiss said the feral hogs are intelligent enough that once one or two are caught in a trap, others tend to leave that area. He also said that although the hogs are generally afraid of people, if cornered they can be aggressive â€“ especially a cornered sow with her litter. When Weiss started his career 25 years ago, he said he only saw the problem in certain areas of the state. Now, he said, there isnâ€™t a county in Texas that doesnâ€™t have the wild pigs roaming around and creating a nuisance. ‘When people go and do landscaping, the hogs love to come tear it up and search for food,’ said Weiss. ‘I donâ€™t know what the solution is. Thereâ€™s not one, really.’â€ [Fort Bend Now]

77459, Critters, Fort Bend County, Gardening, Hazards, Missouri City, Waterbrook West

03/02/10 8:14am

The Feral Peafowl of Nottingham Forest

Memorial, Nottingham Forest, Quicklink

8 Comments

THE FERAL PEAFOWL OF NOTTINGHAM FOREST Jay Lee shoots game in Houston’s wild west: “Off Memorial Drive between Kirkwood and Dairy Ashford reside the wild peafowl of West Houston. Peacocks and Peahens roam the yards and streets, putting on a show and making a racket. Their call sounds like a baby crying out or a cat in severe pain. Some residents describe their call as â€œsounds like somebody being murdered.â€ Overall they seem oblivious to the human residents and the occasional gawkers like myself who drive down to see them. Apparently the population of about 50 birds are offspring from a pair that a landowner gave his wife more than 30 years ago.” [Bald Heretic]

77079, Critters, Memorial, Nottingham Forest

Boulevard Oaks

01/25/10 10:31am

Julia at the Raven, Nevermore: Some Goodbyes for the Parking Lot Chicken of Bissonnet

Critters, Landscape, Restaurants, Southampton

5 Comments

Julia, the chicken who patrolled the parking lot and schmoozed with patio diners for many years at the Raven Grill at 1916 Bissonnet near Hazard St., passed away earlier this month of natural causes, a reader informs us. “We don’t know where she came from,” reads a note posted on the restaurant’s website, “only that she was a sweet bird who liked people and that she simply made us happy each time we saw her.”

Frequent diners of the Southampton-area restaurant have sent in their own website tributes to the “friendly and fearless” bird, who apparently exhibited much social grace in her daily appearances and egg-laying demonstrations for small impromptu gatherings of children, even while patrons devoured the carcasses of distant relatives only a few feet away:

She may have been ‘just a chicken’ but I watched Julia single-handedly form new friendships between diners. She was a tough, little city chicken. RIP Julia.

And:

77005, Boulevard-Oaks, Critters, Restaurants, Southampton

10/16/09 1:44pm

Pine Bark Beetles Get To Work on The Woodlands

Hazards, Quicklink, Trees

No Comments

PINE BARK BEETLES GET TO WORK ON THE WOODLANDS Drought-stressed trees in The Woodlands are under attack! “Since July, nearly 1,000 pine trees have been removed because they were attacked by pine bark beetles, community officials said. And that does not include the hundreds of dead trees on residential property. Recent rain and cooler weather has lessened beetle activity, but sparse, brownish-orange pine trees can still be spotted throughout The Woodlands, which is known for its forested landscape and protective tree covenants. ‘It’s been a major outbreak,’ said John Powers, interim co-manager of the Community Associations of The Woodlands. ‘In July and August, we were adding dozens of trees to the tree removal list every day.’ The infestation isn’t just in Montgomery County. It’s affecting trees throughout Southeast Texas, including Harris, Chambers, San Jacinto and Waller counties, according to the Texas Forest Service.” [Houston Chronicle]

Critters, Hazards, Trees

10/09/09 5:52pm

Your Secret Cat Code Has Been Cracked, Mr. Johnson

Galleria, Highrises, Real Estate Marketing

17 Comments

Note: Story updated below.

A reader writes:

I had been told that the architect of the Transco tower secretly incorporates cat figures in to all of his work. I could never see a cat in the Transco until yesterday evening. I found it! Can you? Pretty cool, huh?