COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY THEY WOULD HAVE HAD TO GUT JERRY J. MOORE’S MANSION ANYWAY “By the way, I still have the interior room keys to that house. Each was unique and labelled in French. Plain nickel plated keys for the utility areas, bronze keys for the secondary bedrooms and elaborate sculpted gold keys for the formal areas. It was quite a unique place.” [John McReynolds, commenting on On Second Thought, Nevermind: The $5 Million Gut-and-Flip of Jerry J. Moore’s Little French Castle in Houston]
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE BEST IDEAS FOR REINVENTING THE ASTRODOME WILL COME AFTER IT’S DEMOLISHED “. . . Yes, it’s hard to find a profitable idea for it now, but if we tear it down, we could spend hundreds of years saying ‘Oh, why didn’t we just think to do this?’ Most buildings that we think of now as grand and historic went through a long time when people thought they were worthless. They came close to tearing down Notre Dame cathedral and Grand Central Station . . . and they actually did tear down Penn Station and the Abbey of Cluny. And looking back you say, ‘How was it possible?’ But almost all great buildings go through phases where it’s not obvious why it should remain standing. Better to hold off on the trigger finger.” [Mike, commenting on How Harris County Has Been Letting the Astrodome Rot]
HOW TO REDECORATE IN SECRET 
West U design blogger Joni Webb confesses to the plan she had been pursuing all along: “How do you redecorate without your husband really noticing? If I had told Ben I was going to redo the entire downstairs, he would have had a heart attack. In order to save his life, I never told him. Instead, the changes were done a little bit at a time over the course of a few years. Slowly, slowly, and quietly. Once the countertops had been paid for and forgotten about, I had the walls painted. Well, they needed it anyway!! Once the walls were gray, I lived with the old yellow silk ticking curtains for a while before I changed them out for the grayish taffeta. And who would ever notice a few new slipcovers anyway? Certainly Ben didn’t. He pays so little attention to what I’m doing around the house, he is still oblivious that I have been redecorating for the past couple of years all with a grand scheme in mind.” [Cote de Texas] Photo: Joni Webb
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN UH FOOTBALL GOT LOST IN THE ASTRODOME “I was at UH in the late 80′s when interest in football among students, alum and faculty was non-existent. Home games were held at the dome, where UH would be lucky to fill even 10% of the seats. The NCAA wouldn’t let UH use Robertson because of its size and condition. Despite that, calls for a new stadium were met with almost universal derision and open hostility from all but the most ardent athletic supporters. At the time, I was among the majority that ignored the football program and as the chairman of the student service fee allocation committee I successfully fought to cap its share of the student service fee. Despite that history, I’m glad UH fought for and succeeded in moving games to Robertson, and I’m glad that the boosters were correct in predicting such a move would rejuvenate interest in the program and the school as a whole. Kudos on the successful program and for the new facility!” [PaulP, commenting on Goodbye, Robertson Stadium: Replacement UH Football Venue Gets Go-Ahead]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: COME BACK NEXT WEEK AND YOU’LL FIND THE ASTRODOME GOOD AS NEW “That’s not the turf . . . it’s carpet they put down for the Houston Rodeo after-hour parties! They use it every year! And the trash is because the rodeo just ended and they have not cleaned it up!” [snf, commenting on Comment of the Day: They Owed It to the Astroturf]
THE END OF HOUSTON’S GREAT INDOORS You’d think images of a solid, giant big box store marked “The Great Indoors” set behind an enormous freeway-side parking lot would be fodder for local photographers hoping to capture views of Houston in all its ironic suburban splendor. Alas, no pix of the hulking, 130,000-sq.-ft. home furnishings megastore on the north side of I-10 just inside Beltway 8 appear to be available online. Quick, take a few while you still can! And send them to Swamplot — we need one to go at the top of this story, which it appears will serve as the very first announcement in Houston media that the store will be closing forever. Parent company Sears Holdings dropped the news back in February that all 9 remaining Great Indoors stores would be shut down. But the news, like the store itself, failed to catch much attention around here. A reader alerted Swamplot to the closing just over the last weekend, noting “big sales are just starting.” [Home Textiles Today] Photo: Send one you’ve taken here
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THEY OWED IT TO THE ASTROTURF “Man. They used to be so hyper-protective of that turf! I’m surprised it was left ‘out’ and not rolled up in the troughs. It’s probably too late now (anyone still care?) – but they should have cut it into little squares & sold it. Like the Rockets did with the Compaq Center court. Maybe the money could have gone to charity (it sure wouldn’t make a dent in the debt on the building!).” [cwize, commenting on What I Saw When I Snuck Inside the Astrodome]
BIKE RACKS FOR INNER LOOP EATERIES 
Buried in Anvil owner Bobby Heugel’s long complaint about Houston Press coverage of possible neighborhood opposition to an application for an on-street valet parking zone for the Hay Merchant and Underbelly in the former Chances Bar space on Westheimer at Waugh: News of a new initiative sponsored by OKRA, the restaurant advocacy group he helped found. “We’re going to start providing complimentary bike racks to small restaurants and bars inside the loop, at our cost, to encourage alternative transportation in Houston. This is for OTHER restaurants and bars, not our own, which already have bike parking.” [Eating Our Words] Photo of Underbelly, 1100 Westheimer: Vinson
COMMENT OF THE DAY: NICE PLACE TO LIVE, BUT THEY DON’T WANT TO VISIT “I’ve lived in Houston for 30 years. It has taken me a long time to reconcile that! Every time I travel I’d come back and be annoyed for about 2 weeks that I lived here and not in one of those other “beautiful†cities. Compounding that, none of my family (on the East Coast) likes Houston or ever wants to come visit here. And I always felt like I had to apologize for Houston not being scenic or interesting or touristy. But not anymore! Like I said, I’ve reconciled that with the fact that Houston is a GREAT PLACE TO LIVE. Screw the tourists. We don’t have to apologize about living here. And there is no finer place to live than the (all too brief) green, flowery spring! (Then we dive into our homes for our AC’s !) And an added bonus, I don’t have to EVER worry about relatives coming to visit.” [Colleen, commenting on Comment of the Day: The High Cost of Beauty]
THE DEEP RETAIL DISCOUNTS AT HOUSTON PAVILIONS 
Four years after its opening, the troubled Downtown mall-office complex known as Houston Pavilions may sell for $50 to $75 million below the cost of its construction. To avoid foreclosure on a loan valued at $130.7 million, the developers turned the property over to a receiver late last year; Transwestern is now marketing the project for sale. Offices are fully occupied, but the big problem is the 59-percent-vacant retail portion of the project, says Real Estate Alert: “More than half of the retail tenants haven’t been paying full rent because the overall retail occupancy rate remains below the prescribed threshold cited in their leases. A buyer could convert about 42,000 sf of vacant retail space into offices to exploit downtown Houston’s booming office market . . . However, a conversion of all the retail space isn’t an option, because doing so would make it impossible to meet the retail occupancy threshold necessary for the existing tenants to pay full rent.” [Real Estate Alert; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user cjt3
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE HIGH COST OF BEAUTY “. . . admittedly, i’d love to live in a much more beautiful city such as san francisco, paris, nyc, or any number of the hundreds of small quaint towns dotting the american landscape. however, i don’t want to spend 50% of my budget on housing and i want access to plenty of jobs. i choose to live in houston fully knowing that my living expenses support nothing more than a cheap, ugly and easy city to live in. i love houston because it provides an alternative. i can understand other peoples viewpoint, but me and tons of others don’t want to pay exorbitant living expenses just so you all can have better views on your way home from work or while you walk your dog in my yard, there’s tons of other cities that can provide that to you. this will all change as the city becomes richer, just wait and you’ll get your day, but for now let’s just accept the city we all choose to live in for what it is and revel in the benefits it provides now.” [joel, commenting on Comment of the Day: We’ll Do It Our Way]
WHAT DO THEY WANT FROM THE THIRD WARD? “I own a small lot [near Scott and Alabama] in the third ward area, it is a gated lot near UH. A real estate agent wrote a letter asking if I would be interested in selling the lot. I paid no attention to it but he called and asked if I would be interested in selling. I told him if he made an offer I would consider it. I asked him what are they going to building on the lot but I could not find out until I signed the contract. It looks like this real estate agent does residential properties but new homes don’t sell fast in that area of third ward. Do you have any idea of what he could developing in that area? Could it have something to do with the rail line? I am just curious as to what could be built in that area. My lot is 5000 sq ft and it is surrounded by residential lots.” [Swamplot inbox]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WE’LL DO IT OUR WAY “The (ugly) status quo is easy and cheap — why take risks? This is the mentality that makes Houston Houston, and this is why Houston is ugly, easy, and cheap. Just what Houston needs: another “Mediterranean†Villa, or French Chateau, or Spanish Revival building. BARF. Why not make it a mixture of all three and stir it up with a dirty, oily dipstick? All of the potential should be squeezed out of this project until it is as dry as last years Thanksgiving wishbone, then it should be propped up with an open-air parking garage, cheaply constructed cookie-cutter units that will be rather nasty in 10 years, and exorbitant rents. Then it will fit in purr-fectly! Go H-town!” [Bare, commenting on Apartments Planned for Montrose Fiesta Site Will Go Tall Mediterranean]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: AT THE EDGE OF EXEMPTION “Churches and private education getting a pass on property taxes is just wrong wrong wrong. it opens up too many loopholes. things become clouded, like when 2nd baptist buys the adjacent shopping center. they own it, they operate a portion of it for church activities, does that take the entire property off the tax roles? That’s easily a $20MM property now not part of COH taxes, and yet using an unusually high pro-rata portion of traffic control, road maintenance since the remaining businesses there are high traffic. another example — i want to buy a piece of real estate. i start a ‘church’ and then buy it. i now have a free hold on a piece of dirt forever, don’t I? . . . private schools and universities are no different. st agnes now has taken a 4 corners hard corner off the tax roll @ bellaire/fondren so they can have athletic fields, and theoretically could continue to take in the same manner forever. who is to say a board member there wouldn’t buy/BTS a building for them, then pass on the effective tax savings through a long-term cheap rent deal??? HBU – same thing. the list goes on and on.” [HTX REZ, commenting on There Was a Church, and There Went the Steeple]
GALVESTON ELEMENTARY STILL IN AFTER-SCHOOL DETENTION 
Well into Burnet Elementary School’s third year of post-Ike limbo, a school district spokesman says one idea is to fix the hurricane-ravaged property’s exterior, roof, and air conditioning so it can be used as warehouse space. There’s “a good chance” FEMA would pay for repairs, but no funds have been negotiated yet. Then there’s the other option: selling the campus. But the district doesn’t think it would get a very good price in the current market, and what if they need to open up a new school a few years later? [Galveston County Daily News] Photo: Galveston ISD
