Construction broke ground in March on America Gardens, the star-spangled first venue Syn Hospitality has planned as part of a 4-bar complex dubbed Midtown Common it’s developing on Caroline St. And already, Core Church Midtown has fled the block and taken refuge in the CrossWalk Center, a 2-story structure in the Near Northside. Formerly home to Employment Training Centers Inc., it’s on N. Main 3 blocks south of Quitman — next door to Label Warehouse’s building — and houses a facility that assists convicts recently released from jail.
The 5,000-sq.-ft. now-vacant strip center in Midtown had been home to the church since 2016. When the neighboring construction wraps up, America Gardens and its 3 planned accomplices —Â Don Chingon, the Social House, and Wishful Drinking — will abut the empty building’s west side, as indicated in the map below:
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That’s Core Church Midtown’s former lot second from McIlhenny St.
- Midtown Common @ 2403 Caroline [HAIF]
- Previously on Swamplot: America Gardens, Small Bouquet of Other Upstate Restaurants To Be Planted in Midtown
Photos: Core Midtown Church (Jim S.); Crosswalk Center building (CrossWalk Center). Property map: Houston Planning Commission
Why does the State of Texas Dept. Of Corrections dump ALL of their released prisoners in Houston? Shouldn’t they be returned to the place where they were picked up? This has got to change BY November, and if Abbot and his buddies can’t do it then they need to be replaced.
WR- what in the world are you talking about?
@WR Harris County is the 3rd largest county in U.S., also it has the 3rd largest jail system so basically it isnt a “dump” operation by TDC. Harris County just produces more inmates for Texas and that could be a policing or prosecuting issue. But I am downtown often and I can see your point. Probably an even bigger issue is the actual “dumping” of mental health and acute health patients literally downtown by HCMHR, Harris Health and other institutions. Everyday I see 10s of people with hospital bands still on or sometimes even with hospital gowns or patient scrubs on. I am a Vet and the VA is an accomplice as well. Your right though this is something that actually maybe a Public Safety Issue much bigger than people sleeping in tent cities.
@¡estás loco güey!
I believe WR is talking about the reason that we have Core Church Midtown, which is being displaced by the Midtown Commons project.
My (and WR’s) understanding is that when TDC releases prisoners, they are given a Greyhound ticket to Houston, a small amount of cash, and little else. Upon arrival, the ex-cons are greeted by a motley crew of idlers, drug dealers, petty thieves, and other poor influences. Understandably, this can lead to problems.
Organizations such as SEARCH, Core Church Midtown, Career And Recovery Resources, etc. that attempt to steer them in a more positive direction are concentrated within a few blocks of the Greyhound station.
The point is this: why does Houston end up with the released criminals that may never have even been here before? Why aren’t they sent back to where they came from in the first place?
I see his point.
@simplysid
It is an extra burden on the taxpayers to monitor and police both the ex-cons and the mentally ill that are indeed DUMPED here (thanks, Big Tex, for the more detailed and description to which I inferred). Not only does it cost the taxpayers of Houston money to police and service these “releases” , but it adversely affects property values and the safety of the citizens. We need to hold our state government responsible and not continue to be the trash bin of Texas.
It’s true that in the past, all of the state’s prisoners were released from Huntsville with “a set of cheap clothes, a check for $50 and a state voucher good for one bus ticket out of town.” According to this SFGate article from 2000:
In 2000, this amounted to “about 100 prison inmates … every weekday.”
As of 2010, however, by mandate of the Texas legislature, inmates are “released from at least six regional prisons — places closer to their homes.” Still, they are given a little cash and a voucher for a bus ticket, and Huntsville has one of the largest prison populations in the country, releasing about 21,000 inmates in 2014. Houston is the closest big city, and to get to places west or south, the inmates have to transfer at Houston. How many of them actually make the transfer?
Not only that, the federal government transfers inmates by public bus lines. Some of those inmates are being released to home, parole, or halfway houses, but some of them are being transported between prisons and aren’t yet done with their sentences. Occasionally some of them escape.
Wait, you can do hyperlinks and indents in swamplot comments?
What witchcraft is this, GoogleMaster?
Swaplot