COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE HERITAGE WEST BIKEWAY IS BACK ON TRAIL “If you had not heard, the construction contractor for this project had gone bankrupt, leaving the project dormant for quite a while. Good news is that the new contractor started working yesterday (8/13/12) and has 120 days to complete the bikeway project. Yes, this should mean that the project will be done by 12/31/12.” [Dan Raine, commenting on Did the Heritage West Bikeway Lose Its Way?]
Sign up for the Newsletter
Tag: Woodland Heights
A reader wants to know what happened to the section of the new Heritage West Bikeway along White Oak Bayou as it passes under I-45 just north of Downtown (shown above, facing west).
I take this bike trail to UHD out of the Heights. It has been about three weeks since I last used it. This section was brand new, I think less than 6 months old and it has been torn up. In the distance you can see another orange fence, where the new trail starts again and then abruptly ends at a construction site where they are building a bike bridge.
I am curious to know if anyone has info about why a new section is torn up already. I’m looking forward to a completed trail that will connect the Heights directly to Downtown and Minute Maid park.
If nothing else, it’s a pretty sweet pic about how Houston infrastructure is always “improving”, no matter how new it is.
- Previously on Swamplot: New North Downtown Bikeway Close to Almost Ready To Open
Photo: Swamplot inbox
A self-proclaimed “loyal reader from the First Ward” ventures into Woodland Heights to snap and send this photo documenting construction taking place at the former gas station at 2631 White Oak — home most recently to Beer Island — and the continuing transformation of White Oak Dr. When construction is complete, the spot on the corner of Studewood will become the 5th Houston location of Little Woodrow’s.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
CRICKET TRAILER TAKES IT OFFLINE 
How’d the Cricket Trailer do in its national teevee debut last night on Extreme RV, the Travel Channel’s new show? Former furnituremaker-to-the-astronauts Garrett Finney didn’t get top billing in the episode for the second version of his unique 2-wheeler pop-top vehicle, painstakingly crafted in his Woodland Heights workshop — that prize went to Simon Cowell’s behemoth 45-footer motor home. Still, the Cricket website attracted enough attention from the RV early adopter crowd to knock it off its server. From the Cricket’s Facebook page, Finney promises it’ll be back online soon. Update, 1/31: It’s back in business. [Previously on Swamplot]
It looks like large portions of the 2.8-mile-long Heritage West Bikeway connecting Stude Park to UH-Downtown are close to completion, but the path along portions of the former UP railway won’t open until summer, according to the city. One important still-missing link: a pedestrian bridge over Little White Oak Bayou. Past the University, the 10-ft. wide trail will connect to the Heritage East Bikeway, which continues along White Oak Bayou to Lockwood.
The new western portion will hook up with the MKT hike-and-bike trail both at Stude Park and at Spring St., providing an alternate along-the-bayou path for bicyclists headed downtown from the Heights. One highlight of the journey: a close-up view of the 17.3 acres of swampland Hakeem Olajuwon flipped to Metro back in 2005 for a cool $15 million:
Seen floating past Thelma Dr. in Woodland Heights late yesterday.
- Check out lane on White Oak [Is This Houston?]
Photo: Pankaj
LIGHTS IN THE HEIGHTS TO STAY ON, JUST TURNED DOWN A BIT 
The esplanade and corner food trucks will be gone, the parade will be “de-emphasized,” and the police will be active at the next Lights in the Heights, according to a Woodland Heights Civic Association email received by Martin Hajovsky. According to some estimates, 50,000 people attended last year’s annual Christmas-y event. To assuage neighborhood concerns about possible vandalism, public drunkenness, and commercialization, the event will be held earlier in the evening and shortened by an hour as well. [Home in the Heights, via Hair Balls] Photo: Jason Tinder [license]
Your latest retail edition:
- Closing and Expanding: New Orleans import Kaboom Books has shut down its Studewood location in the Heights strip center next to Antidote Coffee. Open now: more space for books and readers in the 3116 Houston Ave. storefront at the end of Bayland in Woodland Heights. The expanded store incorporates the north end of the streetfront building, and includes a back yard and reading area.
- Moving: The storefront division of PH Design Shop, from its Shepherd Dr. hangout next to Sugarbaby’s Cupcake Boutique, to a larger 1,440-sq.-ft. space at 2414 Rice Blvd. in the head-in-parking paradise of Rice Village, later this month. The new store will allow the addition of gifts and tabletop items to the store’s mix of custom mix of funky paper goods and custom design services.
One more:
Noting the new handcrafted plywood “for sale or lease” signs now hanging on White Oak in front of King Biscuit Patio Cafe, a few Swamplot readers have written in to tell us that it looks like the Woodland Heights restaurant’s promised comeback has been called off before it even started. Restaurant guide b4-u-eat announced last month that building owner Pat Quinn would be teaming up with former Fitzgerald’s owner Sara Fitzgerald to reopen the restaurant. One reader tells Swamplot that remodeling work came to a halt 2 weeks ago, and that Fitzgerald spent all of last Thursday moving out of the building. The signs — one of them advertising the availability of owner financing — were posted over the weekend.
- Previously on Swamplot: Will King Biscuit Bounce Back?
Photos: Swamplot inbox
Woodland Heights hangout King Biscuit Patio Cafe closed its doors on Saturday night. Sources tell Swamplot that cafe owner Roger Aggoun’s lease was not renewed. Now b4-u-eat is reporting that building owner Pat Quinn — who opened the place at 1606 White Oak in 1982 but later sold it — plans to team up with the former owner of Fitzgerald’s to reopen the restaurant. Sara Fitzgerald retired last year from running the live-music venue at the other end of White Oak; she opened Fitzgerald’s in 1977.
Photo: Renny Glover
Planning director Marlene Gafrick is recommending that city council shrink the boundaries of the proposed Houston Heights South and Woodland Heights historic districts before approving them — but only slightly. In this morning’s meeting, Gafrick presented a map of Houston Heights South with “squared off boundaries” in the southeast corner and western edges of the district, and that excludes a number of residences on Oxford St. For Woodland Heights, her map cuts out some properties on Omar St. She proposed making no changes to the proposed boundaries of the Glenbrook Valley district. The actual designation and boundaries of the districts will be up to city council.
- Historic Districts coverage [Swamplot]
Photo from 800 block of Columbia St.: Swamplot inbox
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW KIDS CAN HELP MAKE WAY FOR MORE ALCOHOL SALES IN AND AROUND THE HEIGHTS “If HISD closes Hogg [Middle School] (it’s been identified as one of 66 struggling schools), that may open up some of the Studewood/ 11th area for liquor sales. How far do you need to be from a church to get an alcohol permit?” [Holster, commenting on The Rush to White Oak: Is the Corkscrew Next?]
Here’s a 1920 bungalow taking up valuable space on a 7,000-sq.-ft. lot on Merrill St. near Watson. The lot size and the Woodland Heights address make the “perfect combination for building your new home in the Heights,” declares the new listing. The structure, “in need of extensive repairs,” features 3 apparently unphotographable bedrooms and 1 bath. List price: $245,000.
- 726 Merrill St. [HAR]
HISTORIC DISTRICT HOLDUP Just one more thing about that temporary change to the historic-district ordinance Houston’s city council is considering today. Apparently there’s more to it than just a 7-month shutting of the wait-90-days “loophole” that allows property owners to demolish, build, or renovate historic-district properties as they wish, even if their plans have been rejected by the city historical commission. The proposal also includes a temporary ban on the designation of new historic districts. If it passes, that’ll give builders working in neighborhoods that have been working toward historic-district status — such as Woodland Heights and Glenbrook Valley — a clear 7-month window to clean out the riffraff. [Swamplot inbox; item 25 on the agenda]