Marksmu

Yes, indeed they are. You only need look down Nicholson to see the proof of that....Nicholson south of 11th was previously a junk yard of decaying shacks...in the last 2 years nearly every single decaying shack has been demolished and new construction has replaced it. The farther south you go as you approach the industrial areas near I-10 townhomes are popping up like tallow trees. Even the townhomes are drastic improvements on the previous shacks that were nothing more than boxes with bars on their windows and rottweilers in their yards. Hopefully soon we can oust the churches and complete the improvement along Nicholson in that corridor. Nicholson North of 11th is also nearing completely built out. The few shacks that remain are long time residents who have no intention of moving...Ive spoken to several while out walking the kids/dogs and they are approached frequently with offers well above their HCAD appraised values. They wont move until they have too they tell me. Waverly North of 11th is exploding (Ashland is the cut-off for the HD) and Waverly South of 11th is almost completely built out....The closer you get to Shepherd the less built out it is b/c those streets dont all go through and several of them have commercial business and parking taking up portions of them and that won't ever go away... Pretty much all of the desirable lots on Nicholson & Waverly have already been bought and built, or are owned by folks not interested in selling....80% of those were bought by builders within weeks of the ordinance passing. I have personally talked to 2 different builders very active in the area who are avoiding the HD areas unless a homeowner specifically asks for his help in those areas...they are not pursuing any business there as spec homes at all.

Touche...The first time on this forum you have been correct when referring to the Historic Districts. I had thought these lots were in the HD, but they are not....to be clear though you are correct only about the fact that these lots were not in a historic district. I do not want there to be any confusion as to the rest of your content. As to the quoted portion above - just because you say so, does not make it so. The property values are climbing in spite of the Historic Districts, not because of them. If not for the Historic Districts, the Heights would likely have out appreciated even Memorial - but it did not b/c the development potential was curtailed. Look to the top appreciating areas of town and you will notice that a common denominator for all of them is that they are not restricted. These properties likely took forever to sell b/c the original owner of them required one person to buy all of them...a builder has bought them now and is going to make good use of them. Ill be glad to see these shacks go!

Decided to renew this thread today. The 1000 block of Tulane has variance requests up now....I have not looked up what they are requesting, but I am confident, probably lets say 99.9% confident that they are requesting the variance to tear down the old crap shacks in the historic district to be replaced by nice new construction with modern amenities that are actually desired overwhelmingly by the families who are moving into the area every day. I sincerely hope they are all torn down....when posted for sale the buyer had to buy them all...I can't see any buyer rehabbing all 4 properties...However 4 or 5 new builds there would be great! A welcome addition to the neighborhood while simultaneously getting rid of 4 blighted structures....Lets see what the HAHC does...here we have 4 old houses in terrible shape in need of a tear down in the middle of the historic district...Lets hope the HAHC approves whatever plans they have to destroy the old shacks! In related news, I have watched as the area just outside of the district has sold literally every unrestricted property that had an old house on it in far less time than these lots took to sell....The ordinance has definitely had a negative impact on the development of these lots...in the end I suspect all the ordinance has done to the value of these lots is decrease it as the new owners would/have had to jump through hoops and the extra expenses of getting variances and approvals. So to sum it up...what did the ordinance accomplish here...Nothing, except it has added cost to an already expensive process of building a new home that is not a tiny shack in the middle of a great area.

Ignorance is not bliss....if you don't know what your enemy is thinking you can never be prepared to counter their plans. Blocking people who oppose your viewpoints is a disservice to yourself.

Its comical how Responsible Urban Development is even mentioned as opposition, as if that mattered at all. RUDE is nothing more than a hack group of NIMBY anti-Walmart nobodies….They carry about as much clout in Houston as stray cats.

I was not commenting about taxes, I was commenting on their dependency on the government to solve their problems...City dwellers are dependent on government for everything in the NE, including transportation....when public services shut down these people are literally stranded without anything. However, in response to your post - its pretty clear why major cities are exporters of income...they have more people in a smaller area to serve....Texas probably recieves a tremendous amount of federal funding for its roads because it simply has more of them...I would not be surprised if its 100x what Rhode Island receives but so what? What does that matter? Its a pointless statistic.

Does not seem to me like the republicans are the ones trying to steal the election... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/06/judge-issuing-order-to-reinstate-booted-philadelphia-election-officials/

Duplicate post

The hurricane won't affect the reliably democrat states....we may have lower turnout, but that wont matter...people who live in big cities tend to become heavily dependent on the government. Whether it be for roads, debris removal, police protection, or trash pickup - they look to the government to solve their problems....The NE will still vote heavily democrat. As to voter fraud - I think its quite funny that Red believes republicans would try to rig an election through code on a computer...Doing things like that leaves digital footprints that are not difficult to track down - No, I don't believe any republican group would do such a thing. I think the majority of voter fraud is committed by people voting more than once in different precincts (which I personally witnessed in 2008) and also by groups like Acorn, or others who will make fraudulent voters and then send them to the polls...Its small tactics that when aggregated make a difference....it also leaves little trace as the people are half the time fictitious. Voter fraud is a problem in this country, and so is government dependence, but alas none of it matters...more than half the population is too dumb to really understand the implication of their vote or why they are voting for one party over their other...most just vote the way their parents voted without any thought whatsoever as to why....America has become full of uneducated buffoons, and the tone of our politics reflects it. As long as people continue to get their information from the media, which is as corrupt as the politicians, there will be no good information....mainstream media is slanted so far to the left as to be laughable, and foxnews and the online media sources that are not left slanted are right slanted...there is no more neutral media. They are all in the tank 100% on one side or the other. You have to watch both and then average them to hope for some semblance of reality. The dumbing down and entitled nature of America today is depressing to watch....I believe its time for a reset...time to put folks back to work and take away entitlements. I dont however believe that either party has the fortitude to do what is necessary...

I bought a house in 2007 for $189,000 on a 6600sqft lot that though it was not what I consider move in ready, was not in terrible shape..It was inhabited when I bought it..Neighbors all thought I was a developer....$23,000 later it has been a fantastic rental....till the historic ordinance...its still a good rental, but my real investment (the land) was irreparably harmed.

While driving in this morning - I came to a funny realization as I crossed the bridge of death...the HPD load enforcement trucks which have been pulling over all the people like me who consistently flaunt the dangers of the bridge of death - are indeed over the limit of the bridges themselves. Each load enforcement truck is a F350 or Chevy 3500 - both of which are 3/4 ton trucks, which are both over the load limit....so the bridge must not be as bad as its been made out to be b/c the very people we are paying to keep us evil doers like myself off the bridge - cross the bridge over and over and over again, in pursuit of a $200 ticket. Just a thought. Double Standard? If its really that bad perhaps the police should not be crossing...just sayin...

Load enforcement truck

Load enforcement police truck at the bridge of death again this morning

When I passed by this morning they had a black Tahoe pulled over and a waste management garbage truck pulled over on front of the new Starbucks.... Normally I would have crossed but the wife was sick so I had the kids on the way to daycare...they had 3 load enforcement trucks out there though.

For your reference: - literally    [lit-er-uh-lee] adverb 1. in the literal or strict sense: 2. in a literal manner; 3. actually; without exaggeration or inaccuracy: 4. in effect; in substance; very nearly; virtually.

If you open your driver (or in some cars passenger) side door and look on the metal body of the car there is a small plate that tells you the weight of your vehicle...at least there is for trucks.... As to the comment above about writing tickets....I don't know that the people who got pulled over got tickets, I just know they were pulled over....the officer could have just been warning folks - but knowing HPD and their love of ticket writing in the area, they probably got a ticket.

I think its more a story of two NIMBYS and a developer attempting to make the highest and best use of his property.... It really is a good location for a project like this....It is hard to fathom a more appropriate location.

With the 5th st variance request there is no longer another hike & bike crossing....That was only for the fraiser entrance.

Very astutely stated!

Mosely is not squatting the land...he owns it. The ROW ends before his property, its shown on the plat map....I agree with you that most people believe they own their front yards in the Heights, but few realize that the ROW owns everything up to the sidewalks. If the city expanded my street I would lose 60% of my green space - which is my yard in the right of way. But Mosely does not appear to be squatting - he owns it. Of course he has rights - but he does not have a right to dictate what gets built on property he does not own. Nor does he have the right to expect that a street he bought on will not have increased traffic, or different traffic patterns. If the City wanted to make 5th street 4 lanes wide and use their whole 70' ROW he would NOT have a right to object to that. He can complain about it - but just because he owns property that is going to have an increase (however negligible) in traffic, does not mean that he has the right to stop the traffic from coming. If TXDOT wants to reroute the feeder down OXFORD for 3 years they can do that too and he cant stop it.....so I guess the real answer is that the young man who spoke yesterday does NOT have any rights at all when it comes to the traffic and what is built around him.

It would take an additional 3 minutes of my day to bypass the bridge and I do it twice per day. Thats 6 minutes I wont get back. So if I can expedite the repairs by further degrading the bridge with my overweight vehicle then I will do so.... If a public bridge can't support the weight of a standard 3/4 ton truck then it should be closed - there should be no effort to limit the bridge to little cars. Thats just kicking the can further down the road. Fix it right or close it to all.

They have a load enforcement truck at the bridge of death this morning....writing tickets to unsuspecting SUV drivers.... Luckily I had to take my kids to daycare today so I didn't cross this morning!

Your argument MIGHT make sense if this were a walmart on an island with no other feasible route of ingress/egress...but as it stands there is a plethora of available routes for anyone to use.

I bet Mr. Mosely would oppose a light rail or a train re-utilizing its old right of way too...Its a hike and bike trail now and probably forever, but there is no guarantee that it will always be a hike & bike trail...the city owns it...it used to be a rail road track...it could easily be converted to a monorail and we could all bask in the glory of elevated rail that actually moves seamlessly through traffic - all while still having a glorious trail! Thats obviously a stretch - but its entirely possible and he would probably oppose that even more than he opposes this...the point being that just b/c you live next to something does not mean you can dictate what that something is. I am for the even application of rules but in a city the size of Houston its impossible to have....big money should not get big give aways, but big money does pay back big money to the city...all the things the people use on a day to day basis are paid for primarily by businesses.

If you look at the plat map he is not squatting it...he owns it somehow...most likely b/c the city did not foresee its need to maintain 70' with nothing behind it...but your right...the city should use its power of imminent domain and widen the road for the public so that the road can be safe...as it is now a firetruck would have to BACK UP...no chance it could even turn around there...think of the danger! Somebody please think of the children! The upside to increasing the safety and building a culvis sack is that no more variance is needed....everyone wins! The kids no longer have to fear that a fire truck wont be able to access their house and as a bonus the developer no longer needs a variance for a fire truck turnaround!