- Energy Center 3 Tower Expected To Fetch $270M, the Highest Per-SF Price Paid for a Houston Building Not in Downtown [Realty News Report]
- Greystar Says Rice Hotel Lobby Just for Tenants, No Longer Open to the Public [Houston Chronicle]
- Affordable Care Act Has Helped Lead to a ‘Retailization’ of Healthcare as Providers Expand in Shopping Centers [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- What Will Houston Be Like in 30 Years? [Houston Matters]
- Supreme Court Rules Texas Reinforced Segregated Housing Through Its Federally-Backed Low-Income Tax Credit Program [Texas Tribune]
- What the ‘Disparate Impact’ Decision Means for the Future of Fair Housing [CityLab]
- It’s Mostly White People Who Prefer to Live in Segregated Neighborhoods [CityLab]
- Bar and Restaurant Named EaDo’s Opening Next Month in Former Mojeaux’s Louisiana Drinkery Spot in East Downtown [Eater Houston]
- CorkScrew BBQ Moving from Spring to Former Hyde’s Cafe Building in Old Town Spring [Food Chronicles]
- Council Awards Galveston Tree Conservancy $2M To Restore Live Oaks, Palm Trees to 44 Blocks of Broadway [Galveston County Daily News ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Montrose Residents Say Potholes Have Reappeared a Year After Completion of $200K Road Project [Click2Houston]
- Where America’s Worst Roads Are — and How Much They’re Costing Us [Washington Post]
- Metro Wins APTAÂ Outstanding Public Transit Agency Award for the First Time Since 1984 [The Highwayman]
- Pride Houston Festival and Parade This Saturday Will Be Downtown, Not in Montrose [Houston Press]
- Harris County District Clerk’s Office To Restore Leo Tanguma’s ‘The Rebirth of our Nationality’ Mural on Canal St. Cannery It’s Renovating [Houston Public Media]
- Patrick Renner’s Montrose Funnel Tunnel Lives On in New Orleans [Houstonia; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of Dolce Living Midtown on West Gray: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headines
“For a city without zoning, development in Houston isn’t much different that it would be if we DID have zoning. Most retail development happens on major commercial thoroughfares, and most industrial sites are either along railway lines or otherwise clustered together. And development still has to comply with our (idiotic) setback requirements and parking minimums.
The main difference Houston has over other cities with stricter land use regulation, is the ability to increase residential density in a fairly timely manner. This has helped keep housing costs from rising higher than they otherwise would have. The kinds of land use regulation in cities like New York, Washington and San Francisco generally benefit wealthy landowners at the expense of younger, poorer new-comers. Even current middle-class homeowners don’t really benefit: you can’t bank the appreciation until you sell, at which point you still have to live somewhere, and in the meantime, your property tax bill is higher.” [
Today at noon TxDOT opened the brand new connector ramp pictured here, which has been under construction since December 2013. It links northbound traffic at the northern end of Shepherd Dr. to northbound I-45. Wasn’t there a way to get from Shepherd to I-45 already? Yes, but it brought cars into the freeway’s left lane. The new flyover crosses over the freeway to bring drivers onto I-45’s right lane;Â it hops over the Little York, Victory Blvd., and Veterans Memorial intersections on the way. 
“The funny thing is that back in the 1930s, people actually needed more space than they do today. The average size of a household in the 30s was just over 4 people. It has shrunk to ~2.5 today (although some rich folk do breed like rabbits for some reason). In the olden days, people would have large libraries of books. Now, all that can be kept on an iPad or kindle. People used to have large record collections and “hifi†stereos that were their own pieces of furniture. Now, you can store all your music on your phone and plug it into a massive sound system that is completely built into the wall of each room. Same goes for a TV set. I remember my mom chewing me out for leaving my soda cans on top of the old RCA because it left a ring on the wood. Now, the TV hangs on the wall and is just a few inches thick. Rich folk today do like to have a closet full of clothes that look like a small version of a high end retail clothing store. But today, most people, even rich folks, dress casual all the time. Back in the 30s, 40s, 50s, etc., people would dress up to ride on a plane, men would wear suits all the time, and women would have a collection of hats in large hat boxes to fill up the closet. But houses just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger as people have fewer reasons for living in such huge houses.” [
The Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff does her level best to decipher and explain the strange sequence of events at Skanska’s ongoing demolition-construction-demolition-construction project across the street from Pennzoil Place: “The developer planning 
