marmer

My understanding is that the single lights facing the wrong direction are to keep cars (who are driving in that wrong direction) from running through intersections when their street doesn't have the right-of-way.

I think driving the wrong way down a one way street is pretty uncommon downtown. I could be wrong but there's just something about seeing all those cars coming toward you...

My guess is it's either for the convenience of the cops for monitoring red light compliance or for evacuation contraflow contingencies.

White Oak at South just east of the underpass under 45 as it turns into Quitman. Never understood why that light is there.

Niche, can you give us any perspective on how it's worked in Galveston? My sense is, and I could be wrong, that

it's very restrictive in what you can to to a 100-year-old house.

there are still plenty of old houses in bad shape awaiting restoration.

People do restore houses in Galveston that would be teardowns elsewhere

People almost always build significant additions to the rear of Victorian "townhouses"

Property values have gone up significantly in historic districts but are still relatively affordable

One of the reasons for that is that Galveston is still not particularly safe and has pockets of seriously bad neighborhoods.

It would seem that the answers might be pertinent to this discussion, particularly to The Heights.

First let me say that it disturbs me that anyone in the City think that this doesn't affect them.

Thanks, SCDesign, for the information you provided in this post. If your first sentence was directed at my previous post, then I thought it only fair to point out that I had just a technical question, not a financial interest. (unlike you or RedScare, for example.) In point of fact, I live in Pearland, in a tract subdivision, which has always had very strict architectural controls. I think it would be fair to say that many of us suburban sprawl denizens think that is perfectly normal, even though we've all got horror stories about the Yard Police.

On thing that I may not have made clear is the the HAHC has the power to name ANY area in the City a Historic District if 51% of the houses in the neighborhood are older than 50 years old. The original petition drives were necessary in order to get some momentum on the Historic District designations without a huge protest, but they are not necessary according to the City Historic Preservation Ordinance. Timbergrove? Most of those houses are over 50 years old. Garden Oaks? Oak Forest? Large areas of Spring Branch? Sure, most of those areas are single story ranch homes, but who is to say those areas are less worthy of being protected from development than the Heights?

That was not completely clear to me and I suspect it's not widely known. Thank you for clarifying that. Don't a lot of areas where the houses are more than 50 years old already have deed restrictions? I'm thinking of River Oaks, Southampton, Southgate, etc. Your point that those other areas are equally worthy, if not likely, to be "protected from development" is not only well taken, but in my opinion desirable.

The problem biggest problem with the Historic Guidelines is that the HAHC gave themselves a way out of not following them by the simple addition of the language that all designs must take into consideration the blockface character. That means that regardless of the Guidlines, if the houses on the block are all singel story Craftsman Bungalows than you will not be approved if you submit a Victorian, even if that Victorian follows the guidlines. If you are not going to build something that is the same as the rest of the structures on the block you will not get a CoA. Can you take the subjectivity out ot the Guidlines without giving up the whole "blockface character" thing? Blockface preservation is THE MAIN FOCUS of the whole thing so I do not believe it is possible.

I am surprised that blockface preservation is the main focus, and I didn't catch that in my perusal of the Guidelines. But that goes to the point of my earlier questions:

1. Even if blockface preservation is of paramount importance to "whoever," how does that prevent reasonable additions to the rear and sides of a house? Your Victorian in a block of Craftsmen example seems to be about new construction; my sense is that most of the homeowners are worked up about not having their additions and remodels approved.

2. If the ordinance goes through, isn't there a mechanism to revise the Guidelines if necessary? In particular if it is unnecessarily onerous to residents?

3. It seems to me that the main focus should be preservation of structures. Don't demolish usable houses, especially if they have significant architectural elements. I don't see why that _wouldn't_ be a good thing all over Houston.

I don't own property in the Heights, so this discussion doesn't affect me as personally as it does several of the posters in this thread. And I certainly see how deeply emotionally charged this is becoming. But I do have a sincere, non-rhetorical question. Leaving aside the strong tradition of property rights in Houston, which I understand, what exactly is so onerous about the Heights Historic District Design Guidelines? I did read through them as SCDesign suggested above, and honestly I didn't see anything that stuck out as being unreasonable. I saw several alternatives for expansion of houses and even several compatible new-construction alternatives.

Seriously, for those of you who have dealt with the Design Guidelines personally and professionally, what are some of the specific issues?

Secondly, since my interest in the issue doesn't go much beyond "don't demolish old houses which can be saved," are there reasonable changes to the Guidelines, specifically those dealing with alterations, which could be proposed and might likely be passed which could make the situation more palatable? Chester seems to be implying, for example, that simple bathroom additions, presumably to the rear of a house are (capriciously) rejected. In other words, are there easy fixes to the rules that HAHC might consider which would save more houses in the long run by avoiding a protest backlash?

In your list above, the "Residence of H.C. Weiss" (sic, it's WIEss) is the Rice President's House at 2 Sunset (corner of Sunset and Main.)

Built for Harry Carothers and Olga Wiess by Watkin in 1920 and later altered by Harrie C. Lindeberg in 1926 and John F. Staub in 1935, it was rehabilitated for use by the Rice President in the early part of this decade. Harry C. Wiess was one of the founders of Humble Oil and Refining Company and built Humble's Baytown Refinery along the Ship Channel.

You can see some pictures here.

It might not be too widely known, but we had an independent minor league team in the area for the past coupla years: the Bay Area Toros, based at the Texas City High School stadium. They played teams from other Texas cities, and some neighboring states. Most of the players were young and living with local families. I saw one game and it was good, cheap, no-nonsense baseball; the stadium was just a municipal park ball field; you'd see better for any of the local college teams. There were maybe a hundred fans there, cheering pretty enthusiastically. I saw a couple of good fielding plays but no impressive hitting. I think they're on hiatus this season, citing (surprise!) travel costs.

Looks like Bing has added birds-eyes down to the House of the Century, but only just. Not all views are visible. It was being weird for me but I was able to get a good look at it.

Start here and move around.

Does anyone know of a place that rents pop-up type campers in the Houston area? (preferably south of town)TIA!

Yeah. What sev said. My wife and I are interested in this, too. We had a neighbor who had a great experience with this, but unfortunately they moved away and we lost touch.

http://www.campers4rent.com/indexpopups.shtmlIf you get any extra time with it, you should host the next HAIFy hour..in a location of your choice.

I think Lewisville is a little too far away, unless sev is planning to stay at Lewisville Lake (I actually have stayed there in a trailer, it's OK but there are better destinations.)

At those rates, a hotel room would be about as cost-effective...particularly if you needed to get a hitch installed on your vehicle. Either that, or let me know if you need to borrow a tent. I have three.

True, but the rates for the small ones look pretty reasonable to me. And if what you want is to camp in Big Bend or Palo Duro Canyon, a hotel isn't going to cut it. And having camped unhappily in both kinds of shelter, I can attest that a trailer is way more comfortable than a tent. Of course a hotel is way more comfortable than a trailer, but sometimes we must do things to make other people happy. Spouses and children, for example, who for whatever reason enjoy camping.

Yay indeed! Thanks for posting this, sev! Between this and the Cite archives we amateur historians have had some good news lately.

My guess is that it might have happened about the time Ross Sterling died in 1949. After his death, it probably seemed like a good idea to have the Yoakum name on both sides of Richmond. Of course, that's just speculation. The lapse of deed restrictions and the building of the Southwest Freeway certainly had an impact on the Rossmoyne neighborhood's identity.

Note the link above. Cite archives from all but the most recent two years are now available online. This is news to me, and very cool.

Isn't that the city emergency management center? Really, I think that's what it is.

Yep, and we can't really blame Sonoma, or predatory rent, or any of that stuff. It's just run its course. Sad, though. It was one of the last vestiges of what made the Village special. Are there any other survivors? British Isles is the only one I can think of.

Back when it was Butera's and Cactus Music and Whole Foods and The Empire Strikes Back and Rocky Horror, I don't remember parking being a problem. All of those things drew pretty good crowds.

What's changed? I am fully willing to believe that my perception and memory are imperfect, but I did spend a lot of time in that area in the 1979-1984 era.

Not to be confused with a double entree, of course. (On trays? We serve everything on trays?)

Well, scarface, you're not going to convince me and I'm not going to convince you. I still think Pearland is the best of the suburbs, and I'm glad I live there. I just don't find hardcore suburban retail development very pleasant or interesting, and one of the reasons I moved there when I did was that there wasn't much of that, and if I needed to go to a big national chain, Almeda and Baybrook were close enough. I would LOVE to live in Angleton if I could make the commute work. I grew up in Lake Jackson.

Thanks for the concern! Thats funny but no hamburger helper here. I never enjoyed hamburger helper as a kid nor do I as an adult.

Its oh so tempting to just blurb out the menu. I wont though...

Thank goodness! My family all love mac & cheese and hate hamburger helper. Glad it isn't just me.

Just be careful when you start adding meat. You don't want to start reminding people of Hamburger Helper.

Lack of master bland communities, chain retail, and traffic. I prefer an actual small town any day over a 'burb.

Pretty much what he said. The traffic, everywhere, is three times worse. 518 used to be a true rural highway with horses and cattle on each side and a 50+ mph speed limit. Now it's lined with shoddy half-vacant strip centers and storage places. Once you get to 288/518 it's all national retailers, often with half-hearted inventory. (Half Price Books is a notable exception.) 288 used to be a great commute, now it is to be avoided during any daylight hours, pretty much. There is just such...lack of originality in so much of the business planning. Does Pearland really need another undistinguished little Mexican restaurant? Another storage place? Another fast food place? Three Super Wal-Mart's, a Super Target, two CVS's, SIX Walgreens, three Krogers, five Sonics, two Home Depots, a Lowe's, two IHOP's, three Burger Kings, three Pizza Hut Delivery's, two stand-alone Starbucks and who knows how many Starbucks in grocery stores? I can think of at least four.

I don't mind the "master bland communities." They are safe and attractive and the value for price equation is one of the best, if not the best in the whole area. My house is nearly paid off, my daughter has had the benefit of good if not exciting or innovative schools, and there are still a few small-town amenities. The library is first rate, there are some great independent stores like O'Day's and Pearland Lumber, there's a cheap movie theatre a mile from my house and two or three locally recognized restaurants about the same distance. (Central Texas BBQ, Santa Barbara Italian, and Killen's)

I don't see how moving to Pearland would improve my quality of life in any way. I do think I would like Pearland more 20 years ago than now. My commute is easy, not much traffic, just long. I definitely live where I want though.

Fair enough, if you like where you live now. You probably would have liked the Pearland of 20 years ago more than now. I moved out there 20 years ago this fall and I liked it MUCH better then.

But, you were the one who said "But I will be forever bitter that my office is down there and I have to drive from the city to the goat farm every day." Just trying to save you a little bitterness, that's all.

I think Pearland could have supported this development, but it was started at the wrong time (economic downturn/depression). I will say that I ate at a Seafood restaurant in the Town Center there and it was HORRIBLE. I will never go again. If Pearland doesn't 'step up' I will not be back for anything else.

I can't remember the name, but it is a few stores down from Barnes and Noble.

Yuck!

You ate at Fish City Cafe. I agree with you and 20thStDad about Pearland Town Center. It's bush league at best. It looks like they weren't trying. It's full of weak clothing and specialty stores which will fail in a few months or years. And the major retailers like Barnes & Noble, Macy's, and Dillards have small, poorly stocked, cheap-looking stores.

You mean the chinese tallow trees? Or master bland communities**?

Ok fine, it's not THAT bad. But I will be forever bitter that my office is down there and I have to drive from the city to the goat farm every day.

**I take complete credit for this term if no one else has thought of it, because I can't remember ever hearing it from anyone else

You have a reverse commute and you're complaining? At one time Pearland had a certain rural charm, as recently as five years ago, and pockets of it still exist. Now it's just becoming suburbia. Still, if you work in Pearland and live in Houston, it seems like you could move to Pearland and come out ahead financially and in quality of life. Just sayin.'

Pearland isn't THAT good, either. The Waterlights District was decades ahead of this submarket's ability to support it.

Another example of where I agree with TheNiche. I remember thinking at the time "WTF were they thinking with that?" Especially since there's already something similar in The Woodlands.

Did they finish them all? I think placing them in random public spaces all over the city would be fun, and make it some kind of way to connect different areas together with a president's head tour map. At least one should become an art car also.

I'm pretty sure that they are all finished and the other ones are/were stored at David Adickes' studio on Sawyer Street. You can see them on Bing's birds eyes or Google Earth. Putting them around the city sounds interesting but they need to be relatively safe from vandals. Both Bushes and Obama, for example, seem like obvious targets for graffiti and the presidents with eyeglasses look like likely candidates for theft or tampering. Art car? Probably more like a heavy truck. Not gonna happen unless Adickes wants it to, and he seems to want to keep the set together in some way or another.

It's an interesting story. Check it out.

Houston Press article from 2001

Flickr photos of house

Well, THAT'S interesting. Let us know how it is. I can't imagine that the combination of weird (some expensive) ingredients and a downtown high-rent location isn't going to kill them in a coupla months, but maybe I'm wrong. Hope so.

I didn't even know it was there.