JJxvi

The parking lot at that center can be annoying, but I'm at that center (Borders) all the time and I love it. Let's face a few facts, the bitching about that Ainbender center at Kirby and Alabama lays one thing to rest once and for all. The fact that "Responsible Urban Development for Houston" is really just "Whiners Whining Against WalMart With Whatever Random Factoids They Can Come Up With" If these people were really interested in "responsible urban development" they would have to change their pants if Ainbender proposed something like what they have at Alabama and Kirby. I mean seriously? Whining about the parking lots? Here's a hint "urbanite" find another lot with an open spot, or heaven forbid, parallel park on one of the side streets. You're in the Upper Kirby district, its safe to walk half a block if you need to. The new group recommendations should add that "The surface parking is very important in front of the medium density, mixed use developments we prefer, even though that doesnt fit with all of our other ideas. Parking spots should be nice and wide, and there should be enough to guarantee that I do not have to park more than 40 yards from the door of any tenant space I wish to go into."

I, for one, am outraged. We, the citizens of this fine city have a right to know IMMEDIATELY when something as dangerous and vile as a new retail box store is planned within a 5 mile radius of our homes, children, pets, and salons.

Too suburban? How about a high rise!

The renderings on the site are also new/updated although you need to be good at those "spot the difference" cartoon panels to pick up the changes, so that leads me to believe that this is probably very close to the final look we will get.

Populous has added this project to their website. The Link

BTW the article had still not been changed to include any reference to drugs or any change beyond saying a woman was shot sitting in her car, when I posted my sarcastic comments about drug dealers being killed in our neighborhood not having a WalMart yet to get killed at. The incomplete article did not stop me from drawing the proper conclusions about that particular crime. Sure some people get randomly murdered for no reason, most people get murdered doing things they shouldnt be doing. I feel fairly confident that I, for example, would find it fairly difficult, and maybe even impossible, to get murdered in the parking lot of a big box store without breaking any laws myself.

Most people killed over drug deals probably get killed in the actual neighborhood in the Heights since we dont have a walmart yet...

Heh. I assume that means that you've also noted that Keren Derr actually posts on the anti-Walmart facebook group?

If the styling turns out remotely close to the renderings, this will be about as good as we could hope for as far as this development goes. The problem is that this development doesn't hold its fate in its own hands visually. An entity called OTC Heights LTD owns most of the land where the Sons of Hermann used to be and the south end of that lot is owned by an entity named Boulevard Lofts LTD. Whatever gets put on those tracts (these are all on the Nebraska-ish shaped white area between Koehler, Yale, heights, and the RR ROW) will play a huge role in how that area ends up looking, much moreso than Ainbender, who hopefully will have made a solid run at setting expectations on design for that area. On Ainbenders renderings those tracts are nice green lawn, but unfortunately they look nothing like that at the moment.

The ends justify the means.

Maybe some ridiculous fad like $4 cupcakes will get the haterz back on board...

Extra points if you walked there.

Well, not "instant" street cred. He has to kinda work on it a little here, at least. Everybody that wants instant street cred just puts a sign up in their yard. 20 years ago it was just the same, except all the signs said No Trespassing or Beware of Dog.

Where does Cleaning Lady live, anyway?

I always preferred the term West End.

900 square foot bungalow entrance...150,000 SF camelback add-on in the back.

Reading between the lines on the ridiculous facebook group, the meeting goers did not exactly hear what they were hoping for. Of course, now some of the ridiculous comments are about there needing to be a fight for zoning. Ha, I agree, thats what the need to push. Zoning! Nothing will turn the eclectic, small business loving anti-WalMart loony bin on its head as the real, actual small business owners in the hood actually become their target instead of their BS talking point. Where the WalMart goes is probably not ever going to be a residential zone, where many small businesses are located in the Heights...welll, they'l fight zoning for sure out of fear if nothing else...

Swamplot posted some new renderings.

Actually, I pretty much do view it as an indication of snobbery. Especially in this neighborhood. Its suburb-think at its finest, and the ludicrous part is that by and large every one of these people moved to a neighborhood thats got industrial businesses and lumberyards, commercial and office, retail, professional services, multifamily apartments, townhomes, and very old mish mash lower class housing, old bungalows, and victorian mansions, old retail converted to homes and that in the majority of cases, this mish mash is not only not given much separation from each other in any conceivable way, but all types are often right on top of one another. And apparently these people loved and wanted to move to a place like this to begin with! Well, this neighborhood has been changing and dealing with new businesses and moving out old businesses for years and years and years. You people arent going to freeze it in time now.

I dont remember the arguments, I just know they had to exist! Right?

Yeah guys. The response here would be the same no matter who that anchor store is, can't you see? Its that the "type" of development is all wrong. y'all clearly dont remember all those "No Target!!!" signs in all of our neighbros yards a few years ago...

Interesting Although not likely very comparable to what we will get, except for, apparently, the color scheme.

There is a slim possibility that you didn't make up a bunch of relative statistical outcome claims based on your personal biases and desire to spread fear. How about this, try and force the city to buy the land and make it an untouchable park...I've seen that done before.

Yes it "could" marginalize the bike path, but we don't know. The anchor store is going to be west of Yale anyway and not on Heights, so I'm not sure that Heights will see near the impact that we imagine. In any case, not seeing a site plan or anything like that, its possible that bicycle traffic will be improved and not marginalized. The most comparable development to this one that exists is Sawyer Heights. Right now its possible for me to leave my front gate, hit a path and end up 100 yards from the front doors of a Target store, so its hard for me to say definitively what Ainbender or the city will do in this case.

Nearness to new construction is very frequently mentioned in listings. It's probably the most common thing mentioned on the listing of the vast majority of the lower value properties in the neighborhood, suggesting that the realtors at least, think that its probably a significant factor creating demand and driving up the base land values.