The state bill proposed by Houston-area senator John Whitmire (to require a vote on major county-funded upgrades to certain Texas stadiums that happen to be the Astrodome) was killed in the Texas House by a different Houston-area legislator, Robert Arnold reports this week for KHOU. (That likely means the work on Harris County’s plan to fill in the bottom of the Dome with an underground parking garage can go ahead without a special election on the spending.) The bill actually passed the Senate at the end of March, but died in the House’s County Affairs committee chaired by representative Garnet Coleman (whose own legislative district ever-so-slightly overlaps Whitmire’s around Fourth Ward: From there, Coleman’s District 147 stretches down through Third Ward toward the Beltway along the Gulf Freeway, while Whitmire’s Senate District 15 horseshoes up 290 to FM 1960 and Humble before looping back down to the Ship Channel). Arnold says the bill made an unsuccessful comeback attempt as an amendment to another measure, and looks to be dead for now as of yesterday’s end of the normal legislative calendar. (Then again — who knows what might pop up during a special session?)
- Plans for Astrodome Go Forward after Bill Dies [KPRC]
- Previously on Swamplot:Â Preservationists, Heineken Now Crowdsourcing $15K To Let People Party in the Astrodome;Â State Committee Okays Bill To Require ‘Certain Counties’ To Vote on Astrodome Parking Garage-ification;Â Judge Emmett on the New Plan To Rein In the New Astrodome Plan;Â Astrodome To Be Highlighted for Supporting Role as Super Bowl Storage Facility;Â County Approves First $10.5 Million for Astrodome Basement Parking Garage Plan; How You’d Park Under Astrodome’s Floor, and Where To Fish for More Details;County Wants To Fill In the Astrodome’s Flood Levels with Parking; The Glittering 5-Story Affordable Housing Thinktank Bubble That Could Rise by Emancipation Park
- All Astrodome coverage [Swamplot]
Schematic of county Astrodome parking garage plan: Harris County Engineering Dept.
In 2006, the former brewery structure now hosting the Magnolia Ballroom was the 
“Houston is a city of practical and economical people. Emotion does not drive the focus of our communities like San Francisco or New Orleans. If it is economical to refurbish an old establishment for modern luxury, Houston will do it. If neighborhoods neglect their historic landmarks for 20 to 30 years and have the institutions fall into disrepair, they will cost the tax payers in a time where our budget is upside down.” [
“Once you start erasing history, who knows where it ends?” writes Cort McMurray in today’s Chronicle, scripting out a taste of potential dystopian franchise future for Houston and Texas’s most prominent landmarks should 
“If one of 
“Demolish your great aunt’s soup tureen! Every person wants to preserve her or his family history, yet is bonkers to bulldoze the neighbor’s. BS. All of it is Houston’s history — whether, or not, George Washington or George Bush slept there.” [
Ever worry that Houston’s historical preservation rules are just too darn strict? Tired of having to wait a whole 90 days to go ahead and do 
Got questions about early Texas 
“’Everybody wants walkability, but nobody wants density’ is the urban-planning equivalent of ‘everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.’†[
“I know nothing about 
Here’s the statement judge Ed Emmett’s office just released 
