Tucked into that sorta-industrial area just south of Garden Oaks, behind the warehouse at 954 Wakefield: A brand-new array of beach volleyball courts under construction. The reader who sent in this photo of the scene wants to know what’s up — or at least whose serve it is. A closer view of the nets:
Reopened yesterday after almost 2 years of construction and renovation: The Oak Forest Library at 1349 W. 43rd St., sporting 2 new brick-and-glass wings on the buildings west side, around a new outdoor reading room. The original building’s signature green tile mosaic wall still faces the Oak Forest Shopping Center’s continuous W. 43rd St. parking lot, but a new second entrance for the neighborhood now peeks out from behind a much greener space on Oak Forest Dr. — across the street from Oak Forest Elementary:
OAK FOREST: NEW WEST U OR MINI BELLAIRE? The Chronicle is out with its annual survey of area home prices. Sadly, this year’s online version doesn’t allow easy cost-per-square-foot comparisons, leaving Houstonians who like to build and buy their residences in bulk without much to oooh and aah over. Consolation: The accompanying neighborhood profiles include a peek at the controversy that’s apparently been raging through Oak Forest: “‘I call it the new West University,’ said Jason Light, owner of the Light Group, a local real estate firm active in the Inner Loop area. . . . Marlene Casares and her husband, Jalin Casares, looked all over town before settling on Oak Forest, she said. A year ago they bought a new 4,300-square-foot home. . . . ‘It’s like a little mini Bellaire, but with better prices,’ she said.” [Houston Chronicle]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: FOLLOW THE MINI STORAGE “Mini Storage facilities are almost always limited partnerships designed to last 7-10 years and put on strategically poised land the developers/LLP’s have determined will increase in value. The facilities are generally inexpensive to build and maintain and are easy to demo once the property has gained enough value to where it is sold for development. The area all along 34th street is just not ready for redevelopment yet. It’s currently a dump. Additional years of creeping development from the Northern Heights will be required to eventually turn the 34th St. blight into the redevelopment gem many hope for.” [CK, commenting on What They’re Doing to Food Land on Ella]
These gold-colored turret-toppers were at long last delivered to the Hare Krishna Temple on 34th St. at Golf Ave. this week, reports a Swamplot reader who sent in photos. Construction on a new 24,000-sq.-ft. temple at the facility — scheduled to include a vegetarian restaurant inside — began in 2005. The Houston congregation of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness first moved into a former church at 1320 W. 34th St. in 1984. Two deities made out of brass — but which looked like they might be gold — were stolen from an altar at the temple last October. Here’s what the new building is supposed to look like when it’s finished:
How is it that Garden Oaks residents are so sure that the former Food Land supermarket at the corner of Ella and Judiway is going to be turned into a storage facility and not, say, a long-rumored H-E-B? Well, there’s this sign up on the property, which pretty much makes it clear what’s happening to the 32,596-sq.-ft. space.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
COMMENT OF THE DAY: DONUT RUSH HOUR IN OAK FOREST 
“That Shipley’s must draw folks from miles around. Theres almost always a long line of cars, often extending out onto Ella. I am always amazed too at the long lines late at night…who eats donuts at 11pm? I guess they’re night shift workers.
Yep, they need to re-do that whole shopping plaza and center it around that Shipleys, providing tons of drive-thru space :)” [JRo, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: The Ella Square Deal] Photo of Shipley’s Donuts, 3410 Ella Blvd.: Chad & Susan Harris
This updated corner Ranch with the DJ-booth-style kitchen in the center sits just outside the designated 100-year floodplain in Candlelight Estates. It showed up in MLS just yesterday, sporting a $349K sticker price. Includes 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a 9,400-sq.-ft. lot, a pool, and these HDR pix:
Kassy Rodriguez’s plan for turning the months-old dog park at T.C. Jester Park in Oak Forest into a “dog Astroworld”? Create gravel walkways, put kennels next to the restrooms so your doggie won’t have to watch you pee, embiggen the play areas, add ponds with gentle sandy banks, and build some sort of zip line owners can attach fake furry critters to, so tennis-ball-shy canines can have something to chase after. But the most important part of her plan: Turning up the volume on the Texas twang in her contest-entry video (screen capture shown above), so some dog-food company will pay for all the improvements. It’s succeeding so far: Rodriguez and her dog Dora have reached the finals in Purina’s Beneful WagWorld Dream Dog Park contest. Voting is open to the public, but it ends tomorrow. The top vote-getter wins $500,000 for local dog-park improvements, a small cash prize, and a year’s worth of chow.
Armed with your suggestions, roving Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia set out to document the smallest freestanding commercial buildings in Houston she could find. And here are the results! Above, “The Spot” hair salon at 1207 Westheimer in Montrose, at the corner of Commonwealth.
More tiny:
Swamplot advertiser Robert Searcy typically knows his way around southeast Houston, but finds himself a bit disoriented on a recent venture north to Garden Oaks. An encounter with the former strip-center home of Binswanger Glass at North Shepherd and 34th St. has him stumped:
Someone renovated it and anyone who takes a center like this and DOESN’T slather it in stucco with the obligatory strip of crown molding on the top, well, in my book they deserve kudos just for that. They seemed to have brought it back to its original design. There is one tenant in there now and a sign on the corner slot saying an application to sell liquor has been filed. It says it is for some kind of a coffee shop named Octane, (but apparently one that sells booze too). At any rate, a sensitive renovation and then a tenant mix that isn’t a combo of a check cashing place, a nail salon & a subway sandwich shop? I don’t know how to act.
Oh, but part of it’s already gone to the dogs:
Oh, to be a fly on the heavily patterned wallpaper when statesmen and royalty make their appointments! In this home on Richelieu Ln. in Shepherd Park Plaza, for instance — what sage counsel was offered, followed?
A look at the royal treatment:
All hail the winner of this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game: Ms Cleo! Well, we promised you glory if you won. Now’s your moment to shine. Congratulations!
Some lovely sleuthing and commentary appeared in this week’s round. Our runner-up, Claire de Lune, was oh so very close but ended up on the wrong side of Shepherd.
Want to see a little more of this home . . . say, the outside?
MORE OF THE STORY OF THOSE DISAPPEARING OAK FOREST OAKS 
“My neighbor lived in what you would consider a ‘tear down.’ For several years she struggled with selling and moving or rebuilding on the lot. A big factor in the decision was finding a builder that would keep the integrity of the lot and not cut down the gem – a 100 year old tree that is 4′ in diameter. She thought that she found the builder that respected the tree and had the same vision while simultaneous[ly] she found her dream home over in Garden Oaks. . . . Shortly after the transition, a family bought the lot and are ready to build . . . I have 2 neighbors including myself that would take this tree. I have till Friday to find an association that would underwrite this project and be interested in saving this tree.” [Kat Alan Madison + Austin; previously on Swamplot] Photo: HAR
COMMENT OF THE DAY: OAK FOREST OAK SEEKS HELP WITH MOVE “A neighbor of the Woodcrest demo is seeking help relocating a 100-year old red oak that is scheduled to be part of that demo. If anyone has the resources and/or machinery to do so email me or post here and I will put you in touch with her. mmatt_chew at h0tmail d0t c0m.” [mek ju, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Memorial Plaza]
