skooljunkie

Just a little heads up from the District C office: 

Unrelated but adjacent, I noticed the narrow, triangular-shaped lot along the south side of Hicks St. (between Harvard and Studemont) is being platted for approximately 90 lots. I think one of the railroads owned this trainwreck of a lot.

I noticed a few new permits from last week. For the next sections perhaps? 2B, 2C are listed as well as a mystery entry. Based on the address its located between 2B/2C and the H-E-B building.

11 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

This building couldn’t have worse street and pedestrian interaction unless they erected a wall with razor wire and guards. 

I could not agree more. It's so sloppy. That driveway and weird second curb on the building side of the sidewalk....It's just so....no words. But hey, look at all those bike racks!

3 hours ago, wilcal said:

It is unclear to me, but it sounds like we contract out our street sweeping? And basically they are going to need to add them when it is  time to be re-bid. 

I'm certain sweepers wouldn't even be able to properly function on most of our streets since the surface and curbs resemble moon craters.

I've seen large CoH sweepers with the city logo driving (not sweeping) around town throughout the years; I've never witnessed any making routine rounds anywhere. It's definitely unclear what they are used for. A city council member's office once told me that the city routinely swept major roads, however for that to be true, there would not be sandbars from 1945 on our streets. Freeways are definitely swept frequently but that's about it from all I know. Some of the management districts contract it out.

Here’s my recommendation: The MadVac LS175. Done. Sweep and move on. Oh wait this is Houston we are talking about? Nevermind. Dang look at those curbs and sidewalks in that pic. And pristine asphalt. I haven’t had my post-work alcohol tonight....my cynicism is coming out. 

Put enough of this down and eventually we have more flood protection. I have so many questions though. I wonder how much water sits in them at any given moment. Seems like a mosquito breeding habitat. And you know they will get silted up—wonder how they can be flushed out if clogged. 

With all these freeway rebuilds, I just keep thinking more express lanes that push through clogged interchanges are needed--and not more concrete. So much of our traffic issues are at interchanges. For instance that eastbound mess from Silber to T.C. Jester where you have to move over 17 lanes just to avoid traffic between all the exits between Silber and TCJ.  Heck, we almost need one lane just devoted to through traffic from W. Grand Parkway to E. Grand Parkway.

Yeah that building on Waugh is being crushed as I type.

1 hour ago, j_cuevas713 said:

I've thought the same thing about other small issues around the city. 

I often contemplate forming a volunteer group devoted to shoveling the 55 years of silt out of the damn streets, removing pieces of busted curb that broke off in 1979, and cutting the rebar that’s sticking out of sidewalks everywhere cause god knows the city won’t ever do it. But then I think about getting killed doing it, sued somehow, or how I am too busy...so I just delicate flower about it instead. 

Last week I saw what appeared to be heavy machinery inside the automotive joint. Not 100% sure, but it looked to me like the place was being cleaned up to be cleared out. 

Surely people are starting to buy BM buckets and secretly live in these. There are just so many. 

13 minutes ago, hindesky said:

Eastern buildings are down.

a little less eye strain.

Maybe the building just didn’t quite fit in with the downtown crowd and decided to leave the party early to avoid name-calling by the cruel kids! I can relate. 

Regarding multi-family occupancy just remember that overall Houston metro area apartment occupancy is at about 88% and it’s a about the same in Austin metro. It’s down 1 to 2 percentage points year-over-year just about everywhere ever since mortgage rates plummeted and the unemployment rate soared. 

Westheimer from the railroad to BS was annexed into the UK TIRZ a few years ago (Along with Weslayan). Perhaps that can get rebuilt using some TIRZ money eventually.

From last night. 

I had a pic ready to post the same moment Culturemap posted a story yesterday. After halting work on this for most of the pandemic, major plumbing and groundwork started in late December. It looks as if additional square footage will be going up on the west side of the lot, perpendicular to Washington.

The property will include:

• cocktail bar
• wine and beer bar in separate building with 100 taps
• patrons will be able to view staff use bandsaws to cut crystal clear ice cubes for use in cocktails at all of the company’s bars
• massive, fully landscaped patio
• facilities for ice cutting, baking, and butchery serving all the group's establishments
• Emma Jane Bakery will occupy a white house that will be constructed on the property. It will provide baked goods for the Kirby Group's other establishments and wholesale clients (It will also serve coffee)

View of the rear at Rose and Barnes St.:

Looks as if BKR recently purchased the lot bounded by Washington, Lakin, Center, and Wichman. 

Fence is still up, but I spied dirt work through the cracks. 👀

On 7/14/2020 at 12:50 PM, ljchou said:

I am also confused by this breakdown of land. Specifically on the right-hand block. Can someone explain why the land division isn't simply rectangular?

To add to thedistrict84's comment, I usually hear the lots with lil' nubs referred to as "flag lots." Houston townhome flag lots are usually along shared driveways and give each driveway-user ownership of equal portions of the shared space (all users share the tax burden, etc.). In rural areas with limited road access, flag lots are created to prevent extremely narrow subdivision lots, providing all landowners driveway access to the public road and allowing better lot proportions.

Is artificial turf pervious? That’s a big no-no if not IMO.  I imagine there are a variety of installations but just don’t know. I’ve noticed more and more homeowners installing it for small yard spaces lately too. I think it’s ugly tbh.