Gank

The Egg & I.

I live out here. If you like the outdoors you have Bear Creek Park, George Bush Park, The Terry Hershey Trail, and even the Millie Bush Park for dogs. If you take the area from Kirkwood to 6 and Westheimer to 10, it's s packed with people, schools, restaurants, businesses, etc. I can understand if someone prefers to live inside the loop, but the west side is very crowded and bustling in its own right

They tore down a bunch of buildings on Eldridge just south of I-10. It's a lot of land and I have no idea what their going to do with it. There's also a lot of developmont on Enclave Parkway. They tore a building down there and they're rebuilding it. There's also something being built on Briar Forrest close to Eldridge. Not to mention new strip malls showing up on Eldridge. It's a pretty active area.

You might want to look into the west side. I mean areas south of I-10 by roads like Eldridge and Dairy Ashford. There's lots of suburbs out there and you'll find a lot of action out there as well, in spite of what some people may tell you (that all the action is inside the loop). If you live on the west side and want to go downtown it's about a half hour away on the freeway unless there's a lot of traffic.

Newsweek rated Westside #196 in the top high schools in America list. They must be doing something right.

Westside

That case where the man was followed home for his vehicle and then murdered happened in my neighborhood. It was odd to think someone was being killed when I was just sitting around my house. I don't think there's ever been a murder in the neighborhood before.

As far as that area of Briar Forrest and Kirkwood and Wilcrest, that's always been a little dicey. It's an odd blend of really nice houses and some dumpy apartments. It's really been like that as long as I can remember. Most of the area is upscale, but a few of the apartment complexes are large and low rent. Recently there was a guy shot to death at a car wash in front of his wife, I believe it was on Wilcrest and Briar Forrest. He made the mistake of being there at 6 in the morning though, when there were no witnesses around. Generally I think the area is safe, but you just have to be mindful.

Concerning Westiside, I don't think it will go ghetto. I think a lot of the people who live near Lee have the option of going to Lee, Lamar or Westside. I believe close to half the students are white and there are about a quarter each of black and hispanic. It's supposed to be a highly ranked school.

This is a good place to learn about restaurants in the area -

B4-U-EAT

I kind of doubt that Spring will end up statistically like Aldine in the future, but I could be wrong. Sugarland has a large Asian population, for whatever it's worth. I think the Katy stats are a little misleading because the actual city is only about 12,000 people. A lot of what is west of 1960 is considered Katy as far as the school districts go. The high school breakdowns might offer you a better indication of the popultion in the larger Katy area.

I just mean to say they set my gaydar off. Not that my gaydar is deadly accurate or anything.

Him and Darren Lyn always seemed gay. I was stunned when Lyn ended up on ESPN.

It seems to me that Spring would be a pretty good model for The Woodlands and Kingwood to imitate as far as getting rid of the white flight criticism. They're 16% hispanic and 7% black.

Spring

It's interesting to study the demographics of some of these areas. I didn't realize that Aldine is 56% Hispanic. The whole north side is its own area. West of I-45 I sort of know my way around, but east I'm lost. North of 1960 I'm lost if I'm too far off the freeway. Champions I know if I'm on 1960, but the side roads I don't know. I can see how the cops would get lost in The Woodlands.

I don't mean to hijack the thread with talk of race, but I do think it's relevant to the overall issue of annexation. You guys can talk about utopia all you want, but your racial makeup doesn't come close to reflecting the urban area that you're part of. You're over 30 years old and you're less than 2% black. I would say that makes you a classic case of white flight. If you're making the case that black people don't want to live in the woods, check out the population of Cleveland, Texas and other areas. Rather than just saying, "Well, black people and Hispanics just don't choose to live here" you guys should be proactive in doing something about it. Until then I support annexing you, so you can join the whole family so to speak. You might think it will take away your soul, but I think it will give you more soul.

White Flight

I understand the appeal of living in The Woodlands, but it seems to me that you're trying to set up paradise in the woods while ignoring the world around you. In a way you're also bypassing Brown vs The Board of Education. Trying to increase Hispanic families is a step in the right direction.

This puzzled me too until I read further on this subject in that 16-page article and on www.thewoodlandsgovernance.org. Apparently George Mitchell's reasoning was that it would be better for Houston to grow out through The Woodlands than for a bunch of small neighboring communities like Conroe and Shenandoah snatch up pieces and break The Woodlands apart. Apparently Mitchell envisioned this back in the 70's when "white flight" and "bedroom communities" and "decaying urban cores" were on everybody's hate list. And Mitchell loved Houston and had big dreams for Houston, as most of us do, whether we live in The Woodlands or in the Heights. So it was natural to dream big for Houston and expect it to grow into a 100-mile-wide metropolis, which it may do someday.

The reality is that cities and their suburbs have changed a lot in the last 30 years. Cities have become a lot more decentralized - in Houston, for example, there are now multiple "downtowns" (employment centers): Greenspoint, Galleria, Downtown, even The Woodlands Town Center is halfway there. A lot more businesses are located in the suburban ring now - whereas the suburbs used to be almost exclusively "bedroom communities" back then. The trend now is people living in one suburb and working in another suburb. That's no skin off the nose of the city - the city is still huge and growing.

Another big difference (that happened by accident) is the full-scale integration of the Houston suburbs in the economic downtown in the 1980's. The Houston suburbs are NOT "lily white" like they used to be. In fact, many places outside the loop are scarier than anywhere inside it. As people have pointed out on this forum, there are more rich whites inside the loop in places like River Oaks than there are out in places like The Woodlands.

Back in the 1970's in places like Detroit, the inner cities were giant ghettoes while the bedroom community suburbs had the high property values. But that's not the case in Houston today. Today, inside the loop, homes are worth double or triple what they are worth in The Woodlands.

And as folks on this forum have described in detail, Houston is struggling to provide services for all the massive amounts of area it already has.

And, unlike Dallas, Houston is in absolutely no threat of being landlocked anywhere. So annexation isn't a requirement for survival today like it may have seemed for a city back then.

I'd be curious to know what George Mitchell thinks today. My guess is that he still favors annexation as a concept...if it were a natural/evolutionary occurrence, like if Houston were right up against The Woodlands already. But the notion of a city extending far beyond its reach...in a desperate attempt to "plunder" a high-income area for its revenue a la Kingwood...without any sort of reasonable plan on how to serve that community effectively...I can't imagine Mitchell seeing that as desirable. Mitchell's vision evolved in many ways as time went on. I'd imagine that this opinion on this has evolved as well.

So you're 92% white, but you're not "lily white". I take it you're another shade of white. I also don't know any strong evidence that being annexed has seriously harmed Clear Lake or Kingwood. I know walking your trash all the way out to the curb is a bit of work, but they've been handling it.

I wonder why Conroe doesn't consider annexing The Woodlands? I guess they don't have the political juice.

The Woodlands is 92% white. The white flight description is right on the money.

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I think annexation laws exist for a reason - so wealthy white communities don't leech off the core city without contributing taxes. The alternative is you turn into Detroit. The fact is a lot of us grew up here and love the city and choose not to flee. There's plenty of empty land in west Texas if you don't like the idea of being annexed.

Does anyone remember "Across the Street" hamburger place? You sat down at a table and ordered your food from your table with a telephone thing. Then when your order was ready, it would blink. You would then go pick up your food at the counter. Don't really remember what street it was off of but we walked across a patch of ground by Baptist U off of Beachnut St.

I forgot about Los Tios. We ate there a lot. Think it was off of Bissonett. Also, remember Gemco? One of the first places that you had to have a membership to shop there.

The one I remember was by Lee High School. They had great shakes and a great frito pie. My brother and sister and I would argue over who got to place the order on the phone.

I'm old enought to remember The Windsor, The Galleria and Bellaire theaters. The Windsor was amazing. It was like Imax except wide.

It's way out on Westheimer and Dairy Ashford, but I recommend a place called Mexico's Deli Tortas & Tacos.

It always struck me that she had the beauty and the talent to be working for national news instead of local.

I can tell you Eldridge south of I-10 is booming. There's everything you need out there and Westside High School is nice.

If you're moving to that area I would say take a look at Friendswood. It's just a little to the south of Clear Lake and it's really nice.

I walk my dog at Hershey Trail near Eldridge and Memorial. There's these townhomes there that seem to me would be nice to live at because you live right by the trail and they're located right between I 10 and Memorial which is conveniant.

My Dad used to have a townhome near Spring Woods High. Some of the homes around there aren't bad, but he had his place broke into a couple of times and his car stolen once. I think it gets a little better when you get more north torwards Clay Road, around Northbrook High School.