07/17/08 9:04pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game 16: Foyer

More new players in this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game . . . but more old guesses, too!

Three of the 4 Montrose guesses were nicely specific: We had Montrose north of Alabama and west of Montrose Blvd., “the northwestern corner of Montrose, east of Shepherd around West Dallas,” and “either off Hawthorne or above Westheimer between Dunlavy and Montrose.” Two of you guessed the Heights, with a third player specifying the “Shepherd/Durham side” of the neighborhood. There was another vote for Woodland Heights.

Six guesses clumped together: Boulevard Oaks, Edgemont, Greenbriar, Southampton, Southgate, off Bissonnet east of Kirby. We had individual guesses of Garden Oaks, River Oaks, “the area around Braeswood and Buffalo Speedway,” and Bunker Hill. Also, single votes for the generic “Eastside,” “around the Medical Center off 288,” Eastwood, Idylwood, Sienna Plantation, Sugarland, Friendswood, Pearland, and Village Grove in Pasadena.

The winner is . . . first-time guesser Chris, who strolled right into the correct neighborhood:

Nicely remodeled…has a 20’s or 30’s style, though I cannot tell if it is designed that way or authentic. Looks like they use every inch for living or storage, which means it *is* probably genuinely old–still, I am not sure of the actual size as the wide-angle lens throws me off. Still, the look is reminiscient of Eastwood’s finer homes, or perhaps Idylwood.

. . . but then kept on going:

Or maybe off Greenbriar around Rice. Now I’m confusing myself.

Come on back to the East Side, Chris!

Another first-time player, Brian, clearly deserves an honorable mention for making these sharp calls:

It looks like the dropped ceilings along the edge of the kitchen were done for the sole purpose of adding air conditioning after construction. The vegetation appears too close, too big, too lush to be new construction. The roof line on the second floor seems more shingle style than victorian, so I doubt the Heights.

After the jump: on the Live Bodies side of Brays Bayou. Plus . . . it’s been snagged!

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04/10/08 10:51am

Courtyard Apartments, 950 Villa de Matel, Houston

Chronicle reporter Matt Stiles has found two more properties owned by State Rep. Hubert Vo: The Northpoint Apartments, at 74 Lyerly St., just north of the Northpoint Mall; and the Capewood Apartments, at 4335 Aldine Mail Rd., outside city limits.

And, uh, they’re not in great shape:

Tomasa Compean, 58, has lived for 18 years in her one-bedroom unit, where she pays $450 a month and has never received new carpet or paint. White powder bug poison outlines her baseboards, and a leaky faucet has left a large patch of rust and mildew in her tub, which apartment officials have covered only with paint.

“There are a lot of defects in the apartment,” said Compean, speaking in Spanish. She also complained about a lack of security at the complex. “The worst things are the roaches and mice. That’s just too much.”

Carmen Aguilar, whose two-bedroom apartment faces a dusty courtyard next to a swimming pool filled with opaque green water, pointed to a buckled wall and a large, moldy hole above her bathtub.

The Chronicle also found other potential violations at the complex, including an entry gate bent to a 45-degree angle, discarded furniture, masonry damage and busted breezeway lights. Workers could be seen Wednesday making some repairs, a day after the Chronicle asked the city about the property. . . .

Among other potential city violations at three complexes were overflowing Dumpsters, damaged parking lots and an algae-filled swimming pool — all conditions that could prompt criminal fines.

Vo, who has owned the properties for years, took blame for the problems Wednesday, saying he had not done enough to ensure the complexes were maintained. He said he would improve the conditions, pledging personal inspections of individual units, cooperation with city officials and outreach to residents to encourage them to report concerns.

One thing that will help: Vo is apparently a quick study with repair estimates. A year ago, Houston Press reporter Ruth Samuelson spoke to him at Thai Xuan Village near Glenwood Valley, just north of Hobby Airport, after it was threatened with demolition. Mayor White had asked Vo to serve as a liaison between residents of the complex and the mayor’s office:

. . . Vo thinks the community can’t tackle this project; it’s far too big. Vo, who owns several apartment complexes, says he walked the perimeter of Thai Xuan Village when he was there mid-March.

“I believe the structure could be okay, maybe some railings need to be fixed,” he says. “But the face-lift of the property needs to be done.” After a quick examination, he said the project would cost well over $100,000.

04/03/08 8:10pm

Courtyard Apartments, 950 Villa de Matel, Houston

A resident of nearby Simms Woods sends us photos of an apartment complex off Wayside Dr. that’s received a number of citations recently . . . but not the good kind:

The citations to the Courtyard Apartments on Villa de Matel allege eight structural and electrical problems, including rotting wood, missing balcony railings, loose boards and broken windows, city officials said. . . .

Tenant Victoria Vargas said that when she moved in a year ago, the management refused to replace the tattered mini-blinds, outdated appliances and worn carpet.

Now, she said in Spanish, she also must contend with leaky ceilings, rats and high energy bills for her $400-a-month unit.

State Rep. Hubert Vo has owned the 241-unit complex at 950 Villa de Matel through a company called Newlink Investment since July of 2002, according to HCAD records.

The mess — and the neglect apparently visited on his tenants, who are clearly not in his district — doesn’t look healthy for Mr. Vo, a Democrat who’s running for re-election this year. But maybe someone can help him out!

A commenter on the Chronicle‘s Houston Politics blog passes on a report that Vo bought the Courtyard Apartments for $2.8 million, and notes that they are now available for sale . . . for just $20,332 a unit! That’s only $4.9 million for 7.6 acres of juicy East End Inner Loop property! From the listing brochure:

This property affords a buyer good upside potential thru a moderate/heavy rehab. This community is constructed in a classic garden style design and was built in 1972.

After the jump: more pix of this prime real estate, just steps away from the Gus Wortham Golf Course and ripe for that moderate/heavy rehab! Plus: more Vo East End apartment holdings!

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12/31/07 11:01am

Smile Lounge, 4348 Telephone Rd., Houston

Telephone Road south of I-45 has changed forever, declares John Nova Lomax:

Gone is the Mexican Catholic blue-collar neighborhood to the north around Queen of Peace church, its place taken by a string of hot sheet motels, clip joints, massage parlors and other such venues of vice. This is what’s left of the Telephone Road Mark May, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Culturcide and others have written songs about.

But it’s all impossibly sadder. The Telephone Road that Earle and Crowell sang about in the rollicking songs of that name is long gone. Crowell’s version is set in the ’50s and early ’60s, and Earle’s in the early ’70s. Today’s Telephone Road far better fits Earle’s “The Other Side of Town.”

There’s more street-level reporting in Lomax and David Beebe’s latest narrated and well-lubricated walking tour, which starts Downtown and heads east along Leeland, through a neighborhood called Edmondson Addition:

Boarded-up hovels line some streets, awaiting inevitable transformation into the (mostly shoddy) condos that are springing up like dandelions here. Other streets reminded us of some of Galveston’s less opulent older districts – one and two-story wood frame houses standing on bricks, interspersed with brick warehouses and workshops.

The story includes Lomax’s encounters with Golfcrest’s underground shopping-cart economy and his retelling of a Telephone Rd. crack-and-hookers tale too uh . . . racy to fit into a song lyric.

After the jump, a very different portrait of Telephone Rd. from an earlier era.

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11/15/07 11:36am

New Shopping Center at the Northeast Corner of I-45 South and Wayside, Houston

The Lenny’s Sub Shops continue their Houston conquest. The franchise is now up to seventeen stores, with eleven opening soon, including one in this new shopping center about to begin construction on the Gulf Freeway feeder just north of Wayside. That’s almost a third of the way to the company’s goal!

The I-45 (northbound) and Wayside property developer is Bobby Orr, who complained to the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff about the glut of suburban strip centers back in June: “We’re going urban,” he said. And really, the Orr Commercial properties are all over the map. But don’t be fooled by the side-of-the-freeway location and strip-center layout on this one: Luring hungry drivers out of inner-loop freeway traffic jams is an important part of Houston’s urban spirit.