HEIGHTS-AREA RECYCLING CENTER GOING TO THE CLEANERS 
Up for a vote in this morning’s city council meeting: The sale of the First Ward recycling center at 3602 Center St. to the owners of a neighboring property for $2.01 million. Under the agreement, the city would lease back the 1-acre lot near the corner of Washington Ave. and Heights Blvd. for 18 months from Admiral Linen Service — for free. A plan to set up a new area recycling facility on Spring St. was halted 2 years ago. Update, 1:20 pm: Voting on the issue has been postponed until next week. [Houston Politics; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Alexander W.
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Tag: 77007
NEGOTIATING THE FIRST WARD FOR LAWYERS The new owner of Gravitas says the new partnership that recently bought the Taft St. restaurant from chef Scott Tycer plans to open a combination “gourmet sandwich grill, American craft beer garden and bourbon cocktail bar” suitable for “young attorneys and businessmen” at the corner of Houston Ave. and Crockett St.: “The lease on the location is still under negotiation, but [Stephen] Ross says the future design features indoor/outdoor space with garage doors, decks in the front and back, a bocce court and possibly lawn bowling.” [Culturemap]
Actual trees are still standing in the Magnolia Grove lot where that live-oak clearance event began last month. What’s left: A little street mustache lining Feagan St., between Snover and Jackson Hill. The reader who sent these photos — and says she appreciates “raw” local real-estate news — wants to know what’s going in.
A view of the cleanup after yesterday’s early-morning fire on Dickson St. west of Patterson in Magnolia Grove, to the north of the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. A single structure in a row of 31-year-old townhouses burned after what neighbors say was a large explosion.
- Firefighters: Body found in rubble of charred Houston townhome [KHOU]
- Man’s body found in Houston townhouse gutted in fire [Houston Chronicle]
- Body Found After 2-Alarm Fire [MyFox Houston]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
THE LEFTOVERS AT PHIL’S TEXAS BARBECUE 
Katharine Shilcutt at the Houston Press confirms what readers have been telling us: that Phil’s Texas Barbecue closed for good on Tuesday, leaving behind a large and now-vacant BBQ-and-picnic-style spread at the intersection of Heights Blvd. and Washington Ave. Former energy executive Phil Stephenson did manage to leave the corner a fair bit cleaner than the way he found it: Carving a 7,000-sq.-ft. restaurant space out of the former Southwest Muffler and Brake building took 9 months. Phil’s opened last June. [Eating Our Words, via Twitter; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Houston Foodie
The YMCA of Greater Houston is considering several options for the 1.3-acre piece of land off Waugh Dr. that until last week held the vacant Masterson Branch of the YWCA, according to a communications document forwarded to Swamplot. Among the possibilities for the property at 3615 Willia St., which sits on a bluff above Spotts Park and overlooks White Oak Bayou: building a new YMCA facility, collaborating with the city and area nonprofits to develop “recreational opportunities” on the site, partnering with a developer on an unspecified project, or selling it outright. If the organization is considering selling the property, why did it decide to tear down the 1982 building, designed by Houston’s Taft Architects?
Vespas welcome. And sure, the Italian spirit goes for a little valet now and then too:
Following a brief construction period beginning early summer, the space occupied by Catalan will reopen as Coppa Ristorante Italiano, a long-awaited concept for owners Charles Clark and Grant Cooper. Coppa will bring you a simple, flavorful American translation of classic Italian cuisine in a welcoming and lighthearted atmosphere that characterizes the Italian spirit.
- Changes Afoot [Catalan]
- Coppa Ristorante Italiano [Facebook]
Rendering: Coppa Ristorante Italiano. Photo: Zagat Buzz (license)
- 1506 Wichman St. [HAR]
- Previously on Swamplot: Olivewood Cemetery’s Grave Situation: Not Washed Down to the Bayou Yet
Good news for those of you who enjoy the athletic side of demolition: At the moment, crews from Cherry Demolition are hard at work taking apart not just the Downtown Y, but this iconic vacant Y on Willia St. off Waugh Dr. as well, just north of Spotts Park. It’s the former Masterson Branch YWCA, designed by Houston’s own Taft Architects in a blaze of postmodern glory back in 1979, opened in 1982, but left to collect mold spores since its closing in 2005. The property was purchased a few years ago by the Greater Houston YMCA, with plans to open a new Wortham YMCA on that location.
Swamplot reader Jason Ezer was on the spot yesterday and captured these views of the formal decommissioning ceremonies:
The longtime owners of the now-shuttered original Otto’s Bar B Que and Hamburgers on Memorial Dr. filed suit on Tuesday against their former broker, Cushman & Wakefield executive director David Cook, claiming that he failed to let them know about several offers to buy their property. As a result, the lawsuit claims, the owners ended up selling their real-estate holdings for — and settling into retirement with — only a third of the money they might have otherwise received. Marcus and June Sofka originally listed their restaurant at 5502 Memorial Dr. and some adjacent property with Cook in August 2007. Two months later, according to the suit, the Ponderosa Land Development Co. submitted a written offer for the land to Cook for $105 a sq. ft. But the Sofkas claim they didn’t hear about that offer until much later. Why wouldn’t Cook have given them such good news?
These are probably the last images you’ll see of two large oak trees on the 4200 block of Feagan, says the reader who snapped pix this morning of the clearance event that’s been going on there for the last few days. There’ll be no designing around them, apparently: A worker on the property “said he hated to do it but both remaining oaks were coming down.” Coming in, gathers the reader: maybe 28 new townhomes between Dickson and Feagan St., just west of Jackson Hill. “Numerous smaller oaks, pecans, hackberries that are now crunched on the ground” were hacked away earlier.
What’s it take to get a little paint or something thrown up onto a languishing and partially boarded-up Washington Ave building? If you’re landscape architecture firm Asakura Robinson and you’ve just moved in upstairs in front of the Drake in the building at the corner of Washington and Silver, you just put out a little invitation to Houston Street Art: Free . . . canvas! Bring on the street painters and poster kids! Nine of them showed up yesterday, including your pals weah, Article, Info, Wereone, Marbles, Sode, D-Falt, and COW. Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia caught up with the action as the paint and wheatpaste went down:
HOUSTON’S COMING CUDDLY ANIMAL INVASION 
Look out for a migration of flamingoes, and a few more bunnies for Easter, announces the Houston Press‘s John Nova Lomax, after an interview with stencil artist Coolidge. “A lot of people are like, ‘Aw, you need to do a cat!’ or ‘You should do a rhino!’ or something, and I’m like, ‘Well, if I was gonna do that, I’m not now.’ . . . It’s almost like I should stop doing them on city property. I should probably stick to private property. Some people have contacted me to thank me after I’ve done their buildings up. The city won’t mess with that stuff, but if it’s on their property they’ve been taking them down pretty quick.” [Art Attack] Photo of Taylor St. bridge at I-10: Alex Luster
Photos: Swamplot inbox
COMMENT OF THE DAY: VIEWING THE PARK MEMORIAL CONDO POOL PARTY FROM THE AIR “On Google Earth’s time slider tool, the pool turns from a light aqua blue to a dark green pea soup between Jan. 2008 and Sept. 2008.” [Superdave, commenting on The Park Memorial Condo Wildlife Refuge]