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Carnegie Vanguard High School At 1501 Taft St.


VicMan

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I HATE this location. Carnegie Vanguard is an excellent school and its current location is terrible but this thing should have been built in either midtown or downtown adjacent (near the Dynamo Stadium?) to take advantage of better transit access to ALL kids. Additionally, the area where this is going up is zoned to Lamar High School which is already one of the best public schools in the area (not just within HISD).

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I live a few blocks away, and am not excited about the added traffic, but it will be better that the field that is there now. what's the rule about how close a bar can be to a school? obviously all the existing bars will be grandfathered, but this may prevent the land across the street (the old dr's office) and the empty land on gray west of the Wet Spot from getting developed as bars (gregory lincoln may have already prevented bars at those locations, but byzantio's is so close, i doubt it).

agree that it would have made more sense to put this school closer to better public transportation.

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Does anyone know what was on that block of land before HISD acquired it?

I lived 2 or 3 blocks off of Gray back in the early 70's but I have no idea what used to be in this location.

Some houses, some small businesses. one of the property owners fought like mad to prevent HISD from taking his peoperty.

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Some houses, some small businesses. one of the property owners fought like mad to prevent HISD from taking his peoperty.

I remember that. The man's father had built the house in the 20's or 30's and it had been their family home ever since. He didn't dispute HISD's use of eminent domain; he just asked that he be allowed to live there until actual construction was to begin.

But no. Some heartless bureaucrat decided that the demolition should be done immediately, so that the land could remain vacant for ten years. There's some people you just want to slap.

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this is interesting... if anyone finds any information about the zoning rule regarding bars and schools please post it.

I live a few blocks away, and am not excited about the added traffic, but it will be better that the field that is there now. what's the rule about how close a bar can be to a school? obviously all the existing bars will be grandfathered, but this may prevent the land across the street (the old dr's office) and the empty land on gray west of the Wet Spot from getting developed as bars (gregory lincoln may have already prevented bars at those locations, but byzantio's is so close, i doubt it).

agree that it would have made more sense to put this school closer to better public transportation.

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I HATE this location. Carnegie Vanguard is an excellent school and its current location is terrible but this thing should have been built in either midtown or downtown adjacent (near the Dynamo Stadium?) to take advantage of better transit access to ALL kids. Additionally, the area where this is going up is zoned to Lamar High School which is already one of the best public schools in the area (not just within HISD).

Quickly looking at the CV website, it calls itself the only ALL gifted/talented high school in Houston. That puts it in the same category as HSHP and HSPVA which I believe are classified as magnets. They have no zoned students so public transit does not matter. All those students are eligible for HISD bus transportation. Entrance exams must be taken by the students, it's not just a matter of standardized tests as both Health Professions and PVA have their own requirements and according to the CV site, they will have an entrance exam too. Students accepted will also have bus transportation furnished.

Of course, things may have changed since I last dealt with HISD and their magnet programs.

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I HATE this location. Carnegie Vanguard is an excellent school and its current location is terrible but this thing should have been built in either midtown or downtown adjacent (near the Dynamo Stadium?) to take advantage of better transit access to ALL kids. Additionally, the area where this is going up is zoned to Lamar High School which is already one of the best public schools in the area (not just within HISD).

I agree... Carnegie deserves a beautiful new school, and I love Montrose, but Montrose is a PIA to get to from anywhere else in town.

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Quickly looking at the CV website, it calls itself the only ALL gifted/talented high school in Houston. That puts it in the same category as HSHP and HSPVA which I believe are classified as magnets. They have no zoned students so public transit does not matter. All those students are eligible for HISD bus transportation. Entrance exams must be taken by the students, it's not just a matter of standardized tests as both Health Professions and PVA have their own requirements and according to the CV site, they will have an entrance exam too. Students accepted will also have bus transportation furnished.

Of course, things may have changed since I last dealt with HISD and their magnet programs.

Yes, bus transportation is provided, but it will take those buses long to get there with no nearby freeways, making a long day for the kids. Plus, there is constant murmuring about cutting bus transport to magnet schools.

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this is interesting... if anyone finds any information about the zoning rule regarding bars and schools please post it.

From the TABC site http://www.tabc.state.tx.us/faq/general.asp cities can pass ordinances regarding distances between schools and sales of alcohol. Search the City of Houston websites to get to the ordinance.

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Quickly looking at the CV website, it calls itself the only ALL gifted/talented high school in Houston. That puts it in the same category as HSHP and HSPVA which I believe are classified as magnets. They have no zoned students so public transit does not matter. All those students are eligible for HISD bus transportation. Entrance exams must be taken by the students, it's not just a matter of standardized tests as both Health Professions and PVA have their own requirements and according to the CV site, they will have an entrance exam too. Students accepted will also have bus transportation furnished.

Of course, things may have changed since I last dealt with HISD and their magnet programs.

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This location is a step up from the current location, but it is simply too close to HSPVA, Law/Criminal Justice, and Lamar in my opinion. I just think it would have been a better move to place it in a more central location and one in which the area could have used the boost a bit more (East side of downtown for instance along the new rail line).

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

proj975.jpg

gallery_723_64_30419.jpg

gallery_723_64_43774.jpg

gallery_723_64_68717.jpg

http://ataps1.pd.ci....raft+Agenda.pdf

I wonder if this will be just one more benefit to draw families to the inner city.

Dbigtex, take a look at the rendeirng, I might be overly optimistic but I am pretty sure that the "Fine Arts Center in Existing Building" at the bottom right of the page is indeed the Settegast Estate building you are talking about.

Edited by DrLan34
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Dbigtex, take a look at the rendeirng, I might be overly optimistic but I am pretty sure that the "Fine Arts Center in Existing Building" at the bottom right of the page is indeed the Settegast Estate building you are talking about.

Im 100 percent sure you are right DrLan34, the Settegast Estate building is the exact shape, size and dimensions as showed on the rendering. That would be awesome for them to be able to preserve part of history and give it a nice face lift smile.gif

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Im 100 percent sure you are right DrLan34, the Settegast Estate building is the exact shape, size and dimensions as showed on the rendering. That would be awesome for them to be able to preserve part of history and give it a nice face lift smile.gif

On the construction drawings this building is called the Settegast Building. I have to say that it is not much of a fine arts space. The theater is tiny compared to what most high schools have.

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  • 2 months later...

So again, why build a new campus when you have one now?

Its said to see 4th ward just destroyed....if something major happens and people leave 4th ward in droves similar to how they did 3rd ward, south park, etc., what plans are in place to prevent those condos from being overran?

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The current campus is on the South side of town, and difficult to get to for the students coming from the far reaches of the disttrict. The new campus is centrally located, and reduces overall travel times.

The 4th Ward is gone. There's very little left. The people left in droves 10 years ago or more. Housing density there is far less than what it used to be.

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And how is this destroying 4th ward? It's being built on what is currently a vacant lot, and the one building that is there, the Settegast Building, is currently boarded up and is being renovated as a fine arts center for this school. I really don't see how this can be seen as anything but positive.

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centrally located? DT isn't exactly the easiest place to get to if you live far. It's easier to get to CV now as no traffic is going down Scott Street compared to DT.

Why didn't these "developers" imporve the conditions for the folks living there then...seems like they were concerned with filling a quota and that was imporving the AP Village to shut folks up and then raze everything else.

To me, its ugly now with a stucco townhouse on a small street jammed into a lot its not built for next to small row houses.

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centrally located? DT isn't exactly the easiest place to get to if you live far. It's easier to get to CV now as no traffic is going down Scott Street compared to DT.

Why didn't these "developers" imporve the conditions for the folks living there then...seems like they were concerned with filling a quota and that was imporving the AP Village to shut folks up and then raze everything else.

To me, its ugly now with a stucco townhouse on a small street jammed into a lot its not built for next to small row houses.

HISD is huge. The current location of Carnegie is bad for anyone who lives North of I-10 or West of the Loop.

The developers sole purpose in the 4th Ward was to make money. The old shotgun houses were often owned by people who didn't live in the neighborhood, and had no interest in anything other than making money off their property. Anyone who thought the old ways would continue were naive.

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  • 2 weeks later...

But now, instead of folks making conditions better for them, your now running them off to areas that aren't used to the city elements and then you create another situation..

The reason why Fondren, Antoine, Sharpstown, 1960 @ I-45, Greenspoint is what it is because people ran folks away from certain areas and dropped them in places that aren't/weren't designed to handle what goes on in urban areas.

When they built those big homes in that area, there wasn't a transient population walking the street....but lo and behold, when folks started losing their homes for whatever reason in DT, they were sent to those places due to bus line and cheap housing/apartments.

What happens now? The original folks get tired and move out to far-flung suburbs miles away from the city and now those areas designed for one thing are taken over and have trouble adjusting to a different demographic...

All from a simple little school

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