BLOCKBUSTER BUSTING ITS LAST BLOCKS 
Did you realize there was still a Blockbuster Video store open near you? There are 13 of them in the Houston area, in fact — though only 2 of them (at Studewood and North Main and South Post Oak at Bellfort) are in Houston proper. (The rest are in Katy, Seabrook, Baytown, Kingwood, Spring, Humble, Sugar Land, Channelview, Pearland, and Pasadena.) Well, at least until January. The company announced today it will close all 300 remaining stores in the U.S. by early next year — and shutter its DVD-by-mail service by the middle of next month. When Dish Network bought the company out of bankruptcy more than 2 years ago, Blockbuster had 1,700 U.S. stores. [Bloomberg] Photo of Pasadena Blockbuster, 3950 Spencer Hwy.: Yelp
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: THAT SHIP WON’T SAIL “May we have a Comment of the Day that isn’t from a Swamplot reader? This has to be it: ‘”We can’t allow the once-proud Astrodome to sit like a rusting ship in the middle of a parking lot. This was the best effort (to revamp the stadium), and voters have turned it down,†said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett.’ I mean seriously, Judge Emmett? The County has mishandled the Dome from the beginning, and NOW you have a sense of urgency? And THIS was the County’s best effort?” [JD, commenting on Headlines: Astrodome Bonds Voted Down; Bayport Cruise Terminal’s First Ship Comes In]
Look familiar? A 1964 Tara Oaks home re-relisted last week after washing its face (top) of its once-touted all-encompassing custom paint motifs (above), which drew a lot of attention after an appearance on Swamplot back in May 2013. In the interim, the tweaked corner-lot property also dropped its asking price to $1.975 million, down from the $2.395 million sought in 2 previous runs on the market between May and October of this year. Last week’s new listing calls attention to the home’s newly neutral color scheme, otherwise known as white. Here’s a waltz past the interior’s Now and Then looks:
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: DO NOT DETONATE 
“Sports [and Convention Corp.], Port Authority . . . let’s get rid of them.
The question of what to do with the Dome is a no-brainer. What would you do with your ‘old’ home once you got moved into your new ‘dream home’? Would you sell it? Would you lease it out? Would you donate it to a charity or non-profit? Would you demolish it and get NOTHING from it in return?
It would cost at least 200 million to 300 million dollars to replicate a structure/facility comparable to the Dome and how there could be anyone in Houston in favor of demolition is unimaginable.
In actuality, the referendum on Tuesday’s ballot was for the issuing of bonds totaling $217 million so that the Dome could be physically remodeled into a more versatile facility. Just because the referendum failed does not mean that the Dome will be demolished.
Hopefully, there is a majority of Harris County Commissioners who will not implode $300 million worth of Harris County assets for a new parking lot. If not, then maybe we should get rid of some commissioners also.
Houston, get real. Remember all the stadiums that the Chinese rushed to get completed for the Beijing Olympics? If we already have 2 right near each other why would we want to tear one down?
If Harris County doesn’t want to spend money to repurpose it in 2013 then we should wait . . . maybe in another couple of years — after all, Inner Loop real estate just keeps appreciating.” [joenormal, commenting on New I-45 Billboard Goes Up, Just in Time to Save the Astrodome?] Illustration: Lulu
- 12025 Whittington Dr. [HAR]
HAWTHORNE COMES TO PRAISE THE ASTRODOME, NOT TO BURY IT 
For an article slipped online only after election-day voting had already begun on the ill-fated $217 million bond issue that would have turned the Houston landmark into a convention center, L.A. Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne decides a few things need to be said about the Astrodome. Some highlights: “Forget Monticello or the Chrysler building: There may be no piece of architecture more quintessentially American than the Astrodome. Widely copied after it opened in 1965, it perfectly embodies postwar U.S. culture in its brash combination of Space Age glamour, broad-shouldered scale and total climate control. . . . [A]ll I had to do to understand the full appeal of the architecture was look up toward the center of the massive steel-framed roof, more than 200 feet above my head. Light filtered through its hundreds of panels fell serenely on the rest of the vast interior. Seen from that vantage point, the building has lost none of its tremendous aesthetic power. . . . Even if its attitude toward the environment now strikes us as deeply naive, the Astrodome deserves to be protected simply as a singular monument to the American confidence and Texas swagger of the 1960s. The stadium doesn’t so much symbolize as perfectly enclose a moment in time.” [L.A. Times] Photo: Candace Garcia
That vague line of pink barely visible low in the forested area just beyond the backyard of this house on Warm Springs Dr. in Post Oak Manor marks a few of the hundreds of trees the Harris County Flood Control District plans to knock down as part of a second phase of work on the easternmost portion of the Willow Waterhole Stormwater Detention Basin complex. Most of the trees slated for removal are in a 5-acre zone to the southeast of Post Oak Manor (outlined at the bottom right of the aerial map below), just north of South Main St. and directly to the southwest of Beren Academy. But the pink line is part of a separate 2-acre strip that’s slated for thinning just south of Post Oak Manor. And that’s got some residents there — and in adjacent ‘W’ neighborhoods Willowbend, Willow Meadows, Willowbrook, and Westbury — upset.
- County Officials Float Idea That Failure of $217M Bond Plan Was Actually a Vote To Demolish Astrodome, Quickly [AP; previously on Swamplot]
- Katy Voters Reject Bond Issue That Included $69M HS Football Stadium [Click2Houston]
- Texas Voters OK Spending $2B on Future Water Projects [abc13]
- Mayor Parker Wins Bid for Third, Final Term [abc13]
- Westchase District 12-Story Office Tower Tops Out, Slated for Completion by April [Houston Business Journal]
- Mac Haik Realty Secures First Tenant for Energy Tower IV [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Median Price in Texas for Single-Family Home Increases 10 Percent to $177,100, Finds Report [Prime Property]
- Residents Against Plans for 850-Unit Beacon Island Development in League City [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Capital Grille To Open in CityCentre on Nov. 14 [Eater Houston]
- Pasadena’s Bayport Cruise Terminal Welcomes First Cruise Ship, Finally [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- The Stories Behind the River Oaks Rienzi House [Culturemap]
Photo of Greenway Plaza: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
There’s been a Metro train siting at the new Quitman station of the North Line extension, just south of the train’s turnoff from North Main, reader Joel Balderas reports. Unlike earlier appearances, the train appears to be operating under its own power. Here’s the photo evidence:
Air conditioning repair guy David Lewis finds what he considers a novel installation of the AC condenser units found on the ground outside most Houston homes. The site (above and at left) is a 6,500-sq.-ft. doctors’ office converted from a house built in 1940, about a mile away from Rice University. Here, the condensers have their own vented add-on room tucked behind an added exterior stair — where they’re protected from the elements, thieves, and offended eyeballs. The expensive setup also means there’s a little more work for repairs: “You must have the area well ventilated hence the brown vents and weird hoods on the units. The greatest downside is that those hoods prevent service to the unit. If the condenser fan motor decides to quit then the hood must first be removed to allow access for replacement.”
- Another Way To Hide Your Air Conditioner [Mission Air Conditioning]
Photos: David Lewis
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MORE LOOPS FOR HOUSTON 
Houston loops, 2113:
1.) 610.
2.) Beltway 8.
3.) 1960/Highway 6.
4.) Grand Parkway.
5.) Uber loop: Angelton to Rosenberg to Fulshear to Katy/Brookshire to Waller to Magnolia to Conroe to Cleveland to Liberty.
6.) Mega loop: Freeport to Bay City to El Campo / Wharton to Columbus to Brenham to Navasota to Huntsville to Liberty to Beaumont.
7.) GIGA LOOP: Port Lavaca to Victoria to Schulenberg to La Grange to Giddings to College Station to Madisonville to Crockett to Lufkin to Jasper to Orange.
8.) I-35. [DNAguy, commenting on Headlines: Astrodome Yard Sale Sellout; St. Thomas Wins Law Enforcement High; previously on Swamplot] Illustration: Lulu
- 2308 Bartlett St. [HAR]
Here’s a view, from high above the auto-repair shop to its northeast, of that 7-story apartment block Trammell Crow Residential plans to build on the block-sized vacant lot at the corner of Main St. and Hadley it purchased last month from the Houston Fire Museum. The 215-unit building designed by Houston’s EDI International will be called the Alexan Midtown. The 1.44-acre property was given to the fire museum in the mid-1990s by anonymous donors, writes the HBJ‘s Shaina Zucker. The institution accepted the buyout offer after a lackluster 9-year fundraising campaign to build a new exhibit hall on the property on the rail line 3 blocks south of the Pierce Elevated flamed out. Construction is scheduled to begin in January.
- Midtown multifamily project to break ground in January [Houston Business Journal]
- Previously on Swamplot: Alexan Picks Up Midtown Apartments in Fire Sale
Rendering: Trammell Crow Residential/EDI International
The reader who sends this photo from this morning’s commute — on I-45 North near Canino — says it appears workers were “just putting up” this “Save the Dome” sign from OurAstrodome.org on the billboard this morning. “I drive by there every day and I don’t remember seeing it [before today],” the reader reports. The campaign ad in support of Harris County Proposition 2 on today’s ballot — which will determine the fate of the Astrodome — is visible going northbound on the freeway. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
