Tiko

so, never mind the *ahem* moderne style strip center. what about the house between that and onion crek? it looks wonderful! i just drove by without a camera but hopefully someone else can grab a shot of it. love the green with brick red trim. wonder what's going in there?

The strip center/house project won the Heights Association Commercial Community Improvement Award last Sunday. The guys from APD gave some interesting details on it and gave a touching tribute to a friend of theirs who was involved in the project and had passed away. Kind of shocking to find out tonite that they were probably talking about Carl Sims - if you knew him even as casually as I did you probably liked him, too.

Anne, yes. My mistake,

Sorry, not trying to be pedantic, she's just fairly well known in the neighborhood and thought it might be a draw for some people. Do you have any pics from your childhood of the neighborhood, H2B? That would be interesting...

Anne Sloan, I think. The book and a companion postcard set are available at Walgreen's on 20th.

Is it going to be in the Heights?

It burned down a year or two ago. I think there's been some new construction on the old site since then, but the Mraz place is unfortunately long gone.

Last news I heard onthe building that went in there. It's still closed last time I went by there:

http://swamplot.com/available-soon-dashed-...aks/2009-02-18/

I used to live on Waverly and have always thought that Swift&Company building is neat. I bet the view from the top is great. What kind of refining would they have done there? Sugar?

El Bolillo fits the bakery bill, although I would like more yeast breads and croissants in the area. What about Crickets for ice cream? Raindrop Chocolate on Waugh just south of Allen Parkway has fabulous cakes and gelato, and to die for chocolate candy. You're right about the bagels. A good bagel shop would be nice.

I heard Raindrop's last night was this past Saturday.

Oh, much lower than that. The decor is nothing fancy and the ambiance is nothing like Glass Wall/Bedford/Shade. Its on Airline which isn't even remotely on par with what you're seeing along Studewood, but this is a place where you go for the food, not the fancy artwork on the wall. It is a small place, decor is minimal, but unless you're in the hip, chic, trendy Uptown crowd, this place will appease your tastebuds.

I like it too. Most importantly, it's BYOB - I don't think they even charged us a corkage fee the times we've been in there.

Sweet Temptations on Airline. Opened by some brothers that worked for the Mandola's.

Anyone been here yet? http://www.houseintheheights.com/

I also heard from a usually reliable source that Fitzgerald's is testing the waters for a sale.

How about the breakfast taco place on 20th between Heights and Studewood? Starts with a C...anyone (20th St Dad)?

Not a breakfast place, but have you all heard about Sweet Temptations on Airline? I think they just opened a month or so ago - some brothers that were associated with the various Mandola's restaurants. Good food, reasonable price, and BYOB.

Great. Hey, Marksmu, where do you live? I have this idea for a combo pornshop/slaughterhouse/rehab center/rendering plant and I'm scouting locations.

I think it's drop-dead gorgeous! I wonder who their interior designer was? Does the Heights do a Christmas walking tour through some of these homes, and any chance that this one is on the list; I'd love to get a chance to walk around inside.

It's not on the list:

http://www.houstonheights.org/holidayhometour.htm

Looking forward to seeing the Worthington house, though.

Isn't this Bill Baldwin's home (the realtor selling it)? And isn't he buying Karen Derr's agency?

Good Afternoon,

hope your day goes well!

Just a question ? How would a jogging stroller ruin the track ?

Keep your fat kid off the track, buddy

Totally kidding - your kid may be very svelte. I usually run with spiked tires on my stroller, though.

If they redevelop the Burroughs property, which I hope for, there is no rational reason for me to oppose redevelopment 100 feet to the west. In fact, the CURRENT makeup of the Burroughs property pretty well takes away any claims to historical character to that whole block.

Does the current makeup of the property at 10th and Columbia take away any claims to the historical character of that part of the neighborhood?

The target market is pretty easy to pin down with study and informal one-on-one meetings. And the nature of the opposition is pretty easy to figure out, just looking at Ashby as a model for neighborhood resistance. And having had a meeting is not the least bit to the developer's benefit if it didn't go well and allows opposition to coalless early on.

Here's to the opposition going coalless early on...Houston has enough of an emissions problem already.

In older neighborhoods, yes, that is very common (i.e. 19th Street, the Westheimer curve, Harrisburg Road, Dowling Street, Upper Almeda, and in places like Austin you have South Congress and S. Lamar, and in San Antonio you have Frederickburg Road, and in Dallas you have the Greenville Road District).

Suburban areas usually have at least some separation, such as a major thoroughfare...I can't understand why an arrangement such as that might be more preferable to you...but if that's what you like, I'd suggest you look for housing in a more contrived neighborhood somewhere in the suburbs. The Woodlands might be to your liking.

So, just to be clear, you're switching from talking of commercial "districts" to individual streets. And you think White Oak is a district in the vein of the Museum District or the Theater District.

There aren't any 3- or 4-story townhomes at all around there? That doesn't seem right.

Yeah, commercial districts do tend to be spatially finite. And residential areas pick up where they leave off. That's how it works.

And districts tend to be one lot deep?

I'm thinking that might just be that realtor's sign.

I don't think so. I've heard that someone has gone to some local merchants and solicited them as tenants for the building.

Last night we were out walking in the neighborhood and the gates were open. One of the staff came out and we chatted. He said that they're going to have the gates open from after school until sunset and the track would be available.

Of course, within five minutes some thugs were on the track with bikes and a lady was walking her dog on the field. Odds are that this will be a short-lived experiment, so use it while you can.

At the same time, though, the old track at Reagan was open to the public. Last time I was there the track at Lamar was open, too.

I agree. It's a shame that they can't at least leave open during certain hours for the neighborhood to use. I know the other schools in the area lock their gates as well. Is that an HISD deal?

Some of them, such as Fields Elementary, are SPARK parks and stay open. Perhaps the athletic programs and inherent vandalism bred in high schools prevent that from being an option.

Yeah.. I saw that yesterday while walking to Onion Creek.. I sure hope they'll leave it open to pedestrian traffic.. Maybe the fence is to keep kids with cars out so they're not muddin' in the track..

Gates are completed and it's locked up. I guess we're not going to be able to use the track or the sidewalk.

Now they're completing the track field next door.. Ought to be nice once finally done.. We like taking the path through the school following beverly to walk to berryhill..

Iron fence going around the track and gates at the sidewalk this morning. We too like to use the path and I was hoping that we'd have access to the nice rubberized track (my poor, old knees) for jogging. I sure hope they're not going to lock the place up.