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05/16/17 8:30am

Texas Leads in Housing Starts; Houston Home Prices Shoot Up

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Photo of KPFT at 419 Lovett Blvd.: Patrick Feller via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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05/15/17 4:45pm

Lawsuit Already Filed Over the Tent Ban That Took Effect Friday

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LAWSUIT ALREADY FILED OVER THE TENT BAN THAT TOOK EFFECT FRIDAY This morning the Texas ACLU filed for an injunction on the City’s new ordinances aimed at Houston’s homeless folks and panhandlers, Meagan Flynn reports this afternoon for the Houston Press. The new rules (which among other things ban sleeping in tents or boxes, make it illegal to possess a grill or more than a 3-by-3-by-3-foot box’s worth of stuff in public, and prohibit panhandling close to people, ATMs and payphones) went into effect on Friday. An ACLU staff attorney said in a statement that the rules step away from Houston’s previously “humane approach” to reducing homelessness, adding that “they’re meant to get people into shelters with ‘tough love,’ but the truth is the shelters are full and Houston’s homeless have nowhere else to go.” Flynn points out that the Coalition for the Homeless’s homeless count last year estimated that only 164 shelter beds were vacant on a night when 1,046 people were sleeping on the streets. [Houston Press; previously on Swamplot] Photo of previously cleared homeless encampment under Louisiana St. Bridge downtown: Christine Wilson

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05/15/17 2:00pm

Comment of the Day: Lay Off Those Flooded Underground Freeways, They’re Just Doing Their Job

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: LAY OFF THOSE FLOODED UNDERGROUND FREEWAYS, THEY’RE JUST DOING THEIR JOB “Trenched roads include sumps that are capable of keeping the roadways from flooding from ordinary rain events, but are designed to become flooded in an emergency, acting as additional stormwater detention. Every cubic foot of stormwater that goes in there is a cubic foot that isn’t at the same elevation as city streets, businesses, and houses. It is a feature, not a bug.” [TheNiche, commenting on Watch as Unfunded Parks Appear on Top of Houston Freeways Before Your Very Eyes!]

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Demolitions
05/15/17 1:30pm

Incognito Building at 11th and Ashland Now Set To Disappear Altogether

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The slumping 1930’s storefront at the northeast corner of Ashland and W. 11th St. has been given the all-clear to be cleared out, a reader notes from city paperwork spotted on the door late last week (with this morning’s daily demolition report hot on his heels to confirm the story). Both the street-fronting corner property and its taller neighbor are owned by a legal entity called Villa Incognito, a name which appears to have been created less than a year after the Tom Robbins novel of the same name was published. The company’s registered agent also appears to own the next property down the row at 519 W. 11th.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

Coming Down in the Heights
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Downtown
05/15/17 10:15am

Downtown To Get A Second Food Hall, This Time Above Ground

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DOWNTOWN TO GET A SECOND FOOD HALL, THIS TIME ABOVE GROUND The former Gulf Oil building at 712 Main St. (now the JPMorgan Chase bulding, currently getting made over along with its nextdoor companion-in-rebranding as The Jones on Main) will get a new food hall, a rep from Lionstone announced last week. Greg Morago reports in the Chronicle that Midway and Lionstone are still seeking vendors for the space (and that the current name, The Food Hall on Main, will probably change). The hall will take up about 20,000 sq. ft. of the Chase building’s lobby, making it about 3 times larger than the leafy Conservatory that opened last spring some 2 blocks away — one of the few parts of Downtown’s underground food scene open after daytime business hours. The revamp to the pair of buildings will also include an art deco cocktail lounge. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo of 712 Main St.: elnina via Swamplot Flickr pool

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Headlines
05/15/17 8:30am

Homeless Encampment Ban Goes Into Effect; Updating Greenway Plaza

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Photo of 1210 Bayport Blvd.: Patrick Feller via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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Featured Posts
05/12/17 3:45pm

Watch as Unfunded Parks Appear on Top of Houston Freeways Before Your Very Eyes!

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In between showing off various multicolored interchange tangles, the new flyover preview video of the huge changes proposed for I-45 North and the downtown freeway circuit glides viewers by a handful of areas where freeways will dive underground — while splicing in some new renderings of the tops of those tunnels-to-be as they could look, if somebody wanted to pay up to turn them into a park. (The animation is careful to emphasize once again that said parks would have to be developed and funded by a source other than TxDOT — and so far, there are no signs that anyone has stepped up.)

The rendering up top shows the would-be-parallel sections of 45, 59, and SH 288, running behind the convention district where 59 sits now — the whole bundle would be pulled down below flood grade and covered up, evidently with concrete if the park thing doesn’t work out. (A clip of just that section of the 10-minute animation is included above; a tiny rendered version of the Cheek Neal Coffee building can be spied along the edge of the freeway, though SEARCH Homeless Service’s new building one block north isn’t specifically drawn in next to it.)

The video also gives the section of 59 from Main to San Jacinto streets the same burial and dressup treatment:

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Bridging the Gaps
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Featured Posts
05/12/17 1:30pm

Latest Mindboggling TxDOT Video Shows Off Rainbow Tangles of Spaghetti-tastic Downtown Freeway Redo Plans in Simulated Drone View

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Having trouble sifting through some of the massive freeway jumbles in the latest plans for that major I-45 reroute between Downtown and the Beltway? This new video (making the rounds this month as TxDOT hosts a set of public meetings to chat about the project) may or may not help you out. The 10-minute animation shows off what the project plans look like in multicolored, car-spangled 3D action, dragging viewers slowly along the entire project route from Spur 521 up to Beltway 8.

The project plans pull 45 over to the east side of Downtown, to line up alongside US 59 and dive underground behind the George R. Brown convention center. Various flavors of new express lanes, managed lanes, managed express lanes, and connectors weave into and out of a massive new 45-59-10 junction as shown above, all labeled by color. Here’s a clip of the above video showing just that section of the animation:

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Painted By Number
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05/12/17 12:00pm

Swamplot Sponsor: These 2 New Farmhouse-Style 4-Bedroom Homes in the Houston Heights

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Our sponsor today is the pair of new homes at 615 E. 11th 1/2 St. in the Houston Heights. Thank you for supporting Swamplot!

These 2 modern homes in a farmhouse style were designed and constructed by the Ferguson Home Group. Each home has 4 bedrooms and 4-1/2 bathrooms, in a plan that takes advantage of the site’s alley access: tucked between the alley-facing garage and the family room at the back of the first floor is a covered screen porch, which looks onto a side yard.

The kitchen (pictured above) sits at the heart of the first-floor plan, looking past a peninsula to the dining room, across the island to its breakfast bar, and to the open family room behind it. Floor-to-ceiling cabinetry continues past the kitchen to the back door, offering mudroom-style storage and a built-in desk. There’s a dramatically painted powder room downstairs; all 4 bedrooms, each with their own bathroom, are upstairs.

The homes face south on 11th 1/2 St., a 2-block long residential street tucked close to the commercial nexus at the intersection of Studewood and 11th St. that features dining destinations Ruggles Green, Liberty Kitchen & Oyster Bar, DaCapo’s, Field & Tides, and Red Dessert Dive. Also short walks away: Berryhill Baja Grill, Buchanan’s Native Plants, and C&D Hardware.

You can view more photos and find out more about the homes by checking out the property website. They’ll also be on view Saturday (that’s tomorrow!), May 13, in an open house scheduled to run from 10 am to 2 pm. If that time doesn’t work out for you, contact the listing agent, Clay Robinson of Full City Block, at 713.851.4254 to make an appointment.

Got any cool new developments you’d like to show Swamplot readers? Become a Sponsor of the Day.

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Headlines
05/12/17 8:30am

Inside the Kirby Collection; The Property Brothers Face Off in Galveston

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Photo: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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