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The Pointe At Bayou Bend: Affordable Housing At 800 Middle St.


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East End is roiled as mixed-income housing plans advance

 

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The East End unfolds next to downtown as a patchwork of luxury townhomes, rusty warehouses, car shops and hipster bars. The Houston Housing Authority aims to add something the area has never seen: a pair of apartment complexes where low-income residents would live in the same buildings as working-class Houstonians and young professionals.

 

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20 hours ago, downtownian said:

 

It wouldn't bother me if this also put 5,000 units in river oaks.

 

 

River Oaks would boycott if one mixed income house popped up. 

 

The amount that this area gets screwed by the city is unimaginable. I've lived all over Houston and i'm in this area now. There has never been a neighborhood I've lived in that's been more of a dumping ground for the city's unwanted projects than over in this area. Whether it's soup kitchens, low income housing, monthly bike rides, dump sights, the city just leaves it here all in a particular mile and a half radius surrounding Navigation and East of 59 and says it's to combat gentrification. 

Edited by I'm Not a Robot
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2 hours ago, I'm Not a Robot said:

 

 

River Oaks would boycott if one mixed income house popped up. 

 

The amount that this area gets screwed by the city is unimaginable. I've lived all over Houston and i'm in this area now. There has never been a neighborhood I've lived in that's been more of a dumping ground for the city's unwanted projects than over in this area. Whether it's soup kitchens, low income housing, monthly bike rides, dump sights, the city just leaves it here all in a particular mile and a half radius surrounding Navigation and East of 59 and says it's to combat gentrification. 

 

Monthly bike rides are one of the city's unwanted projects?

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58 minutes ago, august948 said:

 

Monthly bike rides are one of the city's unwanted projects?

 

Absolutely and the fact that you even have to ask tells me you don't live in the area. Once a month I have to plan my Friday around thousands of loud bicyclists taking over the streets literally preventing me from being able to access my home and then returning around 11 PM making tons of noise and being rambunctious. Critical Mass was kicked out of downtown and moved to the Heights. They didn't make it one week before being forced to move to East End.

 

 

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11 hours ago, KinkaidAlum said:

Critical Mass rides all over the city and it doesn't take hours to wait for them to pass. I rather enjoyed seeing them ride down Sunset when I lived there. Much rather them than the folks driving 50 mph in a residential area.

Critical Mass doesn't bother me, don't they usually meet at D&W's? I've been able to drive past to my home and watch them sometimes pass outside my window. It's really not a big deal and pretty cool to see some of the custom bikes.

 

Anyhow, much preferred to the car thieves on bikes who ride around at 2 & 3 am.

 

Not super concerned on the low income housing, the neighborhood is pretty low income as it is. The unstoppable march of town houses is spilling over EaDo and into Greater Eastwood. The soup kitchen/s will have to relocate once the freeway is expanded. Speaking of, the camps are slowly moving south on 45. There's one on Emancipation under 45 that uses political signs as a fort wall and had a Christmas tree up. The City really needs to think about where these people are going to be pushed to once the tents under the current 59 freeway get displaced.

 

Where are they going to go? Greenspoint? Pushed down the freeways until they reach the burbs?

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12 hours ago, KinkaidAlum said:

Critical Mass rides all over the city and it doesn't take hours to wait for them to pass. I rather enjoyed seeing them ride down Sunset when I lived there. Much rather them than the folks driving 50 mph in a residential area.

 

After a few months, I got used to them meeting outside of my front door. It's not a simple ride by that lasts a few seconds for people who live around the park. It's hundreds of cars parked along the street where friends cannot come over during that time period because there is no street parking. It's having to plan once a month whether you want to come home early to avoid being blocked out of your house or-deciding  if you want to stay out a little late to make sure you are able to access your house. It's the noise at 11PM when at times you may have to be up at 6 AM the next day. They return to the park and often times turn it into a party where they blast music from their stereos until they are ready to go home.

 

 Critical Mass was never a thought in my head prior to them relocating, even being stuck behind them sometimes it was neat to see all of them having fun, but when they begin to meet outside of your house, it's a bit more than what others deal with regarding the ride.

 

It's a statement of fact they were kicked out of Downtown and that the Heights prevented them from meeting at the park off of Usener. Whether or not you love watching bikes take over the roads is up for discussion. Whether or not Critical Mass is a positive thing, is up for discussion.Everyone who doesn't live where they meet up, has no idea and I hope they don't move outside of your house if the East End ever rallies to get them out. 

 

 The fact is, they were unwanted in Downtown, they were refused in the Heights and they landed in the East End in August 2018 and have been there ever since.  There is a reason why they had to relocate, they are a nuisance for those who live in the vicinity of their meeting point. The city helped them move to the East End and in fact, recommended they did. It's a perfect analogy for other unwanted developments like the one mentioned in the article. 

Edited by I'm Not a Robot
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Homeless congregate where ever the services are and create skid row where drugs and other services are openly provided. Houston's NE area around Midway's East River has become a dumping ground for those that have cancelled the Affordable Housing project off of 610 West. Conspiracy me thinks it is more about maintaining voting districts than anything. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/27/2020 at 11:12 AM, samagon said:

 

I stopped attending CM about 5 or 6 years ago. back when they met at Tranquility park. the idea of CM is a great one. build awareness.

 

I stopped going for 3 reasons:

 

1. idiots don't know how to ride in groups. I don't wear a helmet typically because I ride in areas I feel safe enough (bayou paths mainly, and low traffic roads), but I found after many close calls with other cyclists who were on one side of the road, seeing their friend on the other side, and just cutting across everyone to go say hi without looking first, I was wearing a helmet specifically for CM because I didn't feel safe due to the other riders in the group.

 

2. idiots being horrible to cars. there is a very small minority that take riding in huge numbers as a way to act aggressively towards vehicles. they ride in opposing lanes of traffic and do not allow any cars to move anywhere at all. others see this, and they assume it's ok, so they join in. I don't want to be a part of that.

 

3. where they ride. riding in areas that are already heavily cycled areas, what awareness are you creating? so CM rides go to areas that already have heavy cycle traffic, Montrose, east end, heights, downtown *twirls fingers* woohoo. you want to get your message out to the public? meet at Memorial park and go ride on Post Oak and Westheimer.

 

the idea of CM is great, in execution it could be done better.

Is there a way to voice where they should ride next? I ride frequently, but I’ve only done CM twice. I like that it’s great for new and veteran riders alike but it gets too crazy. I would like for the to focus on the West aide of Houston though. I feel cyclists in neighborhoods around downtown are slowly getting respect along with pedestrians. 

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  • 2 months later...
1 hour ago, ahawk said:

How much influence does Midway have on decisions such as this? I would imagine it's not in their interest for low income housing to be located next door to this project.

I imagine it’s in midways’s best interest to have as many residents as close to the development as possible. These are mixed income projects with the majority at market rate.  This can’t hurt their marketing efforts, I would think.  You’re not going to get high end development backing up to train tracks and a newly rerouted 45/69, elevated highway. 

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34 minutes ago, Naviguessor said:

These are mixed income projects with the majority at market rate.  


I don’t believe that’s accurate. The majority of units for each of these will be at 60% AMI or below—400 units at the NRP development and 304 units at the Ojala development.

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2 hours ago, thedistrict84 said:


I don’t believe that’s accurate. The majority of units for each of these will be at 60% AMI or below—400 units at the NRP development and 304 units at the Ojala development.

I am just referring to Ojala. I’m not entirely sure about the NRP proposal.

But, 304 “affordable” units, in a development of (I’ve heard) up to 1100units, is not too bad. In fact it good!  
Now, admittedly, I haven’t seen the many details on the project and don’t know what it’s current size, let alone design and format is. But, I’m not upset by what I’ve heard thus far, and I live in the neighborhood.  I would appreciate more details from the developer and from HHA. 

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14 minutes ago, Naviguessor said:

I am just referring to Ojala. I’m not entirely sure about the NRP proposal.

But, 304 “affordable” units, in a development of (I’ve heard) up to 1100units, is not too bad. In fact it good!  
Now, admittedly, I haven’t seen the many details on the project and don’t know what it’s current size, let alone design and format is. But, I’m not upset by what I’ve heard thus far, and I live in the neighborhood.  I would appreciate more details from the developer and from HHA. 


I feel like that 1100 number is the unit count between both developments. I don’t see how the Ojala development alone could have that many units.

 

Unfortunately HHA hasn’t been very

forthcoming with details and the manner in which they approved the project was a bit shady. I wouldn’t expect much from them.

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12 hours ago, Naviguessor said:

I am just referring to Ojala. I’m not entirely sure about the NRP proposal.

But, 304 “affordable” units, in a development of (I’ve heard) up to 1100units, is not too bad. In fact it good!  
Now, admittedly, I haven’t seen the many details on the project and don’t know what it’s current size, let alone design and format is. But, I’m not upset by what I’ve heard thus far, and I live in the neighborhood.  I would appreciate more details from the developer and from HHA. 

 

I love your optimism but as your neighbor in the area I fear that the city had decided to just dump everything that the Heights or other more affluent areas has fought off into a very small area. This HHA property purchase was done as far as I can tell without a proper public hearing and I'm going to guess the city doesn't care much about it. This seems to be the norm in this direct vicinity. Hopefully once more powerful developers make their way to actually having to lease out structures built, they can get into the ear of the city because the citizens clearly cannot. I imagine that there will be some public push back on the building of this but it will eventually get done. 

 

I get the desire to ensure that the area doesn't push out people who have lived there for generations. This is empty land being built up tax free while our tax rate rivals the nicest areas in Houston. This kind of land could have been used for parks or something to beautify the area  especially as we see an implementation of the Buffalo Bayou Master Plan (there is a micro park at the silos being built in a tiny tract near this plot) and actually given back to an area that has been the most vulnerable to the affects of industry.  

 

I genuinely appreciate your optimism but the only people who should be happy about this happening are the developers who are profiting due to contracts with the city to build tax free land and count it as a write off and the cry babies in the other neighborhoods who would protest for years if this came to their street. 

 

 

Edited by I'm Not a Robot
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