spiderroller

1. Ocean Club

2. Rick's Cabaret

3. Yucatan Liquor Stand

4. Astros 1986 NL Pennant (witnessed the Mike Scott no-hitter clincher)

5. Astros vs. Mets NLCS

6. Club Proteus

7. Cineplex Odeon on Bering Drive

8. Still mostly a black and white cit

9. No cell phones

10. No internet

KHOU ran a bigl article today on the gang-wars that are gripping Gulfton.

As an architect, Gulfton has always fascinated me. Gulfton abuts some of the most desirable parts of our metropolis - Uptown; Bellaire; West U - but it is referred to as the "Gulfton Ghetto." Crime rates are much higher than the norm. Poverty abounds.

This post will be unlike my previous post about the Sharpstown Mall. That was more about architecture and design. This is more about urban policy and tactics that could be used to turn Gulfton around.

First we need to understand why Gulfton is a ghetto. Common wisdom is that the reason is apartments. It's not that apartments are bad. It's not that renters are bad. The problem in Gulfton is that the apartments there are basically all wrong.

- Gulfton's apartment complexes are too big. 200 units seems to be the limit for a good, older complex. Many of Gulfton's complexes have ten times that many.

- There's not much diversity in Gulfton's real estate. There are no offices or employment centers in Gulfton.

- Gulfton was developed very fast in the 1970s, infrastructure never caught up.

- Gulfton was overbuilt with apartments in the 1970s, and has never recovered from the ensuing collapse of the 1980s.

So what can we do now?

1: First we need to go apartment by apartment and make an honest evaluation of the properties. Complexes should be ranked based on crime rates, number of code violations, and anonymous tenant surveys.

2: The lowest ranked apartments (maybe 10% of the total units in Gulfton) should be demolished, and replaced with non-apartment development. (Retail, offices, schools, libraries, etc.)

3: The next lowest ranked apartments (the next 15%) should be gutted and renovated into new apartments.

4: HPD needs to swarm Gulfton while all of this is happening. While the worst 10% of apartments in Gulfton are demolished, the 10% of Gulfton residents that are serious criminals should be rounded up and jailed.

There is money to do this - but it needs to be re-directed from other functions. The City of Houston actively works with developers and State and Federal funding sources to improve apartments. Those efforts could be concentrated in Gulfton. The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs sits on huge coffers of money. If they stopped building new apartments in Houston, and started using funds to repair apartments it would go a very long way in Gulfton.

I've started to believe that Gulfton will be a measure of Houston's next mayor. If his or her urban and police policies are good - Gulfton will turn. If they are a failure, Gulfton will continue to languish. These are only one architect's ideas of how to fix the "Gulfton Ghetto."

Ok.. yea... lets see.... HPD "swarm" Gulfton? LMAO.

Look.. you uproot the Gulfton Ghetto.... then the slumhabitants will move and turn some other neighborhood into a Ghetto.

I believe I have the best idea though, in an attempt to accomplish your 'dream':

STEP 1: Go through the entire Gulfton Ghetto Apartment Complexes and hand out free blankets that contain smallpox. There is a precedent for such a strategy (and government approved).

All other steps will easily follow.....

one thing for shure is sharpstown needs to remodle it's food court by making it more modern,cleaning it and removing the white metal decoration

Yea, that's it. That will revitalize Sharpstown. Remodel the Food Court in the Mall.

I say: Tear the MF down. Now.

In fact, I'd tear it down with 50 wrecking balls by surprise one day taking out everyone in it... just give all the shop owners a 15 minute notice to bolt out of there.

Odds are that would prevent dozens, if not hundreds, of murders, rapes and robberies over the next 20 years as those foke in there won't be around to commit those crimes.

On 7/16/2009 at 8:43 AM, tomlaf said:

In the 1970's there was a Chinese restaurant, Cathay House I think, around the 6600 block of S. Main near Dryden or Southgate intersection. It a big space and had very high ceilings, maybe 20-30 high, odd for a restaurant. There were windows high on the walls on 2 sides, like a person could look into the restaurant and monitor activities. I always wondered what had been there originally. It seems like it could have been a casino in prior to a restaurant. I have heard that there was a casino out in that area either on Main, or just off it in the 40's or 50's. Does anyone recall Cathay House and/or know what was in that location prior to Cathay House

I remember a "Lee's Den" on South Main.... some of the best Chinese Food ever in Houston.... ate there many times as a child with my parents.

I haven't read this whole thread... but... will always remember the Shakey's Pizza on Bellaire Blvd. (now Enterprise Car Rental, and next to Baskin Robbins and Dunkin Donuts which are STILL there!)...... and...... Alfie's Fish & Chips... there were many Alfie's all over town, but we spent many a childhood asking for extra "chips" at the one in the strip center behind the Dunkin Donuts on Bellaire Blvd. Come to think of it.. right across the street where there is a big bank (in front of Bellaire Post Office)... was... Kip's Big Boy!

Another great restaurant from the 50s & 60s was Vallian's ... Holcomb @ S. Main. Undeniably the best pizza on earth :-)

Did that one make the pages here?

Oh man... I remember Valian's, across the street from the Shamrock Hotel. Ate there many, many times. Definitely was the best pizza in the world.

It is now known as Contemporary Learning Center.

The original Albert Sydney Johnston Jr. High School is located at Cleburne and Chevenert, right off of 288. My parents went to that school. The old classic building is still there, renamed.

I attended the "new" ASJ off of Chimney Rock in SW Houston in the 70s.

Tommy Lasorda ( our season tickets were directly behind the visitors dugout) became so upset by my heckling he sent the cops to tell me to tone it down or I'd be thrown out.

Wow.... we didn't have season tickets, but my father's boss had them - 1st row on the 3rd base dugout. Section 120, Row 1, Seats 1-4. I went to so many games as a kid I can't count them all, sitting in those seats, and many of my best childhood memories are of the DOME. I have lots of memoribilia from those days, and plenty of stories.

I'm guessin that you heckled Tommy Lasagna as much as we did! Do you remember that's what we hecklers called him as he coached 3rd base???

Many a Houstonian has memories of the Astrodome. For some of us, it was a love with our sports franchises. For others, it represented an era in which Houston exploded onto the national map, destiend to grow into the megatropolis that Houston is today.

The purpose of this thread is for people to share their memories of the Astrodome. I was looking at old photos of it recently, and saw a photo of the hot dog stand with the yellow and orange painted lines around it. I remember the Texas emblems on the aisle seats that listed the rows. I remember people walking around, smoking cigarettes, and the whole dome had this rustic, small town in a huge stadium feel to it.

Now here's a real gem for me - I have vague memories of an 80s videogame arcade inside the Astrodome, and as I recall it was near the outfield, like right field or something. Does anybody remember anything about this arcade? Lately I've had a lot of nostalgia about the Astrodome. I suppose that's because its fate is in limbo right now :/ Anyhow, any memories of this arcade or about the Astrodome in general would be appreciated.

In case you stumbled into this thread and don't know anything about the Arcade that was located in the outfield, check out this article I found about Cigarette Haze Control in the Astrodome: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5PR...ag=artBody;col1

This is a somewhat scatterbrained Astrodome thread, but any nostalgia would be appreciated.

I haven't gone on to read all the other posts, but yes, I remember. We used to go down there to play pinball and other games. It was an arcade under the bleachers. I'll never forget the classic baseball game, where the steel ball was "pitched" and you hit it with a bat, using a big round button.