THAT ONE CHANCE TO BUY YOUR NEIGHBOR’S MANSION IN SHADYSIDE 
“These houses turn over once in a lifetime and if you miss the opportunity, you’re screwed,” declares an unidentified Shadyside resident in Terrence McCoy’s Houston Press cover story — about that epic lawsuit that residents and watchers of the gated neighborhood just north of Rice University have been whispering about for the last several years. “That house will never come up again. If you want to control your destiny, you have to buy the house. You got to get it and if you don’t get it, you’re screwed.” [Houston Press; slideshow] Photo of Shadyside: Alex Stoll
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- Hines Apartments Going into Cafe Adobe Spot and Parking Lot on Westheimer [Culturemap]
- Construction of 29-Story Hanover Tower at BLVD Place Now Scheduled To Begin Early Next Year [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Onion Creek Owner, Neighbors Upset Over Revived Condo Development on Dead End Heights Street [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Crews Begin Construction of $33.1M Public Safety Building in League City [Galveston County Daily News]
- Ruggles Green Now Open in Sugar Land [Houston Business Journal]
- Falling Vacancies, Rising Rents Likely at Port of Houston, Finds Study [KUHF]
- Annual ‘Barkitecture’ Fundraiser To Showcase Architects’ Doghouse Designs [Ultimate Bellaire News]
Photo of Cafe Adobe at 2111 Westheimer: Candace Garcia
VERSES OF THE DAY: ABANDONED, ROTTING, RENEWED “Bereft of care and dignity in their old age, they take up too much space/land, they shelter vermin/cancer, and their bones have weakened. Rest in pieces, nothing reclaimed, forgotten.” [Darby Mom], “A pathetic sight that’s not so rare Heaps of garbage everywhere Lead, asbestos, junk hardware Neighbors are a true nightmare” [commonsense], and “It seems a silliness to mourn The past’s detritus, junk like this — To think of years a house has seen, Compared to what its present is. – Yet somehow I long to restore The leaning pillars, rotting wood, To shore beneath a sagging floor, To think that all that can be, could. – It’s not to be, this will be razed, Built up again in fashion new, O Soul, someday your turn will come, To be rebuilt — plumb, level, true.” [Practically_Yours, all commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Tulane Highway]
Are you passionate about Houston’s peculiarities? Do you enjoy delving into the city’s neighborhoods, its architecture, its strip-mall secrets? Would you like a blogging gig that puts you in prime position to sift through, spill, and ’splain the latest local real estate happenings? Good news, then: Swamplot is looking for a reporter-writer.
We want to hire someone who can research, report, and write quickly and well; who’s attentive to detail, careful with facts, and has a good sense of humor; who can work independently and communicate well; and who can spit out accurate and entertaining posts faster than this site’s large and highly engaged audience can spit back. We’re looking for someone who understands Swamplot and how it works, and who will bring ideas and energy to make it better.
Here’s how to apply for this full-time position:
The city of Houston has applied for a grant to help it develop a “dirty MRF” (rhymes with “smurf”) — a recycling center that would sort and mine garbage, using an assortment of machines, scanners, and density separators to separate recyclables, electrical items, compost, and dry materials that could be resold. A materials recovery facility envisioned by sustainability director Laura Spanjian and chief development officer Andy Icken would be similar to one in Roseville, California, that opened in 2007 and “harvests” almost half the waste sent to it. You can follow along a kiddie-led tour of that MRF in this video:
- Construction of $25M Oak Ridge North Retail, Office Plaza Delayed Until Next Year Over Tenant Negotiations [Ultimate Woodlands]
- Commons of Lake Houston in Huffman Expanding with More Waterfront Homes, Park, Beach [Ultimate Kingwood]
- What Would Make You Live Downtown? [Prime Property]
- Deer Park Apartment Complex Overrun with Rats, Say Residents [Click2Houston]
- Hotel Icon’s ‘Different Personalities’ on Display in Independent Film Shooting on Premises [ab13]
- Sports Field Lights Interfering with James Turrell’s Skyspace at Rice University [Rice Thresher via Glasstire; previously on Swamplot]
- Planned Gallery Show by Spray Painter of Menil Picasso Ignites Facebook Comment War [The Great God Pan Is Dead]
- TxDOT Seeks Public Input On I-45 North Improvements This Thursday [KUHF]
- Cafe Adobe Sells Land at 2111 Westheimer, Will Move Next Year [Houston Business Journal]
Photo of Downtown parking: Jackson Myers via Swamplot Flickr Pool
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW THE OTHER HALF WILL EARN A LIVING “I really don’t care for any of the businesses coming in or their business models, but I’m really happy about the hundreds of jobs that will be created once they’re here. If these are the only companies with the capital to expand these days, well, that’s unfortunate, but at least someone‘s growing. That’s where most of the people—the ones that can’t afford the Rice Military townhouses, anyway—on this side of I-10—you know, the non-Heights side—work to feed their families and pay bills, etc., or where all the kids being raised over here will get their first job. Not everyone can work at Wabash or the comic book store.” [Jason C., commenting on Where the Walmart Golden Arches Will Rise]
Here are the after and before on a 1959 once-flat-roofed mod in Meyerland, 3 doors down from an entrance to St. Nicholas School, a block north of the tall power lines that parallel Willowbend Blvd. A redo by Resto Homes made sure water wouldn’t pool on top anymore — and made a few more changes while at it. The redone 4-bedroom, 3-bath home, which now features oversized Craftsman-ic details and an encyclopedic home-furnishing set in its 2,500 sq. ft., made its MLS debut last Friday, at a stylish $687,493.
COUNTY ATTORNEY STRIPS BIKINI OFF FM 1960 STRIP CENTER BABES 
In the suit filed yesterday against the operator of strip club Babes North at 10610 FM 1960 just east of Jones Rd., Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan accuses the club, formerly known as the Bikini Wing Bar, of flouting the laws governing sexually oriented businesses. “Babes is not a bikini bar. It is a topless and bottomless den of prostitution and drug dealing.” Notably, the lawsuit is also directed at the owners of the pad site in the Cypress Plaza Shopping Center, PJM Properties — for not taking reasonable measures to prevent criminal activity on its premises. [Cypress Creek Mirror] Photo: Click2Houston
Fewer diamonds, more rough.
- BP Selling Texas City Refinery to Marathon Petroleum for $2.5B [Fuel Fix]
- Office Rents Continue To Rise with 2% Increase Over Last Year [Prime Property]
- Demo Begins on Old Comcast Building To Make Way for $7.1M Gulf Foundation Center [Galveston County Daily News]
- 24-Hour-a-Day Residents Key to Downtown’s Growth [Houston Chronicle]
- Texas Leads Nation’s Restaurant Industry with 10.2% Job Growth Over Past Year [Houston Business Journal]
- TxDOT Distributing $70M in Funds for Local Transportation Projects [KUHF]
- Houston Man Receives Visit from FBI After Photographing Weather Near Lyondell Refinery [Pixiq]
- Texas Contemporary Art Fair VIP Lounge To Reference Port of Houston, Hurricanes, Honky-Tonk Clubs, Weight Issues [Culturemap]
Photo of Diana at Bayou Bend Gardens: Jenn Allbritton via Swamplot Flickr Pool
- 1804 Hickory St. [HAR]
WHERE THE WALMART GOLDEN ARCHES WILL RISE 
The first sign that there’ll be a McDonald’s in the “Washington Heights” shopping-center development at Yale St. and Koehler . . . has appeared outside the Mickey D’s 2 miles away on Washington near I-10, notes the Swamplot reader who snapped this photo there. Where’s the new location? If you’re looking too hard, you might miss it: 111 Yale St. is the address for the Walmart currently under construction; that means you should be able to find your burgers and fries inside the store when it opens. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
