TGM

From their perspective, they "were doing just fine in their unpainted houses until these uppity new homeowners built those townhomes smashed up against each other, and increasing traffic. NOW, those same newcomers are trying to push us out completely!"

Understood, but their logic is wrong. No one is trying to push them out. If you receive an offer for your home, you can accept or reject it. If your house does not meet code, and the city wants to tear it down it's not the developers fault, it's yours for choosing not to maintain it. If you owe back taxes that's also not the developers fault, it's yours for assuming you could ignore them. This sort of reminds me of the folks that blamed Metro for hitting light rail while turning left off of Main. It's always been illegal, it's just that the "enforcement" today is far less forgiving.

The right to build townhomes in supposed historic neighborhoods coexists with the right to sit on one's porch all day or not paint the house, whether willfully or due to poverty. It seems hypocritical to only support one aspect of property rights. That is what drew my narcissism reference.

Agreed.

The history of the 4th Ward is long gone. I do not mind its gentrification at all. But, I am opposed to running the original residents out. I do not mind letting market forces work. I do mind taking away one's right to enjoy their property.

The problem is that there is a misplaced perception that new construction and developers is driving out long time residents. No one is forcing someone to sell a mortgage-free, well-maintained property, that is current on taxes, and other similar obligations. What puzzles me is the perception that they are being forced out by developers when it's the city and county they owe money to. Yes, property taxes do rise, but it is the government, not the private sector that makes valuation judgements. Older residents have an over-65 exemption, and I would love to see and would support further tax exemptions for houses deemed to represent significant cultural or historical value, that are lived in and maintained by a family for several generations.

It's a shame too because the bricks on Andrews, Robin, etc. are historic (produced and laid by freed slaves). However, it's getting so bad now that some bricks are being damaged. There's a reluctance to tear them up due to calls for preservation, but I say that in order to truly preserve them before they're worn beyond preservable condition is imperative. I think taking all the bricks up and using them in crosswalks or intersection would be a really neat way to pay homage to the history while satisfying the need for improved streets.

100% agree. The only way to preserve is through action not inaction. I remember 5 or more years ago the very topic of the streets was on the evening news. I had (falsely) assumed that these streets had been restored and protected, but apparently that is not the case. This is pathetic. The church is private property, the streets public. Taxpayer monies should be spent on revitalizing a historic public street, rather than a private building. While both are prime examples of what happens when you defer maintainence, the onus is on the city for letting the brick streets fall into this state of disrepair. In essence, local government is the proverbial slumlord of the streets.

Wow, these guys are pretty butthurt about their elected officials representing the interests of their constituents. It must make you mad that they keep getting re-elected. Maybe you should move to Katy, where you won't be offended by any non-white people enjoying their porches during the day.

No butthurt here. I quite enjoy the token bread and circuses that these career politicians offer their constituents in place of authenticity. And when someone special like the Yale-educated Shelia Jackson Lee comes around you stand back in awe at how cheap and easy it is to purchase a voters allegiance.

I want Shelia to stay because while anyone else can do the same inept job, no one can do it with the panache and spectacle that is Shelia Jackson Lee. Houston will be a dull place without her.

No moving posts. Just waiting for you to tell us what programs are available to single childless males. Not a tough task. The fact that you cannot or will not name any seems to validate kylejack and I's point.

No, the burden is on Kyle to prove the difficulty of obtaining welfare as a single, childless male as he stated that this was in fact for the record.

For the record, welfare is pretty hard for men without children to get, so I'm not sure what you think they're living on.

I love that it seems the "we're not racists" but all the blacks are unemployed and ruining our neighborhood folks generally agree that facts aren't needed when forming an opinion.

RedScare just blew the lid off of TonyM's claims but that didn't deter him from keepin' on keepin' on!

Another links to an article on a pro developer's website that I had to stop reading once I got to the part about Midtown being a one time run down warehouse neighborhood located to the EAST of the Third Ward. Seriously? Huh? Was it too hard to google a map before printing that garbage?

Also, history lesson for you young guns in the Fourth Ward, the Allen Parkway Village originally began as a place for veterans to move in to after the war. WHITE veterans. It was 100% off limits to blacks. Over the years, it did indeed transform into a public housing complex, but even then it was NEVER close to being 100% black. In fact, during the last few years after most of the others had moved on, many of the remaining families were actually Vietnamese.

Several historians have argued that placing an all white veterans housing project on the outskirts of Houston's thriving black community (Freedman Town)was just another in a long line of deliberate actions to cut through the heart of the black community and claim the very valuable land for white land brokers who wanted to expand their downtown footprint (Allen Center).

Allen Parkway, Allen Parkway Village, the Pierce Elevated, and the very purposeful neglect the city showed to that area over the years are what caused that community to rot. Houston lost a ton of history when the Pierce was built. It would blow your mind to see what was torn down, cut off, and killed off. What's truly amazing is that it took as long as it did for the neighborhood to completely disappear largely due to the oil bust in the 1980s that killed almost all large scale development in the city for nearly two decades.

edit to add-

I should have waited to respond after I had read the comments on the 2nd page of the thread. Hopefully this country will revert back to a point where knowledge and intellectualism are respected more than just shouting mistruths louder than the opposition.

Red, Kyle and others have asked a very simple question... can you provide a link to the program that allows single men to get welfare? You can't because there isn't one. Instead of admitting that you were wrong (or, rather, that you are a liar) you then change the conversation to talk about Acorn and baby daddy's.

You do realize that the Acorn video was a shameless smear job undertaken by political wannabes, right? You do realize that those two assclowns that dressed up as a hooker and pimp edited those videos beyond recognition and have been discredited by every reputable news organization and that even Fox had to recant (although you'd hardly have known it) the story?

And, as for baby Daddy's, you really should just shut the hell up. You do realize that we live in Texas, right? You do realize that programs like WIC, food stamps, and yes, even welfare, have been slashed since Clinton at the federal level and even more by our run of Republican governors in Texas, right?

And, funny that your complaint is that you see black men on their porches during the day and that that makes you upset because you work hard for the money. Well then, what the hell were you doing there during work hours? As has been pointed out, you have NO IDEA of whether or not any of those men work night shifts, are disabled, are returning home from a tour of duty, or are working from home. You just assume. That's intellectually lazy.

Wow, I think you've made the case that liberalism truly is a mental disorder.

The true sign of a man who has lost a debate is when he attempts to change the subject. When you prove your previous post I'll join in on your jokes.

We both know that's a suckers choice as you'll continue to move the goal posts with each example I cite and I'll never get to hear your jokes. Let's just say people I thought I knew have surprised me in their faking of of PTSDs, work-place injuries, actual job search efforts, and unreported sources of income that will allow them to qualify for "assistance".

Have you not noticed increased amounts of advertisements informing people of various benefits? They want to give away more money.

Until then, I will lump you in with Limbaugh's listeners.

So?

Well, let's see your proof, then. Or, would you rather grumble on AM radio talk shows about things that are untrue? Which program is for single childless men, cuz I'm going to sign up and sit on my porch once I get it. I've worked hard enough for this life.

Red, I don't really get a chance to listen to radio during the work day. Could you provide a re-cap of today's grumblings. And since it sounds like you've worked hard for your money, how about helping me out with a loan. Four out of five of the window units the city gave me are on the fritz!

For the record, welfare is pretty hard for men without children to get, so I'm not sure what you think they're living on.

Probably change, and whatever remains of hope.

I'm going to call BS on your statement that it's hard for single men to get welfare. I really don't see today's government turning anyone down for any sort of dependance, um,err, assistance. If a person can some how eff-up getting on the government gravy train then there is little hope for them. For heavens sake, we fund groups like Acorn to insure everyone gets pie.

No need for a source when you drive through the area daily. Sometimes several times a day and see the same ol' people doing the exact same nothing all the time.

Maybe they're actively preserving history.

Once you realize how the pricing model works its pretty easy to figure out where the $2.5M went.

$10k - email reply

$50k - reply letter with SJL letterhead (suitable for framing)

$100k - call returned by current staff member (staff subject to change without notice)

$250k - meeting with chief of staff

$500k - sound bite of your cause included in speech

$1M - name of cause mentioned with an angry voice

$2M - Press conference with guarantee of 3+ microphones

$2.5M - Level 1 Outrage *

*each increased level of outrage is $1M.

I'll tell you what's gross; the amount of power a certain person has to be confident enough to publicly admit what you are doing with Midtown residents money knowing that it will never come back to haunt you. When I realized a few years ago that the very people tasked with revitalizing the neighborhood were actively trying to harm it I knew it was time to get out.

For each of the last few fiscal years the TIRZ has budgeted money (to the tune of a couple million bucks) to improve the god awful streets around the neighborhood but they end up allocating and spending none of it on roads. Where is the cash going? The roads are awful. I can see waiting to do the roads around Camden until construction is finished but there are plenty of other streets that could be redone now. I suspect there is some serious financial issues behind the scenes with the TIRZ. I just hope they aren't spending money for neighborhood improvements on contractor kickbacks and buying up empty land for more subsidized housing like some are doing in third ward.

Like this: http://www.governing.com/topics/health-human-services/housing/Land-Rush.html

"The Power Broker"

"Garnet Coleman shares most of Lowe's concerns about what's happening in the Third Ward. His hands, however, lie closer to the levers of political power, and his stake in the neighborhood is more deeply personal. "Third Ward is my home -- it's not for sale," Coleman says. "A hundred years in my family. It's a very different point of view."

The key to Coleman's approach is money -- money to buy land and take it out of circulation. To get it, Coleman is utilizing a quasi-governmental authority, deploying tactics that would make the legendary highway and bridge builder Robert Moses proud. If Moses manipulated the back channels of power in New York for the cause of promoting development, however, Coleman is doing the same in Houston in order to impede it.

Coleman's vehicle is an urban investment tool known to most cities that use it as "tax increment financing." In Houston, the arrangement goes by a different name -- "tax increment reinvestment zone" or TIRZ. The idea is that as a depressed area redevelops, the resulting increase in property taxes pays for more improvements in the neighborhood. Houston's city council has designated 22 such TIRZs in different neighborhoods, each with its own governing board. Typically, their goal is to spruce up sidewalks, lighting and landscaping, in hopes of attracting even more development.

One TIRZ, in a neighborhood known as Midtown, is acting a little differently. Midtown is a once run-down area of commercial warehouses just east of the Third Ward. It's now transformed into a thriving neighborhood of apartments, shops, restaurants and nightclubs. The board of the Midtown TIRZ is divided between Coleman loyalists and appointees of Mayor White. The board has chosen to use almost all of its revenues -- $10 million in the past five years -- to purchase and then "bank" land in the Third Ward. "If you look at Midtown, that was all publicly induced -- ain't none of it affordable," says Coleman. "Why can't we do the same thing for people who need an affordable place to live?"

It's a decidedly unorthodox arrangement, one whose very existence seems to be something of a secret. Coleman declines to say how much land the Midtown TIRZ has banked in the Third Ward. He'll say only that he wants the land to be used for low-income rental housing, with deeds held by local churches and CDCs that could borrow against the value of the land in order to build more affordable housing. "Low-density rental is the only way for it to be affordable," Coleman argues. "You keep the character of the neighborhood while providing affordable housing."

In order to save the Third Ward, Coleman seems intent on freezing its current character and demographics in place. An essential part of his plan is to attach restrictive deeds to the rental properties to ensure that they are never sold to private developers or converted to condos. But is it really possible for a neighborhood to resist change? Fifty years ago, much of the area that Coleman now sees as his patrimony was a largely Jewish neighborhood. Only in the 1960s did the area become predominantly black. What Coleman is trying to do is keep it that way. He seems to enjoy the challenge. "Everyone said it couldn't be done," he crows, with obvious relish. "I said, 'Watch me.' "

The money for the church is to convert that space into a public park. The idea was to leave some of the walls intact. There was a thread about it a while back.

It takes 2.5 mil to convert it to a public park?

For just $30k I'll give you a dog park, bocce court, and BBQ pits, all surrounded by a sidewalk made of reclaimed brick.

Yep, thanks to Queen Sheila it's still there. I last checked the 4th Ward TIRZ budget a few months back and some $2.5M has been allocated for the relic. Absurd.

And to think, the contractor tipped a crane over when assembling the steel, could have ended up in someone's living room. And for what? Should have taken the thing down when it was on fire.

That's a misuse of TIRZ dollar IMHO. One could also argue church and state issues, but I'm not sure how far that would get you. If it was worth preserving then the congregation should have been preserving it.

Pathetic.

When you walk those streets you need to do it with flair and confidence.

I have not driven through Freedmans town lately, is the maintainence-deferred church still being propped up by those beams that bring so much joy to the residents around it?

I prefer the term "Replicants".

Replicants look like (80's) Daryl Hannah and don't ask for change. They will however ask you for clove cigarettes at Numbers on Friday evenings.

The proper term is zombies.

I'm a little disappointed that we have not heard about someone in Midtown trying bath salts, stripping, and then attempting to eat alive that chicken that hangs out near NTB. I guess even our local Zombies can't compete at the national level.

Based on my experience everything is done for the sake of show. When a group of significant power thinks the real issue can be resolved by hiring a PR firm rather than more officers then you know that the perception that the area is safe is more important than actually going after the intrenched criminal problems.

Yet another reason I am happy to be "post-midtown"

Attention Walmart shoppers:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/3615312