A pair of new restaurants are moving into old places in the Lazybrook and Timbergrove area. The former Queen Burger at 1802 W. 18th St., shown here, is being renovated and rechristened as Hughie’s Tavern and Grill. (A menu posted on Hughie’s Facebook describes the food as “Asian fusion.”) No date’s been given for the opening. And not half a mile away at 1951 W. T.C. Jester there’ll be a new Spaghetti Western . . .
A small group of homeowners that includes residents of Timbergrove, Brookwoods Estates, and Holly Park have filed a lawsuit against the Federal Highway Administration claiming that the agency approved the expansion of Hwy. 290 along the 38-mile stretch from 610 to FM 2920 last August without properly analyzing how noise from the project would affect their properties. In the filing, the plaintiffs say they are not opposed to the project, but are concerned that TxDOT’s environmental studies of its planned elevated roadways at the 610 and I-10 interchanges — some of which will reach as high as 100 ft. in the air — didn’t account for noise impacts on Memorial Park and the Houston Arboretum as well.
So many cute little diamond shapes on display at the front of this redone 1963 Ranch on the western bank of White Oak Bayou in Timbergrove Manor! And a few more show up elsewhere: In the tile floor of the breakfast room and den, and on the lily pond backstop wall. But still, so many other places a new owner could add them:
For a while, it looked like the effort to save the last five acres of the West 11th Street Park property from impending townhome development was going to fail. Having put up those acres of parkland as collateral for a bridge loan from Amegy Bank that allowed the city to purchase the remaining fifteen acres of the park, the Houston Parks Board had given park supporters only until August to raise $3.75 million to pay off the loan.
Private donors reaching into their own pockets were able to raise only about a quarter of a million dollars. Meanwhile, one donor was looking in other pockets: In the last legislative session, State Senator John Whitmire was able to slide funding for the park into the state budget for local parks grants. After some confusion, it now appears that Whitmire’s bill will allow the property, long a merely undeveloped HISD property with tall trees, to become an official city park.
Now what happens to the private funds already raised for that purpose?
West 11th Street Park Photo: Houston Parks Board
