COMMENT OF THE DAY: BREAKING THE CYCLICAL EXPANSION OF THE DONUT OF DESPAIR 
“Nobody is suggesting that we go back to the old, post-war, car-centric way of developing. Even single family, suburban communities are now being built with something resembling walkability in mind. They have made the houses much more dense, and they have made efforts to link retail to the neighborhoods. But what we risk doing is creating donut cities: with a core of walkability, older suburbs that are not walkable, and a ring of new, sort-of-walkable suburbs. Worse than that, if we continue to starve those older suburbs of investment (on the idea that we don’t want to ‘throw good money after bad’ or whatever), we will create wealthy cores, poor old suburbs, and middle-class new suburbs. Still worse, if we allow this to happen, we will cause more sprawl, because middle class people won’t see the old suburbs as an option, so they’ll keep driving further and further out. At some point, like it or not, we will need to reinvest in those older suburbs – and it’s for the sake of building more sustainable, equitable cities.” [ZAW, commenting on Bellaire’s Hong Kong Chef Serves Last Customers; Sunbelt Cities Are Just Misunderstood; previously on Swamplot] Illustration: Lulu
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The formal living room and dining room sit at the front of this 1963 home, but the family room in back looks onto the covered patio that straddles 2 back wings. The photo above shows this room, part of the adjacent kitchen, and the opening to the breakfast room, as seen from the beginning of the bedroom wing. Much of the 2,205-sq.-ft. interior has been updated, including both bathrooms.
A gate guards the driveway entrance to the 9,125-sq.-ft. lot; a separate 2-car garage stands to the back. You can tour more of the property by poring over the photos on the listing website.
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Sponsor of the Day
Here’s a glance down MacGregor Dr. across Cambridge St. toward the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Building for Personalized Cancer Care — now labeled the “Sheikh Zayed Building” for short, a reader notes. The 4-tower structure, now standing where Moursund Dr. meets MD Anderson Blvd., is one of the projects funded by the $150 million grant given to MD Anderson in 2011 by the building’s namesake’s son, current UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed al Nayhan. HDR designed the building, which went up on the space formerly occupied by UT’s Mental Science Institute (shipped off to the nearby UT Research Park back in 2010).
Here’s a glitzier shot of the building, looking east across MD Anderson Blvd. with The Spires condominium tower rising on the left in the background:
Med Center Labels
A high-flying reader sends this mid-March progress shot of the segment of Cypress’s Towne Lake development known as The Crossing. The other major crossing planned for nearby — a continuation of Towne Lake Pkwy. over the less-holy water feature under construction to the south and east, as shown in this selection from the development’s master plan — looks to still be in the works. The parkway will eventually connect all the way down to the Kroger just south of Tuckerton Rd.Â
The site also seems to have resolved some of its earlier crises of purpose: Originally the land just north of David Anthony Middle School was labeled as a potential church, but developer Caldwell Companies appears to have opted for the secular route since the 2013 version below was published:
Driving on Water
- Worthing Cos. Taking a Break from Developing in Houston’s ‘Oversaturated’ Multifamily Market [Houston Chronicle]
- Heights General Store at Harold’s in the Heights Location Being Turned into Harold’s Tap Room [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- Dallas-Based Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar To Open First Houston Location in Katy [HBJ]
- Houston’s Emerging Biotech Hub Lures Louisiana-Based Cancer Treatment Firm Esperance Pharmaceuticals [HBJ]
- Early Estimates Put Light-Rail Ridership During the Final Four at 6,000 People an Hour [Houston Public Media]
- U-Haul Has Helped More People Move Out of Than Into Houston So Far in 2016 [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Buffalo Bayou: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Despite Weisenberger, these are getting a bad break whether you see them or not.
- 28319 Lazy Rock Dr. [HAR]
Here’s a late-afternoon shot of the drive-thru in action at Taqueria Taconmadre’s extended taco schoolbus, parked in its usual space this past weekend at the corner of Crown and Brownwood streets. The Taconmadre taqueros have been frequenting the concrete slab on the lot across the street from X-IT Bail Bonds for at least a decade, though the green vehicle employed has been upgraded from truck to bus to bus-plus during that time; the drive-thru setup was added in the most recent expansion a few years back. Those not comfortable breaking with standard foodtruck transaction protocol can still order on foot from the bus’s passenger side.Â
The taqueria operates a brick-and-mortar drive-thru-or-sit-down spot at 905 Edgebrook Dr., between Ryan’s Express Dry Cleaners and Casa Tires; Taconmadre also lists Bellfort St. just west of I-45 as the normal location of another green (but non-drive-thru) truck, between dry cleaner St. Mary’s Washateria and GG’s Wheel & Tire.
Photo of Taqueria Taconmadre truck at 610 Crown St.: CW
Tacos in Idle
COMMENT OF THE DAY: STILL LONGING FOR THE COMMERCIAL COMPANIONSHIP OF DAYS GONE BY 
“I miss the billboards of my youth. I grew up in a world where the freeways were surrounded by them, and never thought much about it. Now that they are almost all gone, I realize they gave the city character. I don’t understand the hate for them.” [Memebag, commenting on Comment of the Day: What Keeps Houston Billboards Standing Tall] Illustration: Lulu
New colors and signs now herald the coming of Prince’s Hamburgers to 3425 Ella Blvd., north of 34th St. between “Wash Me” Car Wash and the Kar Hospital. Prince’s former dominion near 59 at Weslayan is now under the rule of not-quite-an-emergency health clinic MedSpring Urgent Care, though the 1930s restaurant chain still maintains another freewayside outpost in the former Murphy’s Deli spot on I-10 between N. Kirkwood Rd. and Tully St. Prince’s underground holdings Downtown have also been relinquished, along with the diner location on N. Post Oak Blvd.
The newly marked territory on Ella shares its western border with the Waltrip High School track. Across the street from the coming is Ella Plaza, formerly home to yes-that-Swayze Swayze School of Dance and recently worked over by serial redeveloper Braun Enterprises. Looking from the strip center’s parking lot to the south, the Shipley’s donut sign can be spied rising over the horizon, as can the Sunbelt Jewelry & Loan pawn shop’s commanding sign:
Royal Succession in Garden Oaks
The recent restoration of the Hardy Yards district sign’s upright stature and youthful good looks appears to have been short-lived — Christopher Andrews found the H sprawled flat on its back over the weekend, with a few of the other letters also looking less than fully vertical in the late-night shot above (peering east down Burnett St. from the corner with N. Main under the light-rail overpass). Metro says it’s on the case, again.
- Previously on Swamplot: A Look at the Hardy Yards Site Plan Now That All Those Sign Letters Are Back In Place; Street Fattening, Intersection Birthing Going on Now by the Hardy Yards North of Downtown; Five of Old Hardy Rail Yard’s 50 Acres To Become a Mostly Affordable Near Northside Apartment Complex; Planting Bush Beans and Citrus Trees at the Hardy Yards
Photo of Hardy Yards signage: Christopher Andrews
N. Main at Burnett
- The Companies with the Biggest Blocks of Sublease Space in Houston Right Now Are Almost All Energy-Related [Houston Chronicle]
- First Look at Darling Homes’ Patio Homes at Grand Central Park on Former Camp Strake Property [HBJ]
- Hong Kong Chef Closes After 60 Years in Bellaire To Make Way for New Multilevel H-E-B [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Midtown BBQ To Open in Former Bourbon on Bagby Spot at 2708 Bagby on April 20 [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Grady Gammage Jr. on How Sustainability in Sunbelt Cities Like Phoenix and Houston is Misunderstood [The Urban Edge]
- The Urban Revival is Skewed Toward a Young, Rich, Childless, White Demographic [Jed Kolko]
Photo of Houston Heights: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Only four that need to go, without delay.
- 3519 Robinhood St. [HAR]
HANCOCK FABRICS FOLDS, PREPARES TO SHUT DOWN ALL STORES 
Following yesterday’s sale of the company’s assets in bankruptcy court, Hancock Fabrics announced going-out-of-business promotions at all 8 locations in and around Houston, including Conroe, Katy, Clear Lake and Baytown. The Mississippi-born fabric store, which closed some outposts and reorganized under a previous Chapter 11 filing back in 2007, is now liquidating merchandise at all remaining stores nationwide, writes Dennis Seid. The company opened in 1957; as for how long the final sales will stretch out, an associate at the Gulfton store says that employees aren’t sure —  “It could be July, it could be tomorrow.” [BizBuzz] Photo of Hancock Fabrics at 5867 Bissonnet St.: Edgar V.
