Reefmonkey

I am glad to see this happening, hopefully it will go all the way this time. Second-hand smoke is a public health issue, as well as a nuisance. I like to go drink in bars - why should I have to endure someone else's second-hand smoke, and my clothes reeking, to do it? Why should asthmatics not be able to enjoy bars because of others' disgusting habits? Working in bars is flexible hours and good money for people like students, why should they have the choice of "either accept the smoke or find another job"? That's like telling mine workers "no we're not going to improve ventilation, either accept you're going to get Black Lung or find another job." We ban smoking in workplaces, right? Guess what? For the people who work in a bar, that bar is a workplace. Done. For those who say bars are private establishments, and the owners should be able to make the decision, come on. People used to make the claim that restaurants were "private establishments" and therefore should be able to decide whether or not to serve black people. That ultimately didn't stand up to scrutiny. Public health trumps the rights of "private establishments" all the time. Ethnic restaurants may have "traditional" ways of making certain dishes, but if they don't pass health code, they aren't allowed to serve them. The owners can't just say "well, if people don't want to risk salmonella, they should eat elsewhere."

My wife said that was one of the big problems with the old principal, my wife's colleagues were telling that principal that the demographic had changed and she needed to adapt, but she stuck her head in the sand about it. General diversity in a school doesn't bother me, but Katrina diversity does. It isn't a race thing, it's a Louisiana culture thing. That entire state has been so corrupt for so long, that even in the school districts there is no accountability. My wife has worked with several Katrina kids, and just in general finds that the education there is awful - the 5th grade level of education in LA is equivalent to maybe 3rd grade, and there is a cultural difference in behavior, too, the kids are allowed to get away with a lot more over there, so they are used to acting that way here. Because of your post yesterday, my wife and I talked more about what we are going to do in two years, and we are now pretty much decided that we are going to get our oldest into Cornerstone, with WAIS as a backup.

What problems have you heard about? We are considering our options for our oldest, who would be going to Spring Forest in Fall 2009. We are considering Cornerstone instead (my stepson is high achiever). My wife had heard negative things about SFMS, mostly associated with its old principal, and she was under the impression that there was a new principal? I'd be interested in any information you have on specific issues at Spring Forest. Is it just the demographics? At least for us a diverse population isn't a bad thing unless it is accompanied by problem behavior that could interfere with learning and be unsafe. I'll have to check with my wife, but I was under the impression that the main problems were conflicts between a principal who wasn't well liked and the teachers.

I think for most of us the price differential would not be a big problem if we weren't aware of what Randall's used to be, and what a hollow shell of that it now is. For me there is a principle involved in not paying the same prices I used to when the service and selection are not what they used to be. I find the Kroger's signature stores to have much better selection now, a better shopping environment, and maybe slightly cheaper. For all that I will drive a little father, rather than letting myself get irritated when I find Randall's has stopped carrying yet another item they used to, which I happened to want/need that night. Though I do agree the Krogers in the old Albertsons suck, as the Albertsons did before them.

Oh, yeah, I'm not even afraid of heights, but I get a feeling of vertigo walking around in the upper balcony area of Wortham, it is so steep.

I can tell you at least from what I have heard, River Oaks is still very good. At least the Vanguard program. I'm not sure if it also has mainstream students because everyone I knew was in Vanguard. I don't have much of a vested interest in Poe's future anymore, but I could suggest it to a couple of friends who are about to have a baby and are struggling on whether to move out of the area or not. Maybe they will get involved with introducing Poe to what Rummel does well, or maybe it will push them to decide to just move out. I don't mean to disparage Lanier. I can't say for sure about the true state of the education one gets there now, or of the education one would get there in the next 6 years. We just had to go with the warning signs we were getting, not just about Poe, but about Lanier, too, and with our own guts. There were other factors besides the quality of the education there as well. It was also the values of the kids there. And I don't mean worrying about gang activity, I mean the rich white kids. Let's face it, while there are families like yours or mine, because of the real estate values in the area, there are a lot really wealthy people in the neighborhood who have more materialistic values than I do, and who really indulge their kids, both materially and behaviorally. I compare the behavior of the kids in the cub scout den there with the one my stepson is in out here, and it is night and day. Parents from Poe would just sit and watch as their kids ran riot and talked disrespectfully to leaders. My stepson has much better-behaved friends out here. Good education or not, that was just not a peer group I wanted my stepson learning bad habits from. With wordgirl's questions about the snobbiness of memorial schools, I figured she would have the same concerns. From what I have heard, kids who go to Frostwood, Bunker Hill, Memorial Middle and High are cut from similar cloth as rich Poe kids.

I've heard MS-13 as well. But, like I said, I think Lamar is still a good school. I guess being intown, no public school is going to avoid gang problems completely. My stepson was at Poe, and when we realized how disappointed we were in Poe despite its reputation, we started asking around about Lanier. The Houston school psychologist community is a really tight-knit group, and my wife got information from them as well as parents of my stepson's classmates who had older siblings in Lanier. There was talk about recent turnover in some key faculty and administration changes as well as dissatisfaction, a belief that it was still riding on a reputation that was starting to not quite match the reality anymore. Had the school significantly declined in the 2 years since your cousin graduated? I don't know, but I think probably not. But our son was just completing 2nd grade at the time, so he had 3 more years before he would start at Lanier, 6 years before he would graduate from it. We just didn't feel comfortable staying put and hoping that the information we were hearing didn't necessarily mean that Lanier would significantly decline during those 6 years. And after hearing about Poe's great reputation and then seeing for itself that it doesn't measure up, I honestly think that a lot of people must have lower expectations for education, at least than I do. I think they say to themselves "wow, this is a great school compared to the rest of HISD", but after seeing the difference between Poe and his new school, I think a lot of these people wouldn't be so enthusiastic about Poe if they just put their kids in an elementary school like Rummel Creek for a year; they'd really see the difference. So I didn't feel comfortable knowing that Lanier's reputation is kept going by these same pople who have low expectations for Poe. Sidenote: You might think I am especially picky about schools, and I may be, but I have an advanced degree, my wife has advanced degrees, we value education, it's our thing. I don't think one's child's education is necessarily the worst thing to have demanding standards about. But I know we weren't the only ones who were dissatisfied with Poe. We knew several people who pulled their kids out of Poe after a year or two. Some of them put their kids in River Oaks Elementary's Vanguard program, which some seemed to hate, not because it was a bad education, but because the homework, projects, and in-school expectations of parents were so time-consuming. Others put their kids in First Presbyterian.

That makes sense then about the acoustics. I never went to symphony stuff there (not a fan of sitting still watching people play instruments, but that's just me), but went to lots of theatre productions there. Understood about the backstage - you'd pretty much have to rebuild the thing, and then what's the point of preserving it after that? I'm not sure the garage was built with ANY cars in mind. Seems the large boats of the 40s would be much harder to drive in there than today's front-wheel drive sedan with power steering. It's probably good they tore it down before Suburbans and Hummers became so common, though. I do agree that continental seating does result in higher numbers of good seats, so it's a good tradeoff. I do remember in the Music Hall as a kid wearing my treadless dress shoes on that slick tile and slipping. New Brutalist style - I've never heard of it before, but it is a good name for the Alley's architecture. I guess part of it is I think Alley's company's forte is in stright plays, esp. drama, not musical. I do believe Hobby is a good venue, and despite the airport terminal effect it has on me, is a nice addition to downtown. Now that TUTS is finally doing some better stuff, it makes for a nice evening.

I might be wrong on the acoustics, it has been so long. I'm thinking of some place that I thought had bad acoustics. Oh, I remember - the Arena. I hate theatre-in-the-round anyway. I can believe you are right about the backstage and theatre equipment being outdated, though a lot of that could be redone. I agree the Coliseum is no loss. And now that you mention it, I totally remember the bathrooms. It felt like you had to go underground to access them, and the lines were hideously long at intermission. I guess people in the 30s must not have needed to go to the bathroom as much Remind me of the lobby addition, I can't remember what it was like. The parking was the biggest think I remember as being outdated and scary. Inside you felt like a mugger was lurking everywhere, and driving past it, you were sure it was going to fall off and plunge into the bayou. Jones Hall works inside, except access to seats. Heck of alot better than Broadway theaters. Alley is great for straight plays, not so good for musicals, so thank goodness they only occasionally try one (last i saw there was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum 2 or 3 years back.) I just think Alley is ugly as sin - a bunker - on the outside. Most of my reaction to Music Hall being demolished probably comes from nostalgia rather than it really being that great a venue.

Depends on where you are zoned, even within Spring Branch. My wife is a school psychologist, has worked in SBISD very recently, knows the character well. Stratford (the high school my stepson will ultimately attend) and Memorial are both excellent schools, academically. Memorial tends to be very snobby though, a lot of spoiled rich kids, and a lot more recreational drug use among the rich kids. Basically, the rule with Spring Branch is that the further west you get, the less snobby the kids are, and the nicer the faculty are, too. It even starts in elementary school. In Frostwood Elementary School, the administration and faculty think they are running a private school, and any kid with a learning disability, maybe some social adjustment issues, they don't want to deal with him. Even the parent volunteers are snobby, and were very nosy, trying to get my wife to tell them about students they had no association with, even though that is federally protected confidential information, because they think they have a "right" to know if there are any potential troublemakers in "their" school. Now Meadowood and Rummel Creek are great. So yeah, Spring Valley is pretty far east, and my wife didn't have the best things to say about the snobbiness of kids, parents, and teachers there. Lamar may be good, but I disagree on Lanier. Before we moved to Memorial Area a year ago, my stepson went to Poe Elementary, which feeds into Lanier, and Poe is always highly rated as one of HISD's best elementary schools, being a fine arts magnet school (whatever that means at the elementary level). I found it very lacking. My stepson was clearly struggling in math and getting frustrated, and I was spending a lot of time tutoring him, yet we never got a note of concern from his teacher, and when I emailed to ask how she felt about his math performance, she seemed very blaise about it. I got to talking to a lot of other parents, many of whom had similar experiences. I learned that the principal who had made Poe so good had left, and it had really slid. Then we started to hear more and more about Lanier, how it was the same way, in reality no longer living up to its reputation. It was one of the reasons we decided to move, and I have noticed a marked difference in the quality of instruction at his new school in SBISD. He was still a little behind at the beginning of the year in math skills (I helped him catch up through flash cards and math workbooks during the summer), but by the end of the year was doing great. And that girl who stabbed that boy to death in Ervan Chew Park? She went to Lamar. It's got some gang problems. So, thumbs down on Poe and Lanier. I know, they have reputations for being such great schools, but remember this is relative - they a great for HISD schools, but just mediocre compared to many of the schools in the districts to the west and northwest of HISD. What can I say, some people find them "good enough", are willing to compromise on their kids' education in order to live in a fashionable zip code near the hip restaurants. We ultimately decided we weren't. Bellaire is another HISD school that has a better reputation than it deserves because parents rationalize living there because they want a fashionable address in town. It has developed some real problems with a culture of recreational drug use among its rich kids. I think Lamar, HSPVA, and Westside are still good HISD high schools, but not Bellaire. Here is a summary of some recent incidents (from Wikipedia): In 2005, several Bellaire High School students were involved in violent incidents, somewhat hurting the reputation of the school in the local community. In December 2005, two students, Jonathan Finkelman and Desmond Hamilton, were murdered in separate off-campus incidents, and a third shot and injured. In January 2006, a female student was accused of and admitted to killing her mother. In February 2006, a stabbing involving two male freshman occurred in a school stairwell. The victim survived the stabbing while the perpetrator was arrested and prosecuted. The attacker was a national of Mexico.[11] The events have triggered HISD schools to review security policies. On March 20, 2007, Tamara Ryman, 37, a Bellaire High School algebra teacher, was arrested after being found with a 16-year-old male and former student of Ryman's, who was naked from the waist down, in a van. The current charge is trespassing. She was found in a parked van with the boy. When the deputy approached the car, the boy had his trousers lowered, and Ryman had just jumped into the driver's seat, according to police reports[6][7]. It's not going to happen. That's what the "Independent" in Spring Branch (or any other) Independent School District stands for.

It is a popular, nevertheless wrong misconception that Galveston is muddy because of the Mississippi. If we were muddy because of the Mississippi, then the water out in the Gulf would be muddy too. I can tell you from paddling my surfski just a mile or two off the beach out on West Beach that the water clears up and turns blue pretty fast. It is our own Texas rivers that do it, and it is completely natural. Galveston's water is muddy because of the silt that comes out of it from rivers like the Trinity, Brazos, etc. It is this silt that built up the Island. No silt, no Galveston. The silt makes the water muddy, and the silt becomes beach sand, so it is going to be fine and clumpy? So how exactly are we supposed to clean up Galveston's beachs when they are naturally supposed to look like that? As for the sargassum (seaweed) that washes up on the beach, scraping it off would also scrape off a lot of sand, which would contribute to beach erosion, which is a bad thing. Leaving it on not only does not harm the beach, it actually helps build the beach back up, because the seaweed provides a matrix that holds the sand in place and keeps so much of it from blowing away or being washed away.

I wouldn't be surprised. I lived right across the street from it, in the Camden Midtown, from Spring 02-Spring 03. It's a nice building, was well-stocked at the time (though Safeway is really ruining Randall's on that point), but the panhandlers really make it an unpleasant place to shop. You get hit up on your way in, you get hit up on your way out. One time a panhandler approached me in the frozen food section. I alerted security, but they will always be fighting that battle, and it chases away a lot of customers. Of course, none of the Randall's are doing very well, thanks to Safeway. They are still more pricey, but their selection and service, which they used to pride themselves on, have gone way downhill.

I don't feel that strongly that it is that ugly. I did identify with someone's response that the exterior looks like a Dillard's department store, but I think it looks nice on the interior. I do appreciate that the arch of the external front entrance tried to be evocative of 19th-century opera halls (look at the 1893 Grand in Galveston), but the exterior is pretty boxy. What about Jones Hall, I have always thought that was pretty ugly. And the seating, too. I hate climbing over a hundred people to get to my seat. Or the Alley? That looks like a Cold War bomb-proof bunker. The Hobby Center is alright, but it reminds me too much of an airport terminal, and it isn't just the name making me think that. Give the exterior another look. Why, oh why couldn't they have built Fort Worth's Bass Hall in Houston? Another thing - why tear down the Music Hall. It needed some modernization, esp. the acoustics, (oh, and the parking garage, too) but it could have been saved and kept as a landmark and authentic example of Art Deco (which Houston loves to tear down - watch out River Oaks Theater and Alabama Bookstop) as well as a vibrant theater venue, and we would not have needed to build the Hobby.

"Love it" is kind of strong, but I certainly don't hate it. By virtue of its being here so long I think you can call it a landmark, plus it's got the Petroleum Club, which has a lot of history. Architecturally, I find it an interesting example of early-mid 60s modern style. The cantilever sunshades, which are the distinctive feature that is hated by so many, make a lot of sense in keeping the building cool in the Houston summer, especially 3 decades before the advent of green glass. I say it is better to have it than another anonymous glass box.

It looks like a cartoon reinterpretation of a Beaux-Arts government building.

Las Brasas on Kukendall south of FM 1960. In the early-mid 80s they were my family's Friday night ritual. Awesome fajitas, always came with sauteed mushrooms, my parents say they had the best margaritas ever, and the atmosphere of the place was the best of any mexican restaurant. The building was a stand-alone structure, with mostly open field all around it on both sides of the street. Inside it had many different rooms all themed on an interior mexican hacienda. My brothers and I would "go to the bathroom" and actually walk around exploring it. Magic Pan Creperie in the Galleria Harry's Kenya, near the theatres downtown.