aggie92

Makes you wonder if the submerged car drove into the water or was parked there.  At some point people will realize that this area floods.

Agreed that the knock on Greenwood has always been which schools it was zoned to. Also, even though you find some excellent quality, the homes were built (according to a neighbor that was living in area in early 70's) by a multitude of builders so you have to really look at each one individually. If you are looking for a great neighborhood with excellent schools, look just across 1960 to Huntwick. We have several friends living there and they love it because of the kid friendly environment and activities.

The only thing that is mysterious is why you think you can jump in to this and claim some sort of authority on the issue when it is clear that you know nothing about the traffic issue.

I never claimed being an authority as YOU claim I was attempting to be - I was rehashing what others have posted over 27 pages and NOT making my own claims or attempting to give information about traffic studies. And how do you know that I don't know about the traffic issue? I might just be a traffic engineer - I'm not nor claim to be. However, I do live near by and drive Yale regularly along with Heights so I'm as much an expert as most on this forum.

You need to relax a little and realize that this is a bulletin board forum and is used by many of us to stay informed or entertained and quit attacking.

It's obnoxious but somewhat entertaining. I look forward each evening when I log in to seeing what new posts are in this section to see what new "ideas" that s3mh can come up with to tell all of us how our lives will never be the same. I just don't want to go back thru 27 pages but it would be great to roll together all of the "ideas" and see how they have continued to evolve - especially these mysterious traffic counts that went from 7-8000 to now more than 22,000 per day for a supercenter. And now this statement about being incompatible for an area that was a steel mill and not even in the Heights. Just always entertaining.

Living in Woodland Heights prior to and after the construction of Target, my opinion is that the traffic hasn't changed and the traffic within Woodland Heights is still minimal. I go to Target all the time and regularly use Watson/Sawyer/Taylor for cut-thrus and I can't remember ever waiting in any significant traffic.

Has the highly anticipated traffic study begun? There are vehicle counters installed out on Heights Blvd. this morning. . .

Here is the traffic study. Yale South was 6426 vehicles over a 24 hour period, Yale North was 3682 vehicles over same period.

http://stopheightswalmart.org/media/rudh-traffic.pdf

Crime at Wal-Mart is in large part committed in the parking lot. Now that everyone drives SUVs, it is very easy to pull a weapon on someone as they go to get in their vehicle. If you have two SUVs parked side by side, the crime will not be seen unless someone is in very close vicinity. Add to that the fact that Wal-Mart parking lots are massive, the fact that lower income people tend to not have bank accounts and carry large amounts of cash, and the fact that most Wal-Marts are sited by major highways for easy getaway, and you have a great place to commit a crime. If Wal-Mart goes in on Yale, it will definitely be a high crime location.

Please provide the information to support your statements which sound more like opinions than facts as you state them:

1. Crime at Wal-Mart is in large part committed in the parking lot.

2. The fact that lower income people tend to not have bank accounts and carry large amounts of cash

3. If Wal-Mart goes in on Yale, it will definitely be a high crime location.

I won't question the "fact" that the parking lots are massive except to counter that they are not that different than other big box retailers or the shopping centers located all over Houston. Also I would add that two SUV's often park next to each other in some of those parking lots so how is that different? Sounds like (imo) that we may have hit upon an issue with allowing two SUV's to park next to one another - maybe a new ordinance???

Doubtless, the link to this poll has been crossposted on the anti-Walmart-in-the-Heights Facebook fan club page. All this righteous indignation coming to HAIF to express itself will be good for editor. Hopefully anybody who has something burning within themselves that needs to be said on the subject will read the 600+ posts already written on the topic first before posting.

It may be somewhat unscientific but I would like to see how many on the "anti-Walmart" Facebook page live within the 3 mile range. Some of the posts are from people admitting that they don't live in the area but are becoming a fan to show support for those that do. I even see that some are becoming fans just to post against the anti-Walmarters. So their number keeps growing with more supporters that really aren't supporters or affected personally. Doesn't seem real scientific either to discuss their 4000+ "fans".

Maybe the more relevant inquiry should be what are the true motivations for people who support cramming a suburban style big box retailer that has a proven track record of having a negative impact on the surrounding area in terms of crime, traffic one of the few neighborhoods left in the City of Houston that has not been consumed by big box and small business opportunity into retail and PUD hyperconformity? Is it class envy? Is it a bizarre schadenfreude to hope that unique character of the Heights and West End are crushed by the big box retailers and cookie-cutter residential developers?

Did you forget that in terms of Big Box Retailers there is already Target, Home Depot, and Lowe's? I'm personally glad that all 3 of these came to the Heights. As much as I try to go to C&D Hardware, it is just not the same selection when I am working on a project and have the options that both Lowes and Home Depot present. My only dislike against Target is that they built it too small without a large enough grocery section.

but in my opionion actual residents should be able to determine what they want there neighborhood to look like (most of the ones I know are against it), especially if they are being asked to subsidize it.

Most of the ones I know are for this Walmart (all Heights area residents). Guess we need to start posting how many friends now.

I'm with some of the others on this and don't quite get what the opposition gains by trying to win a fight against Walmart.

As for the location, just look at a map. The proposed Yale location is roughly 4 miles from I-10 and Silber and 4 miles from I-45 and Crosstimbers. Take a compass and draw circles around each location, and you will see the overlap is generally around 2-3 miles out. That means that most people living near the proposed Yale location will still have a Wal-Mart within a few miles.

Actually it is 6.1 miles to Northline location if you "look at a map" and stick with the roads that you have to drive/bike. You can make it in 5.7 miles if you go up Yale to 610 and even in 5.4 miles if you take Yale all the way to Crosstimbers, but neither of these routes is practical when you have I-10 and I-45 available. BTW, this is from directly from Google Maps. Your stating that it is 4 miles would be stretching it.

The distance to Silber is roughly 4.2 miles as previously stated.

Instead of posting a negative link to how bad Walmart is, I thought it would be good to post a link to the "positive" effects of Walmart.

http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/researchers-not-buying-the-wal-mart-effect-3970/

My personal favorite result from the study:

"Wal-Mart’s penetration seemed to cause a slight reduction in obesity" - this might mean we don't need the 24 Hour Fitness that has been requested in the past!

However, to be fair it did discuss a negative:

"Wal-Mart penetration leads to people spending less time playing outside and spending more time watching DVDs (and other forms of entertainment they can purchase cheaply from Wal-Mart)."

It should be noted that Walmart did not compensate the professors for the research they did for this article.

One other positive (not related to this article) that hasn't been discussed regarding the outparcels is the possibility for another check cashing store or even another mattress store

For a while there, Northline Commons was supposed to be getting a WalMart. Wonder if thats still the case. If so, this spot wouldn't make any sense at all.

While the debate has been fun to read about WalMart "invading", I would go back to earlier posts regarding the NorthLine Commons location at CrossTimbers and I-45. WalMart is definitely going into this location at Northline per COH Online Permits. And if you drive by, they have walls up and are working on the exterior entrances already.

http://www.cohtora.houstontx.gov/ibi_apps/WFServlet (permit #09061747)

Because of its proximity to the Heights, I would agree with other earlier posts that it would not make sense to build another location when this Supercenter is being built relatively close to the Heights. And if you look at the amount of space this NorthLine location is taking up, there is no way the land on Yale would work with all of the drainage requirements required for new construction.

I wonder what's going on down the street with the Burroughs property...

http://swamplot.com/wet-and-wild-strip-red...3-23/#more-7586

Here is one of the renderings from Swamplot.

Saw the posting for SJL's follow up meeting for Height's crime and remembered a brief mention of her possibly going to the State Department working for Hillary. Did a quick search on HAIF with no mention but found numerous mentions 2 weeks old on the web. Does anyone know if this is going to happen?

Here's one post:

http://carey2.blogspot.com/2009/02/is-shei...g-to-state.html

IS SHEILA JACKSON LEE MOVING TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT?

WHO SHOULD REPLACE HER IN THE CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT?

Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston) will leave her post in Congress to work in the U.S. State Department under Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, sources tell Capitol Annex.

Jackson Lee was among Clinton

Harvard Heights built our garage with second story apartment shell and did a really good job - good quality at a reasonable price (about 25% less than my builder was going to charge). Yes, I've heard from a number of people how unresponsive he is when I've suggested that they call him for quotes, but I would say that once he gets to the job he is very responsive. He detailed out a timeline for construction and did a pretty good job of sticking to it - roughly 30-35 days total for completion. He updated me probably every 2-3 days as to what was coming next. He has also done a job for friend who was very satisfied and is about to build a garage for another and came up with some good ideas for them. A real plus to Harvard Heights is that he does the drawings himself and gets them approved thru the city - the inspectors all seem to know him - so you don't have to hire a separate architect and structural engineer. The biggest negative is that he is not organized enough to really have a great business. He only wants payment after he completes milestones of the job which meant my writing 6 or 7 checks which gets old over a 30 day period. And if he only understood that all of these no call backs probably mean lost business opportunities.

Yeah, just remember what was there before Tricon built those houses..... It was a complete slum. I'm not a Tricon fan, but welcomed getting rid of those apartments.

I agree. It was a run down apartment complex that needed to go. Although I'm not a fan of the Tricon row houses either, they made those of us that live near there much happier.

That's a trolley you see in New Orleans.

Actually it's a street car unless wiki is wrong

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Charles_Avenue_Streetcar

That's a trolley you see in New Orleans.

Actually it's a street car unless wiki is wrong

Here is the developer's link:

http://www.levcor.com/Internal.aspx?sSecti...;sIdProperty=11

Doesn't look like much has changed from last year. The date on the site plan is from 2007. Maybe they should put up a picture of a 13 story building and get some interest generated!

I agree. It's a shame that they can't at least leave open during certain hours for the neighborhood to use. I know the other schools in the area lock their gates as well. Is that an HISD deal?