COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE DRIVE FOR OAK FOREST RETAIL “The Oak Forest area is probably as good as its going to get right now in terms of retail. There is still a vacancy in the newish shopping center where Plonk sits, behind the Starbucks drive thru. At least we avoided a payday loan storefront, so that’s something. At Ella and the railroad tracks we got a storage place. Where Theatre Suburbia used to be, across from Oak Forest Elementary, we got a credit union. We bundle the children into the car, drop them off at Oak Forest Elementary, drive thru Starbucks to get a latte, drive thru Walgreens to get our prescriptions, drive thru Shipley’s to get donuts, drive thru Chase to make an ATM withdrawal to pay for our coffee and donuts. There is absolutely no reason for Oak Forest area residents to expect anything other than what we have. As long as residents have to get in their car to get a bite to eat, or pick up groceries, most won’t mind driving a bit further to Central Market or Whole Foods for a more upscale shopping experience. The only recent project I can think of where someplace actually became more pedestrian-friendly is the addition to the Oak Forest Public Library, with a new entrance on Oak Forest Drive.” [matx, commenting on Comment of the Day: That’s a Different Kind of Growth in Oak Forest]
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: THAT’S A DIFFERENT KIND OF GROWTH IN OAK FOREST “The new $550k mcmansions in Oak Forest are replacing other housing units one for one, and the types of households that are getting displaced were already reasonably well-off and were all also living in houses that were just as sufficient to accommodate large families as the houses that are replacing them. By comparison, neighborhoods like Montrose, the Washington Avenue Corridor/Rice Military, and Uptown/Briargrove have been actively displacing small lower-income households with vast numbers of affluent households. I’d wager that there isn’t much of an increase in the number of people per household either, but the sheer number is increasing in a way that the deed restrictions in Oak Forest or Garden Oaks ensure will never happen there. Meanwhile, a $550k mcmansion in one of the single-family neighborhoods in those parts of town is often pushing the $1 million mark, and I’m sure that that also correlates to the types and profit margins of groceries that are purchased. So if you’re wondering why you don’t have urban core amenities in the suburbs . . . it’s because you live in the suburbs. They got built out a long time ago, the retail base is already established, and improvements will be slow and incremental.” [TheNiche, commenting on Apartments To Be Knocked Down for New H-E-B, Apartments on San Felipe]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CHECKING OUT THE NEIGHBORS, ONLINE “Even the google street view pic makes the place look halfway decent . . . Until you see a large parking lot and strip center next door to the East (and a landscaper’s ass another half block down).” [J, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: When the Flood Came]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WE ARE THE DOME “The Astrodome isn’t some piece of useless garbage that came off an assembly line like the crap sitting on hoarders shelves. What an offensive comment! The Astrodome is a ONE OF A KIND, UNIQUE, IRREPLACEABLE, RARE piece of Houston history. And face it, history is not something Houston has an abundance of. The Astrodome MUST be preserved AT ANY COST! Quit being so cheap for once! Somethings can not be measured in dollars. If the Astrodome was the second indoor mega stadium ever built, or if it had never brought Houston world wide attention that nothing before or since ever did, then maybe I could be on board with demolition. But this is as special to Houston as the Alamo is to San Antonio. The Astrodome is as special to Houston as the Statue of Liberty is to New York. It is as special as anything sitting in the Smithsonian. And it is still here. Tossing the Astrodome in the garbage would be the same as tossing the Wright Brothers airplane in the garbage. Sell it. Mothball it. Sacrifice a Superbowl or two for it. Whatever. Save it for another generation who is smart enough to find a purpose for it.” [Bitch, commenting on Sportswriter: Tearing Down Astrodome Would Help Houston ‘Move On’]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY “I have lived in many cities overseas and in the USA and I can assure you that this is the freeest place to live work and play in the world. No one cares much who your father was, you can get an affordable house (in the burbs or in a few cheaper areas outside beltway 8 or east Houston) and there are jobs! You don’t have to kiss the ass of some corrupt moron zoning official to build something or contend with freakish Sierra Clubbers telling you what you can do with your property. You can be black, Hispanic, Asian, gay, libertarian or anything else and people mostly accept you here. Women succeeded here too. Try starting a business in Chicago or San Fran and see how far you get….the only weakness here is the schools and the weather but the people are awesome” [Mansquito, commenting on Headlines: Houston’s Unsustainable Growth; Last Call for SRO Sports Bar]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: WHAT’S COMING TO EAST DOWNTOWN “It’s been a pretty slow three years for east downtown townhome development, but it looks like things are coming back to life. While townhomes are about the least interest type of residential development I can think of, modest numbers of buyers willing to spend 250-350k is nothing to sneeze at, and it’s what retailers need to kick east downtown into the next phase.” [JD, commenting on Signs of Townhomes Coming to Polk St. in East Downtown]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: GETTING OTHER FOLKS TO BIKE ” . . . In all honesty, I only ride my bike for fun with the family on the weekends. However, after a couple of very frustrating attempts to park around White Oak to go out to dinner, I recently rode my bike down there with the family for dinner at BBs. While there is a dearth of bike racks, it was so easy to just hop on the bike path, lock up the bikes and go to dinner than weaving in and out of parking lots and side streets trying to find a space for parking. And that is why cycling will eventually become an essential for Houston. We are piling people inside the loop at an unprecedented rate. There is not enough parking in a number of hot spots (Montrose, White Oak, Washington Ave, etc.). People now live close enough to ride their bikes to go out to eat in these areas but don’t because bike amenities are woefully lacking. Or, to put it another way, if you love your car, you should support cycling so there are more parking spaces available for you.” [Old School, commenting on Comment of the Day: Scrambling Through Traffic]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SCRAMBLING THROUGH TRAFFIC “There is a chicken and the egg problem with bike transit in Houston. People do not think that it is worth it to support anything to make the city more bike friendly because it seems like there is too much traffic in the city for any sane person to try to ride their bike inside the loop. Yet, the best way to make riding inside the loop safer is to get more bike traffic out there. More bike traffic contributes to greater driver awareness and pushes the municipality to make big changes to improve bike mobility like providing real bike lanes, adding bike racks, etc.” [Old School, commenting on Headlines: Push for Bike Parking; Buc-ee’s Bathrooms]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LONG INTO THE NIGHT MAY IT WAVE “ . . . Leaving the flag out in the rain and up at night unlit is also considered desecration. Are you going to arrest all the car dealers in Houston?” [sjh, commenting on Houston’s President Obama Muralist Strikes Again]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: THAT WORD HAS ALWAYS BUGGED ME, THOUGH “Fur-down comes from furring which is a construction term adopted from clothing. I think. But I’m not an entomologist.” [Jeromy Murphy, commenting on Comment of the Day: How They Covered Up the Garage Door Mechanism in the Exercise and Taxidermy Room]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: TENANT BUILDOUTS 101 “Southwest will essentially ‘own’ that space so long as they are in business (or at least until the space is so old it would need to be re-done anyway), so it doesn’t much matter who holds the title. Businesses routinely make modifications to leased spaces when they move in, often quite major. In most office buildings, it’s assumed that when you move in you’ll gut the whole space and modify to suit. Retail too. (That’s one reason for the 3-year minimum lease!) Many chain restaurants get a long-term land lease and build their building on it; it’s mostly a financing thing, and the land owner probably won’t kick ‘em out in 20 years; and if that happens, they don’t care, since that building’s not worth much at that point, and is probably in need of a re-do anyway. You don’t see it much in residential because there’s so many and various units people don’t need to modify to suit, they just find another place. Also, people are cheap, and residence is a money sink instead of source. But at the higher end, where a few bucks doesn’t matter as much, I think you’ll find plenty of modifications done by the occupant, or by the landlord as a condition of lease.” [melee, commenting on Southwest Spending $150 Million To Expand Hobby Airport for International Flights]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: IMAGINING A HOUSTON TEARDOWN FINANCING FUND “Cool place. And could be bought with payments less than rent in the area. I wish lending were easier. I think this place would have a better chance of being saved. This will likely have to be bought unfinanced due to its condition, which means wrecking ball. I’d love if there was a fund of sorts, funded by people that want these places saved. Then home buyers could borrow from this fund when bank financing was otherwise not available. That would give the people that want to save these places a way to put their money where their mouth was while not having to directly buy and rehab themselves. A bonus would be an actual return on their cash vs the .1% they get in a bank. Dreaming, I know . . .” [cody, commenting on Peeling Away a Richmond Place Spanish Colonial Bungalow]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW THEY COVERED UP THE GARAGE DOOR MECHANISM IN THE EXERCISE AND TAXIDERMY ROOM 
“When you look at the other listing photos there is one that shows the ‘trophy’ room. This room has a two level ceiling, and you will notice a hogs head and a fish on the wall. The overhead door backs into the space that is above the lower ceiling section.” [Bill, commenting on Spring Home Listing Photo of the Day: Easy Access]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE FATE OF THE NEON SIGN AT HUSTON’S DRUGS “The Soda fountain stays. I want to fully restore it to working condition, along with reupholstering the stools, and getting the chrome redone to make it all shine again. The sign out front is a different story. I would very much like to keep the old ‘Huston’s Drugs’ sign but the original owners’ family still owns it and unfortunately might be keeping it.” [Chris, commenting on Artist Renovating, Moving Into Washington Ave.’s Old Huston’s Drugs]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HIDING OUT ON THE TOP FLOOR OF A 4-STORY TOWNHOUSE “I’d hate to be the parents of the kid in bedroom #3, having to run up stairs to check on him. Do you have any idea how much mischief a teenager in a place like that could get in? I once had a bedroom like that as a kid, and it was awesome.” [Roy, commenting on Some Happy Guerilla Architectural Disagreement in Montrose, Ya’ll]