11/02/16 12:00pm

Keep Heights Dry Poster

Today’s sponsor is Keep the Heights Dry, a political action committee hoping to defeat Proposition 1, which most Houston Heights residents will find on their ballot this election.

Swamplot is nonpartisan and does not endorse political candidates or campaigns. But we do run political advertising and Sponsor of the Day content.

Keep the Heights Dry (which sometimes also refers to itself as Keep the Heights Weird and Dry) argues that the longstanding restrictions on alcohol sales in the portion of the Heights that was once an independent city has over the years served as an important tool to protect the character of the neighborhood, creating a land-use environment that favors small, local business and a residential feel — despite the lack of blanket deed restrictions.

The ballot measure, if passed, would allow the legal sale of beer and wine for off-premise consumption only in this neighborhood — where it’s currently not allowed. Only voters who live in this area, sometimes known as the “dry Heights,” will vote on the measure.

Keep the Heights Dry urges Houston Heights voters to vote against Proposition 1, it says, “to send the strong message to H-E-B that as much as we may want a shiny new grocery store, we don’t feel that it’s a fair deal to give up this important neighborhood protection tool simply because doing so would be easier on that company’s bottom line.”

Just added to the home page of the Keep the Heights Dry website: a list of what the organization terms “myths” about the ballot proposition. If you’re carefully considering the pros and cons of Proposition 1, you’ll want to look it over and see what this side has to say. The organization also publishes updates and opinions on its Facebook page.

Election day is this Tuesday, November 8. Early voting is possible through Friday, November 4.

Got a message you need to communicate on a matter of local importance? Sign up to become a Swamplot Sponsor of the Day!

Sponsor of the Day
11/02/16 11:00am

2iPM009 rendered in Buffalo Bayou Cistern

The Cistern, Buffalo Bayou Park near Sabine St. at Memorial Dr., Houston, 77007The rendering up top shows the sort of scene that visitors can expect if they wander into the 1920’s leaking-water-reservoir-turned-public-art-space buried alongside Buffalo Bayou after December 10th (and before next June): Venezuelan artist Magdalena Fernández’s 2iPM009 projection, adapted from flat-walled origins to fill the 2-acre space (and going by the name Rain). As for what they’ll hear — that’d be an accompanying soundtrack of snaps, claps, and other meteorologically-inspired noisemaking from Slovenian choir Pertuum Jazzile. The original piece is part of the Museum of Fine Arts’s permanent collection; the adaptation will be the first temporary art installation in the column-studded space, which opened for tours in May.

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Only Light Flooding Expected
11/02/16 8:30am

eado3

Photo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
11/01/16 5:15pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: GREEN SPACE IS JUST A STATE OF MIND Hermann Park golf course“In my mind, green space isn’t something that has to be ‘used’. I enjoy jogging the trails next to the Hermann park golf course as much as I like jogging in or around any other green space — just like I enjoy jogging through a River Oaks neighborhood with immaculate landscaping. It is even nicer to see landscaping when you know someone else is paying (mostly) for it. I don’t have to be able to kick a soccer ball, watch a concert, or have a place for my dog to poop on it to enjoy its beauty. It can be ‘utilized’ without stepping foot on the space. Green space can be enjoyed from adjacent space or blocks away in its sights, smells, and sounds (or lack of).” [Rex, commenting on Grassy Knolls, Children’s Swamp Part of Possible Hermann Park Parking Coverup] Photo of Hermann Park Golf Course: Hermann Park Conservancy

11/01/16 4:00pm

NEW YORK FIRM PICKED FOR ROTHKO CHAPEL REDO Broken Obelisk by Barnett Newman, Rothko Chapel, Menil Collection, HoustonThe board of the Rothko Chapel has recently pinned down Architecture Research Office for a planned redo of the chapel’s lighting system — which executive director David Leslie mentioned earlier this year has been on the board’s wishlist (possibly to be funded by that February Lynn Wyatt auction, which included couture clothing, art, and a Tilda Swinton Skype session).  The company will also update the HVAC system, “retool the entrance vestibule, and renovate the Chapel’s skylight,” writes Nicholas Korody. Also on the docket — a plan for modifications to the surrounding plaza and the reflecting pool where Broken Obelisk will once again sit (after those out-of-town repairs wrap up); Korody says the plan may also involve “several nearby bungalows.” [Archinect, via Curbed; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk and Rothko Chapel: Ed Uthman[license]

11/01/16 1:30pm

A TOUR OF THE ALABAMA-COUSHATTA’S LIVINGSTON GAMBLING TANGLES Naskila Gaming, 540 State Park Rd. 56, Livingston, TX 77351Adam Doster pens an update on the fate of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas’s 24-hour Naskila Gaming gambling center a few miles east of Livingston: The tribe, which reopened the rebranded gambling space in June after its 2002 closure by the state, is currently awaiting a trial date related to its array of not-quite-slot-machines. Texas attorney general Ken Paxton filed a federal motion in August to shut the machines down, citing the language of a 1987 act that law gave federal tribal recognition back to the Alabama-Coushatta (a status originally lost in 1954 as part of the broader mid-century federal status termination push). That 1987 law subjected both the Alabama-Coushatta and the Tigua Pueblo to Texas’s gambling restrictions, though the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act passed the following year, allowing certain types of gambling on reservation land with no state approval required. Both tribe’s first attempts to open gaming centers after that were shut down in 2002; the Kickapoo tribe’s  Lucky Eagle Casino Hotel has been open in Eagle Pass since 1996, however, and the Tigua Pueblo have opened some new “entertainment centers” that have also come under recent scrutiny from Paxton’s office. [Houstonia] Photo of Naskila Gaming: Jim O.

11/01/16 10:45am

KFC at 2359 S. Shepherd Dr., Vermont Commons, Houston, 77019

The Colonel is still hanging around by the door, but KFC is in the process of leaving the building at 2359 S. Shepherd Dr., a few readers report. The spot at the corner with Fairview Dr. has been sporting now closed signage, and the location has already been eradicated from the annals of KFC’s store database. The chicken shop’s decommissioning follows the late-June sale of the property to an entity called 2359 S. Shepherd, which shares a Smith St. address with Crosspoint Properties (responsible for the redevelopment of a number of Midtown and properties, including the building that now houses Reef and Proof).

The drive-thru sits just south of the Shepherd Place office tower (once the site of those 1960s lesbian bar raids, in its pre-highrise days), and across Shepherd from the former Arby’s, converted to the Inner Loop’s first-ish Dunkin’ Donuts back in 2013.

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S. Shepherd Retreat
11/01/16 8:30am

hotel-zaza-memorial-city

Photo of Hotel ZaZa in Memorial City: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
10/31/16 5:30pm

POLAROID NOW HIRING FOR FAKE FILM PHOTO STORES IN THE GALLERIA, WOODLANDS MALL The Woodlands Mall, 1201 Lake Woodlands Dr., The Woodlands, TXIn the apparent leadup to setting up shop in several major Texas cities, a few job postings are up this month for Polaroid Store positions at locations in the Galleria and Woodlands Mall. The stores’ raison d’être: to pull photos from customers’ electronic devices and social media accounts to turn them into pseudo-Polaroids of various sizes. The Polaroid company launched its Fotobar stores in Florida earlier this decade; after a few years of interstate spread and subsequent shutdowns, a 2014 variation on the business model shifted focus onto 300-sq.-ft. mall kiosks, before the store’s founders announced a rebranding last year. No word yet on opening dates for the 2 Houston-area shops, though they appear to be hiring under the wing of Austin-based toy and calendar outfit Calendar Holdings; the postings mention that locations are also in the works in Austin, Frisco, and San Antonio.  Photo of Woodlands Mall: GGP

10/31/16 3:15pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW ANOTHER KIDDIE TRAIN COULD PRESERVE HERMANN PARK’S PARKING HERITAGE New Hermann Park Train“Right now is a bad time to be predicting parking lot requirements for the next 20 years. Driverless cars may make them obsolete. If that happens, they can turn the parking lot into a ‘parking lot museum’ — kids of the future can visit it to get a feel for what life in the 20th century was like. They could even ride the Vulture Express, a 2mph trip up and down row after row of filled parking spaces that goes on for hours.” [Memebag, commenting on Grassy Knolls, Children’s Swamp Part of Possible Hermann Park Parking Coverup] Photo of Hermann Park kiddie train: Lou Minatti

10/31/16 2:15pm

Former City of Houston Code Enforcement Building, 3300 Main St., Midtown, Houston, 77002

The dust-up above on the northeast corner of 3300 Main St., where the former city code enforcement building has been getting disassembled to make way for that retail-footed residential highrise, was part of the on-site scene this past Thursday, a reader notes. Crews started in on the late-60’s building after those August demolition permits were issued (following a round of asbestos extraction). The shot catches both the MATCH theater building on the left and the tiny red canopy of Thien Thao Chinese Herbs, on Travis and Francis streets behind the post-wok-fire redo of Mai’s.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

Shorter, Then Taller