Tweeting from low Earth orbit on board the International Space Station, NASA astronaut and Clear Lake City resident Rick Mastracchio sends out this spiderweb-like nighttime image he snapped of Houston. What’s that bright spot in the section in the lower right? “Think I left my lights on!” he writes.
Photo: Rick Mastracchio
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SAFEWAY’S PLANS FOR A LEANER RANDALLS OPERATION 
“I’m not buying the ‘pulling out of Houston’ claim. Other chains are debasing themselves to get into the Houston/DFW/Austin markets. Why would an incumbent, distressed or not, just completely pull out? Doesn’t pass logical test, IMO. Reducing cost by eliminating regional management and failing to renew a lease aren’t the same thing as a wholesale abandonment of Houston.” [Tom Opposable Thumb, commenting on Yet Another Sign of a Coming Randalls Houston Pullout] Illustration: Lulu
The city has extracted $225,000 from the owners and contractors of a Bellaire developer who extracted two 100-year-old Live Oak trees from public property adjacent to 2 separate Inner Loop redevelopment sites over the summer. That’s a little less than half of the amount the city originally sought. The settlement ends the lawsuit it filed in October against Signature City Homes owner Barry Gomel and the demo contractor he hired to remove the 36-inch-diameter specimen pictured above at 1704 Blodgett St. (the home was torn down in July); it’ll also allow the developer to proceed with construction of the 4-townhome development it had planned for that location. The second tree was next to a bungalow Signature demolished at 801 Bomar.
Photo: Allyn West
IN ASHBY HIGHRISE TRIAL, ENGINEERS GET TESTY OVER SETTLEMENT 
Engineers for both sides may be spending much of the coming weekend testing the Southampton soil surrounding the site of the Ashby Highrise. Erin Mulvaney reports that the judge in the civil trial has postponed additional testimony from Paradigm Consultants president Woody Vogt until next Monday, after the attorney for the group of neighbors suing Buckhead Investment Partners complained Vogt was attempting to present new evidence their own expert hadn’t had time to analyze and pick apart. Vogt, who was hired by the defendants, told the jury last week that construction of the proposed 21-story highrise tower at 1717 Bissonnet St. would have no adverse affects on the foundations of nearby homes, and produce only one inch of settlement in the soil. But he also admitted he had used separate sets of calculations for each of those 2 predictions, and that the expert witness for the group of neighbors suing the developers had performed a more thorough analysis of the construction’s potential effects. Writes Mulvaney: “Rick Ellman of New York-based Muesler Rutledge Consulting Engineers testified earlier for the resident group that 10 existing homes near the site could suffer moderate to severe damage, including cracked foundations, buckled walls and busted water pipes. Ellman predicted the ground would ‘settle’ four inches.” [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot] Photo of site: Swamplot inbox
Photo of median at Buffalo Speedway and Westheimer near River Oaks Plant House: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
With this award, we look outside ourselves.
New to the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate this year, the Best Houston Transplant category considers the outside influences that have helped to shape the city, as well as homegrown ideas that have allowed Houston to shape the rest of the world. The nominees have been selected from your suggestions. Now it’s time to pick the winner.
What deserves recognition as the Best Houston Transplant? Vote in the comments below, by email, on Facebook, or through Twitter — you can even do all 4! Don’t forget to explain your vote. And just make sure you get all your votes in by the deadline: 5 pm on Friday, December 27th.
Now, let’s give a big ol’ Houston welcome to the official nominees:
YET ANOTHER SIGN OF A COMING RANDALLS HOUSTON PULLOUT 
Just in: this market-fresh, unconfirmed grocery-store tip. “Randalls just laid off their entire Houston corporate office. Houston stores will be managed from Dallas.” [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Randalls Woodlake Square, 9660 Westheimer Rd.: AmREIT
Sampling life in Tanglewood got a little less expensive yesterday when the $20,000 per month leasing rate of this 1986 Georgian-style property with lagoon-like pool and fancy finishes dropped $5K after 2 weeks on the rental market. Don’t expect to get too comfy for long, however: The listing still says the owner prefers a 6-to-12-month arrangement.
This was the scene yesterday on the southeast corner of Richmond Ave and Cummins St. near Greenway Plaza, where the Redstone Companies and Hansen Partners are planning to build a new 11-story office building and 5-level parking garage with — if a Planning Dept. staff report describing the project is correct — an attached 5-story retail center. The development received planning commission approval last week for a reduced setback along the 2 streets that meets with planned but not-yet-approved standards for transit corridors; if Metro’s stalled University Line ever gets built, it’ll make its get-off-of-Richmond turn at this same corner. Accordingly, in documents submitted to the city, the developers appear to be holding out the undescribed retail portion for some later date: [Only] “the office building and related parking garage to be built on this site are nearing the time that a building permit will be required,” the variance application reads.
Photo of the Susanne construction, 3803 Dunlavy: Allyn West
ANOTHER ASTRODOME INDOOR CLEARANCE SALE 
Without a lot of fanfare, Reliant Park officials have just announced another round of sales of extracted Astrodome furniture. And it’s scheduled to begin tomorrow morning at 8 am. Astrodome seats once graced by the posteriors of thousands of cheering sports fans will be available for purchase online at the Reliant Park website at that time. [Reliant Park; previously on Swamplot] Photo: mokambo.0219
Once past the Jello-bold color adjustments to the listing’s exterior photo, this 2000 contemporary home by Rice School of Architecture professor Carlos Jiménez unfolds rather quietly on its in-the-trees and oversized lot on South Blvd. in Ormond Place, part of Boulevard Oaks. The property made its market debut in late October. Its asking price then, $3,285,000, remains.
