11/24/10 11:49am

Here’s a more complete version of the short video posted by the Houston Press yesterday, showing a few problems with apartment 2105 at the Crescent Park Apartments at 2310 Crescent Park Dr. (near Westheimer and Kirkwood), home to Quiana Brown and her daughter for a little more than a year. The tenant’s mother, Eugenia Brown, who’s narrating, tells reporter Paul Knight she “doesn’t understand why one part of the government pays for an apartment that another part says isn’t fit to live in”: She says the apartment has failed several inspections by the Harris County Housing Authority, but apparently that hasn’t affected the apartment managers’ ability to continue to collect federal funds: According to Knight, Quiana Brown pays the $640 monthly rent with Section 8 vouchers.

Eugenia Brown says her daughter has requested to switch apartments several times. (In a separate series of hazy YouTube videos from earlier this month, Eugenia Brown documents similar unrepaired conditions in her own apartment in the complex, No. 1502 — including daily refrigerator and dishwasher leaks, sparking light switches, and combustion-friendly fixtures.) Strangely, none of the documented problems are evident in this promotional video for the apartment complex, produced almost 3 years ago:

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11/23/10 3:34pm

How many stories are hidden within the walls — or better, are covering the walls — of this 60-year-old home on Tupelo Ave. in Pasadena, about a mile south of the city’s namesake freeway? There are so many sides to it. Including, inside, what looks like a theatrical one:

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11/23/10 11:30am

This expansive custom home creation resides on just under 3 1/2 acres in the Tomball subdivision of Haven, right near Oklahoma (the one in Texas). There are 5 bedrooms and 5 baths in the main building’s 5,700 sq. ft. But if that doesn’t give you enough space to to maintain your sense of privacy, there’s always the 1,300 sq.-ft. 2-bedroom guesthouse out back. Garage space is ample enough for a 7-car motorcade, with entry protected by an automatic gate. Interior moods at the main house range from masculine to woodsy to golden to pink; additional perks include a private cinema chamber, exercise room, plus that multi-tiered entrance fountain. More views:

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11/23/10 10:48am

THIS WEEK IN NATIONAL MAGAZINE LINKBAIT Using a formula that factors in cost of living, mortgage and utility payments, median home price, and median property tax, Bloomberg Businessweek’s website has declared Hunter’s Creek Village to be the most expensive suburb in all of Texas. (And of course, they’ve named the most expensive burbs in all 49 other states too.) Median home price in the 4,819-resident city: $865,500. [Bloomberg Businessweek, via Prime Property]

11/22/10 7:52pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SUGAR LAND SHOPPING OUTINGS, BETWEEN INNINGS “Maybe this is a new suburban form of mixed use development. Who says you can’t pick up your prescriptions, grab a venti latte and watch a ball game all at the same place?” [Matt, commenting on New Sugar Land Minor League Stadium Easily Assembled from Standardized Suburban Parts]

11/22/10 3:05pm

BIOSAFETY LEVEL 4, GALVESTON How’s tricks inside the air-tight $174 million Galveston National Laboratory on the UTMB campus, where space-suited investigators get to hang out with anthrax, avian influenza, bubonic plague, Ebola, typhus, West Nile, SARS, drug-resistant tuberculosis, Rift Valley fever and other bad boys? “There’s negative pressure and high air flow. It’s all built to keep stuff inside of the envelope. Animals are housed in containment devices and any individual that comes in must be decontaminated,” director of “high containment facilities” Thomas G. Ksiazek explains to reporter Amanda Casanova: “Construction on the 186,267-square-foot building started in 2005 and scientists moved in earlier this year. In the last few months, there has been only one report of possible exposure to a level 4 agent. In August, an employee stuck herself with a needle of a Central European Tick[-borne] virus while dosing mice, according to a medical branch incident report. The incident was reported to the Centers for Disease Control, and the employee was treated and monitored for three weeks but did not get sick.” [Galveston County Daily News] Photo: Nick Saum [license]

11/22/10 12:58pm

Building a baseball stadium can be a complicated job. But the latest drawings released by PGAL, the architecture firm that’s been doing design work for Sugar Land’s new minor league ballpark, make it look like the project’s designers are doing their best to break down the process into some easily understood components, which should make the task simpler to comprehend for whichever design-build contractor is selected. Can you build some bleachers? Great! How about a brickface strip center, or maybe one of those drive-up apartment complexes? Knew you could! Now just wrap it around the outside from 1st to 3rd base, and you’ve pretty much got it.

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11/19/10 5:50pm

The family that owns this brick-and-redwood-wrapped 1960-model River Oaks Mod designed by Houston architect Arthur Kotch hasn’t listed it on MLS. But they’re hoping this Sunday’s open house organized by Houston Mod will help attract a “preservation-minded” buyer. They’ve owned the place for 45 years: a 4-bedroom, 3,371 sq.-ft. home on a 9,750-sq.-ft. lot a couple blocks behind the Lamar-River Oaks Shopping Center on Westheimer. But really, who’d pay $1.9 million just to muck it up?

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11/19/10 3:14pm

A “high-end” restaurant, led by a yet-to-be-identified “superstar chef,” will be taking over the space known for the last 16 years as Chances Bar, an owner of the property tells Houston Press reporter Craig Hlavaty. “It’s going to blow Montrose out,” Nick Vastakis tells him. “It’s going to be great.” Chances will shut down for good after a goodbye party on Saturday. Vastakis says his family, which has owned the property since the 1970s, will be getting out of the lesbian-bar management business and into property development.

What prompted the change? One of those spear-more-times-with-my-family moments, he tells Hlavaty:

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11/19/10 12:26pm

HOUSTON EV INCENTIVES: FREE JOLT FOR YOUR VOLT, TOLL RELIEF FOR YOUR LEAF At the unveiling yesterday of plans for the 150-station electric-vehicle charging network NRG Energy will be building in Houston, Mayor Parker announced a few additional perks for local EV owners: Electric vehicles that can drive fast enough will be allowed on Metro-operated HOV lanes for free, and the city will negotiate reduced rates for them on area toll roads. Owners of the new Chevy Volt will be able to get home charging stations installed for free; they’ll also be available at a reduced cost for Nissan Leaf buyers. The city will also be adding to its own small network of charging stations around the city, with 45 new additional juice dispensers for public use. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Video: eVgo