COMMENT OF THE DAY: AND HOW WILL THEY SHIP IT TO THE WEST COAST? “Thought this nugget from the Biz Journal article was interesting: ‘The organization, which presides over Reliant Park, is scheduled to hold a board meeting on April 17. The agenda includes “(d)iscussion and possible action to approve a resolution regarding the future of the Reliant Astrodome†and “(d)iscussion of a nondisclosure agreement with the University of Southern California regarding a potential project related to the Reliant Astrodome.‒ Now what do those Trojans want with our Dome?????????” [DNAguy, commenting on Headlines: Voting on an Astrodome Plan; Making Art of Power Lines]
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: COMPETING VISIONS “Someone from the HOA for the townhomes across from this claims the construction is for a development similar to that on West Ave with high end condo/apts on top and retail on the first floor. I’m hoping it’s a Sonic though. My husband hopes it’ll be a high end strip club.” [Audrey, commenting on The Apartments Behind the Finger Apartments Behind the Montrose Whole Foods]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE RIVER OAKS SHOPPING CENTER’S COMING DOUBLE MOCHA LATTE PROBLEM “Finger is adding 431 units next to Whole Foods, Regent Square is putting up 290 units down the street in their apartment tower, Hanover at W. Gray and Waugh will be 275 units, the Richdale development on W. Gray where the ballet used to be is supposed to be 160 units and this new one on Montrose and Dallas will probably be at least 250 judging from the size of the lot and the economics of apartment complexes. That makes somewhere in the neighborhood of 1300-1400 new units all within about a mile of each other. That will certainly impact traffic in the area. The bigger impact is going to be on retail in the area. A couple thousand more people are going to be living in the area, yet the retail layout is largely going to remain the same. Regent Square may finally get active and save the day with some needed retail and restaurants. But once all the apartments fill up, there will be long lines at Starbucks whether you are on the north side of W. Gray, southside or inside Barnes and Nobles.” [Old School, commenting on The Apartments Behind the Finger Apartments Behind the Montrose Whole Foods]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: WHO’S RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WORKERS “As a contractor who does both commercial and residential projects, I can tell you that the worker pay is dictated by the buyer, as is the safety, and as is everything. I can’t advertise that I pay my subs more, that I have a safer work environment, and that I’m more fair than my competitors, so YOU should pay more for my product. Especially if it is essentially the same product. I think I do pay my guys more, and I do have a safer work site, but I still cringe at some of the things that go on and I wish 5 guys didn’t have to live together to make a living. I just make less than my competitors and sleep better at night. If people were REALLY concerned about that we would have union laws like New York and California, and we would regulate the safety aspect more heavily.” [SCD, commenting on Headlines: Financing Williams Tower Purchase; Proposing a Safe-Passing Law for Houston]
COMMENT OF THE DAY SECOND RUNNER-UP: THE NEW SUBURBAN CODES “Developers should ditch the random bucolic-word generators for alpha-numeric names like the luxury car makers already have. Grandma drove her DeVille home to Valley Ranch. I want to drive my LX-450 home to FPF-120 (Former Pine Forest # 120).” [CV, commenting on Grand Parkway Progression a Part of Master-Planned Valley Ranch Master Plan]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT WENT WRONG IN RICE MILITARY AND THE WEST END “you get what you get. if the buyers of those units and the developers don’t have the initiative to deed restrict unit-divided rentals, it’s at their own fault. The city already dropped the ball by not having a minimum lot divisible in there originally. all of those 5000 sf cottages were not a realistic use of the land, but neither is 4 attached units on a common unregulated drive with gate, set to 20′ wide asphalt roads and no curbs/gutters. your comment that they will become slums is short-sided. i have a friend who lives in this type of housing in Boston, i assure you charlestown is both desirable and nice — his rent is $3.25 psf. forget that little white ghetto pocket you saw in ‘the town’ . . . this is the west end. always has been, always should be. shame on the city for not investing in infrastructure here, and shame on the buyer for not understanding the realities of paying $300,000 for attached unit housing with nobody taking ownership of a cooperative housing complex. really the developers leave that unchartered because the buyers are cheap, and they shy away from a house with an HOA. the assumption is the HOA has froth in it. so instead, they get a paved courtyard that runs into deferred maintenance issues and neighboring owners who say ‘piss off’ on everybody chipping in to fix it. if i owned one and was renting it to carpetbagging yankees, that would be my opinion and attitude.” [HTX REZ, commenting on Comment of the Day: What To Call the Greater West End]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT TO CALL THE GREATER WEST END “Forgive me if this has been discussed before, but am I the only one who thinks that the Wash Ave area needs one, unifying neighborhood name? I live in Magnolia Grove, but no one knows what that is, so I have to just say “Off Wash Ave†(though that implies that I moved there to be close to Wash Ave bars, which is NOT the case) or say that I’m in between Montrose and the Heights (which is a stretch). Rice Military stops at Durham/Shepherd so that isn’t accurate. The neighborhoods can continue to retain their individual neighborhood names, but the entire area [PDF] can have one unifying name so that folks know what you’re talking about (e.g., Montrose is the larger neighborhood that contains Hyde Park). I would think realtors and retailers would both jump at the chance to not have to describe the area by referring to street names. Part of the area is called the West End (I think the area between Shepherd, Wash Ave, Heights, and Katy Freeway), and I think that would be a cool name to describe the whole area (particularly given the fact that the area used to be the end of town). I’m sure there are other cool names too, but any name should not contain ‘Heights’ in the title, as the area is decidedly not the Heights and the feel/look is incredibly different. The area’s former name, ‘Smokeytown,’ should also be out for obvious reasons.” [Eric, commenting on New Shepherd Dr. Little Woodrow’s To Serve Pub Fare, Too]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE DECK OF THE SECOND CONVENTION CENTER HOTEL 
“I am dumbstruck at the sheer genius (or is it audacity?) of a Texas-shaped lazy river. The turns around El Paso and Brownsville might be a little hazardous, but that’s a great analogy of the current state of affairs along the Rio. I’d also expect to encounter armed poachers along the Sabine, and flag-waving tea partiers along the Red, but I’m still pretty sure that by downing 3 beers from a floating cooler, I could not only survive, but conquer that bitch. The hardest part would be commemorating the accomplishment with (another) barbed wire arm tattoo and slapping one more bumper sticker on my pickup about guns, secession or liberals (pick one).” [Superdave, commenting on New Convention Center Hotel Seems a Done Deal] Rendering of proposed Marriott Marquis amenity deck: Morris Architects
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE NEW DANGERS IN THE SECOND WARD “El Tiempo just opened down the street and is charging 6 bucks per shrimp on the a la carte menu. I’d worry more about that than a ‘stray bullet.'” [doofus, commenting on A Purple Pair by the Green Line in the East End]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHERE TORN-UP STREETS ARE KEEPING THE KIDS SAFE “As a parent of students at Roberts Elementary, I both dislike and love the condition of Greenbriar. I hate it because it is awful for our cars. But I love it because it calms the traffic considerably and forces drivers to pay attention — we all fear the speeding that will occur when it is nicely reconstructed. We have been told that if Greenbriar makes it to the city list this year, we should expect the start of construction planning in 2017. Who knows if the current street will last until then!” [No History Remains, commenting on Headlines: More La Madeleines for Houston; Montrose’s Worst Potholes]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LOOKING FOR THE HOTEL MONTROSE “Hotel Hotel Hotel. A hotel is long overdue for Montrose. Kimpton, Aloft, W or some other modern brand would be great. I am no developer, so I have no idea if it is doable but it would be welcome. It has the bones and imagine a hip hotel pool bar on that roof! I bring people into Houston who are considering moving here from the West Coast and Northeast. They want to live in an inner city hip walking area; Montrose generally. I don’t want them staying downtown where the streets are dead at night. The ZaZa is great but it is too far to walk to Westheimer. The Galleria has too much traffic. In the end though, I generally recommend the Derek or the ZaZa. If not here then a new build at the corner of Montrose and Westheimer. And what is the story about that lot on Westheimer near Dunlavy where it looks like construction started at one time? Hotel possibility? I am really really convinced that Montrose needs a hotel!” [charlie, commenting on What 3400 Montrose Looks Like Inside]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: POLICING THE STREETS OF RICE MILITARY WITH BIG ROCKS “I live on a street that is just wide enough for a car and a half to pass each other on the road, so inevitably someone has to drive on the grass or in the ditch. I happen to live on the side that has the grass section of ROW. For the past 2 years that I have lived there I have not once seen the city come by and mow that section or repair the ruts that someone has left behind. Since I live in Rice Military I don’t have the pleasure of having CURBS like Montrose, so I have boulders set in place to keep the drunks from parking on the sidewalk and that still happens on a biweekly basis. On our street we have legal No Parking signs and there will be cars parked there and I have seen cops drive by and do nothing. I guess it’s not worth the time, and I guess the city doesn’t need the revenue.” [Tejas, commenting on How To Spot a Fake ‘No Parking’ Sign]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: IT’S RAINING AT SOUTH 75TH AND TIPPS “We’ve got Black Bellied Whistling Ducks nesting in trees on the East End near Mason Park. Parking cars in garages and broad-billed hats seem to be making comebacks around here.” [Dana-X, commenting on Comment of the Day: Disturbance at the Heron House]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: DISTURBANCE AT THE HERON HOUSE “We have six pairs nesting in an oak in our yard — they are beautiful birds, but foul creatures. For the next few months, our yard will be littered with crawfish shells and carcasses of frogs and fish. It’s living at the flamingo exhibit at the zoo. And then, when they are too prolific, they’ll start pushing the ‘surplus’ young out of the nests high in the trees and leave them to die in the street below. Again, they are beautiful to look at but difficult to live with.” [Txcon, commenting on Headlines: Marfreless’s Last Call; Salata’s National Expansion]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LORDS OF THE FLIES “I’ve found having good relationships with the dumpster divers can be beneficial. While, obviously, we have to be careful of those fishing for information (identity theft, etc.) –– a lot of what we throw away is still very useful: I like to know that it is being used in the best way, even if it makes no financial sense for me to do so. At my business, we have several local characters each with their own wants and needs. One comes through and extracts every piece of large metal (using axes, pickaxes, tools, whatever it takes) –– door handles, buckets, etc., cleans them up and recycles them. Another makes his weekly run on different days, looking for every can in our recycling dumpster. The final one comes through twice a week collecting pallets we stack up for him, so he can go sell them to a local used pallet company. The first two would be considered criminal acts under the law, and there’s no way in hell I’d report them. If they found someone diving for info, they’d drive them off –– because they need to protect their interests and ours to keep access.” [drone, commenting on Mayor Parker Asks City Council To Decriminalize Diving in Public Dumpsters]