j_cuevas713

I'm working with some peeps to get these safety measures redone. I encourage yall to email CM Castillo and let him know you support these safety measures to keep people safe. He's been very vocal about the lack of transparency in removing these safety improvements. Here is his email: DISTRICTH@HOUSTONTX.GOV

11 minutes ago, HouTXRanger said:

It looks like the post I wrote was lost to the ether . . . to summarize, losing Fields is a tragedy for the city. A few years ago, when he first started, I was fortunate enough to speak/work with him a little, and I was impressed with his attitude regarding the city and its potential. He went out of his way to make projects work (like attending an opposition meeting for 11th street to answer questions and talk with concerned residents) and I respected his decision to take his career (multi-modal planning) to a challenging place (a sunbelt metropolis). It will be difficult to find a replacement that has his attitude and outlook, if Whitmire plans to get a replacement at all, which I doubt considering how he's conducted his office so far. Very disappointed that my hometown seems to be taking ten steps back.

I think what hurt David and Veronica was the fact they didn't properly consult first responders when designing some of the safety improvements. Much of the communication was to those who had no say on the design or engineering. So Whitmire is getting rid of anything he deems to be "special interest" or "agenda" based. I hate losing both of those talented individuals. If we had Turner 4 more years, so much would have been accomplished. Now every bikeway project including Montrose Boulevard are under attack EVEN the new Metro transit lines.

Probably working on multiple areas, not just one

2 hours ago, steve1363 said:

I’m not opposed to the bike lanes on 11th.  What I object to is how sloppy the street looks (like a perpetual construction zone), and the utter lack of bike traffic.  If BikeHouston is going to lobby for bike lanes they should have a program to increase usage?  Maybe give away free bikes?  I don’t know…

 

Give away free bikes? If we continue to build out the network and create the necessary connectivity,  then ridership will follow. And we're not just lobbying for cycling, we lobby for safe streets as well. Traffic speeds on 11th are down and sales tax is up for many businesses. 

Don't let the pause worry you

The city council meeting has been good. I think modifications will be made but overall things seem to be headed in the right direction. There is lots of support for both 11th and Houston Ave. 

"Improvement" 

Absolutely. Whitmire is pretty anti-transit. But for someone to get damn near a 50% increase in pay is super fishy. I don't care what additional measures Trevino has supported. That should be a no-brainer when being the director. It tells me he's getting paid to get the Hardy Toll Rd extension built no matter what or who it affects. 

1 hour ago, HoustonIsHome said:

I like it. Looking at all the empty space around it, this area needs more love.

Yeah I counted 8 city blocks that need redevelopment in this area, not including this one

We need some improvements for pedestrian safety at that offramp. People fly through there and don't even stop. 

Meanwhile cities like Cincy are doing it right

5 minutes ago, IntheKnowHouston said:

Oh, my apologies. I didn't know discussions on a public forum - a forum such as this one where we're encourage to engage in healthy debates with facts and opinions - warrants someone's comment to be called disparaging names. Noted.

And really, is my comment any less relevant than yours? Let's see, so far you've stated this about the same developer (while not touching on anyone else; which could also warrant the question: Are you employed by Andy's Home Cafe or have some familial or financial ties to them?):

 

• 
   

•  

 

 

 

•  

 

•  

And on and on.

The fact is the Heights and nearby neighborhoods, along with other inner loop areas are desirable. With that desirability comes high property values and astronomical rents which ALL property owners/landlords charge. And since it's cost prohibitive for many to purchase land inside desirable areas in the loop, many decide to rent if they can afford it. If someone can't afford the rent, they go somewhere else. Plain and simple.

To continue to groan about one particular developer and one tenant they chose to lease to, while willfully ignoring other developers or things because they don't fit the narrative you want to paint, is your prerogative. It's also Wolf Capital Partners' and other developer's prerogative to lease to whomever they want within the confines of the law. It's also renters prerogative whether or not they make the decision to pay high rent in order to operate in areas like the Heights. 



 

  
Community land trusts are good solutions. And that may work in Oak Forest, Garden Oaks, Near Northside, or neighborhoods within and outside the beltway. But will this work to bring a large number of small and local businesses to the Heights or a handful? At the end of the day, with more properties owned by developers (whether they are small or big, local or not), the more it's likely retail chains and other chain will move in because they can afford the rent.

Here I got an idea, why don't you email the Mayor about his proposal to remove safety improvements on Houston Ave. Hopefully you can agree this is a mistake because this discussion is going nowhere and I'm ok disagreeing with you. I'll go a step further and say I don't care if I'm wrong. So be it. 

Imagine if H-GAC hadn't approved this. The city needs to leave the council asap

MASSIVE loss for Houston. We basically had a superstar on the team. Whitmire is a dumbass 

1 hour ago, steve1363 said:

Yes, exactly.   It's not that hard to understand.   As I've said before Whitmire is a practical man.

I understood it that way as well BUT...

Whitmire needs to understand, this isn't the same Houston he grew up in. His entire campaign messaging revolved around the Houston he knew growing up. Things have drastically changed and we see that with the 4 lane mini highways that leave Downtown. Midtown was rural in his time, not completely but it wasn't the inner city it is today. Plus he grew up in an era when highway infrastructure was exploding. So in many ways he knows no different. Even though his parents grew up in a dense urban Houston. 

14 hours ago, Justin Welling said:

All I can say is that the anti-bike lane, anti-road-diet, and anti-safe street people have been flooding the mayor's email with request to get rid of all the improvements. If safer streets, bike lanes, and other multi modal improvements are important to you....if you like the Houston Ave improvement and similar projects, tell the Mayor. He might listen, he might not. But the only people who he is hearing from are those who hate it. Email the mayors office at mayor@houstontx.gov and share your support of these projects :). 

I can't emphasize what Justin just said enough. Whitmire is the type of Mayor that wants data and input. If you're not giving him any input, he'll side with the naysayers who are. Take the time to write the Mayor a quick email in support of these improvements. And CC everyone here:

districtc@houstontx.gov,
districtb@houstontx.gov,
districta@houstontx.gov,
districtd@houstontx.gov,
districth@houstontx.gov,
districtg@houstontx.gov,
districtf@houstontx.gov,
districte@houstontx.gov,
districti@houstontx.gov,
districtj@houstontx.gov,
districtk@houstontx.gov,
atlarge1@houstontx.gov,
atlarge2@houstontx.gov,
atlarge3@houstontx.gov,
atlarge4@houstontx.gov,
atlarge5@houstontx.gov

I made it easy to copy & paste

7 minutes ago, Triton said:

 This rumor might be turning into fact. Trinity Lutheran Church has been notified that the median and other improvements will be removed, per Whitmire's office. Let's see what actually happens. Sorry to spread the bad news yall.

Are you sure? Council member Castillo just said he was going to fight it. 

16 hours ago, Ross said:

It's not wrong, though, is it?

Just because it's true in this city doesn't make it right. You can't have a walkable neighborhood and then at the same time put businesses in a spot where they're almost completely dependent on drivers to supply their business. If you create an environment geared around people, then businesses don't have to worry about how much parking they have because access to their business for all neighborhood users will be evenly spread out. I'm not anti-car or driving but this city forces businesses to depend on car traffic to supply their bottom line. That's why other cities like Chicago and NY can thrive even in the middle of the office market collapsing. I'm not saying they don't have their problems as well but access for everyone, not just drivers, is important.

Every time I go to POST they have a decent crowd eating there. Good news! 

On 1/28/2024 at 11:17 AM, Ross said:

Andy's was a terrible restaurant. We went there once on the recommendation of others and left after 20 minutes of not being seated or even talked to by the staff. The space was dirty and smelled bad. No great loss.

If you don't own your access or parking, you don't control your future.

That's the most Houston response ever "If you don't own your access or parking, you don't control your future."

5 hours ago, IntheKnowHouston said:

You're right. To your understanding you don't know whether other developers or landlords do right by their tenants or not. There are many things the general public aren't privy to. 

As for treatment to existing businesses in the area, do you mean property owners allowing other businesses to use property that is owned by another party? That seems to be where most of you dislike of Wolf Capital Partners is coming from, which seems to stem from the Chronicle's one-sided news coverage of Andy's Home Cafe no longer having access to a large parking lot. If so, the bottom line is that's business and capitalism. 

And really, I'm not going to go any further than that. I've discussed this in the topic about the property Andy's owns. 

To be clear, my initial comment was to your post which seemed to place blame of Alice Blue's impending closure on Wolf Capital Partners (you quoted SMH's entire post which was mainly about the restaurant's closure - if you were only talking about Starbucks, you should have quoted that part alone). And your post seemed to imply that some, if not many, of the closures and changes in the Greater Heights lay at the feet of Wolf Capital Partners.

In the case of Alice Blue, the restaurant owner decided not to renew her lease. Instead of running a restaurant, the owner wanted to enjoy their life and spend more time with their family.

And it should be noted, Wolf Capital Partners is not the restaurant's landlord, Asana Partners is. And to my previous post, Asana Partners owns a large amount of retail property in the Heights area, mostly acquired from Radom Capital. Based on a few conversations from those renting from Asana Partners, in addition to posts someone affiliated with Collina's shared on social media, the out-of-state developers are viewed as horrible landlords. Whether or not that's true, I can't be certain other than taking those tenants at their word. What I do know is some of the small businesses operating on Asana Partners-owned properties are seeing their rent skyrocket. Some claim they feel they're being pushed out in favor of a chain. If true, it's possible there may be a wave of locally-owned businesses closing in the months or years ahead.   

As for Wolf Capital Partners, it seem you're reaching to paint them as big bad developers who are bringing in retail chains, mainly a Starbucks. And we don't even know if this Starbucks is a franchised location or not. Franchised stores are licensed by people living in the community.

You are aware Wolf Capital Partners is a small local commercial real estate development firm, right? They're not a conglomerate by any means. And you do know they own another retail center on 11th Street, right?

Following the other 11th Street property's acquisition, Wolf Capital Partners leased the spaces to local businesses. In fact, a glance at Wolf Capital Partner's portfolio shows a majority of their tenants are locally owned businesses. Not only that, most of the properties have been rehabbed, which have contributed to the neighborhood's aesthetic. Yes, Bluestone Lane's outpost in the Heights is somewhat of a chain; however, the business was already operating there when Wolf purchased the property. Now, as for the rents, tenant improvements, and other details, that I can't speak to because I don't know anything about it.

Still, it seems to me, from the outside looking in, Wolf is not the big bad wolf some are painting it to be, yourself included.

Retail chains are inevitable, especially in desirable areas like the Greater Heights. And as an area becomes more desirable through additional residential, greenspaces, and businesses moving in, property taxes skyrocket. And with high property taxes, rents can be astronomical.

Many small and local businesses can't afford the astronomical rents in the Greater Heights area (and for that matter, inside the Loop and desirable suburban areas). And many small businesses don't have wealthy investors bankrolling them.  But retail chains can afford the rent. It's why we're seeing an increase in chains and a decrease in local retail. The case can also be made that many people are forgoing shopping or doing other business in person, opting for online services. The same goes for office space rentals. 

I don't know, it just seems there are a lot of factors at play when it comes to the overall commercial landscape in the Heights and inside the Loop. In that regard, maybe it's unfair to place much, if not all, of the blame on one developer because of one property that is being leased to global coffee chain that may or may not be a franchise location.

I completely understand the different variables that drive small business' out of their neighborhoods. I'm also aware of where Wolf Capital Partners is located. Regardless of how small the developer is they had no right not giving Andy's Cafe access to their adjacent section of alleyway just because they now owned the property. This wasn't solely about parking which was also an avoidable situation. I could care less how many small businesses' Wolf Capital Partners has leased to. It only takes one moment of bad business to ruin a reputation, and that goes for any type of business. At the end of the day Wolf Capital cares about their bottom line. So it makes sense why they leased to a chain. Making the excuse of "well small businesses' are just gonna have to leave because they can't afford it anymore" is a dumb argument. That's where community land trusts come in to play. Not sure what your allegiance to WCP's is, just as you listed, there are a ton of other developers who have done a better job considering the community and neighborhood they are building in. Let's also not act like there aren't a ton of developers building shitty strip malls in some of the densest parts of town for a quick buck. 

6 hours ago, IntheKnowHouston said:

That is your opinion, but it's not true. There are a number of developers who own many properties throughout the Greater Heights. And many are developing their properties that may range from anywhere to minor improvements to a complete overhaul.

I know many people aren't thrilled with Wolf Capital Partners kicking out A 2nd Cup, which lead to the space being divided and leased to two retail chains. And there are some who place blame on Wolf Capital Partners for Andy's Home Cafe moving (though Andy's owned the property its restaurant was located). But Wolf Capital Partners isn't the only developer buying properties in the area and bringing in new tenants.

If you're placing blame on Wolf Capital Partners, where is the blame for Asana Partners? The out-of-state company owns most of the major retail hubs in the Greater Heights, most which were acquired from Radom Capital. So, in that sense, would you also place blame on Radom Capital, Braun Enterprises, and others whose developments (and redevelopments) reshaped the Heights, but eventually sold those developments to other developers?
 

Those developers to my understanding haven't been complete dick's to existing businesses in the area. Andy's Home Cafe was treated unfairly for no reason other than Wolf Capital Partners felt like they could step all over them. And why didn't WCP try leasing to a local business and not a chain? Nobody is arguing that these other developers haven't helped reshape the Heights, but there are developers that take much more consideration to the neighborhood their affecting than others. Do you work for WCP? 

On 4/26/2023 at 2:15 PM, hindesky said:

The top view looks absolutely ridiculous

2 hours ago, 004n063 said:

I think a more precise argument would be that removing parking requirements will not automatically - and certainly not quickly - reduce the present demand for parking, so parking will continue to be built, which will do a pretty good job of preserving that demand, ergo the amount of parking.

But the mandate skips the market middleman and preserves the parking excess all on its own.

For Houston, yes we'll probably have a ton of parking garages built before the city starts to lose some car dependency. But we're seeing some benefit to not having minimums with some projects where developers would have been required to create an excessive amount of parking but instead built only what they felt was necessary for their project. EaDough is a great example along with the Union East development.