barracuda

The original photos I just looked at had some pine forrested areas but equal amounts of bayou and willows and other small trees. The strip along the boulevard did seem quite wooded, but those were a bunch a pine trees, and as someone who has a large pine tree in their front yard, I can promise you we aren't missing those. Nearly all the beautiful Live Oaks and other aesthetically pleasing trees you see were planted by residents. Nothing historic or original about them...

That being said... the new walmart will have a gardening center right?

I'm not arguing about the fact that these relatively young live oaks were obviously planted, nor am I all that concerned about their removal. But you agree the area wasn't treeless before development.

I must say, I think live oaks are kind of ugly until they mature and really spread out, so I kind of hope they plant something else.

^ Actually, much of the Heights was forested before it was developed. Just look at any old photos of the land being cleared.

Much to my surprise: some good news! Here is an actual relevant fact - My neighbor across the street just sold his 2-1 bungalow for $270 per square foot. This is in the Heights East district.

My biggest concern about the HD's was that people would not want to buy 2-1 bungalows because they will be forever stuck with a tiny house. This one was only listed for 3 days before it was under contract.

Give it's just one house - but a relevant data point.

Cheers

James

They aren't forever stuck with a tiny house. But they are limited in how they can expand the house (e.g. - awkward HAHC-approved camelbacks and rear additions). Also, some folks do actually prefer updating smaller homes and keeping a yard rather than building lot-hugging monster homes.

I wonder how much is due to them hunting for ideal locations. Being a large retailer, they are going to study and seek out areas where population, consumer demand, and purchasing power are expected to increase. And based on population trends and predictions, it's almost a given that average home prices in the areas surrounding this Walmart are going to increase, with or without this development. But the good news is this disproves the myth that a Walmart causes nearby home prices to tank dramatically.

I can't wait for the entire Grand Parkway to be completed. It's not like that patch of weeds is something of beauty. If you walk about a mile west of where the Grand Parkway is you can still meander in that flat, ugly wasteland if you want to for a few more years. This is Greater Houston - not the everglades. Build up and sprawl only makes that side of town look better.

As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder -- check out the link in post 117 for some examples. As you can imagine, the area is important to the watershed, both for water quality and for absorbing rainwater that may otherwise flood developed areas. It also helps provide habitat for native plants and for pollinators that are important to our food supply. It's even one of the most important areas on the continent for migrating birds. I understand the need to absorb population growth, but it could be done with less impact to important habitat vs. building a massive parkway through the middle of it.

The townhomes in your first pic are going to be dumps in a short amount of time. Cheap materials. Cheap windows. Bad placement of windows. And, what in the world were they thinking by spacing them that way? Those side windows must offer some great views...

I was thinking the same thing about the spacing. I would hate having to do any maintenance within the 3 feet of clearance between neighboring walls.

Must be the 99%, they're probably BMW haters.

Doubt it, since the majority of BMWs are leased (according to this article from 2007, 85.3% of 7 Series were leased). Which tells me that most of the folks driving BMWs are the 99% but want to appear to be in the 1%.

This expansion should help alleviate the serious lack of sprawl in the region.

Something is going on at McGowan at Jackson. I presume new townhomes -- the current batch on the back side of this block at Bremond sat half-complete for a couple years before someone bought the project and finished it off. Now they have fenced in the remainder of the lot and started pouring foundations.

Actually, there are several new townhome sections going up. I'll ride around collecting some more photos to post this afternoon. Looks like East Midtown is finally coming back with some new construction. See also: Milhaus Development.

I wonder if the builder disclosed the fact that those homes sat partially complete for several years with uncovered window and door openings. I would not be surprised if the owners eventually uncover mold damage, unless the builder replaced the materials in heavily exposed areas.

I would appeal if it's an issue of hardiplank siding. It's unreasonable to expect homeowners to install and maintain wood siding in this climate. I've replaced asbestos shingles with hardiplank and have even installed energy-efficient low-e vinyl windows with HCAD approval. However, the siding was in the rear of the house and on the garage (street-facing side), so that may have helped with the approval.

I shopped at Aldi's with my roommates a few times back in college. Like Fringe, I was never that impressed. They predominately carried random store-brand versions of canned and dry goods, along with a really limited assortment of produce (think 3-lb plastic bags of super-green bananas). It's not a place you shop if you are making something from a recipe, as chances are good they won't have what you need. But if you like cheap pre-packaged foodstuffs and enjoy being surprised by a changing selection each visit, they are your place.

The most recent HAHC meeting notes available online (from Jan 12) show they approved all agenda items, although one project did require stipulations around materials to be used. I do not think they had any authority over home interiors...I need to go back and look at the ordinance to remind myself.

No offense, but I think I prefer the empty lot to more generic, suburban development, especially in this location.

As a boneheaded sidenote to this topic, Friday evening I was walking next door to talk to my neighbor. Since I was going to be in view of my house, I did not take my keys, and instead, was going to simply leave the front door unlocked. As I reached to push the 'unlock' button on the door knob, I realized that it had been unlocked since the last time I did this in early January. Since I often do not deadbolt my front door, this means my front door has been unlocked for over a month. Oops.

I did something similar and left my keys sitting visibly on my porch overnight one time (including my car keys). I must have gone to grab something and forgot about them. Luckily, they were still there in the morning, as was my car .

Funny how they spin it as "one step closer to reduced traffic congestion." As if a massive development ring is going to reduce traffic congestion.

The Chronicle had an article on the vast swath of food deserts in Houston. The map of grocery stores by zip code helps show why it is so critical to divert funds to building big grocery stores in 77007.

http://www.chron.com...p#photo-2275447

This is besides your point, but their definition of 'food desert' is misleading. Zip code 77006 has access to plenty of supermarkets, including the remodeled Montrose Kroger and nearby H-E-B. Only the zips that have no supermarkets and are far removed from those in neighboring zip codes should really fall into that definition.

A few things I notice about people who dislike kids in restaurants 1) they are bitter and relatively unhappy people. 2) They generally don't have kids because nobody wants to be around them long enough to reproduce 3) They believe the world caters to them, 4) No matter what their income level they are snobs.

I could post a point-by-point counter argument regarding breeders, but it wouldn't be fair to profile an entire group of people based upon this single attribute.

Michelle is one of the biggest hypocrites I have ever encountered. Traveling on Tax pay dollars repeatedly, often times on separate flights from Barack to the same destination only hours apart....she tells us to eat healthy and does not, she tells us to care about the environment and does not, Barack says he and his family care about the deficits spending and then they take more tax payer funded vacations and campaign stops than any other president in history, wasting more government money than any president in history - the list of her hypocrisies is not hard to find with this First family. They are living the high life on our dollar. Also if her body is your idea of a fantastic physique - then I think the standard for fantastic has really fallen.....way way down. As to RUDH - they are anti Walmart snobs - they are not actually some group of taxpayers concerned about how our tax dollars are spent - they are anti-heights walmart snobs. They are pulling at any loose string they can to stop the Walmart. They dont care for Kroger much either so the Kroger will get some attention - but this whole thing would not ever have existed if it had been an HEB as they wanted.

Your claim about vacation was widely refuted back in August. After 31 months in office, Obama had taken 61 vacation days, compared to 180 days for Bush and 112 days for Reagan at the same point in their presidencies. http://www.cbsnews.c...n20093801.shtml

I know facts won't change some people's opinions, but anyway, I'm not sure what attacking Michelle and the president have to do with the Heights Walmart...

It seems like carmakers feel more of a need to create "brand identities" these days. In my opinion, Honda/Acura and Volkswagen have suffered as a result, because they've chosen identities that are ugly or bland compared to the vehicle designs they replaced.

I personally don't see why I'd want a car that follows the same design cues as every other car in that automaker's lineup...some distinctiveness is a good thing IMO.

I am also appalled by the number of joggers that think the street is an appropriate place to run, and the parents that push a stroller in the street.

It depends on the street. Many of the side streets in the Heights have haphazard or missing sidewalks, and sometimes the sidewalks are blocked with overgrown plants that property owners don't bother to prune. I'm tempted sometimes to prune them myself. I see nothing wrong with walking or running to the side of the street in these cases. But on a busy street like Heights where there is a clear running path and navigable sidewalks, I agree pedestrians should be using those.

The Ashby site is within one mile of Rice University, St. Thomas University, the Menil Collection, the core of the Museum District, the Red Line, the (eventual Universities Line), Hermann Park, the Houston Zoo, the northern part of the Texas Medical Center, the greater part of Rice Village, and Shepherd Square. The neighborhood surrounding it is very pleasant to walk through, with most streets having sidewalks, and with the neighborhood not having a reputation for harboring any significant criminal element.

The neighborhood is already walkable. A highrise simply enables more people to take enjoyment from that fact.

Yes, the neighborhood is ideal for recreational walking. But it's 13 blocks to the nearest supermarket, 12-17 blocks to the Village, and 4+ miles to the CBD. The future residents are likely to drive for the vast majority of their trips.

I will grant you that if I lived in the area, I would bicycle as much as possible.

Just curious...do people favoring this project do so out of spite for the NIMBYs, or do you genuinely think it's ideal to errect high-rises in the middle of low-density neighborhoods consisting primarily of two-story homes and businesses? On one hand, maybe this is our best hope for residential densification in this city, since it's clearly not happening in the CBD. On the other hand, maybe such buildings will in fact degrade the surrounding neighborhood and diminish the desirability, as these are car-dependent developments that aren't going to make neighborhoods more walkable and livable for existing residents, at least with the revised plans. I have similar mixed feelings about 1111 Studewood.

The other Sundance Cinema locations have bars with limited menu items (small pizzas, sandwiches, appetizers).

I beg to differ. Their tongue tacos rock!

I thought the place was only good late at night after drinking. Even then it's not very good.

If there is one accurate sterotype about the pro-ordinance crowd it is that they are extremely liberal cowards who will lie to get what they want.

Wouldn't they be the opposite of liberal?

lib•er•al: favorable to or respectful of individual rights and freedoms