PureAuteur

We already have something like this in the area: The Oil Ranch, which I believe is in Waller or Hempstead. Is it still open? I haven't been since I was in junior high school in the early 90s.

The kids just need to be careful when crossing the street, and people just need to pay attention and be fully alert when driving their cars anywhere. This phone ban stuff is too much. We need less laws in Texas, not more.

What do you mean by ignorant beauty and "shallow i'm importantness"? A couple years ago you were always talking about how you loved living in the Woodlands. I was really wanting to move there back in 2006, and I still like the Woodlands a lot, but I just don't really have a plan for living there as far as job or whether to buy a property or just rent. The inner loop is more my speed at this point, since I'm a single 28 year old guy, and I want to be where all the single young women are.

There is a sign near the old Circuit City building that says "new Willowbrook shopping center coming soon". Are they going to tear down that entire center with the Laff Spot, Shannons Street Waves, and Baker Street Pub?

The Heights has a more intimate character, and the large apartment complexes might detract from this. If the apartment buildings are smaller and more nestled into the neighborhood, then they are just as acceptable as homes. This is pretty much how the Heights has always been over the last few decades. Just about everywhere you turn, you see a small apartment community, a single apartment building with a few units, or garage apartments/efficiencies for lease.

Niche- then why didn't developers build gigantic cookie cutter apartment complexes with the standard 3 stories in the 60s, 70s, and 80s? Do you think we'll ever return to the days when one story apartment complexes with maybe 20-30 units will be built?

A combination of money and community vision. Now it's just money. Developers don't care about whether they put too many people in a certain amount of space. Remember when they used to make 1 and 2 story apartment complexes and small quaint little neighborhood apartments? Those days are over. Everything is at least 3 stories now, because you can get more money on the same amount of land. If you want to invest in 4 + stories, then you have to invest in an elevator, but you'd still be making enough to cover that cost. I concur. That kind of development works on the East End, because that area is turning into a near downtown neighborhood for young couples, and single professionals. The Heights has those demographics too, but is more of a family neighborhood.

That's really sad that they would want to demolish the building. It is a unique, classic design, and just another example of how money is destroying the character of Houston and all its history and landmark structures. I don't even see how 195 units of apartments could fit into that space. There shouldn't be any traffic problems though, since the Heights has a grid system of streets.

There will eventually come a point where white movement will slow down. The whites that are moving out to Magnolia, Conroe, and Montgomery are probably looking at the final frontier. This will be where all the baby boomers eventually settle for retirement, while their children and whites in their 30s and 40s will re-populate downtown and the inner city. It's inevitable that whites will move when blacks and hispanics start moving in. It's not that they dislike these people, but rather the cultural differences are too vast, and they'd rather not deal with all the social and institutional merging of cultures. Whites, especially those of central European descent are very clannish and like to be around their own kind. It's interesting what's going on with the growth in Magnolia, Montgomery, Conroe, Willis, The Woodlands, and Panorama Village. This is very similar to what's going on in Los Angeles. All the whites in the San Fernando Valley (which could be compared to Spring, Cypress, Klein, 1960 area) are beginning to discover Ventura County and Kearne County, so some parts of the valley are now starting to go downhill.

I still think they should find some way to get these people out to the mall. These people should take more pride in their community. They were the ones prancing around in the 1950s in their hot new cars and expensive suits like they were the greatest thing on earth, and now they sit in their houses with the doors locked. They just allowed their community to deteriorate after it started off as a super classy, one-of-a-kind residential development. I at least give them credit for staying there and not moving to Sugarland like all the other frightened people.

Why don't they just build a new "Sharpstown" Mall closer to where its target demographics are, so that they don't have to come from other parts of town? It would be my guess that blacks are less than 1/3 of the demographic makeup of the mall's 5 mile radius, yet the mall is mostly geared toward them. I like the mall's independent spirit of welcoming mom and pop stores, but as a white guy, I doubt there would be any stores that would be attractive to me if I lived in the area. It's also laughable that the mall does nothing to attract the aging white population of the Sharpstown area, who are the ones with the most money to spend.

Are we talking about the proposed state-wide ban on smoking in bars or the city ordinance? I think the city ordinance has already been made into law, and it will take effect in September of this year.

It's been that way for a long time, at least 15 years. Most of those "kids" are actually adults who have just been living that lifestyle for a long time. I see lots of people that look around 25-45 who just hang out as if they were teenagers after school lets out. I really don't know where they live or how they get an income, because the entire area on all sides of that intersection is high dollar.

The shopping center is historically, architecturally, and artistically significant. I would suggest reading up on it. It was built in the 1930s, and it was one of the first centers of its kind with that architectural style. "Renovations" or "redevelopments" to the center will mean that the entire center will not be preserved in complete original form. This upsets many native Houstonians who feel a piece of their local history and culture is being tampered with. The Barnes and Noble rendering would look great anywhere else, but here it only diminishes the overall aesthetic of the center. You can't preserve the art deco and moderne design of the center by building new structures with accents of that style. It isn't authentic. The height of the B&N building is not consistent with the one-story continuity and horizontal emphasis. The art deco accents on the rendering are a bit overdone, and they will diminish the aesthetic effect that art deco design is supposed to achieve. As far as redevelopment, I don't see why B&N couldn't have purchased that entire segment of the center for their space, which would have kept the original development intact. I think a one story B&N, with the right decor, could look pretty neat in that center. It could have been a smaller, more understated B&N, and maybe could have saved the Bookstop as well. The original construction was built to last forever. It wasn't falling apart or in severe decay like those PR people made it sound like. They were just trying to justify the intervention. All that was needed was maybe some cosmetic improvements to the exterior. Finally, isn't there a Houston Preservation Alliance that has, I believe, contacted the National Historic Registry and added this landmark center to the list of historic places? If so, then shouldn't the entire center be protected?

Socio-economic class of people who just live day to day and have no problem with stealing, robbing, committing a violent crime, or killing someone. This would include those who not only don't have a problem with it, but actively engage in crimes on a regular basis. This element of the city has really grown throughout the last few years, and unfortunately, because of the perceived danger, the Galleria area may never become a 24 hour urbanized area.