Awards
12/16/10 1:25pm

Last Call for Nominations

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Only 2 categories remain open for nominations in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. But they’re the biggies: 2010’s Neighborhood of the Year and Greatest Moment in Houston Real Estate. If you’ve got a great suggestion for either award, you have until midnight tonight to get it in. And here’s a tip: Sure, it’s nice to get all those standard one-word nominations — like, say, “Katy!” But to make it onto the official ballot, a nominee needs something more: Your sharp and quotable explanation for why it deserves that particular award.

One by one, we’re posting the official slates of nominees for all the other categories. Four have been posted and opened for voting so far: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Teardown, Parking Lot of the Year, and Drive-Thru of the Year. Next up: Walmart of the Year and the Washington Ave Award.

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Houston Data
12/16/10 11:48am

Playing with the Pie: Houston by Dot and Slice

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Remember those cool dot-by-dot renderings detailing the racial and ethnic distributions of 100 or so cities Swamplot featured a few months ago? Eric Fischer’s eye-opening map of Houston showed a city striped with different-colored pie-shaped wedges, but didn’t have much you could dig into. Working with data company Social Explorer, the New York Times website now has a version that displays much the same information, but it’s interactive, and allows you to zoom in on individual Census tracts. The “Mapping America” project covers the entire country and allows exploration of other metrics related to ethnicity, housing and families, income and education. Nothing’s included from the 2010 Census yet, though: the data comes the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey through 2009.

A few notable Houston-area snapshots include this map to same-sex couples:

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Awards
12/15/10 11:23pm

Drive-Thru of the Year: The Official 2010 Ballot

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We are now ready to announce the official nominees for the 4th category in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. What local institution deserves the title of Drive-Thru of the Year?

Let your votes be heard — all 4 of them! You’re allowed to vote once in a comment at the bottom of this post, once in an email to our super-top-secret email address, once through Twitter, and once on the wall of Swamplot’s Facebook fan page. (You can read more about our crazy voting rules here.) If you want to swing the voting toward your favorite candidate, go ahead: Start an email or social-networking campaign. The polls for this and all categories in the 2010 Swampies will close at 5 pm on Monday, December 27th.

The official nominees for 2010 Drive-Thru of the Year are . . .

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Demolitions
12/15/10 5:25pm

The New Smash Hits at the Meyer Park AMC 16 Theater

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Checking in from a window seat at the Luby’s on South Post Oak, Swamplot correspondent Aaron Carpenter keeps close to the slasher action now playing on all 16 demolished screens of the AMC Meyer Park Theater. As Swamplot noted last week, a new Kohl’s will be built at the shopping center after the theater drops its final curtain. Also coming to the Meyer Park center, according to reports from the scene: a brand new standalone Luby’s. The one that’s there now will be torn down.

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Awards
12/15/10 12:32pm

How To Vote and Vote and Vote and Vote for Your Favorites in the Swampies

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Did we mention you can vote up to 4 times in each category of this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate? That’s right: once in a comment to the official ballot post, once in an email to Swamplot, once from Twitter, and once on the wall of Swamplot’s Facebook page. You’ll find more details on how to do each (and how not to have your votes disqualified) here.

So it’s Wednesday. The official nominees have been announced and voting has begun in 3 categories so far: Parking Lot of the Year, Best Teardown, and Favorite Houston Design Cliché. Nominations closed last night for Walmart of the Year and the Washington Ave Award. We’ll be posting official ballots for those categories soon. Tonight at midnight, nominations will close for Most Improved Neighborhood and Least Historic Neighborhood. Do you have any last-minute suggestions for these categories? Or better yet: Can you contribute a smart and convincing explanation for why your choice deserves the award? (Really, who’s going to vote for a neighborhood just because its name is on the ballot?) Please add them now!

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Awards
12/14/10 10:06pm

Houston Parking Lot of the Year: The Official 2010 Ballot

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The third category in the 2010 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate now has its official slate of candidates! What motor-friendly expanse of this fine city should be named Parking Lot of the Year?

As the nominees are announced, voting can begin. Cast your vote by entering a comment below, by sending Swamplot an email, by Tweeting your choice, or by posting your vote on the wall of Swamplot’s Facebook page. Or by doing all 4! More details about voting rules for this year’s awards are available here.

The nominees for Parking Lot of the Year are . . .

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Comments
12/14/10 3:34pm

Comment of the Day: Another Westwood Gardens Welcome

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: ANOTHER WESTWOOD GARDENS WELCOME “Sylvia, welcome to the WG Homes community. I am very sorry to hear about your cats. Yes, there are stray dogs outside our community (the first trailer home on Gessner). It is very sad indeed. Yes, it does feel a lot like a community, and it is going to go uphill from now on. No looking back. Hope you enjoy your stay.” [Westwood G Resident, commenting on Westwood Gardens Still Life: A Photo Tour of Half-Built Houston Homes; previously]

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Awards
12/14/10 1:42pm

We’re Rolling with the Swampies!

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Nominations closed for 2 more award categories early this morning: Parking Lot of the Year and Drive-Thru of the Year. We’ll announce the official nominees and open the voting for both next. Voting began late yesterday for Favorite Houston Design Cliché and Best Teardown.

We’ve also posted the official voting rules, which are different this year. For each category, you can vote in a comment, by email, on Twitter, or from Facebook — or all 4! Please note also that campaigning for your favorite award candidates — by sending out emails to friends, Twittering, or posting about the contest in forums, other blogs, or on Facebook, for example — is highly encouraged. Start a groundswell for your choices!

There’s still just a bit more time for you to submit your nominations for the 6 remaining categories. The deadline for submissions for Walmart of the Year and the Washington Ave Award is tonight at midnight. Got any last minute suggestions — or improvements to the nominations that have already been sent in?

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Art
12/14/10 12:53pm

Fifth Ward Journey: Since When Did This House Become Art?

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The City of Houston permitting office has worked its artistic magic: There’s a house now sitting on the lot at 3705 Lyons Ave. in the Fifth Ward that’s officially classified as a sculpture. Last week, it was just a run-down bungalow a couple of miles to the northwest, at 3012 Erastus St. At what point along its journey — which after several postponements finally took place last Thursday night — did the transformation occur? City officials and demo artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck can’t pinpoint it. But we’ve got a few photos of the move. Maybe someone can point out for us the exact moment the art began?

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Awards
12/13/10 11:26pm

Best Teardown: The Official 2010 Ballot

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What was this year’s Best Teardown? That’s the second category in the 2010 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. And the official nominees are now in the (soon-to-be-demolished) house!

The voting rules for this year’s Swampies are posted here, but they’re not that complicated: You can vote for this category once each through each of 4 methods: in a comment below, in an email to Swamplot, on Twitter, or from Facebook. If you’ve got a favorite candidate, start a campaign! The polls close for all categories at 5 pm on December 27th.

The nominees for Best Teardown of 2010 are . . .

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Buying and Selling
12/13/10 6:14pm

Comment of the Day: The Mods and the Bankers

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE MODS AND THE BANKERS “My fiance and I have wanted to purchase this home for over a year. We’ve heard the banks won’t approve financing due to the foundation problems; we’d love to restore it to [its] original glory, it needs a MCM loving family–maybe you’re an investor who’d like to help us out? We don’t want this house to get into the wrong hands, it’ll break our hearts.” [Jessica Define, commenting on Scouting Report on a Walnut Bend Mod]

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Awards
12/13/10 4:55pm

Favorite Houston Design Cliché: The Official 2010 Ballot

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Here they are! The official nominees for the very first category of the 2010 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate: Favorite Houston Design Cliché. Thanks to all of our readers who submitted suggestions!

You can cast your vote for this award category simply by adding a comment to this post indicating your choice. But why not make it more fun? Don’t just tell us who you’re voting for, tell us why!

And pay attention to our new voting rules this year: You can also vote up to 3 more times — by email, on Twitter, or from Facebook — as long as you follow these rules.

And the nominees are . . .

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