COMMENT OF THE DAY: GARDENS OR PARKING SPOTS? 
“I wonder if the city would consider a change in the parking ordinance where you need x spots per unit (or SF of commercial space) or the equivalent in green space.
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but we’re about to build a new set of apartments and I wanted to have a big garden where all tenants get their own ‘spot.’ Nothing huge. Maybe 10 feet by 5 feet. We were going to do this by not putting in much parking. But I found out we need a TON more parking than I thought. We were told we had to pave paradise, and put in a parking lot (oooh, bop bop bop bop . . .).” [Cody, commenting on Midtown Community Garden Sold; Fruits and Vegetables Ordered Out, Immediately] Illustration: Lulu
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: INNER LOOP HOME PRICES CAN’T KEEP RISING LIKE THEY HAVE 
“. . . Our current population boom was due to an unexpected resurgence in the gulf of mexico oil market and hit our housing supply by complete surprise. However, the housing market will be going full steam for the next few years to catch up on supply and entire new subdivisions are going to be created that are well outside of the property value inflation we’re seeing in town. The vast majority of new residents are already buying well outside of the 610 Loop. Even the snottiest of inner loopers such as myself would eventually consider buying a mansion in the ‘burbs for the same price as a cluttered townhome in the Loop.
. . . Not to say we’re in a bubble right now, but beyond doubt there will be a lot of downward pressure on home prices in the Houston area moving forward unless we see employment start accelerating again. That definitely is not going to be likely no matter how well the gulf market holds up. So I think people claiming there is or isn’t a bubble are being a bit premature, we all have to wait and see. I believe the general expectation is that although values have shot up, there should be enough demand to hold the prices up moving forward. So yes, odds are probably against a bubble, but I would expect that this burst of demand has pulled property valuations forward quite a bit and that folks shouldn’t expect to see gains on home prices for the next 5 years or so as a glut of new apartments and homes come onto the market. There’s still plenty of land to be redeveloped and no shortage of opportunities for increased density in the inner Loop and that’s even before we start really gentrifying the 3rd and 5th wards. For me, i’ll hold off on Inner Loop property until the boomers start dwindling down.” [joel, commenting on Mirroring the Features of a Simple $310K Studewood St. Duplex] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON, THE CITY OF LITTLE DOWNTOWN SUBURBIAS 
“Why not have a ‘little suburbia’ in the area? I mean, let’s stop fighting it and sail [with] the wind.
Now I know I’m being a little tongue and cheek, but is there nothing more ‘Houston’ than to have a completely market driven transplant of the suburbs right next to downtown? We can even market it w/ such features as ‘the sidewalk to nowhere’ and the ‘stripmall, strip.’ Maybe even use it to advertise Houston to the rest of the country: “Close to work with suburban sprawl; yes, you CAN have it all!†Heck, we’ll just reboot the Virginia Slims campaign w/ big box stores and the skyline in the background!” [DNAguy, commenting on Texas City Buc-ee’s Opening Sooner Than Expected; The Rush To Destroy Rice’s Menil Legacy] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT SHOULD A NEW BUILDING IN A HISTORIC DISTRICT LOOK LIKE? 
“There’s good and bad in historic preservation. The best historic preservation differentiates between neighborhoods and buildings. At the neighborhood level, there are strict strict controls on lot subdivision, building heights, setbacks, tree preservation, and sidewalks – so that new construction fits in the urban fabric. In Paris, France, you can design a totally new and modern building on a boulevard, as long as it continues the street wall and meets the mansard roof setbacks of its neighbors. (At least, it’s how it was 20 years ago when I was studying architecture in Paris.)
For certain historic buildings, there are strict requirements for style and color and all of that. But it doesn’t extend through the whole historical neighborhood. Unfortunately, the differentiation seems lost here in the States. In other cities (New York in particular) they strictly control the details of any building that gets built in a historical district. It’s a real pain in the ass for the architects, and expensive for the owners.” [ZAW, commenting on Tiny Starkweather Becomes Houston’s Second Outside-the-Loop Historic District] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE RENT VS. RE-BUY DECISION 
“I once rented a self storage unit. My wife (then girlfriend) and I were condensing from two apartments to one. After a year and a half of paying the rental fee, I did the math. For what I had paid on the storage unit, I could have bought, brand new, everything I was storing in it. So we ended up emptying the unit and tossing whatever we didn’t immediately have use for. Bottom line, the storage unit was some of the worst money I’ve spent in my entire life. I suspect that’s often the case.” [Walt, commenting on Old Prince’s Hamburger Sign Is Leaving North Shepherd for Points Even Further North] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW TO BUILD A NEIGHBORHOOD MOAT WITH DEED RESTRICTIONS 
“Instead of throwing lawsuits around, the people in River Oaks should start a Buy Protect Sell program. Buy pieces of land around their subdivision as they come up for sale. Protect those pieces of land by putting restrictive covenants on them (height regulations in particular, since their concern has been the proliferation of high rises in their area). Then sell the properties with the restrictions in place.
B/P/S has been used for about a decade by environmentalists elsewhere in the country. It could be used to preserve the low-rise character around a neighborhood. The drawback is that it can be costly for poorer neighborhoods, but River Oaks could well afford it.” [ZAW, commenting on Neighbors File Suit To Stop Hines San Felipe Tower; Silo Sightseeing] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT IT WOULD TAKE TO BUILD A SUBWAY IN HOUSTON 
“A subway WILL work in Houston, albeit at a significantly higher cost. I’m a civil engineer who builds tunnels, nationwide. They’re not even significantly more expensive in Houston than elsewhere. Tunnels in LA, NY, Chicago, Montreal, London etc all have to deal with bedrock — which is very expensive to tunnel through. Instead, Houston uses open-cut excavation and massive soil amendments + ground water pumping to tunnel. For example — the depressed portions of US-59 from Shepherd to Montrose (or the depressed portion of Beltway 8 from Boheme to I-10) are essentially a tunnel with no roof because they’re lower than the bayou and the ground water table; it took expensive soil amendments and pumps to build that, the same as a subway. Our commuter rail tunnel projects in LA are bidding for between $18M-$20M per mile of track, while the at-grade portions are only about $4M per mile. We consistently find that tunnels cost about 4x-5x as much as at-grade track. Meanwhile, elevated track costs roughly $25M a mile (6x at-grade costs). . . .” [Ornlu, commenting on Comment of the Day: How About a Rail Line Along the Bayou?] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW ABOUT A RAIL LINE ALONG THE BAYOU? 
“I always thought a line down Memorial Drive along Buffalo Bayou would be awesome. It seems like it would be pretty easy to adapt the stretch of Memorial from downtown to Shepherd in to a rail friendly street — there are pedestrian crosswalks already, abundant lanes, and no stop-light intersections to contend with. They could take a lane or 2 from Memorial Drive, make a new right of way down the park, or even make an elevated line (which all of them should have been). The stops could tie in with cross streets or some the existing pedestrian bridges. This could be a real ‘showcase’ line for the city being right next to what seems to becoming Houston’s prime inner city park location. The line could continue all the way into Memorial Park and maybe even somehow get to the Galleria.
And of course Swamplot is the best forum for me to lobby my vision.” [actualarch, commenting on What’s the Point of Metro’s New Buffalo Bayou Bridge Under I-45?] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHO IS KILLING THE GREAT GLAZED PASTRY SHOPS OF HOUSTON? 
“First someone runs into a Shipley’s; now a Mary Lee’s gets torched. What do people have against donuts?” [Sihaya, commenting on Here Comes the Grand Parkway Sprawl; Mary Lee Donuts Burn] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SIGNS OF SOME MUNCHING GOING ON IN MANGUM MANOR 
“I live in Mangum Manor and there have been at least 4 teardowns in the past few months. Our neighborhood is actually enveloped by Oak Forest. I’m hoping the trend continues. It’s a great little neighborhood.” [Native_Houstonian, commenting on Under the Painted Rafters of a Mildly Mangled Mangum Manor Midcentury Mod] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON’S MAIN STREETS OF DISTRACTION 
“The fact that its not facing the freeway is progress. For too long, Houston has used its freeways as a super fast main street.
One of the reasons why the traffic is so bad in this area is that people gawk at the purdee buildins facing the freeway in addition to the excessive on/off ramps within a 2 mile stretch.” [DNAguy, commenting on This 21-Story Office Tower Is Headed for the West Loop’s East Side] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: ONE OF THOSE THINGS KEEPING BUDGET-MINDED TOWNHOUSES FROM A FULL 4 STORIES 
“City of Houston only requires fire sprinklers on homes 4 stories and higher. That’s why so many townhouses stop at 3 stories and have an unfinished room leading to a roof terrace on the 4th floor. Also, exterior finish materials over 40 feet high must be non-combustible.” [Spencer Howard, commenting on Comment of the Day: Everything New Is So Much Better] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: EVERYTHING NEW IS SO MUCH BETTER 
“Your house was built in 1923? My condolences to you and your family. But do not despair, I know things seem now like it can’t get any worse, and it probably can’t, but one day with hard work and perseverance you will get out of the carcinogen and disease packed shelter of last resort and live in a actual house with modern plumbing and insulation. But do not wait too long, the current one can catch on fire and burn to the ground in mere minutes, due to that first growth wood, no fire blocking construction, and lack of sprinklers.” [commonsense, commenting on How It Was Before Air Conditioning Even] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A DEALCHASER’S GUIDE TO MONTHLY GARAGE PARKING DOWNTOWN 
“Do we need more parking downtown? Um, yes. Corporations have bought up many garages and left nothing for everyone else.
I work in the Wells Fargo building, where an unreserved spot costs $400/mo. I had a spot in the Travis Place garage for $150, but Kinder Morgan or El Paso bought all the spots. I got a spot at 919 Milam for $190-ish, and some tenant bought all those spots. Then I got a spot above Pappas BBQ at 1100 Smith, but they kicked out a bunch of parkers (including me) to open up spaces for new tenants at 1100 Louisiana. I tried to get a spot in the Theater District garages, but they have a wait list a mile long. So now I’ve moved to Two Shell, which is $215/mo. Renovations are about to begin there, so I’ll either get the boot again or it will become prohibitively expensive. (Again, all of these prices are for plain-jane unreserved spots. And I can’t take the bus because I am in and out of the car all day.)
So, yes . . . We need more non-corporate parking downtown.” [Montrosian, commenting on Downtown’s New Highrise for Cars Is Going Up!] Photo of Wedge International Tower parking garage: Swamplot inbox
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE FAR NORTH HEIGHTS TOWNHOUSE BOOM 
“A ride around the far north Heights (bordered roughly by Yale, Shepherd, 610 and, say, 23rd) reveals a staggering amount of residential construction activity. The Sullivan Brothers project on 23rd is finally nearing completion. A dozen new townhouses at 26th and Ashland. Eight single-family homes at the same corner, with 20 or so to follow between 26th and 27th. Eight single family houses at 26th and Rutland. Twenty townhouses about to go up at 24th and Lawrence. Plus a dozen or so 2-to-6-house developments. The numbers easily reach into the triple digits, and that’s without anything on the old National Flame & Forge site (the double block between Nicholson, Rutland, 25th and 26th), which could add another hundred.” [Angostura, commenting on Where a Couple Dozen Townhomes Are Going in the Far North Heights] Illustration: Lulu
