- 1120 N. Luzon St. [HAR]
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Tag: Streets
LOOKING FOR HOUSTON ZERO “In Chicago, there is a ‘zero-point’ at State and Madison, where all addresses move from zero away from that intersection. It seems that Houston has some semblance of this system, as addresses go lower the closer to Buffalo Bayou (on N/S streets at least) and as they cross the bayou, even-numbers go from the west side to the east side. My question is, where is Houston’s null address point? Allen’s Landing? Is it a single point that then radiates due East/West and North/South, or does it follow the bayou? Maybe someone could write a Google map script that plots all the addresses in Houston under the number 100. . . . ” [Swamplot inbox]
Mike Morris hitches a ride on the city’s $500,000 Street Surface Assessment Vehicle, a modified van that’s been hard at work studying street bumps and cracks since last May. Operators hope to complete a pass on more than 16,000 miles of Houston streets by this coming June.
Inside the van, [Patrick] Johnson uses a modified PlayStation controller and a black box with 16 white buttons to run the system, from recording the type of pavement being scanned — cement or asphalt — to marking potholes.
The van’s front lasers, mounted where the bumper used to be, evaluate the pavement surface for rough patches. A second laser device, the “crackscope,” is mounted at the back of the van, recording a continuous bird’s-eye photograph of the street to reveal fissures in the pavement.
A round, 11-lens camera — looking not unlike a disco ball — sits atop the van, recording nearby street features, including culverts and fire hydrants.
Each street starts with a score of 100, but as the lasers find rough patches or cracks and Johnson records each pothole, the score drops.
H-E-B agreed several months ago to wall off the ends of Sul Ross and Branard streets, which dead-end into the site of its future Montrose market at West Alabama and Dunlavy, and which served as entrances for the Wilshire Village Apartments that were torn down there last year. But what about devotees of that obscure local Montrose pastime known as walking to the supermarket? If they’re coming from the neighborhoods to the west, should they be able to get through that way?
Over the weekend, the Lancaster Place Civic Association worked out a “compromise” between homeowners on the dead-end portions of Sul Ross and Branard — mostly opposed to having pedestrian gates at the ends of their streets — and homeowners and renters in that neighborhood to the south and southwest of the site, most of whom wanted them included. H-E-B Houston prez Scott McClelland says he’ll have H-E-B’s in-house architects design what the association came up with: A pedestrian gate on Branard, with a timer that will lock it after dark. Sul Ross, which is closer to the store entrance, won’t have a gate, but will have a panel in the wall that would make it easier to put one in later.
Longtime Ferndale resident Carol Barden (yes, that Carol Barden) clues us into the recent appearance on MLS — at $549K apiece — of 2 out of the 3 wood-frame residences that now make up Jas Gurney Antiques. “It’s such a great little street,” she writes. “All the neighbors are so afraid that some awful developer will demo the houses and build junk. Jas has maintained gardens, old-growth trees, he plants flowers for every season.” Gurney reportedly would prefer to sell his entire inventory of “museum-quality” antiques along with his houses, but hasn’t been able to find a buyer. Also on that mixed-residential stretch of Ferndale, between Westheimer and Alabama: townhouses, plain ol’ houses, 4 more antique stores, Jill Brown’s lighting store, plus several more businesses.
THE PROP. 1 DITCH INCENTIVE If Houston voters pass Proposition 1 in November, the average homeowner will pay about $5 a month to the city’s new drainage and street-renewal fund, Mayor Parker announced today. Commercial properties and homes on curb-and-gutter streets would be assessed 3.2 cents per sq. ft. of hardscape (including building footprints, driveways, porches and parking lots) per year. But owners who live on streets with open ditches would only have to pay at a 2.6-cents-per-sq.-ft. rate. That’d save the average ditch-side homeowner a whopping $11.40 a year. The assessment rate would be fixed for 10 years, and require a two-thirds vote from city council to be raised after that. Reporter Miya Shay has the calculations. [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
The art-gallery building at 4411 Montrose, just north of the bridge over the Southwest Freeway, stands only a few feet back from the front sidewalk. But just one block south, the Midway Companies is planning to plant its new 13-story office tower (which, like 4411 Montrose, will feature a restaurant space on the ground floor and gallery spaces upstairs) a full 25 feet back from the Montrose Blvd. property line. But that’s not because Midway is shy about getting any variances necessary to get around mandated city setbacks.
No, Midway director Shon Link tells Swamplot the M Fifty-Nine building must stand clear of the bright yellow Clear Channel billboard that pokes out from the southwest corner of the property. Restrictions require the billboard to have a clear view of oncoming traffic driving south on Montrose. Currently peeking out from the bottom part of the billboard: The Nesquick Bunny.
Behind Montrose, M Fifty-Nine won’t be so shy with the streets:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SPILL! “I’m looking forward to the dedicated thread on Swamplot about the Renew Houston proposal. Until then, I’ll keep my comments to myself . . .” [Random Poster, commenting on Swamplot Street Sleuths: Too Many Bumps]
Will construction of a new Walmart off Yale St. just south of I-10 and the Heights require any variances from the Planning Commission? This sign appeared over the weekend across the street from where Koehler St. ends at Yale, just south of Dirt Bar. It appears to refer to the proposed extension of Koehler St. to Heights Blvd. shown on the Ainbinder Company site plan for the property. That’s not for the portion of the property Walmart will be occupying, but for an adjacent tract.
By Sunday night, though, the sign had been taken down. According to Kent Marsh of planning firm Marsh Darcy Partners, it was removed “erroneously” and should be reinstalled soon. Meanwhile, a separate set of signs are up along Koehler and on the other side of Yale, closer to where the Walmart is likely to go. But they appear to be for the Yale St. pad sites in the Ainbinder plan. And they aren’t for variances:
- Beechnut Park – Houston, TX [Vimeo]
Video: Brian Price
THE ALLEN PARKWAY SPEED TRAP 
“Traffic accidents increased 47 percent and injuries 154 percent on Allen Parkway last year even as the number of motorists ticketed for speeding continued a lengthy and significant decline on the near-downtown roadway, according to police and municipal court records. . . .
Houston police, who were unaware of the drop in speeding tickets until asked by the Houston Chronicle and were at a loss to explain them, said they will begin a weeklong study today of motorists’ speeds on Allen Parkway. If high rates of speeding are detected, an enforcement blitz with radar units will begin, said Capt. Carl Driskell, who heads HPD’s traffic enforcement division.” [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Flickr user Lee Ann L.
And now, from Swamplot’s “tips” line, a reader’s brief personal testimonial for the Houston Service Helpline:
Seems like the folks who read your blog are motivated and want the best for the city (whatever that means to them). You can call 3-1-1 or (713) 837-0311 or my preference is the “web intake form” – clunky, but thorough. They send you e-mail with incident #, so you can call a representative and follow up. There are drop-down menus to request the type of service you want.
I’ve used the Houston 3-1-1 system a couple of dozen times to report:
- Stray pit bull
- Potholes (city is VERY responsive – normally fixed within 1 or 2 weeks, sometimes a day or two) They forward pothole/right-of-way concerns about freeways and frontage roads to TX-DOT, I think. For example, I called in several potholes on stretch of 59 frontage road near Lakewood. Within 10 days there were temporary asphalt patches (in concrete roadway). Within 3 weeks these had been cut out and replaced with concrete patches!
- Streetlights burnt out (very quick) or always on (not as quick) – I believe they forward these requests to Reliant or Centerpoint – all you need is the 6-digit # on the side of the pole
- Faded/worn off lane stripes and intersection markings @ westpark and weslyan – repainted within 6 weeks
- Broken water main under street – slow fix
- Replace speed limit sign that had fallen down – took 2-3 tries
Just around the corner from all those Colquitt galleries behind Kirby, the art traffic gets a little heavy:
Over the weekend, Dimitri and I were driving home on Ferndale as we passed by two guys walking across the street with a very familiar piece of art. I said “Wait a minute, back up- I know this work!†So Dimitri backed up for me to ask “Hey is that a “Floyd Newsum?†They happily confirmed yes- this was sure enough a Floyd Newsum piece of art. It was such a coincidence because I have been working on some promotional photos/collages of Floyd and there he is again right in front of me on my very own street.
- Floyd Newsum Spotting on Ferndale [Slips Photo Blog]
Photo: Sarah Lipscomb
COMMENT OF THE DAY: COLQUITTERS, IT’S YOUR OWN DAMN ASPHALT “What is it about Colquitt? I have seen other streets in your same zipcode surfaced twice in the last dozen years, while certain blocks of Colquitt (the high teens) look like Beyond Thunderdome. I am not so naive as to be ignorant of why some streets get better attention than others, but who did you Colquitters piss off?” [Harold Mandell, commenting on Steve Radack’s Next Little Idea]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MAKES IT EASIER TO CRUSH THOSE COMMUNARDS, TOO “Parisian city planners were met with similar narrow-minded criticism when they decided to construct grand boulevards in medieval Paris. The result was the Champs-Elysees and other notable conduits. The visionaries at METRO must ignore similar insuferable fools and carry on the worthy goal of bringing automobile independent mass transportation to Houston. The University line is the lynch pin of the ongoing expansion and these plans should be approved with all deliberate speed.” [Landed Gent, commenting on Metro’s University Line Acquisition Line-Up: What Stays and What Goes Along Richmond Ave.]