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plumber2

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Everything posted by plumber2

  1. plumber2
    The real City of Houston Inspectors are mostly all gone, being replaced by entry level rookies, with no experience, little benefits, and no access to anyone with practical knowledge. I used to take a continuing education class taught by a former City of Houston inspector. He had to quit and go back in the field, just to make ends meets. City inspector careers used to be a job that older tradesmen could gravitate to once they got up in age. They would take the lower paying job, knowing that the non cash benefits would make up for the smaller take home pay. That has all changed. The pay is low and there are very few benefits. There is no incentive for trained people to take an inspector position with the City of Houston anymore. The talent is all gone. Even some of the plan checking for permits are now outsourced to a "resource" in Plano. There is no "bribe" incentive going on here. These guys your friend is dealing with just don't know what they are doing. They have never worked in the trade that they are expected to be knowledgeable in. It's not that they are dragging their feet, the fact is that they are truly clueless at what they are doing. It's a sad state of affairs, when an "apprentice" on the job has to explain to the inspector what he is there to look at. And these guys have to take a State exam to become inspectors. I'm not sure what kind of exam they give these guys. It's just truly sad.
  2. plumber2
    I've always been curious if North Braeswood at Main St. ever connected, or was ever intended to connect with the short stub of North Braeswood at Greenbriar? I've looked on Historical Aerials and some older maps, but it does not appear that it ever did. The Google view shown above does give a hint of North Braeswood curving north as it approaches Main St. Even the house on that corner is situated on it's lot hinting that the road may have had a curve to it. As for the 11 story apartments, yeah I'd welcome that. This lot has been empty for some time. In fact I remember several years ago, a group of us superintendents for the plumbing company I worked for decided to meet up for lunch at La Hacienda restaurant, which was at that site for years. Little did any of us know that it was gone. Not just closed but gone! We had to wait until all of us pulled up before we decided were else to go since it was back in the day before cell phones.
  3. plumber2
    Aye, Uber is just a flash in the pan.....kind of like the hoola hoop. In a few years no one will be riding Uber. Soo 2016!
  4. plumber2
    You can see the current Harris County Morgue building (red brick) just the left of the new building under construction. As a side note the Harris County morgue was once located on the B2 level of TMC Garage #1. What remained of the built out space was used by various institutions, mainly Methodist after the morgue moved out. There was a plague on the wall, just outside the south elevators on the B2 level for years. I'm going to go see if it's still there next week. Nice high water picture btw.
  5. plumber2
    There was a movie theater at this location way back when. I remember taking a date there when I was in college, however, I can't remember the name of the theater, the name of the feature, nor the name of my date. ha! I walked by this site the other day, and walked around back along the bayou and then back up to Fannin St. I'm curious as to how the UT Health building sets so close to the bayou bank, while this building and the existing Coleman campus property line is much further back.
  6. plumber2
    That's Hoar Construction tunneling under the street. They are trying to reach a Centerpoint manhole on the north bound side in front of Pavilion for Women.
  7. plumber2
    Nah, my office is in the Medical Center. I like Jos. A Banks, and have been in another one a couple of times to get a suit and pants. I did not know they had a downtown store, but still, the mid town Sears is so much more convenient. You can park right at the front door, and I mean right in front of it (burglar bars and all).
  8. plumber2
    I was inside this store yesterday. Needed a tie for a meeting. Even impulse bought some socks and t shirts. This store is perfectly located, easy to park, easy to get to, and easy to shop. I can't even have imagine trying to go the Galleria in the middle of the day to buy a tie and get back to my office without killing someone.
  9. plumber2
    I've commented before about this, but yes I remember the Price's on Bellaire at Stella Link. This particular location had a painted board cut out of "Humpty Dumpty" mounted outside on the fence. Kids could walk up to the figure and talk to "Humpty Dumpty". There was a speaker and microphone mounted behind the board where the clerk inside could converse with us kids. The whole thing was cheap and cheesy, but as a 4 or 5 year kid, we loved it.
  10. plumber2
    RachSmith, Yes of course we are interested. There are a whole slew of us out here, that come to HAIF to read about and comment on Houston's unique and seldom documented past.
  11. plumber2
    Those large oak trees surrounding the Richmont Square apartments were there when this was the site of the Convent of the Good Shepard. The convent which faced Richmond Ave. closed sometime in the early 60's.
  12. plumber2
    I heard this several years ago from someone high up at TMC when Methodist was planning the Outpatient Center. This person told me that the City of Houston and TMC both "encouraged " Methodist to include opening John Freeman Blvd. through to Main St. as part of their plan for that building. He also told me that any new development on the west side of Main St. between University and Holcombe would be dependent on the opening of Travis Street through to Holcombe. But like I've stated, I guess he was wrong.
  13. plumber2
    I'm really surprised that this is actually happening. I was told that the City of Houston would not issue any further permits on these properties unless the developer paid for the purchase of the Burger King property at the end of Travis, so that the street could be opened up through to Holcombe Blvd. Guess that was untrue.
  14. plumber2
    Doesn't appear that they got finished. Looks like they got the mast up though. Look for another Main St lane closure soon so they can set the boom and counterweights!
  15. plumber2
    The tower crane is being installed today.
  16. plumber2
    The mall you are poiting out was built as Deauville Mall. There were several of these built around town, usually close to existing major shopping malls. There's an old thread about it here on HAIF somewhere.
  17. plumber2
    I was born at this hospital, so no I don't want to see it shut down, but damn they need to find some better management folks, or it looks grim for sure.
  18. plumber2
    Prisons are built for people just this. Enjoy your new home.
  19. plumber2
    I had a roommate in college (mid 70's) whose parent's lived in Newport, a Diamond Head development on Lake Houston. He was bragging about how Newport would become more successful and stay desirable for a longer time because the Mitchell's used HUD money to develop their properties and that they would have to provide "affordable" housing because of that. Hah! I'd like to find that guy today and ask him how his parent's fared with their investment. I think The Woodlands has to be one of the most successful suburban developments of all time.
  20. plumber2
    That's okay, I'm just a plumber! A more older plumber.
  21. plumber2
    The taller building in the photo was built by Falstaff in the early 1960's. The attached building behind it was the original Magnolia Brewing Company building. A service courtyard on the south side of the building preserves the original front entrance and the "Magnolia Brewing Company" building signage above. I hope the current owners save that part. There are large vats and tanks remaining in the newer building. A metal scrapper's dream come true I suppose. "Southern Select" was the labeled beer brewed in this plant up until the Falstaff purchase. The Falstaff tenure was profitable up until the late 1970's when the brand started suffering decline. A leveraged buy out, asset selling and reduced advertising budgets completed the rest. A classic employee lock out and close down in 1981 ended it. The building has been unused since. I walked it about 10 years ago with a friend of the property owner and the insides were trashed by vagrants. One interesting discovery was the brew masters log book, sitting in the control booth, opened to the last day of entries of volumes, pressures and temperatures readings. There are some U Tube videos out there by obvious trespassers that show the insides as is today.
  22. plumber2
    Awesome. This guys needs a HAIF "medal of honor", if there is such a thing.
  23. plumber2
    Yes, the vestiges are still there, but you have to be observant to notice them, like the upper floors not lining up, and having to make a big U shaped walk around on the middle floors to avoid the high ceiling of the theatre building. ADA ramps were added all over the place throughout the years to make the buildings accessible. The printing plant, completed in the early 60's, is really a trip to experience. Workers walk in and around an "in floor" conveyor system continously moving large bundles of newsprint on carts circling the presses. The bundles are delivered as needed by a flip of a lever, dumping the bundle at the press machine as the others continue to move along. The empty cart then deverts itself to the side as a full one enters on to the track. It's appears really unsafe and scary, but I guess it was state of the art at it's time. Sad to see it go, but I'd guess that the Post plant on 59 is a much better facility in comparison.
  24. plumber2
    I'm not a big fan of tax abatements either, unless the tax abatement directly pays for some type of municipal infastructure, like sewer updrades or street improvements around the facility. If it actually makes sense for Kroger to distribute from somewhere else, then let them go. Why subsidize one business, when the others around it don't get the same subsidy.
  25. plumber2
    The reason that The South Freeway was routed through Riverside was to appareantly avoid having to purchase NABISCO and the Dominican convent on Almeda Rd. Although NABISCO remained a major employer for awhile, the Domincans tore down their old motherhouse in the early 60's and built a modern dormitory adjacent to it. I'd rather have seen the convent and bakery go instead of the destruction of Riverside. There surely could have been an alignment that didn't do as much damage as the eventual South Freeway route did. They could have curved it around things further in, possibly staying on the west side of Almeda Rd, taking out the Turn Verin, Hermann Park Stables,the Jewish Comminuty Center and the east parts of the Veteran's Hospital property before veering back east to meet up with it's current intersection with the South Loop.
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