09/20/13 12:00pm

Rolled-in brick planters, some fake grass, a place to sit to sip your Starbucks: You’ve got yourself a park! Or, in this case, a seat-of-your-pants impromptu parklet, a li’l green gesture toward leisure and recreation where before there had been only the cool impersonality of curbs and the business of parking meters. All this stuff was set up first thing this morning — which just so happens to be National Park(ing) Day, devoted to pop-up experiments like this one — atop those 3 parallel parking spots in front of Frank’s near the corner of Travis and Prairie in Downtown, creating a like outlier just catty-corner from Market Square Park.

This is how it went down:

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09/20/13 10:00am

Looks like Weingarten has lured another tenant into the Kohl’s-anchored Tomball Marketplace at the southwest corner of the Tomball Pkwy. and FM 2920: Super Yummy Mongolian Grill. The somewhat self-aggrandizing chain restaurant is expected to open in Suite 160 in early October or November, according to Community Impact News.

Photo of Tomball Marketplace: Weingarten Realty

09/20/13 8:30am

Photo: Alex Luster via Swamplot Flickr Pool

09/19/13 4:30pm

White Oak Bayou’s concrete-lined banks are just off the unfenced back lot of this 2006-built side-entry 2-level stucco-and-siding home on a cul-de-sac in White Oak Terrace, across T.C. Jester from Highland Park. The balcony (at right), however, faces the front and looks over the single-story roofs of its ’70s-vintage block. Other 2-story homes of the current millennium pop up across nearby cross street Bayou Vista Dr. This double-decker property hit the market earlier this month. Asking price: $215,000.

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09/19/13 2:30pm

Note: Story updated below. And read more here.

Here’s a map from the city showing which streets will be closed Downtown this Sunday morning for the controlled demolition of the 10-story, 791,000-sq.-ft. former Foley’s and Macy’s. Unfortunately, the closures appear to hinder access to the best views of the falling 1947 Kenneth Franzheim-designed shopping box. In fact, the Houston Chronicle cites a fire department press release that might frustrate any interested parties: “[T]here will be no ‘safe viewing site lines’ to observe the implosion.”

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09/19/13 1:00pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: ROLLING OUT A NEW PIECE OF THE FIFTH WARD “Did y’all know that Montrose used to be within the 4th Ward, or that Midtown and EaDo used to be mostly within the 3rd Ward? The neighborhood that the original commenter referred to (south of I-10, west of Bringhurst) needs to be rebranded because it actually is different in character and is affected by different factors than what exists north of I-10. And I really hate to say that because it’ll pick up some cliched cutesy-ass name at some tremendous expense to the community in consulting fees. But as I can see from the comments on this thread, the results would amply compensate for the expense and embarrassment.” [TheNiche, commenting on Comment of the Day Runner-Up: Throwing Out Some Numbers on the Fifth Ward] Illustration: Lulu

09/19/13 12:00pm

LA FENDEE TRYING TO FEND OFF ENDING Reports of La Fendee’s demise — and Tacos A Go-Go’s emergence — here at 1402 Westheimer might have been hasty: A tweet from freelance writer Amber N. Ambrose suggests that the owners aren’t going gentle into that goodbye: “Man on the phone says they’re ‘fighting it.'” And a manager tells Swamplot this morning that the stories about the restaurant’s closing “aren’t right,” though declined to elaborate. [Twitter; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Trip Advisor

09/19/13 11:00am

In February, the Art Guys went for distance, walking the marathon that is W. Little York Rd.; tomorrow, they’ll be going for danger. The 9th of their “12 Events” requires Jack Massing and Michael Galbreth to maintain pedestrian safety techniques and situational awareness as they cross the street, all day, at Westheimer and Hillcroft/Voss, what they’re claiming is the “busiest intersection in Houston.”

Here’s the deal: They’ll start their day off walking clockwise, and, presumably to avoid the monotony, switch things up and go counterclockwise the rest of the afternoon. It’s unclear whether they’ll be taking advantage of the various muscle supplements and joint remedies at the nearby Vitamin Shoppe in the Westhill Village Shopping Center there on the southwest corner.

Photo of Art Guys on W. Little York Rd.: Everett Taasevigen

09/19/13 10:00am

The resident tipster who let us know about the pending evictions at Westcreek at River Oaks Apartments sends in this “makeshift map,” which provides a more accurate view on the changes coming — for now, anyway — to the complex directly behind the so-called River Oaks District. As the map makes clear, the tipster explains that, according to the Westcreek property manager, only 2 of the 6 buildings have been sold and are slated for demolition: B and D, right next to the Target on San Felipe. Still, the remaining 4, to which some of the displaced residents have agreed to be relocated, are for sale.

Map: Swamplot inbox

09/19/13 8:30am

Photo of First Baptist Church at Harvard and Ninth: Jason Ezer

09/18/13 2:30pm

Saluting cacti and other Western ware lead to a home off the range — but just a short cul-de-sac away from Memorial Dr., west of Voss Rd. And beyond the curbside get-up, it’s a puffed-up country cabin in Piney Point Village. Earlier this month, the dark-stained wooden-clad 1981 home in Ames Place debuted on the market with a $1.75 million asking price.

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09/18/13 1:30pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW TO WORK AROUND THE HOUSTON HEIGHTS DRY ZONE “Can someone explain to a non native Houstonian how this ‘private club’ thing works? So you can’t sell alcohol in some areas, but you can if you’re a ‘private club’? So what’s to stop anyone that wants to open any regular type of place that sells booze to call themselves a private club?” [Cody, commenting on Putting the Finishing Typefaces on the Heights General Store] Illustration: Lulu