COMMENT OF THE DAY: ARE YOU ALL SHORT-TIMERS HERE? “I have often wondered… Why is there such a collective push towards “improving property valueâ€? I think it’s a terrible thing! My preference is for the value of my property to stabilize. I don’t want it to fall, because it would make the neighborhood as a whole lose value and therefore invite blight; but I don’t want it to rise either, because I will simply have to pay more taxes on it. The only reason for anyone to hope for their property value to rise is because they would prefer to sell it. In my opinion, that’s not a sustainable model, because the only ones that benefit from it are the ones that do not want to keep the house long-term. That’s how you end up with sub-par quality ‘houses’ built by seedy developers. Am I off base?” [Alex, commenting on Where Houston’s Lot-Size Restrictions Went, Year by Year]
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Tag: Comments
COMMENT OF THE DAY: FULL DISCLOSURE “. . . maybe real estate [listings] should include all the important viruses previous owners might have had, like herpes, or HPV, or hepatitis, or epstein-barr, or mononucleosis. Not to mention bacteria! Or addiction! Or the viewing of pornography! Gosh, it might be hard for [some] to ever live in a previously owned building.” [Karen, commenting on Nicer Than a Log Cabin: John Staub River Oaks Deb, at $9.5 Million]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: RACING AHEAD “Dunno about demolishing before [a] permit is issued. But I do know that when they took down the Nissan dealership on the Katy Freeway a year or so back I was able to look at the already demolished and cleared site on StreetView the day the permit came up in the Daily Demo Report. So it certainly happens.” [Jimbo, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Chelsea Place Lately]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WE’RE ALL INTRUDERS HERE “Now, if I lived next to it . . . I would be vocally opposing it based on its proximity to me, but I have to say, those of you living near its proposed location were on the WalMart end not too long ago, changing the quality of life for many of your neighbors with your big stucco three and four story homes going in next to small bungalows. So, while you are throwing stones, you might want to consider that in the not so distant past those stones were being thrown at you.” [EMME, commenting on Y’All Can Discuss the West End Walmart on Your Own]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT LOCAL REALLY MEANS “How can you explain that the TacoBell/KFC, Panda Express, Smoothie King, and Subway aren’t local? Each of these are owned by a franchise company which is local. Only a portion of the local money spent there go to the corporate parents and the rest remain with the franchise owner. This is also true for MOST McDonald’s, Starbuck, and pretty much every ‘casual’ dining establishment. Yes, they are national names, but locally owned.” [kjb434, commenting on The New Strip Centers Coming to Heights Blvd. and Other Details of the Washington Heights District West End Walmart Plan]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CAN’T EVEN BEGIN TO TALK ABOUT THIS HOUSE “. . . There is no calliope in the rumpus room to mock. No discount Hall of Mirrors to deride. Nary a bevy of Spring Bok heads lining the walls, nor herds of cattle skins adorning the marble floors, can be found in this fine salt box. Little Elliot’s do-it-yourself version of Serrano’s ‘Piss Christ (with #2!)’ is nowhere to be seen. It’s pretty much tabula rasa with some ecru, antique white, eggshell, and Sonoran sand thrown in the mix. To answer the eternal question of, ‘Is there color in your world?’ Sometimes, not so much.” [wilf, commenting on A Little Bit Country, a Little Bit Town]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY HOMEBUYERS REALLY WANT BEIGE “it is understandable why people would want neutral colors though. moving into a home is a huge price shock and it can take a while until people save enough to throw down for all the interiors as they choose. i would certainly prefer to live with neutral colors until the time comes to change rather than someone else’s preferred color of choice. it’s not necessarily a lack of creative thinking in buyers, but often a choice of practicality.” [joel, commenting on Comment of the Day: Staging Is for Wusses]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: STAGING IS FOR WUSSES 
“yeah, we are fun people to know. this was my mom’s amazing project, so much fun to see it take shape. if you’d seen it BEFORE the makeover, THAT was tacky. what do you expect us to do, waste money redoing the whole house just to sell it? i’ve lived there my whole life, love it to death. cream colors? BORING!” [prudoodle, commenting on Magenta Is the New Fuschia: A River Oaks Home That Glows Inside]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHERE’S THE RED PIANO? “The whole time I was looking at the pictures I was trying to spot Elton John.” [Hugo Rodriguez, commenting on Magenta Is the New Fuschia: A River Oaks Home That Glows Inside]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: JUST ANOTHER WOODSIDE GARAGE EMERGENCY OUTPOST “Is that a chalk board I see in the third to last picture? If so, no wonder why cops and EMT types are interested in this place. Maybe they can hold roll call in the den.” [bgreen, commenting on At Loop’s Edge: A Bit of Woodside from 1958]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HIGH CONCEPT “Bastards. That’s the spot where I was going to put my retro video game and Peruvian/ Japanese fusion restaurant, “Eatariâ€. Guess I’ll have to keep on looking.” [wilf, commenting on Where the Buffalo Grille Will Roam]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WEST END WALMART IN DETENTION “. . . The only negative to the city to me has to deal with drainage. The developer (under current city policy) can claim the site was previously developed which means no storm water detention needs to be provided for the tract. The mayor and several other local groups believe that all new large scale development should provide detention regardless of the previous conditions of the site. It’s not an easy policy change to implement even in the strictest of regulatory environments.” [kjb434, commenting on In the Mail: Walmart Gets Its Game on for Central Houston]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: GRADUATING VALHALLA “The Rice Thresher reported in 2009 that the administration was considering raising Valhalla’s rent by almost 250%. [Update: The actual proposed increase turned out to be 30 percent, taking into account existing fees; see comment below —Ed.] Since the staff is all-volunteer, the rent increase would be passed along in the price of beer, which is one of the main reasons to go to Valhalla of course. (The other being that Rice is the largest outdoor drinking area in Houston.) So even if the administration isn’t planning on taking Valhalla down all at once, it could be done in by a slow strangulation of rising costs.” [Katk, commenting on Rice Taking KTRU Off the Airwaves, Handing Over Humble Transmitter to KUHF]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: KICKING OFF THE GOLDEN AGE OF MONTROSE BLVD. EXTENDED PATIO DINING “This is so Houston it hurts. This has got to be nominated for some kind of best of/worst of award at the end of the year. I don’t know what the category is, but making a building less sidewalk and pedestrian friendly in order to accommodate a billboard is a classic.” [Cap’n McBarnacle, commenting on Must See This: Billboard Bunny Pushes Back New Montrose Office Tower]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THEY LAUGHED AT THE IDEA OF PUTTING A DOME ON TOP OF A SPORTS STADIUM, TOO 
“. . . It is possible. The air space, the cooling system, flooding, venting, and anything else you could possibly think of. You people don’t think they have already thought of every possible scenario? These are very smart people, smarter than me and everyone else on this opionated blog. Like one of the guys on here said about us not ever imagining [an] indoor sports arena possible, and now we have many. And let’s just say it did happen. Did any of you ever stop to think about the extreme economic growth it would create for our city? A major city turned into probably the worlds number one tourist attraction. Resturants, shops, malls, and probably every business would boom. Not including the thousands that would pop up becasue of it. Creating thousands of jobs. . . .” [fhp, commenting on We’re All Astrodome Now: The Mile-Wide Dome Over Houston] Image: Engineering, Discovery Channel
