Things fall apart. Can’t we help them along?
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- City Council To Vote on Midtown Arts and Theater Center Ordinance This Week [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Nearly 1 in 4 Houston Taxpayers Claimed a Mortgage Break from IRS in 2010 [Prime Property]
- City Sets Up Special 311 Report Category for Ashby Highrise Complaints [Keep Houston Houston; previously on Swamplot]
- Metro Rolling Out Digital Resources To Educate New Riders [The Highwayman; previously on Swamplot]
- La Marque Will Not Institute Quiet Zones at Railroad Crossings [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- State’s $2B Water Plan Fails To Gain Approval in House [StateImpact Texas]
- Endangered Snapping Turtle Found Along Allen Pkwy., Buffalo Bayou [abc13]
- Houston Ballet Cancels Friday Outdoor Show in the Woodlands Because It Might Be Too Cold [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of the new Aldi Food Market at 5930 Fry Rd. in Katy: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Last week, this sign showed up in the window at the old Sophia restaurant on W. Main and Mandell, indicating that something or someone called Faustian Bargain intends to serve Montrose some devil juice — er, liquor. Sophia closed here at the end of February, you’ll remember, and Café Artiste mysteriously disappeared several years before that. Some sleuthing by a Swamplot reader — later echoed by Eater Houston and Culturemap — turned up that 2 of the likely new owners of the 2,400-sq.-ft. standalone near the Menil Collection are Omar Afra and Jagatjit Katial of Free Press Houston and Fitzgerald’s fame. Inquiries for more information haven’t been returned.
- Is the Free Press Crew Opening a Bar in Montrose? [Eater Houston]
- A new bar with major music cred is opening by The Menil: Want to drink to Free Press? [Culturemap]
- Previously on Swamplot: West Main Standalone Now Available for Next Restaurant, “Dude, What Gives?â€: Cafe Artiste’s Disappearing Act
Photos: Allyn West
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE NEW TALLER TOWNHOMES THAT FELL OVER NEXT DOOR “Just to add a little clarification here. I live in one of the already existing structures there. They have been there since 2008 and have fared quite well during storms since being constructed. The ones that collapsed had started being built about 5 or 6 weeks ago. They were being built by completely different builders. There were two frames up. Each were four stories tall. The crazy thing was how tall they were. The second story on the new construction was taller than the third story of the ones that had already been there. They were however a completely different design than the already existing ones. In any event the weather wasn’t that bad. I was awake when they collapsed and actually saw the second one fall after the first hit it. Scary. Regardless of wind sheathing, that should not have happened. Someone could have been seriously injured or worse.” [Mike, commenting on The Heights Blvd. Townhomes That Collapsed Overnight]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: DOWNTOWN’S HORSE PEE PROBLEM “If the streets smell like pee it is because of the horse cops. Seriously, walking down Main Street is like walking through a barn, and it isn’t the fault of the homeless — it is the dang horses. Why do we need horse cops anyways? Can’t cops get around on bike, or scooter, or something that doesn’t leave piles of poop in the middle of the street?” [Evan7257, commenting on Bringing the Streets Downtown Right into the Lobbies]
There’ll be a — um — slight delay in the move-in date for the purchasers of the brand-new Madison Park townhomes at 111 and 107 E. 2nd St., just south of White Oak Bayou. Yes, it appears that the 2 stick-framed structures backing up to Heights Blvd. that toppled violently Saturday night — an hour or so after a not-exactly-fierce storm passed through the area — were in fact among the 4 that developer Keystone Classic Homes had been claiming on its website and in a construction-fence-mounted banner were already sold. Their listing in MLS provides perhaps a more conservative assessment: A bank of 4 townhomes — including 111 and 107 — were listed as “pending,” usually an indicator that a contract has been accepted by the seller but that no closing has yet taken place.
If you happen to be the lucky buyer on hook for one of these addresses — presuming you still want in — how much time will the weekend’s rack-and-rumble set you back?
BRINGING THE STREETS DOWNTOWN RIGHT INTO THE LOBBIES 
Why isn’t there more street life Downtown? A recent architectural exhibition suggests that one cause might be the sealed world of a tunnel system that’s accessed mainly through closed-off corporate lobbies: “[Rice University’s Bryony Roberts] argues that these [sites] provide opportunities for a new type of public space that would more effectively integrate street activity and subterranean circulation,” explains OffCite’s Helen B. Bechtel. Using studies of One Allen Center, the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Reliant Energy Plaza, and Wells Fargo Plaza — imagined here to include ramp-like pedestrian feeders — Roberts shows how “otherwise segregated interior and exterior public spaces” might be linked. The exhibition’s on view — where else? — in the One Allen Center lobby at 1200 Smith. [OffCite; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Bryony Roberts via OffCite
The other tenant in this new retail center at Westheimer and Dunlavy will be Space Montrose. Owner Leila Peraza says that by August the artsy and crafty retailer at 2608 Dunlavy will be relocating from this spot behind Cafe Brasil into the 4,800-sq.-ft. building under construction at the corner about 200 ft. away. Space Montrose will take up 1,200 sq. ft. of that and share a wall with what a pending liquor license names Leaven & Earth, a pastry cafe from well-schooled, globe-trotting chef Roy Shvartzapel. Recently, 2608 Dunlavy has been an art gallery and yoga studio; Peraza says she heard a book store is next.
- Supporting Handmade in the USA [Space Montrose]
- Previously on Swamplot: More To Come at the Corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy, Dirt and Flour Moved To Create New Place To Drink at Westheimer and Dunlavy, Burned Building Next to Agora on Westheimer Returns — As a Backpack, No, Dunkin’ Donuts Is Not Coming to the Corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy, The Commotion at the Corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy
Photos: Allyn West
- Sports Corporation Will Recommend Demolishing Astrodome If It Can’t Find Anything Better To Do With It [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Repairs Underway for Next Few Days To Fix Huge Sinkhole Along the Loop near Almeda [abc13]
- Fusion Taco To Open in Les Givral’s Kahve’s Old Market Square Space by August [Eater Houston]
- Construction To Begin on 2nd Phase of LaCenterra at Cinco Ranch [Houston Business Journal]
- Ice House, Concert Venue Considered for Sixth St. in Texas City [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Valero’s Retail Spinoff CST Taking Over 188 Houston Corner Stores [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Metro To Add Fare Enforcement When Light Rail Line Expands Next Year [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Why Houston’s Most Intense Thunderstorm in 3 Years Was Hard To Forecast [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Man Caught on Security Cameras Stealing Cypress Resident’s Tree [MyFoxHouston]
- Texas Can Be a Dangerous Place for Pedestrians, Finds New Report [KUHF]
- Mayor Parker Not Interested in ‘Embarrassing’ Council Members with Another Food Truck Debate [Eating Our Words]
Photo of Richmond Ave. farmers market: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
From Alex Luster, a submission for KUHF’s “This is Houston” curatorial video contest that documents another beautification effort of the streets of Houston.
- “This Is Houston” Video Contest [KUHF]
- Montrose Rollerblade Dancer interview [YouTube]
- Previously on Swamplot: The Most Heartwarming Houston Graffiti Video You Will Ever Watch, These Are the Street Artists in Your Neighborhood, Don’t, Give Up: Houston Wheatpasters and the Law, Aerosol Warfare Declares E.D.O. the Street Art District
Video: Alex Luster via YouTube
COMMENT OF THE DAY: STAKES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD “I always have fun explaining to out of town guests what those signs are. For my benefit, I hope they stay up for a while longer, at least until the building is finished and their predictions come to pass. As an aside, I do feel bad for the lawn people who have to mow around them each week . . . they are unsung heroes in this drama.” [JD, commenting on The Last Stand of the Ashby Highrise Impediment Apartments]
HANOVER AT RICE VILLAGE FEEDING THE HUNGRY 
The retail ring facing Morningside, Dunstan, and Kelvin around the bottom of Hanover at Rice Village seems to be filling out: With Zoës Kitchen opening in February at 5215 Kelvin and Cloud 10 Creamery making plans to since January, Prime Property’s Nancy Sarnoff drops the names of the other 4 restaurants on the way: There’ll be Cyclone Anaya’s (shown in the photo here on Morningside to the right of Cloud 10 Creamery), a coffee shop called Fellini, Punk’s Simple Southern Food, and Coppa Osteria. Sarnoff also mentions the lone non-restaurant planned, “a boutique” called Saint Cloud. [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
Note: Story updated here.
Some big bad wolf huffed and puffed and blew down a couple of 4-story stick-framed townhomes under construction at the corner of Heights Blvd. and 2nd St. around midnight Saturday night. Several readers have written in with accounts and photos, and a source close to the action reports that no one was hurt. A few neighboring garage doors on completed (and occupied) townhomes were damaged by wayward wall parts, however, and the driveway shared by new owners in the Madison Park complex was blocked by a Three Little Pigs–worthy pile of studs, which was cleared out of the way the following day by the builder, Keystone Classic Homes.
