COMMENT OF THE DAY: SAYING GOODBYE TO THE SLEEPY INNER LOOP “This complaining about what urban core growth will do to traffic and parking (make it worse / more difficult) is long past repetitive. It IS the middle of a growing, thriving city folks. Easy traffic in areas like the Heights and Montrose was an accidental luxury offered as a result of those areas having stagnated at low densities for so many decades until they were rediscovered by the market at large. Having a good connected street grid helped too (compare to major thoroughfare-and-cul-de-sac suburbs where congestion is nightmarish as soon as the subdivisions and strip malls are finished). But now the urban core is desirable, more investment, more people with disposable income, and yes, cars. Are we somehow supposed to be different from congested Los Angeles (which has much better transit and pedestrian infrastructure, by the way)? Will congestion in our central neighborhoods hurt your fondness for Houston? I seriously doubt it. We’re a great city. And if it bothers you enough to leave, three others who are quite willing to live with the traffic will replace you. And if we ever improved walkability and transit service enough, it would be six more people.” [Local Planner, commenting on Stealing a Glance at Proposed Alexan Heights on Yale]
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Tag: Comments
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT’S IN THAT WONTON? “. . . The gates these days on apartment complexes are an elaborate way to keep the Chinese restaurant menus off the door handles. However, the Chinese restaurants are getting more crafty, employing some Ninja tactics and Trojan Horse ploys. The war goes on.” [commonsense, commenting on Hanover Reaping More Rice Village Property, Garden Gate Shutting]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A BIG DIG FOR EAST DOWNTOWN “What needs to happen to connect Downtown with the East End/EaDo is TxDOT needs to put 59 in a tunnel from just south of 45 up to Commerce Street. Above ground create a mile long linear park. Instead of the elevated freeway discouraging pedestrian activity, a underground freeway below with a fantastic linear park above would draw in visitors in hordes. Who wouldn’t want to be around or live near a mile long urban park jewel? The value added is enough in itself to justify such a project for the betterment of the city.” [Thomas, commenting on Adding to Convention Center District Easy as 1-2-3 . . . 4-5-6-7]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN PENNZOIL MADE A DENT IN THE SKYLINE “That compliment was a little tongue-in-cheek… she was referring to Houston as being entirely a car and freeway-based city. But she was ecstatic about Pennzoil Place (said it had the biggest impact on a city skyline since the Empire State Building), and made that comment in a review of it. Huxtable was the first newspaper architecture critic, and now a bunch of papers have one (Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, etc.). Will the Chronicle ever?” [Mike, commenting on Kick a Building In Memoriam]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: DRIVES ME UP A WALL “It’s just like a Houstonian to symbolically defy gravity by parking.” [Nathan, commenting on Parked High on the Wall of Kirby Building, Mini Cooper Still Gets Ticket]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON’S MISSING DISTRICT OF GOOD-ENOUGH OLD BUILDINGS “I think the general feeling on this one from historically/architecturally sensitive people like myself is that while it’s not the greatest building ever built in Houston, it’s a lot greater than what is on at least 100 of the blocks downtown. This is where you get to the difference between Houston and a city like San Antonio, which still has a significant historical flavor in its downtown. Most historic buildings are not great, they’re average. If you only preserve the landmarks, most of your historic stock gets wiped out and you lose that historic dimension in your city. San Antonio does not allow its historic buildings to be torn down, and thus maintains a vibrant historical (and walkable) downtown core, while leaving plenty of room for new buildings. Houston started out with roughly as many early 20th century buildings as San Antonio had, it just didn’t preserve them.” [Mike, commenting on Houston Club Building Will Be Demolished, Say Auctioneers]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: JUST VISIT THE PLACE ALREADY “This is why, IMO, photos (or at least worrying about the quantity or quality) are not that important. People search for a price range, size, area, etc. After that, they’ll take their list of properties that fit and view them in person. Unless the pictures are TERRIBLE then the property will be viewed. And if they’re OUTSTANDING then the property will have to be viewed anyway (unless you’re going after someone buying sight unseen, which is rare). Photos do, IMO, almost nothing to sell a house. Then again, I could be saying this as I suck at taking photos so normally just snap off a few pics with my cell phone and call it a day . . .” [Cody, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: In the Box]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE PARKING LOT IN FRONT “Is it possible that any place in our region that doesn’t have a huge field of suburban-style parking in front of it starts at a big disadvantage? Even patron reviews I read regarding otherwise popular places like Sugar Land Town Square and The Woodlands Town Center view having to park in a (free) garage and walk around the block as a serious knock on those places. With the Pavilions garage requiring payment and the public sidewalks harboring the occasional homeless person, Pavilions might have an unavoidable disadvantage for many folks. Is free off-street surface parking and never having to set foot on a public sidewalk that essential to a quality experience in Houston? Doesn’t downtown, and the city, have more to offer? Certainly other large cities — even Los Angeles — do.” [Local Planner, commenting on Books-A-Million Now Packing Up Its Books, Leaving Houston Pavilions]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS “As a contractor I’ve learned the sprayer is installed as a matter of cultural/religious practices relating to cleanliness. What may seem odd to you or I is a necessity for some of our neighbors who want to follow their cultural practices.” [Senor, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Diaper Duty]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHO WANTS TO STAY DOWNTOWN? “. . . I ride my bike around downtown for pleasure on some evenings (unthinkable 15 years ago) and am always impressed by the level of activity after dark. Restaurants, bars, music venues and Discovery Green are always hopping. Another hotel can substantially increase this level of activity and hopefully sustain it by attracting business travelers, not just convention goers. I am a business traveler, and work for a multi-national based here in Houston. When we have out-of-town guests, they never stay downtown — EVER. Actually, they prefer to stay where they can easily walk to entertainment, dinner, and bars, and quickly catch a cab to anywhere else they need to go. Usually, they go to CityCentre, the Woodlands, and Town Center in Sugar Land. When I ask around the office about this, most of my coworkers (suburbanites who have not been downtown in years, except for an errant Astros game) immediately wrinkle their noses at the idea of sending someone to stay there after dark. Word has not gotten out about the amenities downtown, and this hotel will help.” [Superdave, commenting on A Texas Island on the Next Convention Center Hotel]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: IN SEARCH OF GENTLE DEMOLITION “Serious question here. I live in what is basically a future tear-down. It was my first house purchase 20 years ago, and I’m still in it. It’s a remuddled 30s-40s bungalow that looks like someone hired their brother-in-law to do the work, and it was previously a rental before I bought it. I’ve been resisting doing anything major to it because I have been actively looking for a ‘real house’ for quite a while now. It has the original 3″ oak floors that probably still have quite a bit of wear left in them, seeing as they haven’t been sanded and refinished very many times (only once in the last 20 years, and probably not more than once before that). It has an awesome counterweighted attic door that rolls down instead of unfolding. The bathroom sinks are older than I am (they’re dated on the bottom). The vintage 6-gallon-flush toilets might be desired by someone. Certainly the scrap metal inside the walls could fetch some bucks. So there might be some parts worth saving. But how do I find someone to deconstruct it, when that time comes?” [GoogleMaster, commenting on Comment of the Day: Used House Parts Scouting Report]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HAVE I GOT TREES FOR YOU “One miserable tree in the entire 10,500 sq. ft. yard. I’ve heard that home buyers hate landscaping, but this is ridiculous. How ’bout a few bald cypress on the west side to cut down utility bills? A few live oaks in the front would be nice. A few water oaks in the back would be interesting, or go crazy and make it Shumard oaks. Even a mass planting of pink muhly could go somewhere; to hell with the neighbors put ‘em in the front! I’ll stop now.” [Chef, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Glacier Bay]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: USED HOUSE PARTS SCOUTING REPORT “Hopefully, some of those features will end up at Habitat ReStore. The marble counters, doors, clawfoot tub, cabinet doors, and all that flagstone. The casement windows are great for a greenhouse or playhouse. And that angle-top door in the attic room would be a great door for a garden shed or chicken house. I saw parts of some of the other teardowns there about 2 months ago. I remember seeing the stainless steel countertop, marble, and custom bathroom cabinets from one teardown. I may have to check back to see if that angle-top door makes it to the ReStore. I’ll design a shed just around that door.” [Lynn, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Half Timber]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER “I know it is not at all related to the willowick project above, but I’ve got a ‘good’ story about this type townhome. A friend of mine’s folks own one out in the Kirkwood and I-10 area. They are ex-pats and live outside the US 10+ mo a year, so it stays empty or is used by family in town. So cousins show up to use it for a few days and find all the kitchen cabinets all open, the doors won’t close, and cracks in all the walls. The old lady two doors down decided to have her foundation done. The problem is she shares that foundation with a few homes. She didn’t mention it to anyone and well, the rest is history. Still waiting to see how they clean that one up. Also surprised that a foundation company would do the work in the first place.” [MH005, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Bus Stop Stop]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SHORT TIMERS “I’ve lived in Oak Forest now for 11+ years, zoned to OFE, in an original house just north of 43rd, west of Ella and about 5 years ago began receiving sporadic letters to buy the house site unseen. That stepped up a bit a year ago and we now get 2-3 a month from random builders/real estaters trying to purchase our house with promises to close within 30 days. Granted not all the original homes are gems, some need to be torn down, but there aren’t many of those now left, and other originals are well maintained and still solid, smaller by today’s standards, but that’s a preference for me. The kids enjoy the bigger yard. I don’t mind the new bigger homes that much, but unfortunately the new homes on the block have had owners that lived there for about a year before they put it back on the market. Both are back up for sale again at the same time. The block is pretty tight, we know each other, but really never got to know the folks in the new builds. That is the underlying issue for a lot of the folks in the neighborhood with the old vs. new, it’s the perceived mindset or commitment to the neighborhood.” [greg, commenting on Comment of the Day: That Brand-New Neighborhood Called Oak Forest]