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WAZ

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WAZ last won the day on April 4 2010

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  1. I spent a fair amount of time down in the tunnels when I was a student-worker for the IT department. They run their fiber-optic connections between buildings through the tunnels, and we were the ones who had to go down and fix them when they broke. For an architecture student it was hugely educational. In fact, I actually learned more from working in the tunnels and IT closets on campus, than I did from some of my professors. For the public, I think it would be educational as well. But I wouldn't go so far as to say they're 'impressive.' (In many cases it's impossible to tell when you're in a tunnel, and when you're just in a corridor in the basement of a building.)
  2. There are many things that bother me about this debate, aside from the acrimony. Primarily it's that there’s a lack of proactive education when it comes to historic preservation in Houston. If someone threatens to knock down a landmark - everyone screams; they write ordinances to help prevent the next one, and then move on. But preservationists should constantly study our City; not just when things come to a head. When a property goes on the market, preservationists should send the realtor a document outlining the history of that property. That document could be used to help find a buyer who is interested in preserving the property rather than replacing it or demolishing it. If the realtor doesn't use the document in this way, or if the buyers ignore it - so be it. But at least the preservationists did their job. They didn't just come in at the eleventh hour and start screaming. Don't get me wrong. I am almost as offended by McMansions as I am by slum apartments. (Actually, if there’s a silver lining to slum apartments, it’s that they scare away the McMansion set and help preserve old houses – not that it makes up for all the bad – but I digress.) I live in a 1956 'mod' south of Sharpstown. I 'rescued' it from life as a rent house. The neighborhood is historic in its own right. It was developed by Robert Puig in 1954 - and he used the profits from sales here to buy land for Memorial Bend. My neighborhood has block after block of original mid-century homes; smaller than what they did in Memorial Bend, but with all the 1950s low-roof minimalism. This is a veritable gold-mine for mod-lovers in the sub $130k market. Despite its history I would never enroll the neighborhood as a historic district under the new Houston ordinance (or the old one for that matter). It’s not just because some neighbors would have my head on a platter if I tried. As a Civic Club officer, I would rather work with the City to enforce our deed restrictions - and concentrate on education.
  3. Where's the second 4 lane road? I'm only seeing one - Yale: and that's pretty narrow for a 4 lane road. No shoulders; no room for islands or center turn-lanes. It has buildings up to lot-lines on the sides, too. I don't know how they'd be able to widen the ROW without getting even more people angry. Also, while I-10 runs past the site, there is no exit from I-10 to Yale. The nearest exit drops you onto Studemont, and you'd have to drive around the block to get to the site. Granted, TXDOT is apparently planning a new exit that would directly serve Yale - and I hope that's all the construction along the stretch of I-10. Again, I'm not anti WalMart per-se (in fact, I'd like them to put a WalMart near me - to replace the old Sharpstown Macy's and anchor the PlazAmericas Mall). But now you've got me looking further at the Heights WalMart site, and I think the opposition has some valid points. Which is precisely why I don't support zoning in Houston. Zoning ordinances don't necessarily take into account the intricacies of specific neighborhood concerns. They don't prevent land-use battles either. The New York City zoning ordinance is 3,000 pages long, and includes detailed zoning maps of almost every block in the City. But there's still a war going on over the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards.
  4. So wait a minute. Now the WalMart IS coming to the neighborhood. Earlier you said it wasn't. This is an important distinction to make. In Houston, you can't build a SuperCenter on a site where deed restrictions prohibit it. But legally you CAN build it on a site next door, that doesn't have deed restrictions. The frustrating thing is - a development doesn't have to be officially in a neighborhood, to have a negative impact on that neighborhood. Don't get me wrong - I am not saying that WalMart necessarily has a negative impact on neighborhoods. I am simply pointing out a major weakness in land-use regulation in Houston.
  5. A zoning ordinance pre-empts neighborhoods as much as it takes rights away from property owners. A handful of planners writes the ordinance; the City approves; and everyone else has to live by it. Neighborhoods don't get to decide what's right for them, any more than individuals are allowed freedom over their own property. I talk about it more here. The phallus is a bit sophomoric. But the cube sounds very interesting. It's the kind of thing you can only do in Houston. Good luck raising the money. I'm still waiting to hear what the people from the surrounding community think should be put on the "Heights Walmart" site, if not a Walmart.
  6. I've never proposed applications or formal approvals. I have called for common sense, and a willingness to reach out to neighborhoods on the developers' part. And neighborhoods have a huge responsibility in it, too. Instead of diddling themselves until something bad comes along, and then screaming at the top of their lungs - they need to come up with realistic ideas of what they actually want; and communicate those ideas in a consistent way. So I ask again, to the people who live around the "Heights WalMart" site: what do you actually want that abandoned factory to become, if not a WalMart?
  7. What's undesirable to one neighborhood, might be perfectly desirable to another neighborhood. It's really not up to me to decide what's right for your neighborhood. Nor is it up to you to decide what's right for my neighborhood. It's certainly not up to a corporation from Bentonville, Arkansas to decide what's right for The Heights - or whatever the neighborhood technically is where they're trying to put the WalMart. In other cities, developers do zoning studies before they buy land for development. In Houston, they should meet with the neighbors. Our lack of zoning should NOT be viewed as a green light for developers to do whatever they want. Instead, it should give Houstonians unprecedented control over their own neighborhoods' destinies. So let me turn the question around: what kind of stand would YOU put in YOUR neighborhood? And to the people around the "Heights Walmart" - how would you rather see that site redeveloped?
  8. You have a very good point. I've said it time and time again. We can either flee undesirable development, and sprawl out to ever-further suburbs. Or we can stop and make a stand for our neighborhoods.
  9. St. Agnes Academy has bought the old Gillman Dealership property in Sharpstown. The attached letter went out to parents and alumni: ************************************* Dear St. Agnes Academy parents, friends and alumnae: I am excited to announce St. Agnes Academy purchased 18.709 acres of vacant property at the corner of Fondren Road and Bellaire Boulevard today. Acquiring this property, which is just minutes from our existing St. Agnes facilities, marks a major milestone in carrying out our strategic plan. This endeavor supports our mission to provide a state-of-the-art learning facility for our students. Most of you are aware the St. Agnes Board of Directors periodically adjusts the Academy’s strategic plan. Two years ago, we sought input from all of our constituencies and created a blueprint that will guide campus development for the next five years. One of the resulting goals was to have excellent facilities for our school’s programs and activities. After reviewing our existing facilities, we realized the limitations of our present, land-locked campus. Additional parking, athletic fields and events space, and an upgrade to our auditorium (built in 1963), are major issues that surfaced in the review. Our assessment found that, in order to expand, St. Agnes would need to either relocate some of our athletic programs or build a parking garage on our current campus to free up room for field space. Our Board of Directors considered both options very carefully before moving forward with researching and purchasing land. Acquiring this property is an exciting step toward making our vision for the future become reality. It is the beginning of a process that will require much effort, many prayers, and your continued financial support. We are blessed to have such a generous community partner with us in advancing our mission, and we look forward to your participation in the future. We will keep you posted on our progress in the months ahead. Thank you for your continued support of our efforts at St. Agnes as we provide the very best in Catholic, college-preparatory education for Houston-area young women. God bless you, Sr. Jane Meyer, O.P., Head of School ******************************** There's also an article in Swamplot about it. Needless to say, everyone in the surrounding neighborhoods is ecstatic about this development.
  10. I came across this article today on the KHOU website. Has anyone seen the proposals that are being made for the PlazAmericas? Can they be posted here? I drive by there every day, and I'm intrigued.
  11. So you complain about those who dismiss funding to improve downtown, and then in the same breath you dismiss funding to improve Sharpstown? And funding really is the problem here. The downtown proposal needs $10 million from Harris County for parking and infrastructure. Trouble is, the County is really hurting for money, and they are hard-pressed to cough up your $10 million. (In fact Harris County is looking at cutting $15 million from the Sherriff’s Department). The beauty of the Sharpstown site is that, if they do it right, the parking and infrastructure is already there. They could go ahead without that $10 million from the County.
  12. When I first saw Midway's proposal, I was intrigued specifically because it wasn't downtown. Downtown seems to be Houston's repository for everything that's good. New park? It goes downtown. New museum? Downtown. New stadium? Downtown of course. But why is that? Is downtown the only neighborhood that deserves these things? The more I looked at it, the more I questioned Midway's location. Even though it's not downtown, it would leave much to be desired. Using the Dynamo stadium to anchor PlazAmericas would be at least as good an option.
  13. Bellaire Mayor Cindy Siegal is mad. She doesn’t like Midway Development’s alternate plan for a new Dynamo Soccer Stadium. Meanwhile, neighbors in Sharpstown are worried. They fear that the PlazAmericas makeover of the Sharpstown Mall could scare away a lot of non-Hispanic patrons. I’m always interested in ways to kill two birds with one stone. And these two stories made me wonder – what if the new Dynamo Stadium were built at the PlazAmericas/ Sharpstown Mall? Traffic would be less worrisome than at the Midway site, because the mall is already designed for it. The Sharpstown Mall always had excellent access to the Southwest Freeway. A few blocks to the south, Boxer Properties runs the Arena Theater, and the concerts do not cause traffic jams on adjacent neighborhood streets. Neighborhood streets are already configured to avoid this. The costs would be less than either the Downtown and Midway site. The stadium could use much of the existing Sharpstown Mall infrastructure – most notably parking and site drainage. Most of PlazAmerica’s anchors are vacant, so the square footage is there. It would require a reconfiguration of the mall – but that’s still usually less expensive than building everything from the ground up. Soccer is an international sport, and the Alief-Sharpstown-Gulfton area is Houston’s most international. From a demographic standpoint, it would make sense to put the Dynamo stadium in the middle of it all – at the PlazAmericas mall. And this is to say nothing of the benefits to PlazAmericas. The stadium could buttress the funding that’s already lined up for the makeover of the Sharpstown Mall. Not to mention all the people that will come through the mall on game days. The PlazAmericas mall would be a better choice for The Dynamo than downtown or Midway’s site in Bellaire. Soccer could be an ace-in-the-hole for the mall. It could be a match made in heaven.
  14. So why don't judges look at how many offenders live in a zip code when imposing residency restrictions? Other than "they just don't do it." Is there some legal reason why they don't? Maybe one of those DA advocates should talk to Travis McGee and other neighborhood advocates about these problems. There is validity in asking bus drivers how to change a transit system. Why not include parole and probation boards and officers in talking about laws regarding parole and probation? The neighborhood standpoint is simple. Rich or poor, we all want safe, vibrant communities in which to live and work. Nobody wants to have a disproportionately high number of sex offenders and dangerous ex-convicts in their neighborhood. You might not like that I bring it up; but it is a very real concern. Of course the ultimate goal should be how best to limit recidivism and the victimization of any child or adult. On the way, we need to address the problem of offenders accumulating in poor neighborhoods.
  15. OK, I'm not a real-estate expert (not more than an architect can be anyways). But I've got my own little test of whether PlazAmericas will succeed or fail. They've got the temporary, canvas PlazAmericas signs up over the old Sharpstown Mall monument signs. If they get the permanent signs up quick (in the next month or so) - then maybe they're on the right track. They're investing adequately in the property and they might turn it around yet. If it takes months and months to get the permanent signs out, and the old ones get tattered and ragged - then I say the mall is doomed to failure once again. They're not investing enough to do it right. They're putting lipstick on a pig; not doing the big changes they need to. Simplistic I know. But I drive by PlazAmericas every day. I am watching.
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