Headlines
02/13/12 8:30am

Headlines: HOT Lanes Are Here; Reinventing Downtown’s Bayou-Side Post Office

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4 Comments

Photo of Museum District and Med Center: Candace Garcia

Bayous and Waterways
02/10/12 11:51pm

Comment of the Day: Beware the Alluring Bayou Park Plan

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4 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: BEWARE THE ALLURING BAYOU PARK PLAN “This appears to be a banking scheme that would have the Federal Reserve Bank(s) finance and hold securities on these important lands in many large cities across the US. More scrutiny of the fine print and long-term ramifications is needed before yielding to the sensuous propaganda.” [Dana-X, commenting on Enormous Plan To Build Bayou-Side Parks: The Movie]

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Crime
02/10/12 4:45pm

Suspected Catburglar Arrested In North Montrose Doggie Door Escapade

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The man seen above crawling back onto the back porch of a North Montrose bungalow with a pillowcase full of electronics and jewelry in hand is 29-year-old Steven Groucho Hicks, the Houston Police Dept. now believes. According to a KHOU report, Hicks was arrested yesterday and charged with burglarizing the home by crawling through its doggie door. An extensive gallery of photos documenting the burglary was posted to Flickr last month, retrieved from a surveillance camera the homeowner had installed after learning of similar episodes in the neighborhood.

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Buying and Selling
02/10/12 3:54pm

Metro Buying Tiny Post Oak Parcel To Use for Uptown Line, Someday

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Note: Story corrected below.

Houston’s transit agency is scheduled to close next month on the twice-delayed $550,000 purchase of a 3,589-sq.-ft. strip of land across Post Oak Blvd. from the Waterwall Park — even though the Uptown Line, the light-rail line the land would be used for, isn’t part of its current construction contract, and isn’t even expected to be complete before 2020, according to Metro documents. Negotiated under the real-estate happy regime of Metro’s previous administration, under Metro’s current administration, under an authorization approved by its earlier real-estate-happy board, the contract Metro signed for the property at 3009 Post Oak prohibits the agency from backing out of the purchase — even if its plans or route alignment have changed. But a Metro spokesperson tells Memorial Examiner reporter Michael Reed that the purchase still makes sense, and turns out to be a less expensive option for it than using eminent domain to acquire the parcel later. Going up next door to the site: a 20-story office tower for its owner, the U.S. subsidiary of Swedish development firm Skanska.

Photo: Memorial Examiner

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Attractions
02/10/12 2:11pm

Yoshio Taniguchi’s New Asia Society Texas Center: The Full Photo Preview Tour

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The Asia Society Texas Center has been providing previews of its new headquarters building in a series of private events, but Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi’s new Museum District landmark isn’t scheduled to open to the public until the second half of a 4-day celebration beginning April 12th. By then the $48.4 million modern building will be outfitted with an exhibition of Asian art from the Rockefeller Collection.

In the meantime, the organization has released to Swamplot a more complete set of images than what’s been available so far — documenting photographer Paul Hester‘s take on the ins and outs of the new 38,000-sq.-ft. structure on Southmore Blvd. between Caroline and Austin:

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Landscape
02/10/12 11:29am

Enormous Plan To Build Bayou-Side Parks: The Movie

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Here’s the feel-good Houston bayou hit of the season: a dreamy, 11-minute-long video talking up a $5.4 billion plan (that’s the proposed budget, anyway) to build a new interconnected system of parks and trails out of “derelict” properties along Houston’s extensive network of bayous. The goals: better air and water quality, reduced flooding, and economic development.

Properties not directly located along bayous would also be included. In all, the plan calls for acquiring 3,800 acres of land and turning 3,200 acres of them into parks and stormwater detention sites. The remainder would be “set aside” for future redevelopment. Continuous greenbelts would be established along 10 major Houston bayous, connecting parks and community gathering places. In all: 300 miles of trails and 1,600 acres of linear greenway space.

But that’s just for Houston.

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Headlines
02/10/12 8:30am

Headlines: Homeless Vet Housing for Midtown; Outer Loop Townhome Townhalls

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1 Comment

Photo of police memorial, Buffalo Bayou Park: Thomas Hawk [license]

Comments
02/09/12 11:44pm

Comment of the Day: What’s Worth the Effort

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT’S WORTH THE EFFORT “The system IS biased against low-value properties. There’s not a great deal of incentive to even file protest on a $40k mobile home, but there’s plenty of incentive to litigate the value of a downtown highrise in district court; and by that time, the highrise has had three bites at the apple. I’m not sure that there’s an easy solution to the inequity, though. Mass appraisal is a blunt tool by its very design. The right of protest allows for some of the rough edges to be smoothed out.” [TheNiche, commenting on The Office Building Appraisal Discount]

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Office Buildings
02/09/12 3:11pm

The Office Building Appraisal Discount

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THE OFFICE BUILDING APPRAISAL DISCOUNT “Across the city, prime office buildings are selling for far more than their tax values, leaving billions in potential tax revenue on the table at a time when city and county budgets are stretched,” writes business columnist Loren Steffy. “It’s almost as if there’s two sets of books: one for the buyers and sellers, and one for the tax man. A random sample of more than 40 office buildings that sold in the past five years found 2011 appraisals trailing market value by about 40 percent, or more than $1.6 billion in unrecognized taxable value.” A state law prohibits county appraisers from taking into account certain “intangibles” — including leases and occupancy rates — in valuing commercial property. [Houston Chronicle, via Off the Kuff] Photo of Heritage Plaza: Waymarking

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Montrose
02/09/12 1:19pm

Underbelly and the Hay Merchant Going Whole Hog Together

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UNDERBELLY AND THE HAY MERCHANT GOING WHOLE HOG TOGETHER Co-owner Bobby Heugel tells Amber Ambrose the craft beer bar he’s been carving out of the former Chances space at the corner of Westheimer and Waugh and the meat palace built from scratch next door for former Catalan chef Chris Shepherd will be attached but operate separately: “For the sake of efficiency and competitive pricing, the one area shared by both Underbelly and the Hay Merchant is the butchering room, with its massive double doors that can accommodate an entire cow, pig or other large animal. Certain cuts suited more for the restaurant’s menu will go into the kitchen at Underbelly and the remaining trim that make up the creative pub menu of dishes like burgers, sweetbread po’boys and crispy sweet and sour pig’s ears inside The Hay Merchant will go next door, although we suspect there will be plenty of sweetbreads and pig’s ears on Underbelly’s menu at times too. Otherwise, the two businesses are taking great pains to keep their identities separate, even going as far as banning employees of each from stepping foot into the other while they’re on the clock.” [Eater Houston] Photo: Candace Garcia

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Headlines
02/09/12 8:55am

Headlines: Grand Parkway Speeds Up; Humble Bats Go to High School

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Photo of Late Nite Pie after yesterday’s fire: Candace Garcia

Quicklink
02/08/12 12:24pm

Red-Light Camera Takedown Gets Green Light

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RED-LIGHT CAMERA TAKEDOWN GETS GREEN LIGHT A city council vote this morning means that Houston’s on-again-off-again red-light cameras will likely all be coming down in 60 days. The city agreed to a settlement with the camera vendor that would give American Traffic Solutions $4.8 million, plus a share of funds collected from red-light runners. [abc13; previously on Swamplot] Photo: West U Examiner

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Quicklink
02/08/12 11:55am

Vida’s Second Act

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VIDA’S SECOND ACT The owners of the renamed and renovated Melcher Crossing shopping center by the tracks at 4218 San Felipe brought in their own adults-only restaurant last September, reporter Rusty Graham explains: “‘We thought “how hard can it be?”’ Evie Melcher said. ‘We thought we’d just open it up and it would run itself. But there’s so much to bring together.’ Between a manager that didn’t work out and a ‘diva’ chef who quit, the Melchers have experienced and overcome the challenges. The restaurant is ‘chefless’ for the foreseeable future, the kitchen overseen by a manager. Menu items are recipes supplied by the kitchen staff; after the chef quit workers brought in family recipes that were cooked up and tried out. The best are on the menu today, what Evie Melcher calls ‘sexy Tex-Mex.’ ‘Tex-Mex doesn’t need to be weird’ she said. “Our food is less greasy, better tasting and of a higher quality, but it isn’t weird. It’s going home and not feeling so full.'” [River Oaks Examiner] Photo: Vida Tex-Mex

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