Or, if you’d wanted your water to look a little different:
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Successive photos of the results of a hack made to the lighted construction sign parked across from the Hogg Palace on Louisiana St. just north of Prairie over the weekend. The pic above shows the message displayed on Sunday night. What’s so funny, really? Maybe something to do with the message on display the night before:
The new owner of Texas Rice’s old Fidelity St. property has already begun demolishing the grain silos on the site, which are just visible from the East Freeway. A reader sends Swamplot this photo taken late yesterday of the view from Market St., just southeast of the intersection of I-10 east and the 610 Loop. McCorvey Real Estate Holdings bought the 22-acre industrial facility last October, and is spending about $600,000 to upgrade warehouses on the site. The company plans to spend a similar amount on improvements for future tenants, then $5 million more within the next couple of years on 130,000 more sq. ft. of industrial space. There’s 141,280 sq. ft. of space there already, though that figure includes the silos that are coming down.
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Please, sir, can you take some more?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THERE’S A LITTLE BIT OF HOUSTON ON EVERY BEACH “. . . from my house on Padre, the surf sounds just like the SW Fwy, only BETTER.” [miss_msry, commenting on Comment of the Day: That’s What the Surf Sounds Like in Houston]
Back on the market at a new, slightly higher price: This hulking 1979 single-story mod in Atascocita Shores, spread across 2 acres of Lake Houston’s west bank. For $1,250,000, you get a 7,319-sq.-ft. 5-bedroom, 4-full and 2-half bath lakeside pad; a 4-car attached garage; a guest house; and all the water you can look at or drink:
Two immigrants from El Salvador who survived what they describe as a “precarious existence” as undocumented workers in Houston for several years plan to buy the 3 Ruggles Grill buildings at 903 Westheimer, tear them down, and build a new 7,500-sq.-ft. restaurant on the site just east of Montrose Blvd. Jose and Gloria Fuentes met each other in Houston after fleeing their war-torn native country in 1978. Their Salvadorian restaurant chain, Gloria’s, now has 12 locations in the Dallas area and one in Austin. The Ruggles purchase hasn’t been completed, the HBJ‘s Allison Wollam reports. But the company also plans to open 3 additional locations nearby: in Sugar Land, The Woodlands, and West U. Ruggles chef and co-owner Bruce Molzan hinted last month that he’d reopen the Ruggles flagship in a new location if the building sold. The 26,812-sq.-ft. property was listed for sale at the end of last year.
- Dallas restaurant eyes Ruggles, plans four Houston locations [Houston Business Journal]
- About Us [Gloria’s Restaurants]
- Is Ruggles Grill on the move? Westheimer institution’s building for sale [Culturemap]
- 903 Westheimer [Moody Rambin]
Photo: Moody Rambin
CALLING OFF THE IDYLWOOD BEDBUG INVASION 
That great wave of bedbugs storming through the East End that Swamplot reported on last week? Probably didn’t happen, reports the neighborhood resident who first sounded the alarm. After a careful investigation that included the assistance of a local science teacher and microscope, Idylwood blogger Lauren H. now indicates that she believes the critters found in her living room were carpet beetles. “At least we don’t have blood sucking parasites. We just have little critters who love to eat fabric and wood and are equally hard to get rid of. I found the source of our problem today. It’s our maroon chair we inherited from Jason’s parents. They have been telling us to get rid of it for years.” [East End Escapades; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Lauren H.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THAT’S WHAT THE SURF SOUNDS LIKE IN HOUSTON “. . . I almost bought a home in Woodside (610) but skipped it due to the noise though. I told my wife if you try you could pretend it’s the ocean. It actually sounds JUST like the Gulf does about 12 blocks back in Jamaica Beach in Galveston.” [Craig, commenting on The Sound of the 290 Expansion]
One of the big local stories of the 2010 Census was the decline in the number of majority-Anglo areas throughout Harris County. This map from consultant and Census obsessive Greg Wythe diagrams the trend pretty clearly. The areas colored red are where the portion of the local population identifying itself as Anglo dropped 10 percent or more; the areas where that group’s share of the population dropped by less than 10 percent are marked brown (Wythe says he started out painting them orange, but the satellite photo in the background made it darker). Areas marked a light blue are where the percentage of Anglos increased by less than 10 percent. And the dark blue (okay, purplish) areas show where Whites have been rushing in: Anglos’ share of the total population jumped by more than 10 percent in those areas.
“If you were to measure solely on the basis of the number of Anglos,” he explains, “you’re likely to see a lot of growth in areas where there’s growth in general. Cypress is an example — they grew in every demographic because they grew a lot, period.” But Wythe’s map tracks the changes in percentage of the population, not population growth.
The big exception to the overall trend of declining percentages of Anglos? The Heights.
Emerging this week onto the market from usually low-slung Lazybrook: This honking 2-story from the seventies, weighing in at 3,670 sq. ft. on a half-acre lot. Just a few blocks south of White Oak Bayou, in the upper left armpit of the 610 Loop, the place looks like it has room for more than a couple: There are double ovens, double disposals, double dishwashers, double AC systems, double sinks in the Master Bath, and recent double-paned windows. Only one swimming pool, though. Then there’s this logo and mascot:
- 10818 Pepper Ln. [HAR]
Memories of redevelopments past at Woodway and Voss, plus a little clearing action from down in Lancaster Place:
