WAZ

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Curious, why is "Sharpstown" in parenthesis after "Southwest Houston?" Why not put Gulfton in parenthesis? Alief? Fondren Southwest? And do you really mean all of Sharpstown? Or is it the commercial area around the Sharpstown Mall? An aside, did anyone else read the article in Cite Magazine about the Baker Ripley Community Center for Gulfton and Sharpstown?

Excellent point. Houston is huge. It's tempting to divide it into quadrants, and say "this quadrant is dangerous; that quadrant is safe." But as you've pointed out, that's not how Houston works. It is infinitely more fruitful to look at the actual crime data and the real-world forces that affect crime. I'm talking neighborhood by neighborhood, street by street; even property by property. Only by doing that can you actually understand anything about crime in Houston.

Lawyer Harry C. Arthur is suing to shut down The Beacon homeless day center. His timing is unfortunate – people are painting him as a Grinch because the story was released around the Holidays – but Mr. Arthur has a point. It’s not politically correct to say it, but soup kitchens are horrible for neighborhoods. When the centers are open, they do not accommodate everyone who needs their services; so the homeless congregate outside. When the centers close, the homeless disperse into surrounding streets, to “urinate, defecate and drop trash in the street, sidewalks, doorways and other private property,” (as Mr. Arthur put it). There is an alternative. The New York Times talked about a homeless shelter in Bergen County New Jersey that “has more of the feel of a Courtyard by Marriott than of a homeless shelter.” It is designed to be a one-stop shop for the homeless; where they can get hot meals, medical care, job-placement, laundry, and all of that. But the priority is housing. Before anything else, Bergen County finds permanent homes for its clients. This is the “Housing First” model. Finding a place to live is a logical starting point to rebuilding a life. It’s difficult to get healthy, or keep a job when you’re worried about where you’ll sleep every night. Without an address you may as well not exist in America. And how can you go to a job interview if you can’t shower and clean your clothes first? “Housing First” also solves many of the neighborhood problems caused by day centers for the homeless. Because the clients live there, they don’t congregate outside or disperse into surrounding streets. There are beds, toilets, and trash cans that they can use, instead of sidewalks and doorways. Houston needs the Beacon, but Harry Arthur has a point, too. Maybe the Beacon could use the “Housing First” model– find homes for its clients instead of taking them in for a few hours, and then putting them back on the streets.

Excellent point. It appears there is a state imposed limit on fines for dangerous buildings, and it is $2,000. http://www.courts.state.tx.us/pubs/AR97/muni/mncascat.htm That being the case, Houston ought to approach the state and see about changing it. I'll bet we'd have other big Texas cities on our side. They have many of the same problems we do with dangerous buildings.

The Savoy Hotel is being demolished this weekend, after tenyears of neglect. That building washigh-profile, but there are many dangerous buildings in Houston. Not all of them are demolished before someonegets hurt. Two children died lastsummer, crushed by a collapsing staircase at the Westwood Fountains ApartmentComplex. Dangerous buildings are addressed in Chapter 10 of Houston’sCode of Ordinances . Chapter 10 isenforced by the Neighborhood Protection Corps. They bring their cases before the Building and StandardsCommission. Unfortunately, $2,000 is themaximum fine for a violation under Chapter 10, and that’s too low to get theattention of big owners. There were certainly countless fines levied on the SavoyHotel, adding up to perhaps tens of thousands of dollars. But the owners didn’t react until they saw$1/2 million in demolition fees. Untilthat endgame, it was cheaper for them to pay the fines than to make theirbuilding safe. The owners of theWestwood Fountains Apartments had been fined for several code violations beforethe staircase collapse. They paid thefines, but never fixed the stairs. It’sthe same story all over Houston. Dangerous buildings should have no place in our City. The Savoy Hotel was demolished before anyonecould get hurt. Two children died at theWestwood Fountains Apartment Complex. Let’s increase the maximum fines on dangerous buildings. Make owners take note. Make it cheaper to fix things than to pay thefines.

I might be the only one on this forum to say it - but I feel for the neighborhoods around the Ashby High Rise. The building would be better suited to the Upper Kirby District. It is WAY out of scale for Southampton and Boulevard Oaks. It fronts on minor streets and will create gridlock. Some homes will lose sunlight at certain times. And now that the permit has been granted, there's nothing they can really do. . The Ashby High Rise is a perfect example of how Houston needs to listen more to neighbors. Call these neighbors NIMBYs if you want, but in a city without zoning, we need a better mechanism for neighborhoods to voice their concerns over projects that impact them.

I must confess, I am a little shocked that you would say that the "Gulfton Ghetto" is "doing quite well." If looked at solely from an occupancy rate, Gulfton might seem to be doing well. But the area has VERY serious crime problems, concentrated poverty, poor infrastructure, a horrible reputation, and lagging property values compared to neighboring areas. Gulfton's problems are especially troubling, to me, given the prime location of the neighborhood. Throw the thug in jail, and leave him there. Give the other ten better apartments - with services to help them get their lives on track, and with a safe environment for their kids. It CAN be done. I've seen it. So you don't want better housing for the poor? On the one hand, you seem to be saying that subsidized housing is bad because it doesn't support the desperately poor. On the other hand, you're implying that it has to be built in wealthy neighborhoods in order to work. (Which is often impossible due to neighborhood concerns). You want to maintain the status quo? I don't. I want Houston to redirect attention to older apartment complexes, and use those as quality housing for the working poor. The City of Houston started to do it in Fondren Southwest - and it was a huge success. There's money in the TDHCA's coffers to do more of it - if only we could convince them to renovate instead of building new apartments in neighborhoods that don't want them. This could be an integral part to cleaning up neighborhoods like Gulfton. In closing, I will apologize here for suggesting that the City of Houston fix Gulfton by redirecting funds from other sources. Gulfton is our City's largest, densest ghetto. It's certainly not Houston's only ghetto. They all need attention. I would still say, though, that I see Gulfton as an indicator of Houston's city-wide urban policy. If the policy is good, Gulfton will get better.

Your point is very well taken. My first statement was that the most serious criminals - gang leaders, murderers, rapists - need to be permanently locked up. Too often, in Gulfton, it seems they aren't. Regarding apartments. I'd be interested to hear how you'd like to sue a bunch of crochety old architects who've long since died of liver cancer. But you're right about the stuff they did. Apartment designs from the 1970s have very serious drawbacks that all but invite crime to occur. The saddest thing is that my apartment-designing peers don't seem to have learned from these mistakes. They're STILL making them! You wouldn't believe how angry it makes me. I must say, however, I am viewing it from a construction standpoint because of my profession. But you and TheNiche are right. There are lots of factors that are dragging down Gulfton; not just the apartments.

I would have said that it's actually a slum lord asking "where are you going to put them?" The slum lord's statement would go something like this: "I perform a service. I provide housing to people who can't live anywhere else.... They have to live somewhere. Do you want them near you?.... No?.... Alright then, leave me alone to run the Casa del Miseria the way I want to!" On a more serious note, I knew someone would ask the question "where are you going to put them?" The question really is bogus, because it makes three huge, wrong assumptions. First, the question assumes that all poor people are undesirable criminals. They aren't. For every thug in a bad apartment complex, there are ten people who are as honest, law abiding, and hard working as you and me. (In many complexes they're afraid to speak out - because they could be evicted, or killed for doing so - but they are there.) Second, it assumes an all-or-nothing argument. Knock down ALL the apartments and where will THEY ALL go? Of course it's impossible to knock down ALL the apartments and you wouldn't want to. The key is to be strategic about it, and of course build back new housing as appropriate. Third, it assumes that if you demolish 200 units, you displace 200 families. Not true if those 200 units are vacant - and slums often have a big proportion of vacant units. Local markets could easily absorb the loss, and that'd be to their benefit.

KHOU ran a bigl article today on the gang-wars that are gripping Gulfton. As an architect, Gulfton has always fascinated me. Gulfton abuts some of the most desirable parts of our metropolis - Uptown; Bellaire; West U - but it is referred to as the "Gulfton Ghetto." Crime rates are much higher than the norm. Poverty abounds. This post will be unlike my previous post about the Sharpstown Mall. That was more about architecture and design. This is more about urban policy and tactics that could be used to turn Gulfton around. First we need to understand why Gulfton is a ghetto. Common wisdom is that the reason is apartments. It's not that apartments are bad. It's not that renters are bad. The problem in Gulfton is that the apartments there are basically all wrong. - Gulfton's apartment complexes are too big. 200 units seems to be the limit for a good, older complex. Many of Gulfton's complexes have ten times that many. - There's not much diversity in Gulfton's real estate. There are no offices or employment centers in Gulfton. - Gulfton was developed very fast in the 1970s, infrastructure never caught up. - Gulfton was overbuilt with apartments in the 1970s, and has never recovered from the ensuing collapse of the 1980s. So what can we do now? 1: First we need to go apartment by apartment and make an honest evaluation of the properties. Complexes should be ranked based on crime rates, number of code violations, and anonymous tenant surveys. 2: The lowest ranked apartments (maybe 10% of the total units in Gulfton) should be demolished, and replaced with non-apartment development. (Retail, offices, schools, libraries, etc.) 3: The next lowest ranked apartments (the next 15%) should be gutted and renovated into new apartments. 4: HPD needs to swarm Gulfton while all of this is happening. While the worst 10% of apartments in Gulfton are demolished, the 10% of Gulfton residents that are serious criminals should be rounded up and jailed. There is money to do this - but it needs to be re-directed from other functions. The City of Houston actively works with developers and State and Federal funding sources to improve apartments. Those efforts could be concentrated in Gulfton. The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs sits on huge coffers of money. If they stopped building new apartments in Houston, and started using funds to repair apartments it would go a very long way in Gulfton. I've started to believe that Gulfton will be a measure of Houston's next mayor. If his or her urban and police policies are good - Gulfton will turn. If they are a failure, Gulfton will continue to languish. These are only one architect's ideas of how to fix the "Gulfton Ghetto."

There might be hope for the Sharpstown Mall yet. If the owners concentrate on the Jewelry Exchange Building first, they can use the profit from that building to help fund the renovations of the mall itself. So before even getting into my dream for the Mall itself - a renovation and expansion of the Jewelry Exchange Building is in order. Top priority: make sure the budgeting works and leaves enough profit to fund the renovation of the mall.