- 2809 Palm St. [HAR]
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Inspired by the outpourings of support issuing forth from Swamplot’s comments section for the city’s new smallest park ever, the folks behind the parklet on 19th St. have sent in a bunch of photos of the completed project outside a Heights mattress store — including the aerial drone’s-eye view above, which was taken shortly before Thursday’s inauguration ceremony attended by the mayor, a few city councilmembers, and a couple of boy-scout-uniformed salesmen from an adjacent shop who roasted s’mores for the occasion.
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By Popular Demand
Swamplot will dig into some of the more entertaining and eye-opening details of the proposal later. But in the meantime, before folks go around shouting “heck, yeah!”, hyperventilating, or considering it all but a done deal, you might want to make note of a few circumstances surrounding the release of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and Houston Texans‘ 37-page illustrated guide to spending $66 million of somebody’s money to tear down the Astrodome and build a memorial park and “Hall of Fame” in its place.
The proposal was leaked to reporters yesterday — likely before the Rodeo and the Texans had planned, a source tells Swamplot. (A sample “huh?” slide from it is illustrated above.) Nevertheless, the release marks the latest evolution in the 2 organizations’ willingness to publicly acknowledge their (likely longstanding) role as the foremost opponents of preserving the Astrodome in any form. (Last year the Rodeo and the Texans released a cost estimate for turning the Dome into a parking lot.) Whether this is a concerted strategy in the organizations’ campaign to kill the Dome or a fumble, it does signal a possible risk for them: What would happen if the until-now-growing sense among many Houstonians that everything possible has been tried and somehow mysteriously “won’t work” (blow up the place already, I’m tired of hearing about it!) gave way to a realization that the same 2 parties may have, in fact, been responsible for bungling, blocking, discouraging, sabotaging, or outright vetoing every single proposal for saving or revamping the Astrodome over the last dozen years? Would it kill all the seeming public-sentiment victories they’ve achieved so far?
Dome-Be-Gone for $66 Million
- Map of Projected Area Population Growth Mirrors Office Development Patterns [Prime Property]
- Uptown Park Owner AmREIT Gets Unsolicited, ‘Inadequate’ Buyout Offer from Florida Company [Houston Business Journal]
- Caldwell Companies Working on Multi-Use Development on 15 Acres at FM 1960 and Highway 290 in Cypress [Houston Business Journal]
- Microsoft Store Planned for the Baybrook Mall [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Dr. Andrew Weil-Connected True Food Kitchen Opening July 29 at BLVD Place [Culturemap]
- La Madeleine’s Sawyer Heights Location Now Open, One in Pearland Opening Later This Month [Prime Property]
- TxDOT Now Planning To Replace Yale St. Bridge Beginning in 2016, for $3.6MÂ [The Leader]
- Next Chance To Comment on Proposed Changes to City’s Major Thoroughfare and Freeway Plan: July 31 Public Hearing [Houston Public Media]
- Major U.S. 290 Closings Around Loop 610 Scheduled This Weekend [The Highwayman]
- Final Repairs Under Way to Fix Ike-Damaged Galveston Fishing Pier [Houston Chronicle]
- Newly Constructed Oak Forest Home Vandalized with ‘Class Warfare’ Graffiti on Garage Door [The Leader]
- Art League Houston Building on Montrose To Be Covered in 350K Acrylic Beads [Houstonia]
- Elevator Buttons More Likely To Be Colonized By Bacteria Than Toilet Surfaces, Finds Hospital Study [Infection Control Today]
Photo of 21 Eleven construction at 2111 Westheimer: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Comedian Trent Gillaspie began his internet cartographic ventures by assembling an annotated map of his then-hometown of Denver, which he posted online hoping to highlight the humor in some of his gentrification-comedy routines with what he hoped would be considered outrageous labels for every neighborhood. “Some are judgmental, some are humorous, and all of them have a little bit of truth,” he explained to Business Insider earlier this year. “As long as you offend everyone you possibly can, it ends up making it OK.” Gillaspie then tried to open up his method to other cities — asking other comedians (and would-be comedians) to put together similar surveys of their own cities. A total of 47 labeled maps of various cities currently comprise the Judgmental Maps website, with varying levels of humor and “light racism,” as Business Insider’s Karyne Levy politely puts it.
The latest effort, submitted to Gillaspie’s website and tagged by its author, identified only as jr.ewing.78, targets Houston. We’ve sliced the map into thirds, for easier reading, below:
Judgmental Maps
- 4411 Sanford Rd. [HAR]
CITY COUNCIL VOTES TO DRAIN HOUSTON’S DRAINAGE FUND 
City councilmembers voted 15 to 2 yesterday to pour out $31 million from the ReBuild Houston drainage fund Houston voters put into place in 2010 and use the money “to speed up projects and help resolve smaller neighborhood problems sought by their constituents,” according to Chronicle reporters Mike Morris and Kathryn Driessen. Separately, councilmembers approved an amendment to the measure that would help pay for a $1-million-per-district allocation that would let councilmembers themselves decide how to spend city funds in their own districts, by drawing $6 million from the city’s capital improvement funds. A portion of that money, Mayor Parker said, would likely end up coming from ReBuild Houston reserves — though there would be restrictions on how those funds could be used. The source of funds for the ReBuild Houston program is the monthly drainage fee paid to the city by property owners, which went into effect in 2011. Councilmember Stephen Costello, who championed the ReBuild Houston campaign and voted against yesterday’s measure, tells ABC13’s Miya Shay that passage of the amendment is “going to make my job a little harder as I’m talking to the community, about a lock box for Rebuild Houston.” Supporters of the changes claim they’ll help neighborhoods have a bigger say in what drainage and construction projects get funded. [Houston Chronicle ($); abc13; previously on Swamplot] Photo of drainage inlet installation near Westridge and Linkwood subdivisions: ReBuild Houston
NEW ‘CHICKEN RANCH’ OPENING ON NORTH MAIN NEAR SUNSET HEIGHTS WILL SERVE ACTUAL FRIED CHICKEN 
But will it be home to the Best Little Drumsticks in Texas? Josh Martinez, the chef behind the Modular food truck and (until recently) Goro & Gun downtown, and partner Paul Sedillo plan to open an actual fried chicken joint in a not-yet-disclosed location on North Main St., Alison Cook reports. And they’ll be naming it in honor of the establishment of uh, musical repute first brought to widespread public attention back in 1973 by a series of teevee reports by then-new Channel 13 reporter Marvin Zindler, and again later by a Broadway musical and a follow-on movie starring Dolly Parton, Burt Reynolds, and Dom DeLuise. (Not to mention, separately, a haw-along tune by ZZ Top.) But unlike its historical namesake in La Grange (pictured at right in its glory days), the Chicken Ranch “on the fringe” of Sunset Heights won’t be renting out hosted rooms by the hour — it’ll be frying up chickens by the order, though the birds will be available in either regular or “spicy Louisiana-style” versions. Sedillo tells Cook he plans to install a black velvet painting of Zindler in the restaurant when it opens this fall. [Food Chronicles] Photo: Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives via The Signal
By 1:35 in the morning 2 Saturdays ago, Troy Dickerson had left his Rosenberg home and found himself speeding past the Sweetwater and Williams Trace exits on the far-left lane of the Southwest Fwy. while his wife Kristin, who was sitting in the passenger seat, let out a series of screams to work her way through waves of contractions. Almost exactly a half-hour later, their baby, Truett, was born while his mom stood outside the family’s white Toyota pickup, which was by then parked in the valet drop-off area of the Women’s Pavilion at Texas Children’s Hospital, at 6621 Fannin St. in the Med Center (where, perhaps incidentally, the mother works as a childbirth educator).
Having Baby on Board
- Houston Housing Market on the Rise Again After Sales Increased 4.5% in June, Finds HARÂ [Prime Property]
- Construction Begins on Walmart Neighborhood Market in Atascocita, One-Fifth the Size of a Typical Walmart [HKA Texas]
- West Memorial Place Under Construction in the Energy Corridor Now 50% Leased [Prime Property]
- New Café in Former Teas Family Home Will Be Included in Evelyn’s Park Replacing Teas Nursery at 4400 Bellaire Blvd. [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- 8th Wonder Brewery Adding 5,000 SF To Its EaDo Warehouse To Increase Production, Open a Taproom [Beer, TX; previously on Swamplot]
- Neighbors Including a Mosque, Farmers Market, Townhouse Owners Protesting Proposed Little Woodrow’s in Upper Kirby [Culturemap]
- Slideshow: Inside the University of Houston’s Newly Named Football Stadium [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Sugar Land Included on Nerd Wallet List of U.S. Cities with the Most Improved Economies Since the Recession Ended [Culturemap]
- Water Rates in Montgomery County Expected To Rise 20% By September as Aquifers Being Depleted Faster Than They Can Be Recharged [MyFoxHouston]
- Water Heater, Football Pads, Bowling Ball Among the Curiosities Found in Houston’s Sewer Lines [Houston Chronicle]
- The Story Behind That Mural Inside El Big Bad [Houstonia]
- Shouldn’t There Be a Name for the Voice of Houston’s Metro Rail? [Not of It]
Photo of Elan Heights construction in Woodland Heights: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Over in the gated community of Indian Trail, this townhome-like pad has patios-a-plenty. Builder Ed McMahon constructed the property for his mama back in 1974, or so the listing posted last week notes. Renovated in 2007, the home with recessed entry now sports a $1.75 million asking price. Its flat-topped front-loader garage ivies up a garden-lined walkway to form the first of several outdoor vignettes.
Wall Street
- 4929 Valerie St. [HAR]
Signs are up at the soon-to-be-former Grocers Supply distribution center across Studemont from Kroger just south of I-10 announcing Studemont Junction, the name meant to bring some . . . uh, conjunction to the odd-shaped 15-acre food-storage facility Capcor Partners bought late last year. To judge from the proposed site plan for the project, that’ll be quite a task.
Many Functions for Studemont Junction
