Seen floating past Thelma Dr. in Woodland Heights late yesterday.
- Check out lane on White Oak [Is This Houston?]
Photo: Pankaj
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Tag: 77009
A reader sends in this photo showing the results of a recent heavy metal delivery to the median of Fulton St. across from Moody Park: Rails, for the coming 5.3-mile North Line extension to Lindale Park. Swamplot’s Northside construction correspondent reports the street appears paved and ready for the tracks to be installed.
- North Line coverage [Swamplot]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Inspired, perhaps, by Andrea Grover’s transformation of a former church just down the street into the Aurora Picture Show microcinema (it’s now called 14 Pews), the sellers of the 1960 vintage Community Gospel Church at 608 Aurora St. have now taken to the residential real estate market to unload their 8,190-sq.-ft. building on a 17,880-sq.-ft. Sunset Heights corner lot. Yes, says the listing, this unique property could be converted to a “1-of-a-kind magnificent show home,” or several single-story condos, or — and we quote — “just use land if you have no imagination.” (Bravo!) Among the itemized suggestions for the 80-ft.-by-42-ft. sanctuary, which seats 275 devout worshippers: “fabulous” media or game room; quarters or (very large) mother-in-law apartment; “party room,” or — yes — personal bowling alley. Here it is:
Saves me money!!! Radical Eats owner Staci Davis has taken to Kickstarter — and this woozy video — to raise money to add a water filtration system, better air conditioning, and a beer and wine license to her new vegan Mexican restaurant location at 3903 Fulton St., just north of Moody Park. Davis, who jettisoned plans to work out of the kitchen at the Heights Ashbury Coffeehouse after only a few weeks there, took over the former Kiko’s Mexican Cafe location just before the July 4th holiday. So far, she’s raised $325 of $8,000 she hopes to net for improvements to the Radical Eats Cafe. What will you get for your contribution, besides — if the target is reached — the ability to buy and drink a meat-and-dairy-free cold one on site? For $5, a written thank-you note and a hug at each visit. For $500: a dish at the restaurant named after you or your organization, a few more goodies, and a custom-made hula hoop.
- Radical Eats Beer and Wine Garden [Kickstarter]
- A vegan Mexican restaurant with a beer garden and a killer brunch? Staci Davis gets Radical [Culturemap]
- Radical Eats Cafe – Comida Vegetariana [Radical Eats]
- Previously on Swamplot: Here Comes That 19th St. “Hippie Vibeâ€: Radical Eats Opening in Heights Ashbury Coffeehouse
Video: Kickstarter
LIGHTS IN THE HEIGHTS TO STAY ON, JUST TURNED DOWN A BIT 
The esplanade and corner food trucks will be gone, the parade will be “de-emphasized,” and the police will be active at the next Lights in the Heights, according to a Woodland Heights Civic Association email received by Martin Hajovsky. According to some estimates, 50,000 people attended last year’s annual Christmas-y event. To assuage neighborhood concerns about possible vandalism, public drunkenness, and commercialization, the event will be held earlier in the evening and shortened by an hour as well. [Home in the Heights, via Hair Balls] Photo: Jason Tinder [license]
Why is the original scale model of AstroWorld listed for sale on Craigslist? Curator Bill Davenport spent a lot of time dusting the giant model before exhibiting it at his Norhill gallery last fall. He says he’s going to need to move the “irreplaceable (if awkwardly large) bit of Houston history” out of Optical Project on 11th St. soon — “and I really don’t want to dis-assemble it and put it back in Mr. Henderson’s garage, where it will get dirty again.” Ed Henderson built the model in 1967; it was returned to him when the park was dismantled 6 years ago — after long stints in Judge Hofheinz’s 9th-level suite at the Astrodome, and in a Foley’s display case downtown before that. For the Craigslist appearance, Davenport jacked up the asking price to $5,500, but says Henderson would accept $3,000 “from somebody who planned to keep the model in Houston, or donate it to the Houston Public Library’s Metropolitan Research Center.” Library representatives have told Davenport they’d like to put the model on display in the newly expanded Julia Ideson building downtown, but don’t have the money to pay for it.
- Original model of Astroworld – $5500 [Craigslist]
- AstroWorld 1968 [Optical Project]
- Previously on Swamplot: For Sale: Early Model AstroWorld
Photos: Bill Davenport
A reader passes on these renderings showing the new Sherman Elementary School planned for the school’s current location at 1909 McKee St. in Northside Village. Construction of the 86,000-sq.-ft. structure is on target to begin within 2 months, after the existing school is demolished. The new school will serve students from Crawford Elementary, which will then be closed.
Renderings: HISD
WHITE OAK BAYOU BIKE BYPASS IMPASSE What’s preventing the Houston Parks Board from connecting the end of the MKT Bike Trail in Timbergrove Manor with the White Oak Bayou Trail to create a continuous 14-mile route, and giving Oak Forest residents a path to stroll or roll all the way Downtown? Well, there are these 5 tracts of land in “a key section” in the 3/4-mile gap between Lawrence Park and T.C. Jester Park, project manager Trent Rondo tells Greg Densmore: “. . . of the five property owners tied to those tracts, four were working with the Parks Board while the fifth ‘was being a little feisty’ and was not yet ready to negotiate.” [The Leader, via Swamplot commenter KS; previously on Swamplot]
Your latest retail edition:
- Closing and Expanding: New Orleans import Kaboom Books has shut down its Studewood location in the Heights strip center next to Antidote Coffee. Open now: more space for books and readers in the 3116 Houston Ave. storefront at the end of Bayland in Woodland Heights. The expanded store incorporates the north end of the streetfront building, and includes a back yard and reading area.
- Moving: The storefront division of PH Design Shop, from its Shepherd Dr. hangout next to Sugarbaby’s Cupcake Boutique, to a larger 1,440-sq.-ft. space at 2414 Rice Blvd. in the head-in-parking paradise of Rice Village, later this month. The new store will allow the addition of gifts and tabletop items to the store’s mix of custom mix of funky paper goods and custom design services.
One more:
Noting the new handcrafted plywood “for sale or lease” signs now hanging on White Oak in front of King Biscuit Patio Cafe, a few Swamplot readers have written in to tell us that it looks like the Woodland Heights restaurant’s promised comeback has been called off before it even started. Restaurant guide b4-u-eat announced last month that building owner Pat Quinn would be teaming up with former Fitzgerald’s owner Sara Fitzgerald to reopen the restaurant. One reader tells Swamplot that remodeling work came to a halt 2 weeks ago, and that Fitzgerald spent all of last Thursday moving out of the building. The signs — one of them advertising the availability of owner financing — were posted over the weekend.
- Previously on Swamplot: Will King Biscuit Bounce Back?
Photos: Swamplot inbox
Woodland Heights hangout King Biscuit Patio Cafe closed its doors on Saturday night. Sources tell Swamplot that cafe owner Roger Aggoun’s lease was not renewed. Now b4-u-eat is reporting that building owner Pat Quinn — who opened the place at 1606 White Oak in 1982 but later sold it — plans to team up with the former owner of Fitzgerald’s to reopen the restaurant. Sara Fitzgerald retired last year from running the live-music venue at the other end of White Oak; she opened Fitzgerald’s in 1977.
Photo: Renny Glover
- 606 Cottage St. [HAR]
- 1120 N. Luzon St. [HAR]
Planning director Marlene Gafrick is recommending that city council shrink the boundaries of the proposed Houston Heights South and Woodland Heights historic districts before approving them — but only slightly. In this morning’s meeting, Gafrick presented a map of Houston Heights South with “squared off boundaries” in the southeast corner and western edges of the district, and that excludes a number of residences on Oxford St. For Woodland Heights, her map cuts out some properties on Omar St. She proposed making no changes to the proposed boundaries of the Glenbrook Valley district. The actual designation and boundaries of the districts will be up to city council.
- Historic Districts coverage [Swamplot]
Photo from 800 block of Columbia St.: Swamplot inbox
Has Metro ever made a more expensive mistake than spending $42 million on a contract with a Spanish rail-car construction firm that violated federal procurement rules? Now that the American subsidiary of Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles has agreed to return $14 million of that money, the answer is yes: That would be the $41 million Houston’s transit agency reports it spent on developing an intermodal terminal at the corner of Main and Burnett streets just north of Downtown. Metro CEO George Greanias confirms the agency has given up on the design (above), which would have included a giant octopus-like dome, bus bays, a commuter rail terminal, a “kiss-and-ride” area, and maybe a Metro RideStore, restrooms, newsstands, food stands, and gift shops. There will still be a Burnett Transit Center station with a North Line rail stop, but Greanias tells the Chronicle‘s Chris Moran the trashed design would have been too expensive to run. Metro may have even killed the bus station part: Greanias says they haven’t decided whether any other modes of transit will connect to the light-rail line at that location.
- Metro admits it blew a large fortune [Houston Chronicle]
- Intermodal Terminal Frequently Asked Questions
- Previously on Swamplot: Main St. Intermodal Transit Center Kiss-Off, On the Shelf: That Grand North Main Intermodal Center
- Previously on Swamplot: Houston’s Next Light Rail Lines Delayed Until 2014, Feds To Metro: Back off the Spanish Trains and We’ll Fund Your North and Southeast Lines
