COMMENT OF THE DAY: POLICING THE STREETS OF RICE MILITARY WITH BIG ROCKS “I live on a street that is just wide enough for a car and a half to pass each other on the road, so inevitably someone has to drive on the grass or in the ditch. I happen to live on the side that has the grass section of ROW. For the past 2 years that I have lived there I have not once seen the city come by and mow that section or repair the ruts that someone has left behind. Since I live in Rice Military I don’t have the pleasure of having CURBS like Montrose, so I have boulders set in place to keep the drunks from parking on the sidewalk and that still happens on a biweekly basis. On our street we have legal No Parking signs and there will be cars parked there and I have seen cops drive by and do nothing. I guess it’s not worth the time, and I guess the city doesn’t need the revenue.” [Tejas, commenting on How To Spot a Fake ‘No Parking’ Sign]
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MULTIPLYING HOUSTON’S RENT-A-BIKE FLEET 
Yesterday, reports abc13, the city added to the original 3 B-Cycle kiosks 18 more, bringing the fleet of pay-to-play bikes to 175. Thus far, most of the rental racks are clustered Downtown — including the one shown here at the Tellepsen Family YMCA on Pease St. — but the expansion, funded wth $750,000 from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, also added racks to Hermann Park and the Westheimer restaurant row near Blacksmith and Underbelly. And even more are planned, says abc13, for the East End, the Med Center, and unnamed universities. (You can mess around with an interactive map of B-Cycle locations here and here.) [abc13; Houston Chronicle; B-Cycle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
PANHANDLERS IN NORTHWEST HOUSTON MIGHT HAVE TO APPLY FOR PERMITS 
A group of residents led by Larry Lipton, public safety chair of the chamber of commerce in Northwest Houston near Cypress Creek Pkwy., is looking to implement a permit system that would require panhandlers to apply to solicit in intersections and medians, reports KHOU’s Jeremy Desel: “Many of them are criminals,” Lipton tells Desel. And a permit system, Lipton explains, “will first limit the number of people that will even do it. That will even go through it.” Desel adds that one of these solicitation permits would likely “require a fee and some form of safety training.” [KHOU] Photo of panhandler David the Sailor at Chimney Rock and Richmond: Bill Bradford
COULD THE X GAMES BE COMING TO HOUSTON? 
Even if the Astrodome’s still around and Houston’s bid to host the 2016 Super Bowl falls through, an important international competition might still be staged here: “ESPN said in January [that] Houston was one of 13 contenders it was considering as a host” for the 2014-2016 X Games, reports the Houston Business Journal’s Bayan Raji. The Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark on Sabine St. (shown here) is at the center of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority bid to put on the tricksters’ event that’s been in L.A. the past 9 years, writes Raji, along with Reliant Stadium and the Dynamo’s BBVA Compass Stadium. Whether the skatepark going up in Greenspoint, billed in January as the largest in the U.S., also figures in the bid Raji doesn’t say; ESPN will announce which of the 13 cities are finalists this spring. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: David Fross
HOW TO SPOT A FAKE ‘NO PARKING’ SIGN 
A sign like the one shown here is indicative of “a growing problem” inside the Loop, reports abc13’s Miya Shay, who claims that some homeowners and businesses are resorting to a creative way of keeping would-be parkers off the street: “If you notice,” resident Joanne Witt tells Shay, “[the sign] doesn’t have [a] police phone number and it doesn’t say where it’s going to be towed. I’m assuming it’s just put up to scare people.” And how will you know where you can park? Shay tries to clarify: “Legal parking signs by the city are uniform with a red slash across a letter ‘P.’ Signs on fences and utility poles or even physical deterrents like boulders along the street are all illegal because, like it or not, city streets are open to everyone.” [abc13; previously on Swamplot] Photo: abc13, via Facebook
WHY YOU CAN’T EAT AT MR. PEEPLES YET 
A lawsuit from Landry’s is trying to keep the self-described “sexy,” “chic,” and “unique” Mr. Peeples Seafood + Steaks from opening at 1911 Bagby St. in Midtown. Culturemap’s Whitney Radley reports that Tim Kohler, who managed Vic & Anthony’s near Minute Maid Park, is named in the suit alleging that he violated nondisclosure and noncompetition clauses for “solicit[ing] former Vic & Anthony’s sales manager Stacy Chambers to work for the up-and-coming seafood and steakhouse.” But Landmark Houston, which owns several other Houston bars and restaurants besides Mr. Peeples, doesn’t appear to think there’s much competition there — or so it tells the Houston Chronicle: “Mr. Peeples is a stylish, high energy, and vibrant alternative to the traditional steakhouse concept . . . We believe there is room and a need for both concepts in the growing Houston market.” [Culturemap; Houston Chronicle] Image: Mr. Peeples Seafood + Steaks, via Facebook
MAYOR PARKER INTENDS TO BAN TEXTING AND DRIVING IN HOUSTON 
If the bill that would outlaw texting and driving statewide, vetoed 2 years ago by Governor Perry, doesn’t catch on this time around, Mayor Parker says she will move to ban the act in Houston: A press release today says that the mayor’s “Houston, It Can Wait” campaign, part of a national push to limit texting-induced accidents and fatalities, “will be guided by a task force consisting of representatives of law enforcement, government, education, corporate, medical, professional and faith-based organizations.” And it appears that Mayor Parker intends to use another local resource to help her get the word out: “Several entities . . . have agreed to broadcast a public service announcement featuring Mayor Parker and rapper Bun B.” [City of Houston] Photo of Southwest Fwy.: Flickr user KreinikGirl
COMMENT OF THE DAY: IT’S RAINING AT SOUTH 75TH AND TIPPS “We’ve got Black Bellied Whistling Ducks nesting in trees on the East End near Mason Park. Parking cars in garages and broad-billed hats seem to be making comebacks around here.” [Dana-X, commenting on Comment of the Day: Disturbance at the Heron House]
WHY THE CAPITOL AT ST. GERMAIN MIGHT BE CLOSED A LITTLE LONGER THAN IT SAYS 
Culturemap’s Whitney Radley reports that a rep from the jazzy Main St. spot says it had to close temporarily because of water damage to the kitchen, but the Houston Press’s Katharine Shilcutt claims she has reason to believe otherwise, since the bar and restaurant — paying, she reports, “a monthly rent close to $17,000” — seems to have sprung another kind of leak: “When a restaurant is faltering and owes its landlord rent, one of two things usually happens: 1) The restaurant closes shop and washes its hands of the entire affair, leaving behind everything from kitchen equipment to barstools, which then become property of the landlord or 2) the restaurant wants to close but also needs to recoup some of its losses and stalls by telling the landlord that it’s ‘renovating’ for a few days. Those days are spent clearing the place out and selling everything that’s not nailed down.” And what makes Shilcutt so sure? “I spotted some activity going on outside . . . that suggested furniture was being moved out of the space.” And: “Calls to the restaurant weren’t returned, and on my last attempt, the phone line seemed to have been disconnected.” Update, 1:47 p.m.: Shilcutt reports that the Capitol at St. Germain has told her it’s not closing and does plan to reopen once the water damage — which, says the bar’s rep, knocked out the phone lines — is repaired. [Culturemap; Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Cvent
THE MUSE COMING TO CASTLE COURT 
Dallas developer Behringer Harvard announced today that construction’s underway on The Muse, an apartment complex planned for the 2.9 acres in Castle Court sold last summer where the former Andover Richmond Apartments had stood — until their demolition in November — for 50 years. The Muse, developed by a partnership between Behringer Harvard and Trammell Crow, will have 4 stories with 270 units atop 2 levels of parking, says the press release. Also planned for the site at 1301 Richmond near Graustark? “Common-area amenities will include a cyber cafe, business center, state-of-the-art fitness center, luxury swimming pool and dog-amenity station.” [PR Newswire; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
COMMENT OF THE DAY: DISTURBANCE AT THE HERON HOUSE “We have six pairs nesting in an oak in our yard — they are beautiful birds, but foul creatures. For the next few months, our yard will be littered with crawfish shells and carcasses of frogs and fish. It’s living at the flamingo exhibit at the zoo. And then, when they are too prolific, they’ll start pushing the ‘surplus’ young out of the nests high in the trees and leave them to die in the street below. Again, they are beautiful to look at but difficult to live with.” [Txcon, commenting on Headlines: Marfreless’s Last Call; Salata’s National Expansion]
AND YOU CAN SEE THAT IT IS FRIDAY 
And you can see that it is good. It is Good Friday, you could say. So Swamplot will be back posting even more goodness on Monday, April 1. Really. No fooling. Photo of T.G.I. Fridays at I-45 and Fuqua St.: TripAdvisor
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LORDS OF THE FLIES “I’ve found having good relationships with the dumpster divers can be beneficial. While, obviously, we have to be careful of those fishing for information (identity theft, etc.) –– a lot of what we throw away is still very useful: I like to know that it is being used in the best way, even if it makes no financial sense for me to do so. At my business, we have several local characters each with their own wants and needs. One comes through and extracts every piece of large metal (using axes, pickaxes, tools, whatever it takes) –– door handles, buckets, etc., cleans them up and recycles them. Another makes his weekly run on different days, looking for every can in our recycling dumpster. The final one comes through twice a week collecting pallets we stack up for him, so he can go sell them to a local used pallet company. The first two would be considered criminal acts under the law, and there’s no way in hell I’d report them. If they found someone diving for info, they’d drive them off –– because they need to protect their interests and ours to keep access.” [drone, commenting on Mayor Parker Asks City Council To Decriminalize Diving in Public Dumpsters]
HERE, NOW, A FEW MORE IDEAS FOR THE ASTRODOME 
Making the rounds this week are a couple more long shots for the Astrodome from people who don’t seem very keen on the 2,500 parking spaces the Texans and Rodeo proposed last week. First, you’ve got Ed Seale and his wife of “Keep the Astrodome,” who say they want to see the ol’ thing renovated into an global bazaar, reports KUHF’s Jack Williams, “a space filled with international, ethnic, cultural and business organizations . . . and ethnic restaurants.” And then there’s the UH graduate student Ryan Slattery, whose friend leaked online parts of his architecture master’s thesis that calls for the big baby to be stripped to a skeleton and used as greenspace: “If you don’t need it,” Slattery tells KHOU’s Jeremy Desel, “it does not need to be there. It is never going to be a stadium again. So you don’t need the seats. You need to take those seats out. Concrete on the facade? You don’t need that.” Adds Slattery: “If and when the Astrodome does come down you will see a grown man cry.” [KUHF; KHOU; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE HOT MANTRA “It hasn’t been ‘too hot’ to cycle comfortably for nearly six months. It’ll be reasonably comfortable for nearly two more, until we near the end of May. Summer will suck, but thousands will still be cycling. The same is not true for large swaths of the country which are currently sitting under feet of snow. Houston Summers are less inhospitable to outdoor activities than Winters are in many large cities; and our Spring and Fall are as good or better than most. The ‘it’s too hot’ mantra is tired, lame, and false. [jon, commenting on Designing Houston’s Bicycle Underbelly]