trymahjong

The meeting is this Saturday--------- I'm not sure how the Q&A will be handled---I thought I'd stand in the question line since I would like to know how close HPD is to giving all the officers body cameras but after the central one district PIP last night I guess I'm more curious to know why after all this time. . . . . why are the violent crime stats are up. . . . . . .

I heard Trudy Smith speak today -- lots of talk about the new Dog parks and how parking was scarce to say the least. AIG has ok'd using parking lot It extends from Waugh to Studemont, I think, on weekends for anyone wanting to use Dog Park-- or any part of the park. It will help a lot.

from Cohen's enewslette The Downtown Redevelopment Authority (TIRZ #3) will host a public meeting to discuss their proposal for improvements to Allen Parkway and Buffalo Bayou Park. Through the TIRZ's capital improvement project list, they hope to enhance the traffic flow, functionality, aesthetics, and pedestrian and auto safety of Allen Parkway. They also seek to create better access to Buffalo Bayou Park through the implementation of protected crosswalks and the creation of additional parking. The meeting will take place on Thursday, February 5th at 6:00PM at the Neighborhood Resource Center Auditorium.r

Steven David from the COH office of economic development (I think) spoke to Neartown on the huge snafu of not appraising the Montrose stakeholders of the plan for Midtown TIRZ to annex Montrose. Apparently all that will be tabled till a few town hall meetings can be arranged. A few strange things that came up--- Montrose did indeed apply for TIRZ in 1994-------------five years before Midtown. I was puzzled about the less than 25% residency requirement in order to install a TIRZ--------apparently all those apartment buildings in Midtown are classified as commercial and not residential. The TIRZ Board is not made up of "stakeholders" necessarily-the two Texas legislators from that area that are granted seats on those boards can appoint people(who do not have to be residents or be employed inside the TIRZ area) to the board instead and " those people represent the interests of those legislators " The Midtown TIRZ was approached by the Museum District Association (Most of the Museums are in the Museum district but some like the Menil are not) to consider annexing all them.The Midtown TIRZ & COH began to research that possibility. None of the Civic associations within the Museum district were contacted.

This story stressed that the Chefs are not looking for a permanent location-maybe never want a permanent location- rather a "club" setup of sorts where you pay a yearly fee then are invited to a dinning experience at a cost of $60-$80 That's the part I hadn't heard of.

I saw a piece on CBS this morning on this subject. Chefs hosts dinners ( plus decorate) in unexpected places- parking garages -churches- warehouses- you get the idea. Apparently 20 Cities have this phenomenon. The interview subject was a company called Food Lab. Is Houston one of the cities where this is taking place?

from Citizens net The Houston Police Department is looking to hire dozens of men and women in our city and is offering a $5,000 hiring incentive to new police recruits in the February, May, and June 2015 academy classes. Each cadet will receive $2,500 within 30 days after starting the academy and $2,500 upon graduation from the academy. Since the hiring process could take up to 90 days, the application process starts as soon as possible! If you or someone you know is interested in serving and protecting our great city, please go to www.hpdcareer.com or contact the HPD Recruiting Division at 713-308-1300 for more information.

ReelAbilities Film Festival Celebrates 25th Anniversary of ADA February 8-12 festival showcases incredible contributions of individuals living with disabilities The Department of Neighborhoods Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) invites the community to ReelAbilities: Houston Disabilities Film Festival 2015, scheduled to take place in venues throughout the city February 8-12, 2015. This year's festival commemorates the 25th Anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Houston's City Hall will be aglow in orange February 11 to 12 in honor of the festival. ReelAbilities heightens public awareness of those living with disabilities of various types by showcasing their lives and stories through film, art and national speakers. Through host city organizer Jewish Family Service Alexander Institute for Inclusion, MOPD is a key collaborator for the festival along with over 35 community organizations and corporate sponsors. The festival features 13 titles appealing to all ages and includes national speakers for the finale presented in partnership with The Up Experience. Films will be shown at nine venues across the city along with two art exhibits featuring painting and photography. A "talkback" session will follow each film. The films explore disabilities such as mental health challenges and inclusion in the workplace, incredible technological advances in Fixed, the story of a blind piano prodigy in Touch of the Light and the inspiring long distance wheelchair "hike" in Little World. Some of the events are free but all require registration. Disability accommodations are available and accepted. To register or purchase tickets, visit www.disabilitiesfilmfestival.org. For more information, call 713.667.9336 Ext. 208.

Chevron Houston Marathon Activities to Bring Fun And Street Closures This weekend, the City of Houston will play host to our largest annual outdoor sporting event, the Chevron Houston Marathon, Aramco Houston Half Marathon, ABB 5K, and Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Sports Medicine EXPO. With all of this activity, some streets will be closed to ensure that spectators and participants are kept safe. Schedule of Activities Friday & Saturday - Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Sports Medicine EXPO (George R. Brown Convention Center) Join the Houston Marathon Committee for the annual Expo featuring some of the best products and information for Houston runners. This event will take place at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Downtown Houston and will run Friday and Saturday. Streets around the GRB will be closed in preparation for the weekend's events. Saturday - ABB 5K On Saturday, hundreds of runners will be downtown to take part in the annual ABB 5K. This will require some streets to be closed downtown, including Caroline and Austin streets between Francis and McKinney, as well as Lamar and McKinney streets between Caroline and Crawford. Visit the ABB5K Course page on the Marathon website for more information. Sunday - Aramco Houston Half Marathon and Chevron Houston Marathon On Sunday, thousands of runners as well as hundreds of thousands of spectators will take to the streets to participate in the Half Marathon and Marathon events. Streets will begin to close around 6:00am and progressively close along the routes. In the same way, streets will begin to reopen about 8:00am, with the final street reopening around 2:30pm. For detailed information on road closures on Sunday, visit the Closure page on the Marathon website. METRO Schedule Changes Due to Marathon Due to the Marathon, METRO will be modifying some service on Sunday, January 18th including suspending light rail in some parts of downtown to accommodate the runners. Visit ridemetro.org for more details.

The letter to the Editor in today's chronicle dealt with this topic

Guess this was an oops for me--sorry I have trouble with cut and paste because of some new virus protection and trying to citing chron.com is tricky when you have to sign up in order to view the article-plus now that page of paper is no where to be found in my house. AFter I had read it I was struck by the possibility that NASA would be in Ted Cruz cross hairs-and wanted to see what others thought- I'm not too good at google either but here's a paragraph on what I remember as the gist of what I read Since NASA retired its shuttle program in 2011, US astronauts have been flying aboard Russian Soyuz spacecrafts to reach the International Space Station. Last year, NASA renewed a contract with Russia to continue ferrying US astronauts to space that cost the agency $457.9 million for six seats on a Soyuz spacecraft. Cruz's home state of Texas is home to one of NASA's major field centers, the Johnson Space Center. The facility has gained fame for its role as "mission control" on many manned space missions. Due to his conservative positions on budgeting and climate change, some observers speculated Cruz would attempt to cut funding to NASA in his new role. However, in his statement Cruz repeatedly insisted he wants to expand America's space-exploration efforts. "Texas has a major stake in space exploration," he said. "Our space program marks the frontier of future technologies for defense, communications, transportation and more, and our mindset should be focused on NASA’s primary mission: exploring space and developing the wealth of new technologies that stem from its exploration. And commercial space exploration presents important new opportunities for us all." Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-ted-cruzs-epic-plan-for-nasa-2015-1#ixzz3OrRQOcUo NASA expanded to explore/research other things in addition to Space exploration like climate change--where would be get information in those additional areas if NASA wasn't doing it. It's scary to think that it might be curtailed (halted?) through budget cuts.

REad this on front page- below a few bits from chron.com Sort of interested in what everyone thinks. . . . In these modern times when social media is a key political battleground, it pays for politicians to have a bulldog behind the scenes typing tweets and making Facebook posts that go viral. Earlier this week Senator Ted Cruz’s social media brain Josh Perry was profiled by CNN. Dubbed the “Twitter whisperer”, Perry’s in-house digital strategist (something that didn’t exist a decade ago) cultivates the messages that Cruz’s followers see on their feeds daily. Even while he was in Houston for jury duty, Perry kept Cruz’s social media wing humming. Late last year Politico crunched the numbers on what politicians get mentioned the most on social media, with Cruz and Hillary Clinton far and away the most popular. “Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz together accounted for 40 percent of the discussion on Facebook and nearly half — 47 percent — of mentions on Twitter among 10 top presidential possibilities in the past three months,” wrote Hadas Gold at Politico. For a three-month period in the fall, Cruz was mentioned 4.55 million times, with Clinton logging “just” 2.85 million mentions.

POLICE CHIEF INVITES ALL HOUSTONIANS TO TOWN HALL MEETING Houston Police Chief Charles A. McClelland, Jr. is asking you to mark your calendars for an HPD Town Hall Meeting on Saturday, February 7. The Chief is inviting you and your neighbors to meet with him and top HPD commanders at the HPD Citywide Town Hall Meeting, from 10 a.m. to Noon on Saturday, February 7, at the Granville M. Sawyer Auditorium, Texas Southern University Campus, 3100 Cleburne Street. Free parking will be provided on the TSU campus, as will accommodations for hearing-impaired citizens. Attendees will also have the opportunity to participate in the "Shoot, Don't Shoot" simulator, as well as view displays of the HPD Helicopter and the SWAT Tactical Vehicle. Chief McClelland and his commanders will take questions one-on-one and in group settings to find out what issues are of most importance to you and your neighbors. Everyone is encouraged to attend and to voice concerns and ask questions. The event will also be live-streamed on the HPD YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/houstonpolicedeptand live-blogged at www.hpdtownhallmeeting.blogspot.com Following Chief McClelland's address and a question-and-answer period, you will be able to break into smaller groups to meet with HPD patrol captains who oversee your neighborhoods. Members of various HPD divisions including Internal Affairs, Homicide and Juvenile will also be present. A video clip of last year's Town Hall Meeting can be viewed on the HPD YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JencRauhEk. Photos of last year's Town Hall meeting can be viewed on the HPD Flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/houstonpolice/sets/72157640603919883/ For more information regarding this event, visit www.houstonpolice.org or call 713-308-3200.

Yes Parking is something to wonder about-- There is a lot of permit parking only along Avondale and Stratford and goodness knows there is one zealous parking officer that seems to put out tickets regularly--- Nothing ever seems to address the issue of parking shortage-- and I've noticed all that big talk about a "Parking Authority" similar (but not exactly) like the one along Washington Ave has all gone away? . . . . . . sigh

I agree it's a lovely building and it puzzles me at how 'unsuccessful ' the business that use it. But I am curios about how the parking situation will work out since it seems El Tiempo seems to be expanding the building. I wonder if something was worked out to share parking with the old Numbers building-- ?

Memorial Park Master Plan Public Meeting - January 12, 2014 Please join the Houston Parks and Recreation Department and the Memorial Park Conservancy for a Public Meeting on the development of a new Master Plan for Memorial Park: Memorial Park Tomorrow. 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Monday, January 12, 2015 Moody Park Community Center 3725 Fulton Street Houston, TX 77009 The meeting will focus on use of and improvements on spaces and places within Memorial Park. For more information on Memorial Park Tomorrow, please visit www.memorialparktomorrow.org or contact Suzanne Landau at 713.863.8403 extension 2. For more information on Memorial Park and the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, visit www.houstonparks.org or write to Askparks@houstontx.gov.

Chronicle had a blurb about this-- guess high rise apartments will go up at former location Tex-Mex restaurant El Tiempo 1308 Cantina has found a new home. Located at 1308 Montrose Blvd, the restaurant's owners are relocating it about a mile away to 322 Westheimer Road, the site of the former La Casa Del Caballo, a steakhouse that closed on Dec. 31. El Tiempo 1308 Cantina is among six El Tiempo Cantina's owned by the Laurenzo family. Roland Laurenzo confirmed the relocation in a public statement issued in an email on Dec. 22. Word of the popular Montrose eatery's closure was originally announced in October, however, at the time the Laurenzo family was unsure where it would relocate the restaurant. El Tiempo Cantina lost its lease at 1308 Montrose Blvd. because the site is being redeveloped as a high-rise apartment building, said James Kelleher, director of marketing for the restaurant chain. It will take approximately three months to remodel its new space on Westheimer. But Kelleher said the new location should be open by April 1. "La Casa Del Caballo is a beautiful location," he said. "We want to preserve it as much as possible. Very little remodeling will need to be done at the new location."

I attended the central one and two district (Montrose and Heights) PIP tonite and thought I'd pass along just a couple of things-- about BMV's. . . . guess what-- the rate went down for both Montrose and the Heights! The Lt who spoke thought it was because of raising awareness and those HPD report cards on cars in areas where BMV are prevalent---but bad news also-- home burglary up 18%. Mainly because of the holidays and criminals being able to scope out houses where residents were gone for holidays etc. But. . . . . all the tips given were brought up as a sound idea to prevent burglaries to homes. a little something extra I learned-- 2 man bike patrol is beginning 5 days a week during evening shift in 1&2 districts. Also plainclothes HPD in "cool cars" ie late model muscle cars with tinted windows I think are being sent out also.

I go the Citywide PIP (positive interaction Police program) and the Central one PIP and it's the same ole same ole-- most crime stats in Houston are down but. . . . BMV's Avondale with all the Bars etc-- our #1 --BMV's Sometimes the HPD storefront (located within Avondale area) will walk up and down our neighborhood and leave those "report cards" on wind shields-- most of them are about "valuables in sight" But all those little tips are important-- no matter how silly it seems-- all those tips really do help.

http://houston.eater.com/2014/12/22/7433491/el-tiempo-1308-cantina-stakes-claim-in-la-casa-del-caballo-closing so many different restaurants have tried that location. . . . . . I wonder if that location doesn't have a whisp of curse attached?

From Cohen's enewsletter The Houston Parks and Recreation Department plans to soon purchase approximately 4,000 trees of various types to plant throughout Houston. District C will receive 310 of these trees to fulfill super neighborhood requests for esplanades in neighborhoods throughout the district. Council authorized the funding for this effort last week, which is derived from developer mitigation, settlement revenue from those who have violated the Tree Protection Ordinance, and private donations from groups such as Trees for Houston.

Hmmmmm might have to postpone those --- According to Cohen's enewsletter Council voted unanimously to approve Council Member Cohen's request that the proposed expansion of TIRZ #2 be referred back to the Mayor's administration until the affected neighborhoods have the opportunity to have their voices heard. During the first public meeting on the issue, a standing room-only crowd reviewed the proposal and provided the first round of input. Stakeholder meetings will continue through the next several months and, should the community consensus be to move forward with this or an amended expansion, the matter will likely be back before Council during Spring or Summer 2015.

Someone at the. Timberline Gym was talking about Zoe's kitchen going in at the old Dirks. I was wondering if anyone else had heard that.

I remember when it was the "Route 66" the redo wasn't bad-- all the tables were uniquely made from recycled stuff- along the same lines at the tables inside Hot Tops salon on Montrose. I wonder if it was the same artist

I'll have to look at that silly upside down map again but i thought the Buffalo soldier museum wasn't included. And Sue Lovell who represents (all or at least a lot of) Museum in that alliance group certainly was upset that the presumption from the Midtown TIRZ was that all the Museums were for this proposal.The TIRZ is suppose to have a different boundary because of the 25% housing (can't have anymore than that) requirement. TIRZ I really don't have a problem with but it tells me something that their head guys didn't do any bridge building to anyone in MOntrose before hand. If there's one thing Montrose does it's hold stakeholder events to discuss Montrose problems and how those might be solved.DAvid Robinson has been at the head of at least a half dozen such events-- I'm sure he was shocked that no one asked his opinion. A lot of info on other TIRZ came up also-- The one for the Galleria-- apparently none of the stakeholders want the dedicated bus lane. Plus although TIRZ meetings are open to the public and you can ask questions-- TIRZ cannot answer those questions and a woman told of having to use the freedom of information act to get access to information that concerned her question. These Midtown guys talking gave me a creepy feeling the same as a smarmy used car salesman, when you hope to get a better car, I'm afraid there is already a plan in place to have a terrific outcome-- I'm just not sure Montrose will see any of the benefits.