COMMENT OF THE DAY: THAT SHIP WON’T SAIL “May we have a Comment of the Day that isn’t from a Swamplot reader? This has to be it: ‘”We can’t allow the once-proud Astrodome to sit like a rusting ship in the middle of a parking lot. This was the best effort (to revamp the stadium), and voters have turned it down,†said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett.’ I mean seriously, Judge Emmett? The County has mishandled the Dome from the beginning, and NOW you have a sense of urgency? And THIS was the County’s best effort?” [JD, commenting on Headlines: Astrodome Bonds Voted Down; Bayport Cruise Terminal’s First Ship Comes In]
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Houston Landmarks
HAWTHORNE COMES TO PRAISE THE ASTRODOME, NOT TO BURY IT 
For an article slipped online only after election-day voting had already begun on the ill-fated $217 million bond issue that would have turned the Houston landmark into a convention center, L.A. Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne decides a few things need to be said about the Astrodome. Some highlights: “Forget Monticello or the Chrysler building: There may be no piece of architecture more quintessentially American than the Astrodome. Widely copied after it opened in 1965, it perfectly embodies postwar U.S. culture in its brash combination of Space Age glamour, broad-shouldered scale and total climate control. . . . [A]ll I had to do to understand the full appeal of the architecture was look up toward the center of the massive steel-framed roof, more than 200 feet above my head. Light filtered through its hundreds of panels fell serenely on the rest of the vast interior. Seen from that vantage point, the building has lost none of its tremendous aesthetic power. . . . Even if its attitude toward the environment now strikes us as deeply naive, the Astrodome deserves to be protected simply as a singular monument to the American confidence and Texas swagger of the 1960s. The stadium doesn’t so much symbolize as perfectly enclose a moment in time.” [L.A. Times] Photo: Candace Garcia
The reader who sends this photo from this morning’s commute — on I-45 North near Canino — says it appears workers were “just putting up” this “Save the Dome” sign from OurAstrodome.org on the billboard this morning. “I drive by there every day and I don’t remember seeing it [before today],” the reader reports. The campaign ad in support of Harris County Proposition 2 on today’s ballot — which will determine the fate of the Astrodome — is visible going northbound on the freeway. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
That little 84-year-old barber shop spot at 219 E. 11th St. in the Heights featured in Wes Anderson’s movie Rushmore has survived an eviction scare. Proprietor Doug Dreher tells the Houston Press‘s Dianna Wray that a Saturday-night email from the building’s landlord, J. Conti Interests, assured him that Doug’s Barber Shop wouldn’t be kicked out: “Dreher remembered dropping off the October rent check before going out of town for a few weeks. When he got back to town, just before the end of the month, he was notified that his business, located at 219 East 11th Street, was being evicted in two weeks.”
What better way to rally voters in support of saving the Astrodome than a weekend-before-election-day sell-off of parts ripped from its vast interior? Will the resulting media attention to Dome history and the possible scrap value of its salvaged furnishings encourage voters to support the bond issue on the ballot that’ll preserve but reinvent Houston’s landmark venue? Or will focusing on the Dome’s already-in-progress dismantling and the junkyard-lot atmosphere (Get a piece of it while you can!) of this weekend’s all-day bleacher and AstroTurf yard sale have an opposite effect, allowing fencesitters an opportunity for clarity and closure — or even helping preservationists come to terms with the building’s possible demise?
Almost halfway into their month-long Kickstarter campaign, the producers of a documentary film about the Astrodome are a little less than halfway to their $65,000 goal. Austin and Houston filmmakers Chip Rives and David Karabinas began their movie project in 2009, and claim they could put together a finished project with the footage they already have. But they’re looking for more money to help them secure rights to NFL and Major League Baseball footage. Also needed: a music score (to replace the U2 temp track in the clip below), and money for editing, more interviews, and additional shoots.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MAKING THE ASTRODOME A TRUE MONUMENT TO OUR ACHIEVEMENTS HERE 
“It can be the Symbol of the City, and it can be torn down. This is Houston, where those two ideas are not opposed to one another.” [luciaphile, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Symbol of the City] Illustration: Lulu
Here’s yet another demonstration that Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation really truly wants to trash the Astrodome if November 5th’s bond election doesn’t go its way: According to teevee reporter Ryan Korsgard, seats, concession equipment, AstroTurf squares, and a whole bunch of other pieces that can be extracted from the Dome’s dusty interior will be put on sale 3 days before the voting is completed — on November 2nd. The corporation, which has been carefully guarding all that rotting sports memorabilia for more than a dozen years, still hasn’t yet decided whether to sell the items in an auction or outright, however.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT KEEPING THE DOME MEANS 
“People do not want to save the Astrodome because it is a landmark of National / Worldwide significance. People want to save the Astrodome because it is just about all we have in Houston in terms of somewhat significant landmarks. Blowing up the Astrodome is a concession that we never do anything of any lasting significance in Houston. We are just a very fancy tent city set up to house the oil industry as long as they need us. But, once Elon Musk has us zipping around in pneumatic tubes instead of internal combustion engine vehicles, Houston will just empty out and be forgotten. Keeping the Astrodome is an attempt to make Houston feel permanent and not a temporary boomtown precariously tied to the fate of one sector of the economy.” [Old School, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Symbol of the City] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SYMBOL OF THE CITY 
“I understand that many people in Houston and Harris County have fond childhood memories of attending games in the Astrodome with their families. I too have memories of watching Astros games there, and frankly, I liked the ‘Dome better than Minute Maid Park. That said, no one from out of town EVER has asked me about the Astodome when I tell them I am from Houston. Not a single visitor that I’ve hosted here has EVER asked me to drive them by the Astrodome. The nation, and the world, just aren’t all that interested in a 40+ year old sports venue.” [ShadyHeightster, commenting on It’s Like a Billboard. On Wheels. For the Astrodome.] Illustration: Lulu
Haven’t decided yet what you think should happen to the Astrodome? The preservation-minded folks at Our Astrodome hope that seeing this 26-ft. bedazzled semi just might do the trick. Starting Monday and running up to the elections on November 5, when voters will decide whether to approve — or not, and, as most suspect, doom the Dome to a more thorough demolition than what’s already happening — that $217 bond measure that would fund a renovation of the stadium into convention space, the tricked-out Dome Mobile will be rolling around town to spread the word about Proposition 2 and the world’s first domed stadium.
VOTE FOR NEW DOME, SAYS MAYOR PARKER 
As the demolition — or, as Judge Ed Emmett might call it, the improvement — of some of the exterior features of the Astrodome begins, Mayor Parker has declared her support of the seeming this-or-nothing $217 million bond measure that would pay for a slimming down and cleaning up of the aging icon to make it ready for convention and exhibition space. Says the incumbent about the so-called New Dome: “This plan will bring jobs, a positive economic impact and a renewed sense of pride in the Dome for all Houstonians.” [Preservation Houston; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation
NO, THESE ARE ASTRODOME “IMPROVEMENTS,” SAYS JUDGE EMMETT 
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett plays a game of semantics with KUHF’s Gail Delaughter to try to clear up any lingering misconceptions and assert that the removal beginning this week of the Astrodome’s exterior features — ticket booths, grass berms, concrete ramps, substations, transmission lines, and stair pavilions — isn’t what it might seem to be: “I would actually like to call them improvements to the Dome rather than demolition to the Dome. This does in no way presage any demolition of the Dome. This is an improvement that had to be made, probably should have been made a long time ago, but we’re doing it now.” [KUHF; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia
CUPCAKES AND COCKTAILS FOR THE DOME 
It’s been a long week for the Astrodome. And whether you want to see the old thing saved or destroyed you might feel fairly wrecked yourself at this point. Could you stand to tip one back or perk up with some sugary calories? Well, a pair of local retailers are providing wares that just might do the trick: Through November 5, the date voters will decide whether to approve that bond measure that would pay for the Dome’s conversion into convention space, Triniti on S. Shepherd will be offering a special cocktail, the Colt 45. And through October 24 Crave Cupcakes will be selling at its Uptown Park and Upper Kirby locations the “Save the Dome” cupcake toppers shown in this photo. [Preservation Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: @KPRCawillis
WHERE THE MONEY FOR THIS EARLY DOME DEMO WILL COME FROM 
The demolition of the exterior features of the Astrodome, expected to begin Monday, could take until June, reports the Houston Chronicle’s Kiah Collier — though it appears that the $8 million that will be spent knocking down the ticket booths, concrete ramps, substations, transmission lines, and grass berms is included in the bond measure that voters won’t decide to pay for — or not — until next month. At any rate, Collier adds that asbestos abatement and demolition of the stair towers aren’t scheduled until December, when it will be clear whether the Dome will come all the way down or be converted into a convention center. [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia
