Urbannomad

"Offical" FIRM maps here.  The HC Flood Control District mapping tool here.

The rate depend on how much you want to insure, and the elevation of your first level relative to the base flood elevation at location.  If you have a mortgage the lender will probably require you to insure at least the amount of the improvement, and often no less than the amount of the loan depending on the lender (in the 100yr zone).  Otherwise, it's up to you the dollar amount you want to insure.

I thought it was time we officially retired the "Lack of Restaurant Diversity in the Heights" thread.

Not until we get an Indian restaurant!

This is Shady Acres, NOT the Heights, pretty much anything goes here. Bring on the burgers and beer!

Seriously??? All of this is ONE person, not people, complaining. EVERYONE I have talked with in the neighborhood is excited and ready for Hubcap to open, they are not trying to stand in the way at all. "@Hubcap_Grill Ricky Craig" needs to get over it and open already! All of this childish drama is beginning to turn-off those of us who are excited about a new, cool place to eat and hang out.

Depending on quality, even a reproduction can be pretty expensive, especially if it's a limited reproduction. It's not uncommon for a good reproduction to go for between $100 - $300 from what I've seen... for course that's for a quality reproduction and not just a "poster." What kinD of map work do you tanith27, I work in GIS for a local government which explains my obsession with maps.

Antiquarium is a great place! My wife gave me an antique map of Houston, Downtown circa mid-late 1800s not the Heights, from there for christmas and they were very helpful. Also last time I was in Dramatika, the framing shop on 19th, they had a great historical map of the Heights framed and for sale. Apparently there used to be a really nice park just north of 19th street, near where krogers is today if I remember the map correctly. This is the only historical map of the heights I've seen personally.

So you may want to check out Dramatika as well, but you'll have to beat me to it! That is if I can convince my wife that maps on all our walls WOULD indeed look nice!

I saw some Guardian Angels walking around 19th st in the Heights a couple of weeks ago with their red berets on. Of course they didn't exactly look like the toughest or sanest people themselves so it didn't' make me feel any safer, but it did give me a laugh to see how seriously they were taking themselves. Seems likes those kinds of groups always attracted the most "interesting" characters.

I also looked up who the owners of the units are and it looks like Franklin Limited Partners own about 10-12 units. What I'm wondering is if they go under, what would that potentially mean for me?

If they went under then the bank would take over the properties and mostly like another investor would buy them from the bank. Or maybe FLR would try to unload them at a discounted price to keep from going under? Either way this "may" not be a terrible thing so long as someone is trying to SELL them and not turn your building in an apartment complex... that would be my biggest concern, but some HOAs limit the number of units that can be leased or the number one person/company can lease out and that is definitely something I would look into at any condo development I was considering buying into.

It looks like Franklin Lofts LTD Partnership is the only large owner, this may or may not be the investment group you are referring to, or it may be the developer, but I'm sure in 5 minutes you could track down some info on them if you are interested in what's going on.

Check out:

http://www.hcad.org/records/real.asp?search=addr

Put in "201 Main" and then click "View More" on the results page.

In my opinion all of these things, billboards, no zoning, transportation, and general trashiness of Houston are all part of it's, thankfully ending, adolescence as a city. Despite it's size only within the past 5 to 10 years has Houston really started to acknowledge it's place as a major american "city" and really begun to embrace the things that come along with that. The whole "it's all about me and screw everyone else attitude" is definitely dieing as people become more concerned with the notion of community. I left for 9 years, just returning this year, and I can see major changes. Houston is very quickly attracting the upper middle income earners and as this continues you will start to see more regulations regarding quality of life issues without a doubt. Bottom line is most of the people who are becoming the "new" Houston don't care for the way things have operated in the city. Consider their income level, the fact that many are from or have lived in other large cities, and the biggest thing... that most were raised in clean, planned suburban communities and you will see that in the future those values will only become more strongly reflected in the regualtions and ordinances of the city. The majority of the new developments are in transitional neighborhoods (regarding both crime and land use), and you stick someone who grew up in the "pretty" burbs and paid $500K for their new house in that environment and see how quickly things change and the prospect of zoning, billboards, you name it (lifestyle issues) suddenly gets a whole lot of political weight and money behind it.

These things won't make Houston unaffordable as some say, because that is already happening despite them not being in place... rather they will only reflect the new demographic of the city and the fact that most semi-decent neighborhoods are already unaffordable for many lower income earners. That's just being realistic.

I drive. It's 6 miles and takes about 15 minutes on 290 opposite all the traffic. I just looked up how long my commute would be to take Metro and the trip planner told me only.... 80 minutes. What a joke! I hate having to drive, but I don't hate it that much.

I have to admit that when I first moved here I thought that building was some kind of huge day-care, youth facility, or community center. I never would have thought it was the Federal Reserve Bank. Glad to hear that it is much nicer on the inside though.

Maybe it's not an issue right now, but if a major goal of downtown is to bring in full time residents then adding even more bright lighting probably isn't a great idea. I lived in downtown Salt Lake City for a few years and they had this stupid blinking red light on a building, that looked cool from the freeway but sucked when it would light up my apt all night... I think they actually turned most of the lights on the highrises off around midnight which helped. But I guess it all depends on what you want downtown to be, a token colorful post card image, or an actual vibrant neighborhood with much better "low-level" street-scenes. Or maybe you can figure out a way to do both.