To celebrate pre-Independence Day, Swamplot is skipping out a little early for the weekend. Our best wishes for a safe and spectacular holiday. Tune in with us again on Monday for more sizzling and sparkling Houston coverage.
Photo: Jackson Myers via Swamplot Flickr Pool
HOW TO SEE YOUR PHOTOS ON SWAMPLOT 
Got some good flood pics you’d like to share with a wider audience? Or maybe some drier images of Houston street or strip-mall life that deserve to be highlighted on this site? The Swamplot Flickr pool is hungry for your photographic contributions! To join, just click the “+ Join Group” button at the top of this page. Pics that are more Houston-as-you-see-it than Chamber-of-Commerce-y are preferred. Just be sure to provide location info for each cité-vérité image you submit — or geotag them, if that’s easier. Photo of I-45: Paul via Swamplot Flickr Pool [license]
And let’s not forget the true meaning of Memorial Day: to remember those who have fallen in service to us all. Swamplot will be back in action next Tuesday.
Photo of 2103 Crockett St.: Swamplot inbox
Today is Presidents’ Day — or Washington’s Birthday or close to it if you want to be precise — and Swamplot is taking a break for the rest of it to do some . . . uh, body sculpting? We’ll be back tomorrow with more of that Houston real estate stuff you keep coming back for.
Photo of sculptures by David Adickes: mj ecker [license]
Today being Martin Luther King Jr. Day and all, Swamplot is taking a breather, along with some but not all of you. Check back with us tomorrow and most days thereafter for continuing coverage of Houston real estate goings-on.
Photo of Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk and Rothko Chapel: Ed Uthman [license]
THE SWAMPLOT AWARDS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED 
Did it seem like the holiday season went by in a glittery flash? If so, maybe you didn’t have time to take in the wonders of the 2014 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. It’s the annual chance for this publication’s readers to honor local standouts with an assortment of accolades. 2014 may be over, but you can still revel over who or what your peers tagged as their Favorite Houston Design Cliche, Best Demolition, Best Sign of the New Houston, and other honorifics in 7 separate categories — simply by reading this accounting of the winners. Equally entertaining and informative is this roundup of the runners-up. Thanks again to all the worthy contestants and commentators — your rich contributions to this city (and this website) make the Swampies an annual endeavor worth repeating.
It’s just about over: a year of winners, losers, also-rans, and the many others who just keep working at it. Swamplot is signing off for 2014, but we’ll be back next Monday to offer additional helpings of Houston real estate craziness. A Happy New Year and best wishes to all; you deserve it.
Photo of San Jacinto Monument: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
A few well-deserved days off should be on their way to you — special delivery. And when they arrive, please accept our best wishes for the season. If you find yourself itching for some Houston real estate action on your Christmas vacation, remember: The voting deadline for the 2014 Swamplot Awards is this coming Saturday, December 27th, at 5 pm. So how about casting about a few ballots this way or that? Swamplot will return to its regular posting schedule the following Monday, December 29th.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Have you voted yet in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate? Ballots for all 7 categories are open this week only!
Here’s a quick refresher on the 4 different methods you can use to vote in each category: (A longer explanation is here, but yes, you can vote once for each category using each method.)
If you vote via the website or email, please make sure you’ve signed up for the Swamplot email list (through this link, or by filling out the box at the top left of this page). And remember: Votes taste better when they’re peppered with some sort of explanation.
Here’s a handy list of all the categories:
Already voted, but want to do more? Drum up more support for your favorites. The difference between one nominee winning or losing could come down to your email, Facebook post, or tweet.
Voting in all categories will end at 5 pm on Saturday, December 27th.
Last week official ballots were posted for all 7 categories of the 2014 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. The official nominees have been chosen. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to cast your votes!
Longtime Swamplot Award ballot-stuffers are probably aware of the quirky voting rules for the Swampies: You can vote up to 4 times in each category —Â once using each of 4 methods. Method 1 is the most obvious: Just add a comment to the post that announces the official nominees in that category. Method 2 is sending an email to Swamplot, indicating your choice in any or all of the categories. But if you’re using either of these methods and you want your votes to count, please make sure you’ve signed up for the Swamplot email list (through this link, or by filling out the box at the top left of this page). You can also Tweet your votes (method 3) or add them as comments to the appropriate post on the Swamplot Facebook page (method 4). Do try to make the whole thing more fun for everyone by explaining your vote. We’ve gone ahead and posted all the voting rules here.
Here’s a handy list of links to the official ballots for all 7 categories:
The voting deadline for all categories is 5 pm on Saturday, December 27th. Pick some winners!
This year’s Swampies are starting to take shape. Nominations closed at midnight last night for the first 2 of the 7 categories in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate: Favorite Houston Design Cliché and Best Demolition. Later today, we’ll kick off the voting when we announce the official nominees for the first of those categories. Then, throughout the rest of this week and next, we’ll work our way through the remaining categories in order, announcing the official nominees and opening the voting for each.
But your chance to make nominations hasn’t ended entirely. For the categories that still have nominations open, we still need your help. Peruse the suggestions posted in the comments sections of the 5 remaining categories (all the categories are listed here). If you find anything missing, please add your nominations. If you think you can improve on any of the explanations already submitted, do that, too. If you see a nomination without any explanation at all, fix that and add a good one. Got photos of any of the nominees? Send them our way!
The deadline for nominations in the next 2 categories — Best Body of Water and Best Mobile Food Vendor Location — is midnight tonight.
All 7 categories in the 2014 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate have now been announced and opened for nominations. But the Swampies have only just gotten started.
Readers have submitted some stellar nominations so far, but if you think anything’s missing that simply must be included, please add your nomination now. If you like a nomination that’s already been made but think you can beef up or add an explanation to better help it land on the ballot, go right ahead. (Here’s a hint: Nominees that are mentioned, but that don’t come with any explanation or reasons for the choice aren’t particularly likely to end up on a final ballot.) If you have photos of any of the nominees, send those in, too.
But don’t wait too long! Tonight at midnight, nominations will close for the first 2 award categories: Favorite Houston Design Cliché and Best Demolition. We’ll close nominations Thursday night for the next 2 categories: Best Body of Water and Best Mobile Food Vendor Location, then finish off the rest of the nominations next week for the remaining categories. Tomorrow, we’ll announce the official slate of nominees for the first award category and open it for voting. And then continue on from there.
Add your nominations to the comments section below the post that announces each category, or send them to us in an email. Who are the top contenders in Houston real estate this year? You tell us.
If you’ve been keeping track, you’ll have counted 6 categories announced so far in the 2014 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, Best Body of Water, Best Mobile Food Vendor Location, Best Sign of the New Houston, and 2014 Neighborhood of the Year.
Here’s the seventh and final category: the Greatest Moment in Houston Real Estate of 2014. Covering great moments in real estate is the whole point of Swamplot. So tell us: What big real estate happening from the past year stands out above all others? Was it something Swamplot covered? Or something we missed? Your answer need not have taken place within city limits, but it should include sufficient Houston-ish qualities to be deserving of the award.
For this award to work, we need your help. Add your comments to this post or send us an email describing the moments you’d like to nominate and — more important — explaining why. If you need to jog your memory, browse through our posts from the last year. And if you have any questions about how to make a nomination, you’ll likely find the answers here. Nominations are due by midnight on December 16, so don’t delay!
We’re almost done introducing the 7 categories in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. So far, we’ve opened nominations for Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, Best Body of Water, Best Mobile Food Vendor Location, and Best Sign of the New Houston. If you haven’t done so already, please add your own suggestions for each of these.
Every year, this next category gets pretty competitive: Neighborhood of the Year. Past winners have come from all over the greater Houston area, from Eastwood to Meadowcreek Village to — way back in 2009 —Â Galveston. (Oak Forest was last year’s runner-up.)
What qualifies any one of these neighborhoods to be declared neighborhood of the year? That’s for you to decide. When you make a nomination, be sure to say why your pick is especially award-worthy. You can submit your nominations — along with convincing explanations as to why your nominee should win — in the comments below, or in an email, by midnight on Monday, December 15. (If you’re just joining us, please consult the official rules for nominations.) Now tell us, who are this year’s contenders for Neighborhood of the Year?
So far, 4 categories have been opened up for reader nominations in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, Best Body of Water, and Best Mobile Food Vendor Location. Today, we get to welcome another new category: Best Sign of the New Houston.
What do you see as the most defining characteristics of where Houston is heading? And then: What’s the clearest sign of that direction? With this award, we’re hoping readers come up with a single specific event, development, place, or plain ol’ thing in the city that best encapsulates the new circumstances we find ourselves in here in this low-lying, smooth-talking metropolis. Help us pick the best sign of the Bayou City’s new era.
Submit your nominations for the best sign of the new Houston in the comments section below — or hit us up via email. For this category to work, we’re relying on our readers’ ability to come up with clever interpretations of this category. Have at it!
You have until midnight this Sunday, December 14 to send in your nominations. You should know the drill by now, but feel free to look over all the rules for the nominating process here.
