05/25/11 2:10pm

As promised, Swamplot’s original tipster sends in photos of the freelance coffin first spotted last night at the College Memorial Park Cemetery on West Dallas St. in North Montrose, a couple blocks northeast of the River Oaks Shopping Center. It’s likely been some time since this cemetery has seen a new burial. And yet — hello there! These photos are from this morning:

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05/25/11 8:23am

There’s no word — or any photos — back yet this morning from the tipster who reported spotting a coffin sitting out on the grounds of the normally dead-quiet College Memorial Park Cemetery on West Dallas near Gross St. late last afternoon. Is that . . . good news or bad news? In the meantime, a 10-point follow-up report has come in from another reader who wandered into the scene, camera in hand, as night fell — you know, just to check it out:

1) walked by late like 8:30
2) could only see 1/3rd the way in
3) couldn’t see a coffin
4) instead saw a light coming from in there (see photo [above] in middle on ground)
5) no fing way I’m going in there to check that out
6) see HPD hanging outside Juvie across the street
7) we check it out together (not that guns/tasers would help with zombies)

Zombies???

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05/24/11 7:03pm

ARE WE TALKIN’ NEW COFFIN — OR USED COFFIN? “I don’t want to panic anyone,” reports a longtime Swamplot reader and tipster who frequents the area by West Dallas and Gross St. “But there’s a coffin perched atop the ground over at College Memorial Park Cemetery. I was going to take a photo but I was too skeered. I suddenly turned into a terrified sixth grader at the sight of it.” What??? No photo? Our correspondent promises to send someone braver over with a camera — but “before it gets dark.” [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot]

05/24/11 5:07pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON’S GIVE AND TAKE “. . . COH is required by very clear and strict regulations to treat sewage to standards which make the effluent suitable for discharge into a waterway which can than have water extracted for purification into drinking water. A huge number of communities get their drinking water and discharge their sewage effluent into and from the same body of water. Think of the Trinity River. It’s no big deal.” [Spoonman., commenting on Comment of the Day: Bayou Overlook]

05/24/11 2:51pm

The endcap restaurant space on the River Oaks Village strip center just west of Kirby that’s currently home to Tony Mandola’s but before that was Fins and before that Rickshaw and Bambu — but that’s still probably familiar to more people as that “No Parking Here for Chuy’s” place — will have a new name over the door soon. Ouisie’s Table owner Elouise Adams Jones plans to open a yet-to-be-named “new American-style bistro” at 2810 Westheimer in September. Tony Mandola’s will escape to its new Waugh Dr. building as soon as it’s ready this summer, after spending only a few months in what the restaurant officially calls its “miracle location.” (Tony Mandola’s Gulf Coast Kitchen closed its longtime location in the River Oaks Shopping Center at the end of its lease in January. A high-foreheaded Brasserie 19 is open in that space now.)

Photo: LoopNet

05/24/11 1:44pm

A narrow 3-story restaurant space is planned for this long-vacant lot on Travis St. between Prairie and Preston, right next to Frank’s Pizza and Cabo’s. Plans submitted with a variance application for “Milli Place” show most of the seating would be on the second and third floors, each of which would have outdoor patio space. Why the variance? So the building can take advantage of an extra foot of width, and spread a full 31 feet along Travis St. We’ve squeezed in those narrow floor plans below:

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05/23/11 2:51pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: BAYOU OVERLOOK “Everyone I know thinks I’m crazy, but I canoed Buffalo Bayou from Highway 6 to downtown a few years ago, and it was surprisingly clean and natural. The best part was the stretch through Eleanor Tinsley Park, at the end of the trip, where the downtown skyline suddenly pops into view. In April of this year, a friend and I took a ride on the little-known public pontoon boat ride offered occasionally on Buffalo Bayou near the Sabine Street Bridge. It was a really, really neat experience, and there were only 4 people including us that were there for the ride. The city is so different from the water. They even show you the ruins of a family tomb that was used as a foundation a bridge that still exists, and there is a point where a heavy stream of clean water pours into the bayou from an uncapped artesian well under a street a few blocks away. The weather was perfect that day, and I was shocked at seeing only a few dozen people utilizing the landscaped trails and green spaces along the bayou. I’m sure on the same day, Memorial Park and Hermann Park were packed – why not this place? I wish the Bayou had a more prevalent place in Houston’s image and culture.” [Superdave, commenting on Banks Report: Tex Hex Graduates from Buffalo Bayou Movie Scene, Gets Ready for Official White Oak Bayou Premiere]

05/23/11 12:56pm

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05/23/11 11:49am

Such a rosy disposition about this Mod Ranch planted in the thick of the Galleria area. The 1956 home jumped into the market late last week, beneath Photoshop-blue skies: a 3-or-4 bedroom, 3-1/2-bath spread fitted onto a 12,960-sq.-ft. lot with just enough room for a pool in back. But what about the pinkage? How serious a case do we have here?

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05/23/11 10:34am

The familiar contours of a vast supermarket parking lot are already beginning to take shape on the 7.68-acre grounds of the former Wilshire Village Apartments at the southwest corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama. You’ll see the trees that have already disappeared from this site — or more likely, a few of their younger relatives — appearing at various sites around the neighborhood, promises a sign announcing the coming Montrose H-E-B market:

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