Astro

Salaries for its seven employees cost about $800,000. Luck earns $200,000.

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That's outrageous That's reason enough for me right there to make some major changes to this so-called "authority"...

Interesting story about Billy Burge. I'll have to listen to the MP3.

I gotta say I was never a fan of Jack Rains either though.

Great pics, you have a good eye for composition. Love the 1st, 4th and 6th ones!

1 - I saw the Fox news story and it mainly served to cement my dislike for HISD spokesman Terry Abbot even more. They are still hiring consultants, etc. to help determine whether or not there is an old Civil War burial site there. And HISD is having to spend quite a bit a money in the process.

2 - Oh yeah, that used to be a fried chicken restaurant, I think a Jim Dandy's? Then it was boarded up for a long time before it had a short-lived stint as "A&D Seafood, Chinese and Hamburgers" I didn't realize it was demolished.

3 - I remember this house was in the news a few years ago because there was an illegal gamling bust there! I think they had slot machines or something.

BTW I wouldn't refer to that area as "Midtown" but I think we had that discussion already on another thread

no it's still there.  they just did a total remodel in the last 4-5 yrs...the top sign and beacon have been gone for years.  as you head north on travis. i believe you get to it two blocks before you hit foley's.  There are alot of other buildings now so the view isn't as obvious.

subdude said it was called the Travis Tower Building.

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Also it used to really stand out with its olive green coloring but now it has been painted a rather dull silvery gray color.

Thanks for the great pic; I didn't know about the weather globe thing on top. That was pretty cool.

I don't think there are surface parking lots on that site though. I'm pretty sure that Best Western Hotel on Main just north of Holcombe sits on part of that site, and the rest of it is an empty lot with fencing around it.

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You're probably right about that then. Not to get too off-subject here but I think what I was actually thinking of was further north, there was an art deco shopping center on Main (similar to the one on Washington at Sheperd) torn down for surface parking.

Thanks for the great pic!!!

I grew up in the New Orleans area... That building is definitely a landmark and I really hate to hear that it will be altered. Personally I think it looks great the way it is.

I know my view is probably in the minority though, so I guess I can't blame the owners for wanting to update it. It's really just too bad that building has been plagued with so many problems in the past.

I'm actually still upset about the loss of the brutalist 1960's Rivergate building where the casino is today.

As to the Plaza Tower, there'still another similar-looking hotel tower (not visible in the photo) from that same era -- the Hyatt hotel which is adjacent to the magnificent Superdome! Thank goodness they're still around.

The building, at 1001 Howard Ave., is off the beaten path of Poydras Street and its modern high-rise office buildings and hotels.

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This is an odd statement. I'd hardly call it "off the beaten path" just because it isn't on Poydras Street?!?!?! It's right at the foot of Canal St. right on the river. The casino is right across the street on one side and the French Quarter is across the street on another. Plus it's on Canal St. which has lots of other big hotels and stores. Why call it "off the beaten path"?!?!?!

Thanks for posting that great pic Subdude! I remember I had posted it in the old forum but had since forgotten what website it came from.

I believe the Tidelands and Tides II were torn down during the late 90's to be replaced with surface parking lots for the Med Center I always liked those old buildings.

Check out the tattered old "Museum District" flag in front of Soundwaves.

A bit of a stretch, don't you think?

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That may be bacause the Museum of Printing History is located on West Clay near Waugh Drive. I've seen people stretch the bounds of the "Museum District" that far north just to take in that museum.

IMO the official "Museum District" ends at 59, but there are other museums outside of it nearby, namely the Menil. I guess I'll always consider the Menil area as part of Montrose though. Of course all of this is just a matter of personal opinion.

I think boundaries of Montrose are: Buffalo Bayou to the north, Shephard to the west and I-59 to the south. Eastern boundary is less clearly defined. In southern half, Spur 527 is the eastern boundary. In the northern half, the eastern boundary is just a couple of blocks east of Montrose Blvd.

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I agree on your southern boundary, US 59 is what I've always thought of it to be.

I don't see the northern boundary as much further than West Gray, except maybe between Taft & Waugh as far north as West Dallas...

Then Deep Montrose it is.  Is that good for resale or bad?  I guess it depends on how conservative the buyer is.

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I didn't own property there, I just rented. I think anytime you own a house next door to a bar (regardless of gay/straight) or within a block of one it will hurt property values. There are also a few auto repair shops in the neighborhood that also affect values. Not to mention the problems with the prostitutes and drug dealers.

Nevertheless property values in general have been rising in that area despite those problems. It's not so bad in your half of the neighborhood, north of Fairview, as it was in mine.

I live one block outside of that area (Morgan @ W Drew).  I conisder myself a Midtown resident, but in fact I am probably a Montrose resident.  I guess I need to stop posting on the Midtown section.  Ha Ha

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I used to live very close to there, at Hyde Park and Whitney. I definitely consider that "Montrose." Especially being in such close proximity to the gay bars there I've heard it referred to as "deep Montrose"

Whenever I drive east on I-10 there are a couple of gas stations at the Sheldon Road exit that always seems to be among the lowest in town that I've seen... often 5-10 cents less than my area of the city (Bellaire).

Whenever I go to Louisiana I always fill up in Orange. It's the exit with the Jack-in-the-Box... there are several gas stations there. It's amazing, they are all priced about 10-15 cents less than what you find in Houston!

I rarely go to Shell since they seem to be priced the highest and I'm on a tight budget.

I e-mailed the mayor in January 2004 about a similar plate on the eastbound lanes of Richmond a few feet east of the intersection with Kirby that was there when I moved to Houston that my car was bouncing over several times a week. Within 10 days of me e-mailing him it was gone.

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So that's you who was responsible for finally removing that metal plate? Thank you! I believe that metal plate was there for years...

I lived right by where that building was proposed.  That sign has been there for at least two years.  No activity ever occurred there.  The sign was often knocked down and not put back up for months.  I don't think this thing is happening.

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I remember seeing that sign at the corner of McGowen and Helena a LONG time ago. Is it still up???

There was a huge old decrepit vacant house standing there for many years that was torn down around 1998 or so, just when the building boom was taking place around Oak Circle. I believe that sign was placed there shortly after that. So that sign has been around for at least 6 years!

I seriously doubt if that building is ever going to happen.

I always liked the rendering though. With that tall skinny tower on the front corner it reminds me of something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

That's All well and good in the textbook, but Houston is a city of automobile drivers.  Pedestrian traffic pretty much comes to a halt by July. 

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But considering how much residential development there is just within a few blocks of this new store I'm sure there will be quite a bit of pedestrian traffic from the nearby apartments and townhomes at all times of year.

If only they could do something with those damn apartments... 

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I totally agree with you about those horrible apartment complexes in the Beechnut/Bissonet/59/BW-8 area...

It's really a problem all over the Houston area... In the SW part of town there are several bad clusters of aprtment complexes, mainly the entire western Gulfton area and everything that fills in the space between Bellaire and Sharpstown, the Fondren SW area around West Bellfort, West Airport, Fondern & Gessner, and the above mentioned Westwood/Forum Park/Club Creek area...

But what can be done about them? Maybe someday we can pass a zoning law which will restrict the density of these complexes in proximity to single-family neighborhoods???

As for there not being the right location, I again emphisize that if the development is aimed at the Asian market, they stand to make a good dollar ...

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Well I will agree with you there that Chinatown does have a lot of potential to do something great along the Beltway there. But this project apparently isn't marketed towards Asians... According to this article, a spokesperson for the sale is marketing it as something in the "Westchase district" instead of Chinatown where it actually is?

I think of the Midtown/Montrose boundary as being where the street grid changes from being aligned along a straight N-S-E-W axis (Montrose) to where the streets are aligned on a diagonal against Buffalo Bayou as it goes through downtown (Midtown).

There's a triangle though between Taft, Fairview/Tuam, Bagby and W. Webster that was historically known as the "Fairgrounds Addition", which I kind of consider a no-man's land which takes characteristics of Montrose, Midtown and Freedmen's town. Today I believe this area is widely considered to be part of Midtown.

I just found the other thread that shows a picture of the new development. I've copied it here:

OK, the pic must have been the Gulfgate store then. It didn't look like the Galleria Dilards building at all.

more information on the project:

The Westchase District has become one of the hottest office markets in recent years because of its proximity to area freeways and other amenities. "Westchase has done a lot of marketing and put a lot of upgrades into the district to make it a destination, " Sims says, stressing the addition of Park 8 Grand will make that hotspot even hotter.

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This is a strange article... something really doesn't sound right with it. This Sims person keeps talking about "Westchase," but south of Bellaire is so far removed from the central Westchase district... I don't see that ever being considered Westchase. It's kind of a stretch just considering the Halliburton property as Westchase since Chinatown wraps around it on 3 sides.

It's not a very good area especially on the east side of the beltway in Westwood. The west side isn't too hot either. There's a home depot on the SW corner of Bellaire & BW 8 so I guess the new development would be south of that?

I am totally shocked to hear that high rise residential towers are planned for that area... I think something is seriously amiss here...

Article 2:

A century of shopping history

Macy's could change the face of Foley's, but it can't erase our memories

By JEANNIE KEVER

Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

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Did you see the great 1956 photo of the old Joske's store which accompanied this article? I'm curious where this store was located and where the other original Joske store locations were.

Does this really belong in the "Traffic and Transportation" forum? This doesn't have anything to do with Houston.

WTH???!!! There's already a CVS like only 5 blocks away from there! This really sucks...

Welcome to Houston, gallerialiving!

My question is such:  will these properties be torn down to "fit" the look and feel of the neigborhood? 

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In Houston, EVERYTHING gets torn down eventually. But, to answer your question, you should never expect for developers here to be concerned with building something which "fits in" with the rest of the neighborhood... Sometimes they do, which is always a nice surprise, but very often they don't.

That's Houston!