- Houston Has Lost 2% of Its Construction Workforce Over the Past Year [Houston Chronicle]
- Where Houston Homes Sold and Increased in Value the Most Year-Over-Year in August [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- JLL: More Than 50% of Q3 Industrial Leases Were in the North Houston Submarket [HBJ]
- Nonprofit The Center Selling Its 5.5-Acre West Dallas Property Across from Buffalo Bayou Park [Houston Chronicle]
- Texas A&M Buying 18-Story Bank of America Office Tower at Corner of Holcombe and S. Main St. [Houston Chronicle]
- The Four Buzzwords Keeping Downtown Houston Humming [Bisnow]
- CBRE: More Than 2M Room Nights at Houston Hotels Expected To Be Booked Through First Quarter of 2018 Due to Harvey [Houston Chronicle]
- Clear Lake City Golf Course To Help Prevent Homes from Flooding with Addition of 5 Detention Ponds [HBJ]
- Maps Show Debris Removal Progress in Houston [abc13]
- City Council Members Question Cost and Slow Pace of Debris Removal [abc13]
- EPA Confirms Harvey Spawned Leak in San Jacinto Waste Pits, Spilling Dioxin into River [AP]
- Houston Ship Channel in ‘Desperate Need’ of Dredging After Harvey [HBJ]
- Did Houston Authorities Hide Harvey Predictions from the Public? [Texas Monthly]
- Reclaiming the Natural Floodplains Can Help Houston Coexist with the Next Harvey [Watershed Texas]
- Learning from New Orleans and the Loss of Affordable Housing After Katrina [OffCite]
- Hotel Planned for Hotel Grace Community Church’s Mixed-Use Development Near The Woodlands [HBJ]
- Metro Unveils New Safety Features [abc13]
- Fewer Peacocks Roaming Memorial Drive Acres Since Harvey, Residents Say [Click2Houston]
Photo of Astrodome: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
A reader with “nothing better to do today” writes in with a question for Swamplot readers: “I do not see any digital billboards in Houston city limits. I see them popping up in Baytown and I’m sure elsewhere, but why not H-Town? One would think that this would be a win-win for the owners of the billboards and the businesses wanting to advertise their product. I see them all over Dallas — Houston, not so much.” Photo: 
“Consider the following:
1.) Houston as a whole is a low-lying area.
2.) FEMA Flood Maps are outdated; this is not a new revelation following Harvey.
3.) Flood insurance for Zone X is cheap (I pay $425/year for $200k building/$80k contents coverage)
4.) Your house is outside of both the 1% and 0.2% flood plains (i.e. Zone X).
Given those four conditions alone, buying flood insurance should be a no brainer for anyone that owns property in Houston, particularly if you’re even *near* a 100- or 500-year line. And after this event, which has made it quite clear that the models that determine what a 0.2% and 1% event is are inadequate, not getting flood insurance wherever you are in this town makes no sense at all. Heck, it doesn’t even take a Harvey to flood your ‘never been flooded house’ – all it takes is a blocked storm drain, a collapsed drainage ditch, poor lot grading, or any number of other non-“biblical†localized catastrophic events. Hopefully more people will realize this now, but it’s very sad that so many didn’t until 40-50 in. of rain fell over the entire county in less than 48 hours. [
“We live in a house close to 99 in Katy. We have lived in this area for most of the last 10 years — in two different houses. I can tell you that each time we bought there was no mention, that I recall, of being inside of a potential bowl of water from the Barker reservoir. Nor were we mandated by mortgage companies to require flood insurance. We are MILES from the dam itself and never considered it. None of our neighbors did. Imagine our shock to wake up days after the storm to suddenly learn we were in a mandatory evacuation zone. Fortunately our house was far enough west, and high enough, that we didn’t take any damage. Many of our friends and neighbors weren’t so lucky. As we eventually learned, hardly anyone had flood insurance. We didn’t. It’s not that we weren’t in a 100 year flood plain, I don’t think we’re in the 500 year either. I have since purchased flood insurance (Fool me once, etc).
But I do think there is a case to be made against some agencies. What we’re learning now about lack of prudence between developers, ACOE, and Fort Bend County seems to be at least a little suspect. Some of these neighborhoods perhaps should have never been built. Additionally, the flood zone maps seem woefully out of date and do not take into account the further upstream development.
I get it — many people are going to point the finger at the homeowner and either their lack of planning or insurance. Fair point. But this event caught a lot of people off guard and I believe exposed a lot of problems that still need to be addressed.” [
From the new listing for 302 Hickory Post Ln., posted yesterday: “Build your dream home here! 
“The Western Union building is only 2 stories. It is completely intact, tar and gravel roof included. The 3rd floor Mezzanine of the BOA building was built clear span over the top of the old WU building. The windows you see on the outside are for the mezzanine. As for the ‘gap’ between the buildings, you can walk/crawl around most of it. Some areas between the buildings are big enough that you could set a desk in there, some are tight enough to induce panic. There is basically nothing left from WU in there, but there were still some curious old artifacts last time I was in there. I worked for the building for a while, and led a few of the tours of architects/designers when this project was in the concept phase.” [
“I drive by Greenspoint Mall daily and it’s quite unusual to see the ‘beehive of activity‘ at the former Macy’s from it’s recent use as a shelter. I haven’t seen that many cars outside the building since the early ’80s! Ironically, the ‘For Lease’ sign still hangs prominently on the west wall.” [
