02/12/14 12:30pm

Houston Municipal Court Building, 1400 Lubbock St., HoustonSurprise! The spot in Houston where the most parking tickets have been issued over the last 2 years is . . . the place where people go to pay for their parking tickets. That would be at the surface parking lot for the city’s municipal courthouse at 1400 Lubbock St. (pictured at right), where a couple advantages accrue for illegal parkers: If you’ve got money with you when you return to find that bright green envelope tucked under your windshield wiper, paying up will be extremely convenient, and the parking while you go back in should be . . . uh, no extra charge!

Working from public data, Click2Houston reporter Jace Larson compiled the top 19 addresses cited in the 415,000 parking citations the city issued in 2012 and 2013, and highlighted 6 of them in his TV report. Of the top 19, only 6 are not directly adjacent to government or public-institution-related buildings; the vast majority of them are Downtown. Among the non-central parking-enforcement hotspots: an IRS service center and a couple of residential blocks near Montrose nightclubs. Here’s a list and map of the parking-enforcement hotspots, along with a few details from Larson’s report and observations of the map:

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Hint: They’re Mostly Downtown
01/14/14 12:00pm

MEANWHILE, ACROSS THE DRIVEWAY FROM A NORTH LOOP WHATABURGER Home Depot Parking Lot, 999 North Loop West, Shady Acres, HoustonFrom reader David Hille comes this report of the latest parking lot pad site takeover: “After a morning run to the ‘Brinkman’ Home Depot on 610 near N. Shepherd, I became curious about the temporary fencing which was being erected around the northeast quarter of the parking lot. So, I stopped, and spoke to a couple of men who were reviewing a fairly large roll of blueprints on the lowered tailgate of a truck. I had a little head rush when I was told that a new Chick Fil-A was about to be erected . . . right there in the parking lot. Makes sense, as I can’t remember that portion of the lot ever being full of cars. A similar scenario took place last year at the Lowes down the street. Part of that property which held a retention pond is now home to a brand new CVS. Prior to that, some of the Lowes parking lot was sacrificed for a Murphy Express gas station . . .” Photo: David Hille

10/10/13 10:35am

Architecture firm Stern and Bucek has come up with this rendering of the Menil Collection’s new cafe, part of the free museum’s long-planned expansion of its Montrose campus. The design for the cafe — which is yet to be named but will be run by Greg Martin (of Cafés Annie and Express and Taco Milagro) — appears to adapt and elaborate upon the gray bungalow at 1512 Sul Ross St., on the other side of that path from the Menil Bookstore; this is the same site, says a press release from the Menil Collection, that architect Renzo Piano originally had in mind for a similar amenity. So there’s that. Whatever it’ll be called, the cafe, it appears, will split the difference between the museum’s main entrance and the parking lot off W. Alabama.

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09/10/13 10:00am

Note: Read more about this story here.

First a Walmart, and now a parking lot? Some Idylwood residents are organizing opposition to a 20- or 30-space parking lot proposed for this site by the Houston Parks Board for the Bayou Greenways Project. The parking lot, presumably meant for users of the hike and bike trail to be built at some point along this stretch of Brays Bayou — which slithers beneath I-45 on its way toward U of H and the Med Center — would replace this sylvan knoll in the bayou-hugging ’hood where N. Macgregor Way curves into Sylvan Rd. But residents have some concerns . . .

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06/14/13 12:10pm

This is where Houston’s food trucks will come to loiter — er, idle: The so-called Houston Food Park is opening in about a week here at 1504 St. Emanuel in East Downtown, in the parking lot beside the vacant Meridian Sports Bar. You might recognize the weedy lot bound by Leeland, Bell, St. Emanuel, and Chartres from its cameo in Alex Luster’s street-art documentary Stick Em Up. (And this is also catty-corner from the human espressos and doggie hemp treats served at The Green Bone on Leeland.) According to Alison Cook Syd Kearney, the Food Park will celebrate its opening with a festival this Saturday, and regular lunch service from 11 to 3 will begin June 24. Co-owner Ponce Tirzo tells Cook Kearney that there’s room here for 8 or 9 trucks, but they’re hoping to use some of the other vacant lots nearby, too.

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03/21/13 4:45pm

ROGER GOODELL: 2,500 EXTRA PARKING SPACES DOES SOUND PRETTY GOOD The study paid for by the Texans and the Rodeo that found the Astrodome could be torn down and replaced with 2,500 parking spots for $29 million — the one Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said he’s putting on his shelf — has apparently made its way to the desk of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who seems to have crunched the numbers in light of Houston’s impending bid to host the 2017 Super Bowl. Goodell, reports the Houston Chronicle‘s John McClain, says he doesn’t want to get involved in the dome demo drama right before getting involved:That issue is for the community to decide, but I think having an extra 2,500 parking spaces would enhance Houston’s bid.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Russell Hancock

12/27/12 4:59pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE PARKING LOT IN FRONT “Is it possible that any place in our region that doesn’t have a huge field of suburban-style parking in front of it starts at a big disadvantage? Even patron reviews I read regarding otherwise popular places like Sugar Land Town Square and The Woodlands Town Center view having to park in a (free) garage and walk around the block as a serious knock on those places. With the Pavilions garage requiring payment and the public sidewalks harboring the occasional homeless person, Pavilions might have an unavoidable disadvantage for many folks. Is free off-street surface parking and never having to set foot on a public sidewalk that essential to a quality experience in Houston? Doesn’t downtown, and the city, have more to offer? Certainly other large cities — even Los Angeles — do.” [Local Planner, commenting on Books-A-Million Now Packing Up Its Books, Leaving Houston Pavilions]

12/14/12 9:47am

Longtime speculation that the entire vacant 104-acre site formerly occupied by the AstroWorld amusement park might someday be turned into some sort of singular mixed-use development took a hit yesterday as the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo announced it is buying the entire western half of the property, which sits across the 610 Loop from Reliant Park. The charitable organization hopes to close on the 48-acre tract by the end of the year. The purchase price is listed on its website as approximately $42.8 million, or $20.50 per sq. ft., “after charitable considerations by the seller.” That’s a Dallas investment firm known as the Mallick Group, which has owned the vacant property since 2010.

What will it rodeo do on all that land?

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06/11/12 1:43pm

A reader who normally parks in the full-block surface parking lot on Clay St. on the east side of the Bell light-rail station downtown was shocked to discover his usual parking option vanished when he came in to work last week: “About three quarters of the lot has now been fenced off.” Inside the blue fence, at left in the photo above: a couple porta-potties and “one large piece of digging equipment.” So far, reports the reader, about a third of the fenced portion has been dug out — to a depth of about 3 ft.

That’s probably just enough of a hole to plant the new 10,000-sq.-ft. childcare center for employees of JPMorgan Chase (or rather, their children) that Skanska USA is building. The U.S. branch of the Swedish development company bought the property earlier this year.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

01/12/12 1:52pm

DOWNTOWN PARKING LOT PLAYLAND The 4 full-block surface parking lots along the rail line just east of the ExxonMobil building bounded by Leeland, Fannin, Clay, and Travis streets downtown will soon have a small blot on their perfect cars-and-asphalt-only record: a 10,000-ft. childcare center for JPMorgan Chase employees. The new owner of the easternmost block, Skanska USA Commercial Development, plans to build the center on a third of it to replace the facility currently housed in Skanska’s other recent downtown purchase, the 18-story (soon-to-be-former) Houston Club Building at 811 Rusk St. Moving the tenants out of that building, which the company is considering demolishing and replacing, would give Skanska “more options,” a company spokesperson tells Nancy Sarnoff. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Bill Barfield

10/26/11 2:58pm

FEEDER FARMERS MARKET Houston’s first freeway-side farmers market debuts this Friday at 3 pm in the parking lot of the HCC Southwest College’s West Loop campus. Appropriately enough, the market’s organizers at Urban Harvest are telling visitors this new market at 5601 West Loop Fwy. South “will have more of a ‘street food’ component with more food trucks” as well as locally prepared foods. The HCC campus was created out of what was originally a store for Incredible Universe, Tandy Corp.’s short-lived mid-nineties venture into big-box electronics retailing. Also beginning soon: another Urban Harvest farmers market on Thursdays, in Sugar Land Town Square. [Fort Bend Sun] Photo: WhisperToMe

09/07/11 11:12pm

MORE JOLTS FROM BUFFALO GRILLE COFFEE Now in the H-E-B Buffalo Market parking lot at Buffalo Speedway and Bissonnet, on the site of what used to be the Buffalo Grille: the first in a network of eVgo electric vehicle charging stations to be planted in parking lots around the city. The plug-in spots are right near what used to be the coffee serving area, notes Chronicle energy reporter Tom Fowler. Opening in the next couple of weeks: stations near NRG’s headquarters at the Shops at Houston Center downtown, and in front of 2 Walgreens: at 19710 Holzwarth St. and 8942 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. North. 25 of the Houston-area stations, featuring both 240-volt and the faster 480-volt chargers, are scheduled to open by the end of the year. [Fuel Fix; previously on Swamplot]

08/01/11 11:46pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SHOPPING CENTER PARKING LOT OF THE APOCALYPSE “This is how I imagine the end of the world begins.” [Justin, commenting on For the Glory of Old Navy: Purple Martins’ Majesty Meets 59 Feeder Road Shopping Center Parking Lot]

08/01/11 1:42pm

An enormous flock of Purple Martins has gathered in and around the parking lot of the Fountains Shopping Center facing the Southwest Freeway in Stafford, where they’ve taken up a noisy nighttime roost on nearby power lines and the allée of oak trees that leads through the concrete expanse to Rack Room Shoes and Old Navy. This is likely the same group that hung out in Sharpstown or the eastside KBR campus in previous years, on its way to Brazil; it appears to be the birds’ first window-shopping experience at Mattress Giant.

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