Swamplot Archives by Tag: 77017

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Pay No Attention to the Bayou

December 9, 2008 – 12:39 pm
   

Lisa Gray gets a glimpse of the “chai-colored” waters of Berry Bayou behind her 1966-model Meadowcreek home: “Most of the new houses sprouting in the neighborhood did their level best to ignore the bayou. Most of them still do; it’s rarely a selling point. A year ago, I was delighted to find that not only was it possible to buy a non-flooding bayou house for $150K, but that it might not cost any more than a similar three-bedroom house on a neighboring suburban lot. On har.com’s real estate listings, bayou frontage either went unmentioned or hid under the faint praise ‘no backyard neighbors’ — the same thing sellers say when a house backs up to train tracks. When first looking at the house I now live in, I had to stand on an overturned bucket to see over the privacy fence and down to the water.” [Houston Chronicle]

12:39 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Buying and Selling, Flooding, Home Design, Neighborhoods: Meadowcreek, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Vista Bonita Apartments: Still Open for the Holidays!

November 26, 2008 – 10:15 am
   

Where’s everybody going? Sure, the gas is turned off, but really, what’s the rush? “Most residents have moved, but those from about 20 apartments remain in the 144-unit complex near the Gulf Freeway and Airport Boulevard, [Vista Bonita Apartments owner Nanik] Bhagia said. Many of those who remain are close to finding apartments, but are embittered that Bhagia has given them such short notice. . . . Bhagia on Tuesday said residents don’t have to move out immediately — if they need more time, they can have it. State law generally affords tenants — depending on their lease — more time than a few days to move out. Bhagia’s notice to vacate is not a formal eviction process. But he could seek to evict tenants who don’t leave.” [Houston Chronicle; previously]

10:15 am | Add a Comment | Read more about Apartments, Hazards, Neighborhoods: South Houston Gardens, Openings and Closings, Quicklink
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Vista Bonita Apartments Closing Monday

November 19, 2008 – 8:46 am
   

The owner of a rundown apartment compound on the edge of South Houston where a boy drowned late last month has decided to shut down the entire 144-unit complex rather than correct unsafe conditions identified by the city: “In a brief phone interview Tuesday, [owner Nanik] Bhagia repeated his pledge to refund November rent and security deposits. He said he also would pay residents’ application fees at new complexes, but ended the call when pressed for specifics. Some tenants have said the office often is closed, and they were not sure Tuesday how to take advantage of his offer. Bhagia later e-mailed the Chronicle to say that tenants ‘will be paid when they turn in the keys and do not take away any of our appliances. We are not running away.’ The child’s death prompted more scrutiny from city inspectors, who descended again on the property and issued dozens of new citations. Residents say Bhagia blamed conditions on Hurricane Ike, but the city has been issuing tickets for years.” [Houston Chronicle; previously]

8:46 am | Add a Comment | Read more about Apartments, Hazards, Neighborhoods: South Houston Gardens, Openings and Closings, Quicklink
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Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Case Against Going Paperless

October 30, 2008 – 12:27 pm
   

At least 72 safety-violation cases against the owner of a run-down apartment complex just outside South Houston were dropped last year because the paperwork was lost, say city officials. A toddler drowned in the apartment’s pool earlier this week. “Randy Zamora, the city’s chief prosecutor, said an outside company hired to digitally scan some 7 million archived and pending tickets might have misplaced the documents. The error allowed [Nanik] Bhagia, who did not return telephone and e-mail requests for comment on Wednesday, to delay for a year facing a jury or making repairs to the Vista Bonita Apartments, 9313 Tallyho. . . . Police investigators said the boy may have reached the murky pool by stepping through a damaged fence or a faulty gate, both of which are violations of city code.” [Houston Chronicle]

12:27 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Apartments, Hazards, Neighborhoods: South Houston Gardens, Quicklink
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Friday, March 28, 2008

Weekend Open House Tour: Meadowcreek

March 28, 2008 – 11:06 pm

Whispering, Cripple, Shady, or Straight: In Meadowcreek, every street is its own creek! The neighborhood has lots of great old houses, preserved marvelously in the area’s specially formulated air. These four homes are all on the Houston side of the neighborhood, and they’re all open for inspection this weekend!

5238 Cripple Creek Ct., Meadowcreek, Houston

Location: 5238 Cripple Creek Ct.
Details: 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths; 2,470 sq. ft.
Price: $172,900
The Scoop: 1968 Storybook Ranch with lots of brickish accents inside. Big Kitchen opens to Family Room with cylindrical corner fireplace. Lot next door is also available. On the market since the beginning of the month.
Open House: Sunday, noon-3 pm

Click this way to see more!

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11:06 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Homes for Sale, Neighborhoods: Meadowcreek, Open Houses
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Southeast Side: A Tour of the Houston Heartland

February 27, 2008 – 1:01 pm

El Torito Lounge, Harrisburg Blvd., Houston

Houston’s lone professional tourists, John Nova Lomax and David Beebe, stop off at the Brady’s Island in the Ship Channel midway into their latest day-long stroll . . . through this city’s southeastern stretches:

The air is foul here, and the eastern view is little more than a forest of tall crackers and satanic fume-belching smokestacks, sending clouds of roasted-cabbage-smelling incense skyward to Mammon, all bisected by the amazingly tall East Loop Ship Channel Bridge, its pillars standing in the toxic bilge where Brays Bayou dumps its effluent into the great pot of greenish-brown petro-gumbo.

While Brady’s Landing today seems to survive as a function room – a sort of Rainbow Lodge for the Ship Channel, with manicured grounds that reminded Beebe of Astroworld — decades ago, people came here to eat and to take in the view. This was progress to them, this horrifically awesome vista showed how we beat the Nazis and Japanese and how we were gonna stave off them godless Commies. As for me, it made me think of Beebe’s maxim: “Chicken and gasoline don’t mix.”

More from the duo’s march through “Deep Harrisburg”: Flag-waving Gulf Freeway auto dealerships, an early-morning ice house near the Almeda Mall, a razorwire-fenced artist compound in Garden Villas, Harold Farb’s last stand, colorful Broadway muffler joints, the hidden gardens of Thai Xuan, and — yes, gas-station chicken.

“There is nothing else like the Southeast side,” Lomax adds in a comment:

I see it as the true heart of Houston. Without the port and the refineries we are nothing. The prosperous West Side could be Anywhere, USA, but the Southeast Side could only be here.

Photo of El Torito Lounge on Harrisburg: John Nova Lomax and David Beebe

1:01 pm | Read more about Air Quality, Houston History, Neighborhoods: Garden Villas, Neighborhoods: Park Place, Restaurants, Tourism, Toxic Sites, Water Quality
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Friday, June 15, 2007

Daily Demolition Report: Pushovers

June 15, 2007 – 8:25 am

On today’s knock-down docket: Portions of four businesses and six houses. Read ’em and weep—after the jump.

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8:25 am | Read more about Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
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Tuesday, May 22, 2007

New Listings: Where the Mid-Century Moderns Are

May 22, 2007 – 10:34 am

Back View of 5226 Berry Creek

Stained Glass Window at 5226 Berry Creek Dr.A three-bedroom, two-bath, 2700-square-foot house on a cul-de-sac. A half-acre, wooded, park-like lot. Overlooking the bayou. Designed by Houston’s own Frank-Lloyd-Wrightian architects, MacKie & Kamrath, and built in 1969. Lots of built-ins and stained glass.

At $259,000, is it a bargain?

It’s in Meadow Creek Village. Meadowcreek has some nice mid-century moderns. But yes, it’s on the southeast side of Houston, and it’s not too far from Hobby Airport or Pasadena. That bayou is Berry Creek, a tributary of Sims Bayou.

So some of you are probably imagining how nice this house would be if it were only in a different part of town.

How nice would it be? Read on for an estimate—and more photos.

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10:34 am | Read more about Buying and Selling, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Neighborhoods: Meadowcreek
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