Comments on: Garbage Playground: Developing Houston’s Blue Ridge Mountain

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:22:25 +0000

“Fake town, fake city center, fake mountain. Makes sense. It’s a LANDFILL, you can’t make it all pretty, Master Planned Community style.”
To Katie, re:Shadow Creek — What did you think the shadow was from?

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:19:58 +0000

“Folks from other parts of the country laugh at the tiny features we call ridges.”
From Ross:

Why? I don’t see what’s so funny about it. I really don’t get it. A ridge is a small hill. Do people from Iowa and South Dakota laugh about it? How about Louisiana? They have ridges there, too. I live near a place called Black Cat Ridge…because it’s a ridge. Dang that’s funny.

By: katie

katie — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:47:28 +0000

Thanks for the history. It makes better sense now.

By: kjb434

kjb434 — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:47:34 +0000

Katie,

It’s no fake than the cottages and bungalows of the Heights. They are mass produced ready to build copies of real cottages and real bungalows. Really no different than today’s spec homes.

By: Miz Brooke Smith

Miz Brooke Smith — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:17:20 +0000

Thanks for the history, Ross!

By: Ross

Ross — Wed, 13 May 2009 04:03:29 +0000

Blue Ridge was the name for the surface expression of the salt dome underlying the area. There were oil fields and a salt mine in the area. In Brazoria County, there’s Stratton Ridge, another salt dome feature. Folks from other parts of the country laugh at the tiny features we call ridges.

By: Miz Brooke Smith

Miz Brooke Smith — Wed, 13 May 2009 02:14:00 +0000

Blue Ridge is the name of an old road that traverses the southernmost part of Harris County. As I recall from bicycle ramblings 35 years ago, it was the southern extension of Hillcroft way down past South Main/Highway 90/RR tracks. At that time there was nothing out there but oil fields and the antenna farm, and the whole area was colloquially known as Blue Ridge.

By: katie

katie — Wed, 13 May 2009 01:14:30 +0000

Fake town, fake city center, fake mountain. Makes sense. It’s a LANDFILL, you can’t make it all pretty, Master Planned Community style.
Blue Ridge? Hardly. Come up with an original name for something for once.

By: miss_msry

miss_msry — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:48:04 +0000

Shadow Creek is advertising like mad on radio, maybe they should promote the mountain bike or snow skiing advantages of the landfill?

By: biggerintexas

biggerintexas — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:43:18 +0000

Was there anything architectural about the video? It seemed more like an advertising and/or graphic design project. I have a hard time seeing anything practical in that video.

By: DMc

DMc — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:58:53 +0000

Can we put some mountain bike trails on it?

By: kjb434

kjb434 — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:43:11 +0000

Michigan has a similar mountain somewhere that is now used for snow skiing in winter.

A small town advertised itself to other municipalities that it’ll take the trash for a fee. The mountain was built, capped, and voila: A ski hill! I need to go dig up the city name and the old article. It was about 10 or 15 years ago.

Of course we won’t be able to ski here in Houston except for rare weather conditions.