COMMENT OF THE DAY: A BRIEF GUIDE TO MEYER PARK SHOPPING CENTER WATERFOWL “I would bet a dollar to a donut that these are domesticated Muscovy Ducks. Muscovy Ducks are non-migratory and are frequently bought to stock artificial ponds (they are not native to Texas). They are not very agile and could easily get run over by an inattentive driver. The only other duck that might be in Texas in July is a black bellied whistling duck. Black bellied whistling ducks are far more agile than a muscovy. Unless they get fed constantly (like the ones in Hermann Park), they will keep a good distance from humans. My guess is that the Muscovy ducks are waddling out into the parking lot to forage through all the garbage the Walmart customers leave in the parking lot. There is little anyone can do to stop them as they can get up in the air enough to get over any kind of barrier that could be put up between the lot and the pond. A nice duck crossing sign might be all that can be done.” [Old school, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Meyer Park Shopping Center’s Sitting Ducks]
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Tag: Parking-Lots
I’ve been waiting here like 10 minutes, man! No, no no . . . this is my parking space man. Just like the video already? “Despite all that concrete, there is not a single space available as I look out the window,” reports a reader who’s been monitoring today’s grand opening of the new Whole Foods Market on West Dallas and Waugh from an office window high above — and has already started grumbling about the potential evening traffic: “The parking lot has been full all morning.” This photo was snapped around 10:15.
- Previously on Swamplot: Beer, Wine, Art, and BBQ on Tap: Here’s Your New Whole Foods Market, Montrose, This Kind of Whole Foods Thing, Getting Real on Waugh at West Dallas This Weekend, North Montrose Whole Foods’ Rendezvous with Groceries, Austin Powers the New North Montrose Whole Foods, The New Whole Foods at West Dallas and Waugh, Whole Foods Galleria and North Montrose: Still on Track, In and Around the New North Montrose Whole Foods, A Few Signs the Montrose Whole Foods Market Is On Its Way
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Okay, okay! It ain’t exactly here, but y’all want to see this, so here ya go. North Montrose’s little bit in this game doesn’t open until . . . this weekend.
- Previously on Swamplot: North Montrose Whole Foods’ Rendezvous with Groceries, Austin Powers the New North Montrose Whole Foods, The New Whole Foods at West Dallas and Waugh, Whole Foods Galleria and North Montrose: Still on Track, In and Around the New North Montrose Whole Foods, A Few Signs the Montrose Whole Foods Market Is On Its Way
Video: Fog and Smog Films
Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood you’d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we can’t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:
More of your answers . . . to your questions:
- Inner Loop: Swamplot readers try to explain the epidemic of hand car washes infecting inner-loop parking lots. “They are extremely cheap to set up and operate,” declares Jared. “So they are a great short-term use for an empty lot as a bridge between development. A lot of builders / developers / speculators paid way too much for land during the end of the boom and they are either carrying that land with little or no revenue coming in from it–or they’ve given back to banks who were silly enough to lend money on it when it didn’t generate enough cashflow to support the loan.†Plus: “They MAKE MONEY. Splash on Richmond used to have a line down the street every sunny day when they were $15 for a basic hand wash. Even 50 cars a day was $750/day–cash–with almost no overhead.†But have we created a bubble? Ross cites “Low barriers to entry and some perceived unsatisfied demand. Classic start to oversaturation of a market.†Finally, Lux suggests y’all are thinking it too hard: “My guess is it has something to do with all the BMW’s, Mercedes, Lexuses, and Hummers that need washing. How is one to stand out if you are driving a dirty Lexus?â€
We’ll post more reader questions when we get them. Send ’em here!
- Swamplot Street Sleuths: Parking Lot Special [Swamplot]
Photo: South Beach Auto Spa
Update, 9/15/11: Our error. 5820 Washington is now the home of The Blue Fish, a restaurant chain based in Dallas — not to be confused (as we did) with Blue Fish House, a Houston-based restaurant with locations at 2241 Richmond Ave. and in Sugar Land at 2735-C Town Center Blvd. The Dallas chain also has a location in Bayou Place. We’ve updated the story.
This new parking lot across Knox St. from Benjy’s on Washington recently replaced the Thomas Collection fabric store that used to sit directly on the corner of Washington Ave. Dallas’s Blue Fish chain will be opening a new location in the building behind it, at 5820 Washington Ave. Yes, this is the same building that, a few weeks ago, a Swamplot reader identified from a state license application as the future home of Washington Wine Storage. That facility’s address will be 1120 Knox St.:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE LURE OF THE EMPTY PARKING LOT “If I am driving around town and need to stop to buy some bars of soap, and I see a store on the left with a crowded parking lot and the store on the right with a spacious parking lot, which one do you think that I would normally choose to go to? I don’t want to spend 5 minutes looking for one of the 50 remaining parking spaces. Do you? Plus, if the parking lot looks crowded, don’t you think that a driver is going to say, ‘ummm..that store looks really busy. It might take a while to get in and out of there. I think I’ll pass and go to the store across the street.’†[Random Poster, commenting on On Top of Old 1,1-Dichloroethene: The New Silber Rd. Walmart]
Got an answer to any of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Here’s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.
- Montrose: What are the odds, really? A reader is chasing down a rumor that the owners of Chances Bar at 1100 Westheimer (next to Waugh) “have it on the market for sale or for lease.” Our correspondent would “hate to see it go after all these years but would love to see what would go there as long as it wasn’t another highrise. Anybody have the skinny on this?”
- Washington Corridor: A new concrete parking lot has appeared one block east of Benjy’s on Washington (above), on the corner of Knox St., directly in front of “an abandoned concrete building,” a reader informs us:
I drove by the other day and asked one of the workers what the construction was for and he said “Wine store” his English was a bit rusty so I really could not get much more out of him.. Maybe a new Specs ?
A couple more pix from the scene:
Just how tough and efficient is the security at the Signature Point Apartments off Marina Bay Dr. in League City? Last week a visitor that showed up in front of the leasing office was detained for several hours by authorities and then put to death. The visitor had been found earlier in the month in a complex parking lot fronting a canal connected to Clear Lake.
That time, game wardens trapped and released the 7-foot-long alligator into the canal it had crawled from. But they began to suspect apartment residents were feeding the animal, and tried a different strategy on the next encounter:
[Apartment manager Susan] Cogbill said game wardens took the animal to a secluded area of the complex and shot it. Tanuz declined to comment how the animal was killed.
Game wardens did not move the alligator or release it into the water behind Signature Point because it was too comfortable around humans, [Galveston County game warden supervisor Capt. Edward] Tanuz said. Bayous across Galveston County are natural habitats for alligators, but they typically avoid humans, Tanuz said.
What a waste, huh? Oh, no:
Continuing his commentaries on city off-street parking requirements, blogger Andrew Burleson takes a snapshot of parking conditions near the often-crowded corner of West Alabama and Hazard. To the east: the little 8-parking-space head-in strip center that houses Candylicious, Retro Gallery, and The Chocolate Bar. To the west: Erick’s Auto Center.
Among Burleson’s startling finds: On a weekday evening, actual empty parking spots appear to be available in front of The Chocolate Bar! But what’s going on down the street?
PEARLAND FINDS ITS PARK AND RIDE SPOT Metro will build a Park & Ride lot on 12 vacant acres at the gateway to the Southfork subdivision, at the southwest corner of Highway 288 and Airline-Ft. Bend Rd. (otherwise known as County Road 59): The board also authorized staff members to execute a design-build contract with the unidentified property owner that ‘will allow them to build the complex in accordance with Metro’s specifications and do it quicker,’ [Pearland assistant city manager Jon] Branson said. The facility will be a base for commuter shuttle buses between the Pearland area and Houston, including the Texas Medical Center. It is expected to provide much-needed traffic relief for residents who live in or near Shadow Creek Ranch and Pearland Town Center, [Metro vice president Kimberly] Slaughter said. The Texas 288 corridor averages about 96,000 vehicle trips a year, Branson said. When the shuttle facility opens this fall, it will have parking to accommodate 750 vehicles. Another 750 parking spaces will be added later, Branson said.” [Ultimate Pearland]
RESTAURANT-GARAGE COMBO ON WESTPARK PUT ON HOLD Some unspecified “complications” in continuing negotiations have stalled plans for a brand new 2-story Molina’s Restaurant and parking garage on a West U-owned lot on Westpark, between Wakeforest and Dincans streets, a city council member tells reporter Angela Grant. “The building would have included a parking garage for Goode Company Seafood, which currently leases the land for its parking lot. Goode Company pays West U. about $4,300 per month for rent. The agreement expires in just over three years. The terms of the agreement with [developer Mike] Gallagher provided for a 15-year primary lease, with options for five more 5-[year] renewals. The Molina’s rent would gradually increase from $7,000 per month to $15,373 per month.” [Instant News West U]
Some neighbors of the Annunciation Orthodox School and cathedral in Montrose are not too happy about the institutions’ plans to build a parking lot on the site of an apartment complex at the corner of Yoakum and Marshall it tore down a year or so ago. But Clifford Pugh suspects even more pavement may be on the horizon:
Even though the lot is prohibited under the deed restrictions, representatives from the school told residents at a meeting last week they plan to proceed anyway. “Our interpretation is that the deed restrictions are not valid and not enforceable,†a school official said.
Actually, the deed restrictions allow the school to petition residents for an exemption. But that would set a precedent I believe the school doesn’t want to acknowledge. It owns several other homes in the area and I suspect officials are itching to tear them down in the future, too. Between the school and the church, they’ve already torn down the equivalent of a block-and-a-half of housing to make way for parking lots — but there’s always room for more.
Photo: Clifford Pugh
What’s getting in the way of county commissioners extending the clear zone around Minute Maid Park with a much-needed 27-car county parking lot at the corner of Texas Ave. and Austin St.? Well, there was the owner of a Galena Park chemical business who shouted from the back of the room at yesterday’s commissioners court hearing that he wanted to buy the building sitting on that land — the 1923 Hogan-Allnoch Dry Goods Building at 1319 Texas Ave. — and turn it into a nutcracker factory or something. Plus, darn it, the building is getting less valuable as time goes by!
The building has gone to auction twice. In 2007, the minimum bid was set at its appraised value of $3.25 million. For a September auction, the appraised value was lowered to $1.98 million. There were no takers at either auction.
Lawrence Chapman of the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance said the most recent auction used an outdated 2008 appraisal and that a new appraisal would bring in an even lower price tag that could save the four-story building from demolition.
Art Storey, the county’s public infrastructure director, estimated the building would cost $150,000 to demolish, but as much as $5 million to restore.
And so the latest delay: Commissioners voted to circle the block for another 3 months — and get another appraisal in the meantime.
- Houston History is Spared for Now [KUHF, via Hair Balls]
- 1923 building gets reprieve [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Spares Two Buildings For Now [Preservation Nation]
New westside restaurant doesn’t face onto a parking lot. Chaos ensues:
The dining room of Straits, the swank new Malaysian restaurant at City Centre, looks chaste and serene in its Web site photos. So I was dumbstruck by the maelstrom that greeted me on a school night the week before Thanksgiving, when the restaurant felt more like a thunderous Vegas nightclub.
The bulk of the floor plan was given over to bar/lounge seating, and outdoors–looking upon the grassy City Centre mall plaza ringed with fire pits–tented pavilions held still more tables for the cocktail crowd. A live band on an outdoor stage blared R&B standards as ice-blue holiday lights swayed, wind whipped the fire-pot flames high and merrymakers clustered on the chilly lawn.
“It looks like the Devil’s Playground out there,” murmured my dinner guest as he found me at a table beside the sleek open kitchen. We were both a little shellshocked. Judging by the avid crowds, far west Houston, out by I-10 and the Beltway, has been hungering for a capital-S-Scene, and the restaurant- and bar-heavy new City Centre development has provided one readymade.
- First taste of Straits [Cook’s Tour]
- Straits Restaurant Houston
Photo of CityCentre courtyard: Misha Govshteyn
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON’S EXTENSIVE PARK SYSTEM “Look at all of those parking lots! I always get so depressed when I look at views of Houston from above…..” [Merrie, commenting on Four New Houston Metro Rail Routes, As Seen from Above]