2 hours ago, Nate99 said:

I didn't think it was necessarily unreasonable to ask if people might be happier somewhere else where this doesn't happen as frequently

I forgot to answer this; for those of us who are native houstonians, Houston’s history and heritage is our heritage, and thus far more meaningful to us than moving to another city just because it better preserves a heritage we have no connection to. It’s worth working towards, and inroads have been made as at least some developers have come to appreciate that historic preservation creates better quality of life, which does have market benefits. 

1 hour ago, Nate99 said:

Every position has a tradeoff, the preservation "this is my home that I cherish" argument is asking someone else to pay for your aesthetic enjoyment.  The only honest response I hear to this fact is "but it's worth it", which is easy to say from the perspective that doesn't have a significant amount of money tied up in a particular property.

I think I can probably do a little better than "but it's worth it." For me, an environmental scientist who works in the solid waste management field, the fact that 25% of all waste going to landfills is construction and demolition waste, and reusing structures instead of tearing them down reduces this.  If you're unpersuaded by the aesthetic and intrinsic benefits of historic preservation, then perhaps economic benefits might sway you. A study of 9 Texas cities, including Houston, found that designation of a neighborhood as a historic district increases home values by between 5 and 20% (but that's of course only if enough houses are preserved to retain the historic character).  In the last 20 years, 22 states have commissioned studies on the economic benefits of historic preservation. A meta analysis of these studies found overwhelmingly consistent results indicating a significant economic benefit to historic preservation. The three most common and significant areas were job creation, property value stabilization and growth, and cultural tourism.

 

 I don't know how old you are or how long you've lived in Houston, so I don't know how much you remember of the early days of the downtown revitalization in the 90s, but if you do remember it, you'll remember where it started. It didn't start with building brand new buildings, or even using late 20th Century buildings, it started with restoring the historic Rice Hotel, and with Market Square, bars and restaurants like Cabo's and the State Bar, et al moving into late 19th and early 20th Century buildings. There was a reason for that. The historic character of the area gave it a feel of being a destination, a place where people who worked downtown wanted to stay and get drinks after work, where people who didn't work downtown wanted to come into on Friday and Saturday nights, where people wanted to live. The revitalization continued down the streets that had the most historic buildings, down Travis and Main, and overwhelmingly the new restaurants and bars moved into those historic buildings, being in those buildings was a big part of the draw, what kept people dealing with the hassle of downtown parking, etc. when they could have just stayed on the Richmond Strip, etc. The revitalization of downtown was very much dependent on the character that historic buildings could provide, the sense of destination that they could use to create a draw. That kind of sense of destination is a major draw for increasing convention and other special event draw to Houston, which brings economic benefit and tax revenue. We would likely have not gotten the Superbowl in 2004 without the downtown revitalization, which was dependent on using preserved historic properties.

I'm generally not a fan of magic, but I'm excited about this. I remember going once back in the late 80s, I guess, probably late elementary or early middle school, and was less interested in what was happening onstage than the general occult ambiance of the place. I hope it's like that when it reopens.

Maybe it's this week's 9/11 anniversary, maybe I just watched Towering Inferno too many times as a kid, but I've never wanted to work high up in a highrise, let alone live in one. Travel safety experts recommend requesting a room between the 2nd and 7th floor, because the 7th is the highest ladder trucks can reach. And that's just for places you might be sleeping a few nights out of the year. Living dozens of floors  up full time, no thank you.

How has this eyesore been allowed to remain in this condition for so long? From what I have read, the current owner has owned it since 2012, and last I read they claimed in 2016 they had plans to make it back into a hotel, but it's been two years, and at least from the Pierce Elevated, it looks like no progress has been made. More than just an eyesore, this building has been a dangerous haven for the homeless, and I don't just mean that there is probably a lot of drug use and other crime going on in it, it looks to me structurally unsafe for homeless people to be in. It amazes me that someone would sit on such an expensive piece of property for so long, paying taxes on it while generating no revenue from it, not to mention exposing themselves to liability from it. Is there any remedy the City can take to put a lien on the property and/or otherwise take it over and demolish it?

I guess I can see both sides of the preservation argument for this particular building; I am always reluctant to see any Beaux Arts or Art Deco building go, we've lost so many and have so few left. But is this a particularly good or significant example? Mmmm....it's got a nicely ornamented original facade along two walls, and that's about it, it looks like the rest of it was recently repainted trompe l'oeil to look older along the rest of it. It looks like when it was built, it was a cheaply constructed building meant to be a warehouse or light industrial. It's only three stories, so not an efficient use of space in 21st Century high-density downtown Houston. And who knows what it's structural and mechanical condition is like inside. I wish it didn't have to go, but probably makes sense that it does.

 

However, I find the argument "if you don't own a building, you don't have an interest what happens to it" to fall flat, especially on an architectural forum. If that were the case, we wouldn';t designate certain structures landmarks, we wouldn't designate historic districts, we wouldn't have Chapter 33, Article VII of the COH ordinances that protects such properties from their current owners doing whatever they want with them, etc. I, like many on this board, am a native Houstonian, and I've seen a lot of our history and best architecture lost. Preservation of old buildings (where it makes sense to) is important to me, despite living in a city that "cherishes" fewer restrictions on the use of private property, why do I live here (to answer Nate99's question)? Because I was born here, because it's where my family is, and because I love the city I have known all my life. I don't want to see all the places that have been part of what I have loved about this city in my 42 years demolished, often by developers from elsewhere who don't have the longterm stake in this city I have, and so I think pushing for greater protection of historic structures, even the ones I don't own, is  a completely legitimate and worthwhile motive.

Anyone remember this chain of pharmacies?  It’s where my mom filled all our prescriptions through the 80s. We went to two locations, first one somewhere around 1960 and Red Oak, second one diagonal from Klein High School. 

The naming conventions of the different University of Houston branches seem to be getting more and more cumbersome and paradoxical.

 

University of Houston - no brainer.

University of Houston - Clear Lake. Yeah, okay, Clear Lake is in COH, makes sense.

University of Houston Downtown - okay

 

University of Houston - Victoria - Now it's starting to get weird, Victoria isn't even in Houston's MSA

University of Houston Downtown - Northwest, Cy-Fair, Kingwood - now we're all over the place

University of Houston - Victoria, Katy campus - ????

The Victory Wilson Building. It was built in the late 1800s, a new facade was put on it in the 1920s. Victory Wilson was a Dallas-based clothing store that opened there in the early  1920s, and I think went out of business in the mid 30s. Can't remember what was there in the late 90s early 00s when I was prowling around downtown.

Corporation Wiki says:

 

Quote

Harry's Kenya, Ltd. filed as a Domestic Limited Partnership (LP) in the State of Texas and is no longer active. This corporate entity was filed approximately thirty-eight years ago on Wednesday, March 26, 1980 , according to public records filed with Texas Secretary of State.

 

And then I found a Houston Press article from December, 1997, that talks about " the long-gone Harry's Kenya."

I'm thinking "a successful stint of more than 15 years" was a slight exaggeration on the part of Lowell Douglas.

I think I do remember hearing that not only does Houston have more restaurants per capita, but more chain restaurants per capita. Probably doesn't help that we're the giant Landry's group's hometown, and Pappas chains, another Houston native, gives Landry's a pretty good run for their money around here.

 

I wonder if you compared Houston to the other top 10 cities, how they all compare in percentage of high end to casual chain to independent casual.

I think they'd be better off going back to showing "The Three o'Clock Million Dollar Movie" like they used to long ago. When did they stop doing that, by the way? I remember it being there pretty much all of my childhood, and even into high school I'd check to see if there was a good movie on when I got home from school. Then moved away for college in 1994, and since I've been back, I'm never watching TV at 3:00 on a weekday.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv2APOc9Qbw

 

I'll add my agreement that a local TV station putting in an extra local news broadcast in their schedule seems kinda ignorant of how people are getting their news these days.

My dad used to subscribe to the Houston Business Journal, and I remember seeing this story when I was home from college, recounting lost institutions of Houston from the 25 years leading up to 1996, and now the article itself is 22 years old. Man I feel old. I've underlined the institutions I remember.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/1996/09/30/focus2.html

 

Gone but not forgotten: 25 years of city memories

Houston has been criticized as a city that doesn't remember its past. But during the last quarter-century, the city has bid farewell to many an institution that Houstonians will not soon forget. Here, then, are some of the more vivid memories from the past 25 years of Houston history.

? Glenn McCarthy and the Shamrock Hilton. The legendary hotel on Holcombe, built by "King of the Wildcatters" Glenn McCarthy just after World War II, finally ran out of luck in the summer of 1986. The aging hotel's fancy fittings and fixtures were stripped by salvage crews, and the 18-story structure was demolished to make way for expansion by the Texas Medical Center.

McCarthy inaugurated the grand old hotel in 1949 with a $1 million, black-tie party featuring a river of champagne and a train load of Hollywood celebrities. The scene was later recreated in the movie "Giant," a Texas classic based loosely on McCarthy's life. Like his hotel, McCarthy's reputation as an oilman, brawler, drinker and gambler was larger than life.

? Armco Steel and the Baytown Works. At their peak in the late 1970s, the two giant steel mills located along the Houston Ship Channel employed more than 6,500 high-wage laborers who churned out tons of steel construction beams, oilfield tubular goods and massive steel plates.

In 1983, Armco began massive layoffs at its local mill, and the plant was closed for good in 1984.

USX idled its Texas Works in Baytown in early 1987, following a six-month labor strike. The facility was permanently shuttered in early 1988.

? George R. Brown. Along with his brother Herman, Brown is best remembered for creating Brown & Root, one of the world's largest construction and engineering firms. But Brown also had a reputation as a philanthropist and a financier of political careers. He and wife, Alice, contributed millions of dollars through their Brown Foundation to Rice University, the Museum of Fine Arts, Wortham Theater Center and other educational and arts groups across Texas.

Brown's campaign contributions to politicians across the nation won the eternal loyalty of an ambitious Congressman named Lyndon Baines Johnson, who later as president rewarded Brown & Root with huge government construction projects.

Brown died at the age of 85 in 1983. The downtown convention center bears his name.

? Nick's Fish Market and Cutter Bill's. This pair of famous Houston establishments epitomized Houston's reputation for wretched excess during the boom years.

When Nick's debuted at the peak of the boom, it was one of the most expensive restaurants in town; $40 abalone steaks were a run-of-the-mill menu item.

Ensconced on the ground floor of First City Bank downtown, Nick's was the ultimate symbol of power lunching -- every table had its own private phone.

But when the economy soured in the mid-1980s, penny-pinching corporations red-lined Nick's and kicked back expense accounts that included client lunches there. The restaurant couldn't survive on its patrons' own money. The elegant eatery became one of the oil bust's first high-profile casualties.

Cutter Bill's legendary western wear store rode high in the saddle with the booming oil economy and the "Urban Cowboy" craze of the early 1980s. The prominent hat-and-boot emporium near The Galleria was as well known for its backroom bar as its fancy duds. Beginning shortly after the lunch hour, sales clerks were saying "It's 5 o'clock somewhere" plying customers with complimentary cocktails to loosen up their wallets.

But Cutter Bill's wild ride came to a screeching halt when federal agents impounded the owner's assets and auctioned off everything that was left -- including the store's landmark golden horse.

? Challenger. The disastrous explosion of the Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986, stunned the world and shattered the mystique of perfection surrounding America's space program.

A wide-ranging reassessment of the nation's manned space effort badly demoralized the space agency. Although the shuttle fleet returned to the skies with the successful launch of Discovery on Sept. 29, 1988, NASA is still feeling the negative repercussions from Challenger's short and tragic final flight.

? Jamail's. Generations of rich Houstonians sent their maids for weekly groceries at Jamail & Sons on Kirby, and even the less well-off splurged for handpicked produce, exotic condiments and custom-cut meats on special occasions.(My mom used to go there to get "fancy" stuff for her Christmas party and other big events, it's the first place I had Jelly Belly jelly beans when they became a craze in the early 80s, and my brothers and I liked they had a machine that dispensed old fashioned glass coke bottles for 10 cents)

But after the death of patriarch Albert Jamail in 1986, the 43-year-old grocery operation fell victim to family squabbling.

The store filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1989, but that petition was converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation a year later at the urging of the store's bankers. Jamail's rang up its last sale in March of 1990.

? Hurricane Alicia. In August of 1983, Houston took its only direct hit from a Category 4 hurricane in the past two decades. Hurricane Alicia ripped through the area with winds of 120 mph, causing more than $3 billion in damage.

Although old-timers called the storm a sissy in comparison to big blows like Carla and Camille, Alicia remains the only bona fide hurricane most modern Houstonians have actually experienced.

? Gilley's. This venerable country-and-western dance hall in Pasadena was immortalized in the 1980 movie "Urban Cowboy," which was filmed largely at Gilley's and the surrounding petrochemical complexes. (though I was too young to ever go there, my dad had a can of Gilly's beer on display in the bar in our living room, next to a can of JR Ewing's Private Stock beer

The nightclub showcased headliner country singers, mechanical bulls and enough space for up to 5,000 kicking dancers. Owners Mickey Gilley and Sherwood Cryer fought over control of the club in the late 1980s. Cryer finally closed the joint in 1989. Gilley's burned down in 1990.

? Howard Hughes. The billionaire engineer/aviator/inventor struck it rich with Hughes Tool Co., which he founded around a revolutionary drill bit that excelled at cutting through hard rock formations. Although routinely seen in the company of Hollywood starlets during his heyday, Hughes' later years were spent in strict seclusion. He died in 1976 while flying from Acapulco to Houston for medical treatment.

Hughes left behind a $2.3 billion fortune but no clear-cut will, which caused a flurry of would-be heirs to pop out of the woodwork. A Houston probate court spent years sorting through claims on Hughes' estate, including one filed on behalf of Hughes' "unknown" heirs.

? Suite 8F at the Lamar Hotel. This particular corner suite at the old Lamar Hotel in downtown Houston used to function as the city's private smoke-filled room.

Houston power brokers routinely gathered there to play poker, handpick politicians and generally map out the city's future. The crowd of regulars included Jesse Jones, Judge James Elkins and George Brown, among other notables.

But as the regulars died out, the Lamar fell on hard times. The hotel was purchased by developer Gerald Hines in the 1970s, and the building was destroyed in a spectacular implosion in 1983. The tract remains vacant today, awaiting a turnaround in the real estate market.

? Gulf Oil Corp. While the oil giant was technically based in Pennsylvania, Gulf was long one of the city's leading employers and a prominent member of the local corporate community.

Until the mid-1960s, a neon version of the company's glowing orange logo spun atop the Gulf Oil tower downtown, a vivid symbol of the city's oil-based economy.

But Gulf was acquired by Chevron Corp. of California in 1984 in a move that rescued the company from oil patch raider T. Boone Pickens. Chevron paid $13.3 billion for Gulf, a sum that remains the high-water mark for an oil company buyout.

? Judge Roy Hofheinz. This Houston politician left his mark on the city as no other elected official ever has. After leaving politics, his Houston Sports Association masterminded the creation of the Astrodome, brought the city its first major-league baseball team and built the $100 million Astrodomain sports and entertainment complex.

Hofheinz was Harris County Judge for nine years and left office at the age of 33. Despite two contentious terms as mayor of Houston in the early 1950s, Hofheinz was known all his life as "The Judge."

One day in November of 1982, a memorable procession approached the Astrodomain. Hofheinz's funeral cortege circled the Dome twice, then carried the judge to his final resting place.

? El Mercado del Sol. This ambitious renovation of a dilapidated East End warehouse into a Hispanic-themed retail and entertainment complex was a notorious failure.( went there once when it first opened, my mom was curious and took us)

The City of Houston poured more than $500,000 in federal Community Development funds into the Navigation Drive experiment, the first time the city had invested in a private business venture.

Mainland Savings -- a local thrift that was eventually dragged under by such risky investments -- loaned El Mercado another $1.5 million.

The project had only been open about a year when lenders foreclosed on it in August of 1986. Investors evicted the few remaining merchants and boarded El Mercado up for good in December of 1989.

? Sakowitz. Four generations of fashion-conscious Houstonians were clothed by the Sakowitz brothers and their haberdasher descendents. But an overly aggressive expansion plan and the crumbling oil economy pushed the chain into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1985.(went there all the time as a kid, both the downtown and Post Oak locations, loved eating in the lunchroom)

Family son Robert Sakowitz closed the downtown store -- igniting the ritziest "going-out-of-business" sales in Houston's history -- and sold the bulk of the family's interest in the chain to an Australian retailing company.

In spite of the cash infusion, the stores never recovered their former grandeur.

What was left of the chain was placed in bankruptcy again in May of 1990. Sakowitz's last store, the Post Oak flagship, was liquidated the following summer.

? The 1990 Economic Summit. Houston's economic decline in the 1980s made the city the butt of international jokes. But Houstonians were eager to showcase their up-by-the-bootstraps recovery in the summer of 1990, when the city was tapped to host the leaders of the free world at the annual economic summit.

Thousands of volunteers scrubbed the city from stem to stern, planted acres of red begonias and gritted teeth through a week of monumental traffic jams caused by the official motorcades.

Although the anticipated windfall from visiting journalists never lived up to the expectations of local hoteliers and restaurateurs, the effort had an indirect payoff. Many of the more than 3,000 visiting reporters included glowing reviews of Houston's economic recovery in their Summit coverage.

? The Astrodome scoreboard. It was a dark day for local sports fans when County Commissioners agreed to tear out the Astrodome's famed animated scoreboard in the fall of 1988. The hokey board flashed colorful images of snorting bulls and six-shooting cowboys anytime the Astros hit a homerun or the Oilers scored a touchdown.

The unique scoreboard was dismantled to make room for 10,000 additional seats, which Oilers owner Bud Adams claimed the arena needed to attract the Super Bowl.

? Percy Foreman. This flamboyant Houston attorney won a reputation as the greatest courtroom lawyer alive by defending more than 1,500 accused murderers during his 60-year career, losing only one client to the electric chair. Foreman was equally renowned for his 3,000 to 4,000 divorce cases.

An old Texas adage said: "If you shoot someone down in cold blood at high noon on a crowded street, the first thing you do is call Percy. The second thing you do is figure out how to pay him."

Foreman believed in charging whatever the traffic would bear, although he was known to defend policemen and poor folks for free. He also frequently accepted art or antiques in lieu of cash. Once he accepted a pair of live elephants that were trained to drink Coca-Cola from bottles -- but only after he'd lined up a buyer for the pair of pachyderms.

Foreman never retired. As he lay on his deathbed in the intensive care unit of a local hospital, he was preparing arguments for yet another murder case. He was 86 years old when died on Aug. 25, 1988.

? Prince's Drive-In. The hamburger palace on South Main once featured carhops on roller skates and guest appearances by rock '' roll bands. Founder Doug Prince was always a sure bet as a big bidder in the annual auction of the Livestock Show's Grand Champion Steer.(never ate at the original Prince's, but remember driving by it when driving between downtown and the medical center on the way to see the pediatrician)

If Prince won the auction, he generally offered the champ back to locals in hamburgers served down at the drive-in. But after 56 years, the popular hangout flipped its last patty and closed its doors on Dec. 16, 1990.

The Youtube video says this commercial is from 1992 (though I've found the dating of vintage commercials and other TV clips on Youtube to be somewhat unreliable), and I remember eating there in I wanna say late elementary or middle school, so mid to late 80s. I'm pretty sure it was not open by the time I moved away for college in 1994. I found a book on Google Books by Lowell C Douglas, and in the About the Author section, it says the author "partnered with several big businessmen to open Harry's Kenya restaurant in downtown Houston," and later says "After a successful stint of more than 15 years with Harry's Kenya in Houston, they sold their lease to a new high-rise building." There isn't enough context in the book to pin down opening and closing years, but between the book's info and my own recollection and the commercial, I'd say it was open roughly from the late 70s to early 90s.

 

Maxim's probably had the longest staying power of high end restaurants, at over 50 years, and then Tony's didn't do too shabby either.Cafe Annie, except for a brief ill-advised rebranding, has been going strong since the early 80s. Brenner's, Brennan's, Damian's, Rainbow Lodge, Charlie's 517, Mark's, etc., there are a lot of high end restaurants I could name that lasted for decades, and only the very last two no longer in operation. I don't think there is anything peculiar and intrinsic to Houston when it comes to high-end restaurants (or even restaurants in general), that isn't just the nature of the restaurant business. The only thing really significant to Houston was the mid 80s oil bust that was like a mass extinction event for a lot of venerable old Houston businesses, especially the high end ones. It wasn't just restaurants, places like Sakowitz, Jamail's also were killed off, but without oil company expense accounts for entertaining clients, the high end restaurants were especially vulnerable.

 

Of course now the nature of high-end dining has completely changed, the baby boomers who wanted to put on a jacket and tie and be served staid continental cuisine in a baroquely appointed dining room by black-tied waiters are long in the tooth and will be eating dinner at 4 PM soon enough, while the younger generation wants to put on their best dark rinse raw denim selfedge jeans and go to a place with sealed concrete floors and reclaimed wood beams, and eat farm-to-table food served by waiters in gingham shirts and dark rinse denim.

I remember as a kid eating here before seeing a musical downtown, (probably the great old Music Hall, RIP),  first place I had ever been that had a "pre-theatre menu".

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2iiezO4uTs

Absolutely the Menil would be top of my list. I think they just reopened after a remodel. Amazing collection for a private museum, from ancient Greek artifacts and African tribal art to Surrealists like Magrite. And it's free (donation suggested).

Back around 2000 I lived in the then just starting to regentrify Midtown, and was delighted to see that Freedmen's town still had its original brick streets. I was dismayed to hear a few years ago that many of these bricks were removed during a drainage improvement project, but happy to hear this year that they have been returned.

2 hours ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is false.

Care to elaborate?

I've noticed a trend in the last few years of unflattering reporting on local media portrayal of how local school districts handle students with disabilities. Generally, the articles portray the districts as uncaring and not wanting to acknowledge or provide services for children with disabilities, and portray the parents as noble crusaders for their childrens' rights under the law. The district is portrayed as ducking comment on the issue. Rarely do the articles ever prominently acknowledge that schools are prohibited under FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) from commenting at all on the situation. The parents can badmouth the district all they want, can even make up lies about the district, and the district cannot defend itself or even counter the lies. Greg Groogan with Fox 26 is especially prolific in championing the parents and neglecting to mention the schools are under what amounts to a gag order. Groogan himself is one of those parents who feels his own child's autism was not properly handled by a school district, which calls his impartiality into question

 

I've personally seen school districts' sides of contentious cases where parents are claiming the districts denied FAPE. I've seen very often parents are refusing to accept schools' good-faith evaluations of their children and determination that they do not qualify for special education services, and I've also seen that there are many parents out there whose children have been identified, and given services, but the parents want more, and take the districts to due process, or even federal court. When parents win, they report having been vindicated, but when the school wins, it's almost never reported as a vindication for the district. If it gets reported at all (again, under FERPA, the districts can't report their victory) it gets reported as parents getting "railroaded" by a system that is "stacked against them." So what does not get reported is how often parents take districts to due process for ridiculous reasons, demanding atrociously expensive and unfeasible accomodations, even including paying for private school tuition amounting sometimes well over $100,000 a year.

 

Because of FERPA, I cannot provide specifics on most of the cases I know about. However, I can cite a case that occurred in Massachusetts that demonstrates what I am talking about, since it went to federal court and became a matter of public record this year. The case is Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School District vs Mr. and Mrs. W. The W's daughter, Wallis, was a sophomore in the local high school when she suffered a concussion in field hockey practice at the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year. She returned to school after two weeks, was given accommodations for having missed those weeks, and continued making the same high grades after the concussion as she did before. However, she did struggle somewhat in a very advanced math class she was taking, and in May 2013, her teacher recommended that she take a less rigorous but still advanced math class the next year. Her parents began to claim that Wallis was a disabled child, and accused the school of failing to comply with their legal obligations to provide her with special education. In September 2013, they removed her from the Lincoln-Sudbury schools and enrolled her at Lawrence Academy, a private school. (Wallis is now an honors student at George Washington University). They then took the district to due process to demand that the district reimburse them for the private school tuition. It was a long drawn out process that cost the school district tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, drawn out mostly by the parents' delay tactics where they demanded that hearing officer after hearing officer recuse themselves, before it was found that the school had met all the legal requirements, and the parents' claims were "patently frivolous" and brought for "an improper purpose." The district then sued the parents in federal court for attorney's fees, while the parents countersued for a motion of summary judgement on their counterclaim appealing the due process hearing. The federal court found for the school and against the parents on all filings.

 

Lest you think that this Massachusetts case is an isolated one that happened far from Houston, there is a similar case that happened here in Houston just last year which I can talk about, because the mother waived privacy to try to garner publicity for her fight. The mother is Tianna Hall, a self-appointed crusader for autism rights in schools. Her autistic son was getting Extended School Year services over the summer, but she decided he wasn't getting enough, and was "regressing" over the summer, so she paid for private interventions, and then demanded that the school district, Spring Branch, reimburse her. Not only was it found that her son had not regressed as she claimed, in the course of the hearing it was discovered that she had made multiple false statements (contradicted by her own posts on social media), had been giving her son marijuana on her own belief that it would help him, and it was found that her own behavior in the home was adversely affecting her son. Additionally, the hearing officer made the rare move of chastising her in his decision for false personal attacks she had made against Joni Warren, the head of the special education department. It should be noted that Greg Groogan came to sessions of the due process hearing to support Tianna Hall and take pictures with her that she posted on social media, but Groogan didn't report on this story once the hearing officer released his findings.

 

These are not isolated cases, school districts have to deal with these kinds of frivolous demands all the time. Most of the time the districts cave and give the parents as much as they can because it's less expensive than lawyer fees, and sometimes this includes paying for private school tuition. There is a cottage industry around this, with "special education advocates" charging parents by the hour and going in and demanding every service under the sun from the district, no matter how inappropriate for the particular child. The most notorious among them is Louis Geigerman. Geigerman has no schooling or experience in the fields of education or psychology, and he uses one or two psychologists who will say whatever he pays them to in order to counter the schools' evaluations. Geigerman is regularly quoted as an "expert" by Fox 26.

 

Recently there have been reports on the local media (first reported by Fox 26) of physical abuse of a 20 year old autistic student at the Harris County Department of Education's ABS-West. Even the Texas Education Agency found ABS-West had violated policies, and certainly it is important that this be reported and fixed. However, the local media vilification of ABS-West and the HCDE has been over-the-top. Students do not get sent to ABS-West unless they have showed significant levels of violence towards themselves or others, so much so that the local schools' special enclosed Alternative Behavior classrooms cannot handle them. The teachers in the districts' alternative behavior classrooms regularly get spit on, have chairs thrown at them, get bitten, punched, kicked, scratched, etc. get told they are going to be killed, etc. I've seen the multiple bruises and scabs from scratches my own wife has come home with - and these are the students that the schools believe they can handle on their own - imagine how dangerous the students they send to ABS-West are. Imagine a whole school of students like this, and as a teacher having to deal with nothing but these kids all day, every day. I can believe that the employees of ABS-West lose their cool from time to time - but that is reason to provide them more services, more support, not vilify teachers who are underpaid to be physically and verbally abused all day.

 

Even in cases of teachers within school districts using excessive physical manipulation on students, the local media tends to exaggerate and report the parents' claims as fact. In April 2016, Greg Groogan reported "a child challenged with Down Syndrome, was throttled and thrown to the ground by an adult special education teaching assistant." This was not true. The incident was captured on surveillance cameras, the child was supposed to be sitting, was noncompliant, and the teaching assistant put one hand on the child's shoulder, no where near his neck, and attempted to push him into a seating position. The child then flopped down on the ground, which was a tactic he used when he was noncompliant. The district rightly fired the teaching assistant immediately, but the District Attorney's office, on viewing the tape, found no reason to press charged. The mother was going around telling the story of her child being "choked", and also claimed that the district had not allowed her access to the video, which was not true, the district had allowed her to view the video, but had not granted her request for a copy of the video, because it had images of other students who were protected by privacy laws and they could not allow her to distribute it.

 

What I hope to accomplish by posting this is not to argue that districts are perfect, but to hopefully raise awareness that there are parents out there looking to game the system, not above exaggerating or even outright lying about schools, and there are local reporters, some with their own biases and axe to grind, perfectly happy to print these parents' sob stories as fact, without acknowledging that schools are barred by law from publicly defending themselves against even defamatory false accusations.

I was feeling a bit nostalgic for Northwest Mall recently. I guess because one of my last major memories of it in anything near its heyday was in the summer of 1987, right before I started junior high school, and now my daughter is in junior high.

 

Even though I grew up in the Spring-Klein area, I went to Northwest Mall a lot during my childhood because it was in the part of town where my dad always chose to have his offices. So, many times when my mom had taken us in town to the pediatrician, or shopping in the Galleria, on our way home we'd meet my dad at his office, and sometimes we'd burn a little time in the mall before meeting him for dinner, sometimes in the mall itself, but more often at the Luby's nearby on 290. I remember my mom buying me some Striderite tennis shoes size kids 13 in the Foleys there, to show how young I was and how long go that was.

 

That summer of 1987, I remember my mother had a serious health issue that she needed to be in the Medical Center all day for testing for, so my dad took my brothers and me into work with him, then dropped us off at the mall with some cash to entertain ourselves. We probably just ate at the food court, and rummaged around in the music store (I think I bought a Gloria Estefan cassette), and then saw two movies back to back - Back to the Beach and The Living Daylights, then played in the arcade. Flashbulb memory.

 

For two summers in late high school and early college I worked at my dad's companies, and would go to Northwest to eat in the food court and do a little shopping on my lunch break. It was still a fairly decent mall then.

 

I didn't think much about Northwest until 2012, when I started a job nearby. For old times' sake I stopped in on lunch breaks here and there until we moved our office to the Energy Corridor in late 2013. By then the mall was just a shadow of its former self. I bought a pair of Levis in the Palais Royale there. I guess it was sometime last year I was dropping my daughter off at a birthday party at that gokart track and arcade on Hempstead Highway, and decided to see what was up with the mall. The interior was completely closed off, though the Palais Royale was still open and I could peer into the mall through the glass doors at their mall entrance.

I took a look on historicaerials.com, it looks like the house was built some time in the mid 50s and torn down in the mid to late 70s. Here is the timeline:

 

1953 - nothing there

(no aerials between 1953 and 1957)

1957 - house is there, looks complete

1973 - last aerial where house looks intact

(no aerials between 1973 and 1981)

1981  - it looks like it had been torn down and only the driveways and a pad remained

(no aerials between 1981 and 1995)

1995 -  the driveways and pad aren't distinguishable from the surrounding land, except for being clear of trees

2002 - the first color aerial, better resolution, some of the driveways and pad are visible

2004 - no significant change from 2002

2009 - current flood detention pond is in place and looks about 1/4 full of water. all aerials since show the site as it is now

On 12/5/2017 at 6:28 PM, IronTiger said:

That sounds like it might be a liability. Then again, I've heard stories of all sorts of strange restaurants with concepts that wouldn't fly today (and dubious back then).

The Trail Dust was a chain and that was their much-advertised gimmick. Up until a few years ago, there was still one up in Dallas, still cutting off ties. There were several restaurant chains and independents that had this gimmick at one time.

Of course I know the Landmark River Oaks, and it’s defunct sister location in Greenway Plaza have always occasionally shown old films, and then there’s Rice U’s theatre, but I was wondering if there ever were any true dedicated revival house theatres in Houston? I can imagine, Houston being Houston, if there were, they all died out in the 80s when everyone got VCRs.  

18 hours ago, Specwriter said:

I don't go by the Sears on Shepherd much these days (my mother practically lived there in the early 1960's) but I take delight in knowing the key kiosk, if you will, is still there. Does anyone know of a Fotomat* still in operation? That would be remarkable.

 

*If you are too young to know what a Fotomat is you can Google it.

I'm 42, and remember very well my mom driving up to the Fox Photo booth in the middle of the parking lot of the Kroger on Kuykendahl and Louetta to pick up prints in the early 80s.

I remember that Champs at 290 and Pinemont near my dad's office that was there at least into the 90s. I think I ate there two or three times.

 

I was more a JoJo's fan as a teenager. It's where my high school debate team would go after a lot of in-town tournaments, the one on 1960 near Stuebner Airline.