heights_yankee

Spanish FLowers has a great patio, if nothing else. Also, I havent' been but friends are RAVING about the Chicago Pizza joint (is it on main or airline?), friends from CHICAGO nonetheless! there is also some Chicago meat place? i don't know what that is all about but they say it's good. can anyone enlighten me? also, bedford has a sign "now serving lunch." probably more of a business lunch than a casual lunch, but might be worth checking out... i wish the original author would come back and comment. i wonder if he has come to find how much variety there really is in our little corner of the world?

really? not surprised the catering never got off the ground b/c as a fairly regular customer i never had any idea they even had catering. maybe they can regroup and reopen. if the people at Big Mamou can still claim to be opening, anything can happen! ok, you can have that. just don't put a "keep austin weird" sticker in your window when you leave corporate slavery behind and open your shop here in houston (which i will support, btw )

no kidding. the only time i have ever been nervous walking in the heights was past those apartments. there was some bad stuff going on. i wasn't alone or with the baby, either. i was with my 6'2", 200 lb hubby who was like "let's get the hell out of here." there really is so much in the heights than can go...

i stopped in to McCain's pretty regularly. I believe in paying a little more to support locally owned businesses. No small business has prices that compete with big chains (and I adore Penzey's but it is a national chain, not a local business). their Buddy's organic chicken was actually less than you could get it for at Kroger. additionally, you would special order anything through them and they would go the extra mile- order racks of ribs and they would trim them for you; order lbs of shrimp and they would peel/devein them for you. however, i couldn't make it work as often as i wanted. you could never get an entire meal there as someone else pointed out. it could never be a one stop shop on my way home. if the cupboards were bare, i still had to go to kroger/fiesta after a trip to mccains for my protein and usually a good sauce. i think that was their real downfall. they started out with all kinds of cool oils, vinegars, marinades. my guess was that they didn't sell and the shop tried other things. they just never tried enough. i think they woud have done a lot, lot better with more prepared foods or lunches/breakfast. i mean, they had tables, chairs and a coffee bar but there is a reason Antidote has done so much better... i am sad to see them go. there was soooo much potential. maybe they'll read these comments and figure it out and revamp/reorg... it would be cool if the farmers market could move from OC to McCains and get more attention--- and they could get back to the idea of local... a.) austin is not the epicenter of cool b.) i often wished that mccain's could have wine, but they can't. it's dry. i think booze would have made the biggest difference.

not to defend the sardine lifestyle, but at least those have some nice little yards in back. more than most can say...

i just skimmed and didn't see it mentioned here, but a lot of ppl in the Heights Kids Group are currently singing the praises of breakfast at The Broken Spoke...

in some cases, yes. they are very pretty and i think churches add to a sense of community (even though i never step foot in them) i guess i am just bitter b/c when DH and i bought our house, we saw a sign that said "the vinyard" and were all excited about the possibility that there was a wine bar so close to our house...

i would love to see it operate as theater again, but i know that is a pipe dream. on a side note, i live a couple blocks away and never see "services" in action at that church... hate to admit it, but i'd rather see it be almost anything but a church. there are plenty of those in the heights...

socially and historically, they tell the story of when houston was a developing city. they tell the stories of the families that settled in this area and built the the city we know today. the represent a past that deserves to be remembered. maybe if houston held on to any of its other history, neighborhoods like this wouldn't be as important, but every city deserves to have it's past represented. falling apart doesn't mean complete disrepair. it means the starting signs of disrepair. moldy window casings are the ones i see everywhere. if your house is only 3 years old and the hardiplank is molding, that's an issue. and i'll tell you my dirty secret: the house i live in has an addition on the back. it wasn't built by us and it was not built the way we would build it. it was added by a well known contractor in the Heights who no longer does smalls cale renovation- only new construction and large projects. lemme tell ya, not only do we have mold issues, but the damn thing is about to fall off the back of the house. the rest of the house- solid as a rock. i have seen new construction with foundation issues. i have friends who live in a home built by my most hated developer in the 'hood and when their house was only a year old, they had to replace all the upstairs plumbing. no, the house never looked bad on the outside, but the plumbing was falling apart inside. i have another friend in a new home. she is having major electrical work done right now. major. my house is still half knob&tube and we have no issues... i never thought any of the new homes would topple during Ike and never wanted them to. as i keep saying, i am not totally against new homes. what i am against is the notion that a new home that can be built in 3 weeks is of better quality than a house that has stood for 100 years. i am against the notion that the history of the neighborhood is disposable. i am against the opinion that older homes have no value.

b/c you don't like them doesn't mean there isn't a place for them. some people choose their neighborhood specifically b/c of them. i knew what i was getting in to when i bought in proctor plaza. i knew i would have to only have wood windows and that any changes i made to my house would have to be approved by the neighborhood association. and i LIKE that. that was a big plus for us when we were home shopping. you made a decision to buy where you didn't have to deal with deed restrictions; i made the decision to buy where i do.

marksmu- i think you have a lot of valid points. i am not against development but i do think that there is value in history. perhaps it's b/c i am from an area where history is preserved almost to a fault, but i think that houston has lost so much of its history already. i live in an old on the outside/ modern on the inside home. i have no desire to live in a house that is "period" b/c it's not my style. however, i have great reverence and appreciation for people who do. additionally, i would never tear down a bungalow. i think they are important socially, historically and architecturally and i think they do need to be protected. i also hate the Disney-fication of the Heights. really, tear down a true victorian to put a fake one in it's place? gimme a break. gut it and make it as modern as you want inside, but don't insult us by putting a fake, just add water so it can fall apart in 3 years piece of crap in its place and say you did everyone a favor. there are a lot of moderates when it comes to restoration and preservation. however, development is so rampant in this part of houston, some people have to fight on the extreme side of preservation so that there is a middle ground.

i think that is a very good point. it's definitely way over the top for what i would buy, even if that was in my price range. i am not a fan of flourishes. DH and i both like simple, clean lines. hence my love of my arts and crafts bungalow. and, marksmu- sorry you're so angry about something awry in your own life, but you can take your bad attitude elsewhere.

take the amount of work, the large lot and 3 car garage and put it up to these developer-dime-a-dozen-McVics that are currently listing for over $1mil, i think this is a reasonable price... maybe they just can't deal with having to do another year of Lights in The Heighs

i was thinking about this as i dropped my kid off a school this morning and drove by all the places you mention here. i want to add the empty lot behind Someburger that has yet to get a tennant, so they haven't even broken ground yet. Perhaps this builder should put up a rendering and see if anyone has interest before he defaces the boulevard further...

there is a notice for a public hearing. is there time to alter these plans?

admittedly, better looking than about 99% of the new apartments going up in houston. maybe we're seeing the beginning of the end of faux mediterranean?

Thanks for the info on SOTW, hatch. it's on our list. Awty is our 1st choice. it actually starts at pre-k 3. we are 95% going to do private but this has nothing to do with the quality of schools in the heights. helms, harvard and travis are all good- they have very high levels of parental involvement that make them so. in fact, parents from those schools have already started addressing issues at the middle schools (mostly hogg. hamilton is strong but not exemplary). it will not be long before heights schools rival any others in HISD. and just as an aside, reagan hs is the technology magnet for houston. another very good thing =)

Hmmm. I hope you're right, but ADP does both new and renos.

Thank goodness. I like the way it is written: we are open to new development, but please do not make it obscene.

actually, i guess i mean big places with tons of tvs but that are bars not restaurants (therefore excluding two rows and champs type venues). i can totally see it being torn down. i am sure that parking lot was part of the tear down plan from the beginning or else they would have paved it properly (you can hope)

if it's a "real" sportsbar, they will be filling a huge void inside the loop. the only real sports bar around here is The Tavern and i just can't go there anymore for a variety of reasons...

i gotta tell ya, i was driving up montrose earlier today and, as i drove by the 8 story condo building next to pronto (at W Gray) it really hit me hard how bad something like that would look on white oak. i mean, that building is only 8 stories and it looms over the road, even though that is a very busy, built up area. additionally, the scale at which even 3 or 4 stories are built by a lot of these developers makes them much bigger than just their number of floors. drive down washington and look at some of the new commercial buildings with only 3 floors, but they are monstrous. i honestly *do* encourage development in the heights, but it has to be fitting to the area. to repeat my earlier comment, anything over 4 stories clearly removes any semblance of privacy for the people who live behind there. those are the people who really need to get interested in this project...

i agree. i am not at all opposed to development- especially on these busy street (i love what's happening on studewood and think that those allegro type building all up and down white oak would certainly be an improvement). i just think 13 stories looming over the neighborhood is a little much. i mean, all the people for at least 3 blocks behind will no longer have any privacy in their back yards. that sucks.

i pretty much agree with this sentiment. possibly this developer is trying to make it "look" like he cares for the neighborhood, lulling people in to complacency b/c they will think "well, he has clearly consulted my neighbors and has the area's best interest in mind." maybe this developer is an anomaly, but most developers only have one thing in mind- their bottom line.

my thought exactly. if this building was going to be 4 stories, i might be able to accept it, but 13 is too much, esp when all you'll see if you're on the street is parking.