COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE COMING NORTH SHEPHERD TRANSFORMATION 
“I live off N. Shepherd and it is hideous, but I think that restaurants and bars will be replacing those car lots over the next ten years if the economy holds. It’s already happening: Feast and the Down House owners are teaming up to open a Thai place called Hunky Dory between 18th and 19th. I saw another large car lot has closed nearby and is for sale. There is too much money in that area for it to be Houston’s Hooptie Bazaar.” [John Nova Lomax, commenting on Comment of the Day Runner-Up: Houston Can’t Keep Up] Illustration: Lulu
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please please please please
I completely agree, this area is revolting, it’s unbelievably ugly, so it’s music to the ears that maybe it’s turning around. Frankly, I think everything along North Sheperd should be bulldozed, it may be the ugliest stretch of road in town
1. Feast closed. Nothing left to own.
2. The Thai restaurant is going to be called Foreign Correspondents. It will share the same building as Hunky Dory. But Hunky Dory is going to be centered on a wood burning grill with some British influences from the former-Feast folks.
3. Don’t forget about Fat Cat Creamery opening on the renovated strip mall on 19th and Shep just up the street.
I agree. Too much money in that area to keep it junky. I also like Irvington just inside 610. Nice older houses.
Maybe the car dealers will go, but I hope the Art Guys statues remain.
Let’s not forget what Washington Ave. was before it was “Washington Ave”: one used car lot after another.
Thank you, OS, I got worried there for a tad thinking pub food at Hunky Dory had slipped through my hands.
Light rail it up!! and make all these car lots into a mixed use paradise
Two is a coincidence, three is a trend. Still waiting for #3. (But hopeful!)
BTW, Shepherd and Durham are both DRY between 16th and 26th. The Hunky Dory/Foreign Correspondents folks have experience operating under a private club license, but the going is easier south of 16th.
Typical Houston attitude, just tear it down and build something new.
Agree, North Shepherd, the new Washington Ave. Easier to get liquor licenses than in the dry part of the Heights, though there are enough pseudo ‘clubs’ for the functioning alcoholics. Wait till the parking, noise, beer trucks, Sysco trucks, and disturbances spill over into the residential areas. You’ll have a real hoop-de-doo, or is it hunky dory?
Spill into the residential areas how? There is infinite parking space, Shepherd connects north to 610 and south to 10 and everything else, and there is nothing residential besides town homes and derelict houses within a couple blocks of Shep. New Washington, I don’t care. Anything is better than what is there now.
Angostura, the third would be Heights Bier Garden that’s evidently going where the Longhorn dealership is now. And that’s on top of the general “for sale” trend.
and Jo-Jo, what’s the argument for keeping decrepit buildings with no aesthetic or historical value that house businesses that no longer aptly serve the community they are in? Sure, we can wax nostalgic about the purpose they once served and show empathy toward the little man that has gotten run out of the area, but society defines success as it goes. The “let’s not demolish houston’s old buildings” picket sign would have been much more useful 25 years ago. It’s still aptly applied in some cases, but not here.
Tear ’em down and build NShep up!!!
is nothing sacred in this city any more? those car lots are built so much better than the new car lots/clubs/restaurants. This is just another case of houston selling out to the developers. man, I hate houston and think it’s ugly.
North Shepherd is a complete car continuum from south to north. Start with new cars: Tommy Vaughan Ford at 11th. Just north of there are the used car lots, one after the next. Keep going for repair shops and auto parts stores. Continue on for the pick-a-part places (BYO tools).
htownproud: Great comment. Thanks for starting my day off with a laugh.
I know that this suggestion wouldn’t be popular, but I would really like to see a toll road run down the N. Shepherd corridor from I-45 to Memorial & Allen Pkwy.
It’d be perfect for that.
17- maybe we could do that with a fly over, similar to what Austin did to parts of 183 (I think it is 183).
Not sure if serious.
The section below I-10 is already a bit of a wine and dine corridor so this upper version isn’t surprising.
And I can’t argue with your logic, Niche, but the idea is a joke in that it would piss off a rogue’s gallery of NIMBYs living in the nearby nabes. I say bring it on just for the entertainment value.
Re a toll road, imagine the speed-trap bonanza for HPD at the railyard overpasses.
I disagree that N. Shepherd will be “the new Washington.” I predict that it will end up being more like the “new west Westheimer” with big-box-anchored strip center development instead. I can easily imagine a fancy HEB, Hobby Lobby, and a Staples going into a revised Garden Oaks Shopping Center just south of Sears.
As a resident of the area, I would welcome the convenience and alternatives such development would provide. (I’m not so sure, however, about the increased traffic and likely ugliness.) I’d bet that developers are watching the evolving demographics (if it continues) and the connection to 610 on the south and 45 to the north that make it convenient for commuters to shop on the way home from work.