Swamplot Archives by Tag: Hobby Airport

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Checking Out That Hobby Airport Urinal Spy Cam: Is This Thing On?

May 26, 2009 – 10:33 am

Was that Dept. of Homeland Security airport restroom surveillance camera we posted about last week for real?

SnapStream CEO Rakesh Agrawal, you’ll remember, snapped the now-famous urinal photo shown above. The text on the official-looking DHS sticker read:

Automatic infrared flush sensors also provide video monitoring for security purposes

Agrawal has now posted an update on his blog:

First of all, the photograph was NOT photoshop’ed. It went straight from my iPhone to Natuba (what I use to post photographs to twitter) with no editing in between. If anyone is at Hobby Airport and wants to see this thing, it was in the men’s restroom near gate 51 last week Wednesday.

More importantly, though, what’s the story here? Is DHS actually monitoring airport restrooms using cameras installed at the urinal? I exchanged emails with Marlene McClinton at the Houston Airport System (as a side note, HAS uses SnapStream to monitor mentions of themselves on TV) over the weekend and she wrote:

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10:33 am | Add a Comment | Read more about Airports
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Thursday, May 21, 2009

Video Surveillance on the Fly: Here’s Looking at You!

May 21, 2009 – 1:05 pm

Note: Story updated below.

Smile! Urine candid camera!

Acute airport-urinal observer and SnapStream CEO Rakesh Agrawal catches this unlikely warning posted in a men’s restroom at the newish Southwest Airlines terminal at Hobby. The text below the Dept. of Homeland Security logo at the top of the urinal reads:

Automatic infrared flush sensors also provide video monitoring for security purposes.

Hey, you’ll probably want to make sure you . . . uh, “look your best” before you step away then, no? Reports  the high-tech exec:

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1:05 pm | 29 Comments | Read more about Airports, Neighborhoods: Hobby Airport
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Thursday, March 20, 2008

Farb Gone: Will the Signs Go Down on Broadway?

March 20, 2008 – 4:42 pm

Sign at Broadway Square Apartments, north of Hobby Airport, for Harold Farb Apartment Homes

The last of the Harold Farb apartment complexes has been sold. Cypress Real Estate Advisors, an Austin firm, bought the Nob Hill Apartments on North Braeswood and the West Point Apartments on Woodway last December. And Post Investment Group, an LLC out of LA with some NYC backing, just closed on Farb’s Broadway Square Apartments just north of Hobby Airport.

David Beebe, who’s just posted his own account of the southeast-side walking tour he took with John Lomax last month, has a few comments about his stroll along Broadway:

The [trees] throughout this neighborhood are mature and beautiful. They are, for the most part, oaks. This is a big difference between the Harold Farb pioneered Hobby Airport area and the Frank Sharp designed Sharpstown. If [Sharp] had been as pro-active about tree planting his nighborhood would look more like this. The architecture and age is about the same.

. . . and on the Broadway Square Apartments, which Farb built in 1975:

His apartments here on Broadway are still the best looking of the entire area’s- French Victorian style, but without falling off shutters and with better built and ornate wrought iron railings and kempt landscaping.

There’s been no announcement about it, but the iconic signs along Broadway showing a silhouetted Farb wielding what appears to be a roll of blueprints are likely to be replaced. Globe St.’s Amy Wolff Sorter reports that Post Investments is planning a $2.5-million renovation:

Work will begin in two months on the 182-building complex and take 1.5 years to complete, according to Jack R. Ehrman, Post’s acquisitions director. The lion’s share of the tab will be used to replace 90% of the roofs.

Photo of sign at Broadway Square Apartments: David Beebe

4:42 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Apartments, Buying and Selling, Neighborhoods: Park Place, Real Estate Investing, Trees
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