METRO’S NEW TRIP-PLANNING APP 
You can now download T.R.I.P., a trip-planning app that’s all Metro’s own. The Write on Metro blog first mentioned the app in October 2011, reporting that a launch was expected later that winter. Of course, that delay isn’t mentioned in today’s press release announcing that the Transit Route Information and Planning app, a screenshot of which is shown here, is up and running, ready to provide schedule and route information based on the user’s location, predict “to within 3 minutes” arrivals of the next bus or train, and generate routes. And it’s free. [Write on Metro; Ride Metro]
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As of late last week, Torchy’s Tacos is open, having built out and taken up this corner suite formerly occupied by Gugliani’s at 2400 Times Blvd. in Rice Village. This is the Austin chain’s 3rd location inside the Loop: There’s one on South Shepherd Dr. half a block from the Arby’s that’s becoming a Dunkin’ Donuts and another under construction in the former Harold’s in the Heights building at the corner of Ashland and 19th St.
- 5510 W. Bellfort St. [HAR]
NO PLANS TO REDEVELOP GRAMERCY PLACE APARTMENTS, SAYS NEW OWNER 
Here’s what Fred Sharifi, the new owner of the Gramercy Place apartments on Portland St., has to say about those rumors that the old apartments will be torn down and replaced by something as tall as the Museum Tower on Montrose that they sit behind: “[T]here will be no midrise built,” Sharifi’s property manager writes in an email, “and he has no plans at this time to redevelop the property. If he does eventually build on the property it will be town homes . . . .” [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
The Problem: “As traffic backs up on 59 past the Spur, drivers are faced with a dilemma. Do I sit and queue here in the right three lanes, which aren’t moving? Or do I get over and zoom past until right before the split? Many, understandably, choose the latter. But what this does is create a new bottleneck at the point where the Spur diverges, because traffic is merging into the left lane and then trying to cross over to get to 288 or stay on 59.” The (Not So Obvious) Solution: “Add a couple miles of barrier and put the split (‘gore point’ in traffic engineer speak) at Shepherd. If you’ve driven this route once, you can see how it would immediately shave several minutes off the trip to Downtown/Midtown/Montrose. The Spur is never jammed in the reverse direction, so anything that effectively lengthens the Spur lengthens the distance of hassle-free 60mph cruising. But such a configuration would also help drivers continuing on 59.”
- The Spur needs to split at Shepherd [Keep Houston Houston]
Central Square Plaza has been sold, and new owner Keeley Megarity, whose LLC closed on the 1-acre Midtown property at 2100 Travis St. about a week ago, says that a decision about how to renovate these buildings — and what to renovate them into — will be made in the next 30-45 days.
Where did all the demolitions go?
- Air Pollution Mobile Lab To Roam Houston Streets for Next 2 Years Measuring Particulate Matter [KUHF]
- Port of Houston To Spend $700M to Modernize Terminal [Houston Business Journal]
- 17-Story Energy Tower III Near Completion in Energy Corridor Fully Leased [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- Galveston Residential Sales Up 17.5 Percent over Same Time Last Year [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Eleven XI Opening in Former Bibas Diner Space on West Gray Next Month [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Moon Tower Inn Owners Planning Second Bar in East Downtown With Voodoo Queen [Eater Houston]
- Houston Has Some of the Dirtiest Air in the Country, Finds American Lung Association Report [KUHF]
- Causes.com Names Houston One of the Greenest Cities in America [Culturemap]
Photo of the Chevron building at 1400 Smith St.: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool
CITY COUNCIL APPROVES CHANGES TO DEVELOPMENT ORDINANCE City council today gave a long-awaited thumbs-up to a new regime of amendments to its development ordinance, known as Chapter 42. Among the many changes: a new, higher upper limit on townhome density for the huge donut of land bounded by Loop 610 and Beltway 8. Developers will now be able to squeeze them in at a rate of 27 units per acre, matching the allowed density in the Inner Loop. [Planning and Development; previously on Swamplot]
Note: More here.
It looks like that retail center that’s replacing the art gallery that burned down is beginning to shape up. And it looks like at least one of the future tenants intends to serve adult beverages. The sign behind the chain-link at the site names the applicant as Leaven & Earth, and a rep from the TABC confirms that the application, filed on April 17, is pending. The original plans for the site here at 1706 Westheimer describe a 4,829-sq.-ft. building — with 36 parking spaces behind it, accessible from Dunlavy — designed to replace the Galerie Mado Chalvet, which was lost in a fire and immortalized on a backpack in 2012.
- Previously on Swamplot: 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
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW TO KILL REDEVELOPMENT PROPOSALS FOR THE ASTRODOME — WITHOUT EVEN TRYING “So, a private group (Astros) comes to the County and gets tons of public funding to build the Astrodome. But, now, if a private group has a great idea to repurpose the Astrodome, they cannot suggest that it be paid for with any public funds or let the tax payers consider their ideas for use with public funds. Only the great wise elders of the County Commissioners who have sat on their hands for over a decade on this issue can propose a solution for the Astrodome that involves the use of public funds. The ballot measure had better have a ‘none of the above’ option.” [Old School, commenting on Headlines: League City’s Red-Light Cameras Go Dark; ‘Guerrilla Gardeners’ Bombard Midtown with Wildflowers; previously on Swamplot]
- 13614 Shelton Grove Dr. [HAR]
TENANT: GRAMERCY PLACE APARTMENTS TO REMAIN RENTAL UNITS An update: Though the other rumor suggests that the Gramercy Place apartments behind the Museum Tower on Montrose Blvd. will be torn down and replaced by 2 residential midrises, a tenant there reports that the new owners of the 5 buildings on the 200 block of Portland St. have seemed “adamant” that the 31 apartments will remain as rental units and have said they intend “to respect” their “historical quality.” [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox Update, 2:15 p.m.: The owners confirm what the tenant had heard. Read more here.
ADIOS, BOCADOS 
Culturemap’s reporting that Bocados on West Alabama is closing after a party on Cinco de Mayo. Bocados owners and friends from their days at across-the-street University of St. Thomas Terry Flores and Lily Hernandez tell Culturemap that though they’ll be leaving the restaurant at 1312 West Alabama where they’ve been for 15 years, they’re considering buying a Heights property where they might bring Bocados back. Moreover, reports Whitney Radley, the pair says they plan to open this summer “in a yet-undisclosed location” downtown a restaurant they’re calling The Red Ox Grill. And what’s up next for the Bocados building? Radley writes that it’ll be The Brick and Spoon, a restaurant coming to Montrose by way of Lafayette, Louisiana, on June 1. [Culturemap] Photo: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston
Maybe they’re not ready for tenants to move in, but these Fourth Ward shotgun houses seem to have avoided demolition and potential displacement to find a new home in Freedman’s Town. Originally located on Victor St., just a few blocks south of this formerly vacant lot at 1414 Robin St., the 3 houses weren’t doing much at the rear of the site of the proposed 5-story mixed-use Dolce Living development. A rep from the Fourth Ward Redevelopment Authority says that the houses were donated to the authority by the owners and will be preserved and renovated into low-income housing; designs for the new bathrooms and porches are already underway, the rep says.
