COMMENT OF THE DAY: AUDIO VIDEO PLUS CAROL “I’ve had a membership there for almost 30 years. As some have mentioned, many products of the obscure variety have NEVER come out on DVD, and may not for a while for legal reasons. These fine folks never got rid of ANYTHING!! They carry more foreign language and silent movies than most places (when places like this existed everywhere) carry titles. Another blow to the artsy side of Houston, is losing this Mecca for Movies. My last purchase there was a Carol Burnett barbie doll, dressed like her role in “Went With the Wind.†I got it for mom for Christmas.” [Rich, commenting on Audio Video Plus on Waugh is Clearing It Out]
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A steady stream of movie-minded customers — many bearing their lengthy wish lists of titles to snag — hit today’s preview of Audio Video Plus’s closeout sale. And learned that storefront operations at the shop at 1225 Waugh will be pretty much ceasing. But not entirely: Sales will continue from the location via the internet and randomly occurring open house days TBD, a store manager declared on Friday. Meanwhile, the rarely full parking lot is getting a bit more of a workout, as are the film collectors racing through the still-stocked aisles and vying for remaining packaged and rental copies of the “Movies and More” touted on a banner above the entry. The preview continues 11 to 7 Saturday.
- Previously on Swamplot: Audio Video Plus on Waugh is Clearing it Out
Photos: CALwords
There’s a new red sign stretched above the fading film posters in the storefront windows of Audio Video Plus at 1225 Waugh. It reads “Closeout Sale.†The Mecca for movie buffs has been closed for the last few days. Today, the heavy shutters securing the store’s entryway were drawn tight and the parking lot was even more empty than it usually is during business hours. The coming event, referred to as a “Customer Preview” sale in a note taped to the storefront, is scheduled for this Friday and Saturday, from 11 to 7. Is this the end of the line for the longtime specialty renter-retailer, or just a little flushing of the VHS archives?
Courtesy of Swamplot reader James Glassman, here’s a shot of what’s been connected so far under the Shepherd Dr. overpass as it crosses the end of Allen Pkwy. at Buffalo Bayou. Suspended ’neath the cars at this gateway to River Oaks: a new pedestrian bridge, which will link the aptly named Sandy Reed Memorial Trail along the bayou’s South bank with Memorial Dr. to the north. Here’s how it’s drawn out in the Buffalo Bayou master plan:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT IT TAKES TO BUILD AT THE UPPER END “You are right that you can build a very nice house for $150/sq. ft., but when you are in this stratospheric range, $150 is your starting point and you jump off from there. . . . Your roof will be slate and not composition. Goodness knows how much that costs, and how it impacts your structural engineering. Your floors will be stone and/or wide plank salvaged wood and not 2 1/2″ plain sawn oak. Your facade will be brick, not hardi plank, and bricks will cost $2-$3 each and not 50 cents. And on an 8,000 sq. ft. structure you may get 50,000, 100,000 bricks. Then you pay the mason. Your trim and doors will be custom manufactured and not stock. Your window package will be custom manufactured and not stock. Saw one house where custom fabricated metal windows cost $250,000. For the windows. Your light cans will cost 10x the cost of the cans you get in a builder spec house. You will have paid a lighting designer a fortune to tell you how to position those lights. Your HVAC, security, A/V systems will be state of the art, each of which will run tens and tens of thousands, if not more. You will insulate your house to an extreme level. And so on and so on. It all adds up . . . But yes, you can build a nice house for $150/sq. ft., but if you are building on a 50,000 sq. ft. lot on the corner of Kirby and Inwood, you just won’t.” [KG, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Out of the Closet]
- 2909 Inwood Dr. [HAR]
Reader Jeromy Murphy sends a couple pics of a temporary ford of Buffalo Bayou seen last week near the site of the Police Officers Memorial off Memorial Dr. just west of Downtown. Planned nearby: a new permanent pedestrian bridge that will make the memorial accessible to soulmates hanging about in Glenwood Cemetery to the north. The bridge will also open the memorial to visits from bikers on the recently updated trail on the bayou’s north side.
This map shows the plan:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THOSE KIDS “. . . Let me be clear. I know exactly where I live and knew where I was moving to 8 years ago. And contrary to what assumptions have been made, I love where I live and am proud of where I live. I love the history behind it. There are great people who live in all parts of this neighborhood all the way down the street to where crack is being sold. When I read this article the first thing that pops into my head is ‘park=kids=hangout.’ I am actually glad that they’re doing what they’re doing instead of putting up yet another apartment complex. The more green and conservation and beautification, the better. A park is a park, meaning where people will congregate which also means kids. Understand that when I posted this comment, I was fresh off of witnessing kids stealing a man’s phone and he being helpless to get it back. And the kids live in this neighborhood. Which just refreshed my memory of my neighbor getting his windows busted out while driving to his house by kids that live in this neighborhood who thought it would be fun to throw rocks at cars driving down the street. I think to when I was riding my scooter and kids that live in this neighborhood thought it would be fun to throw rocks at me while I was driving down the street almost causing me to wreck. I am aware that crime happens in every neighborhood. And despite the 3 instances I just wrote about I have no desire to move. I am happy to see historical sites preserved. In fact there were plans to pave some of the streets here, including mine. As many broken peices of brick there that makes it a pain on any car to drive over, the bricks are staying and will be preserved and I’m so glad! . . .” [Holly, commenting on New Fourth Ward Park of the Open Church]
Friday is the official groundbreaking ceremony for the Fourth Ward’s new Bethel Church Park — though an eagle-eyed Swamplot reader noted workers from contractor JE Dunn getting a jump on things at the site of the former Bethel Missionary Baptist Church at Andrews St. and Crosby earlier this month. The Freedman’s Town church in the shadows of Downtown, portions of which date from 1923, was largely destroyed by fire in January 2005 after several years of sitting vacant. Its shored-up walls have stood mostly undisturbed since then.
From the for-sale listings, at least. A reader tips us off that the former Enron CEO’s 12,827-sq.-ft. condo on the 33rd floor of The Huntingdon highrise at 2121 Kirby — which with a break or 2 has been a fixture on Houston’s MLS since early 2010 — is no longer listed for sale. Is the property’s owner — Lay’s widow Linda — just taking a summer break, is another re-listing planned, or is something else going on?
Some sort of work has begun on the remains of the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church on the corner of Andrews St. and Crosby in the Fourth Ward, a reader reports: “About a week ago someone put up new fencing around it, and in the past few days construction crews have started doing something to it (not sure what). . . . It used to be that the church itself was fenced off and the grassy area behind it (where the trucks are now) was open (lots of people . . . used it as an impromptu dog park). Then they pushed the fence back to cover the whole block and the trucks came in. Most mornings this week workers are dumping a bunch of stone into a waste bin that’s hauled off. I can only assume the stone is coming from the church (I don’t see where else its coming from), but I couldn’t swear to it.”
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MONTROSE OVER 40 YEARS “. . . Montrose is getting better by the day and there are NO signs that it will stop. The junk is being removed and improved. The process started in earnest 20 years ago and has another 20+ years to go. Every year the Montrose area gets more dense, more affluent, and more dynamic. Greater Montrose is where people want to live. Close to downtown? Check. Close to Galleria? Check. Close to Memorial Park? check. Close to Rice U? Check. Close to Med Center? Check. Close to bars, restaurants, and night life? Check. Close to museums and cultural events? Check. Smart people with money to invest have spent BILLIONS of their own dollars to buy and improve Montrose. There are mega trends at work here. If you can’t see it you’re not looking.” [Bernard, commenting on Changing of the Guard at a Castle Court Complex]
What’s going on with these newly created tall-suspension-only parking spots outside Marfreless behind the River Oaks Shopping Center — at the corner of Peden and McDuffie? “This story all began with a strip of grass,” explains Brinn Miracle, who documented the strip’s disappearance, its re-landscaping, the replacement of the landscaping with a ramp, the removal of the ramp, and finally, the appearance of the configuration you see here. Sure, It may look like a couple of parking spaces bisected by a row of wheel stops, but don’t let your eyes fool you: As careful study and comparison of her photos looking west (above) and east (below) should make clear, half of each space is now meant to serve as a sidewalk . . .
HARK, A FENCE! 
Six years ago the Aga Khan Foundation purchased and demolished the Robinson Warehouse at the corner of Allen Parkway and Montrose Blvd., announcing plans to build a new Ismaili Cultural Center in its place on the often soggy 11-acre site. With the exception of the appearance last year of a construction trailer for the assembly of the Rosemont Bridge over Buffalo Bayou across the street, though, there’d been no action there since. Until this week, that is, as several readers have reported: Fence posts are going up around the lot, from Allen Parkway all the way back to and along West Dallas. “I am wondering if this is actually a sign of construction on the center or if they are just tired of people parking/running dogs on the property,” writes one correspondent. “I will be on the look out for Port-A-Cans.” Photo: Swamplot inbox
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MONTROSE, GOING VEGAS “. . . It took Montrose it’s whole lifetime to get to ~7000 units. Yes there is strong demand, no one would doubt that . . . which is why you have people building. But they’re building at a frantic pace. So while it took Montrose it’s whole life to ~7000 units, we’re about to DOUBLE that in a few years. So strong demand brings strong supply. I believe turds is saying that the supply is coming so strong that it’ll outpace demand and thus create the need for incentives. Personally I think we’re going to have a Vegas (strip) style disruption in econ 101 where supply tends to CREATE demand. As these units come online, they’ll make the area better, and increase demand to live here. These units won’t be for the people living here. They’ll be for new people coming here. So I think Montrose can take these units on and be just fine (with respects to multifamily operator demand).” [Cody, commenting on What To Make of the Museum Gardens Sale]