WAZ

Wait, I thought you were complaining earlier about the excessive cost to your neighborhood!? If it is so expensive that you are whining for relief from it, it would seem to be expensive enough to warrant a counterargument based upon the inequitible use of taxpayer funds.

Our Civic Club 'dues' are voluntary and less than $30 a year. Homeowners in the subdivision are required to pay much more than that in property taxes annually.

The cost to mow along that road is alot compared to the few hundred that this civic club collects in dues every year. It's miniscule compared to the annual budget of the City of Houston. In fact, the amount it'd cost to mow along ALL the City roads that are in this situation would be miniscule compared to the $1.7 billion that the City budgets annually.

Yes. We don't live in your neighborhood. If you want us to be sympathetic you have to demonstrate why.

Maybe it would be easier or cheaper for the HOA/Civic Group to pay to install gates in the homeowners' fences instead of paying to have the ROW mowed.

It's a public road. You might not live here, but nothing is stopping you from driving on it - though overgrown trees and brush are stopping you from walking on it. Someone earlier in the thread said 'we'll pay for stadiums and toy trains and museums and hotels because lots of people use them' - lots of people drive on this road, too, and lots of people walk on it, too.

Gates would be a security concern, and probably not cheaper than mowing. Plus the up-front cost would be alot.

The Civic Club and residents probably will pony up the cash to mow along the road 'out back'. As CC president I'll probably wind up putting some of my own money towards it. But I won't do it happily. And mark my words, I WILL keep fighting for revisions to 10-451B.

- lots of people drive on this road, too, and lots of people walk on it, too.

Correction, lots of people WOULD LIKE TO walk on it, too - if they could. Some try already.

I expect the city to pay for police, fire and EMS. I expect them to have clean water in my tap. I expect them to keep the storm sewers clean and working. I do NOT expect them to raise my taxes to mow grass that can easily be mowed by caring homeowners. In fact, those neighborhoods that won't mow their own grass are neighborhoods that I do not want to live in, because that is indicative of neighbors who do not care.

The area can't easily be mowed by the individual homeowners. That's the whole point. Do I have to draw a map for you? They'll either have to walk a mile, scale a fence, or spend hundreds of dollars to install gates.

The Civic Club probably will push residents on that road to contribute to a fund, and we'd use that fund to pay a service to mow back there. But I do WISH the City would revise 10-451b for the City to mow on ROADS that are BEHIND HOUSES and SEPARATED FROM THOSE HOUSES BY A FENCE OR WALL.

And your tax concerns are a red-herring if ever there was one. A city-wide mowing program on roads behind houses might cost a few thousand dollars. The City's budget for 2008 was over $1.7 billion. (http://www.houstontx.gov/budget/08budadopt/II_GFS.pdf) It wouldn't make a noticable difference in property taxes.

a conservancy was setup to take care of discovery green.

The Discovery Green conservancy's contract lasts fifty years.

So revise my question.

what happens in 50 years when Discovery Green isn't the latest and greatest and the Conservancy

I don't begrudge your political/fiduciary duty to try and coerce non-residents of your neighborhood out of their resources to benefit your constituency. If you feel insulted, please think again.

But perhaps putting your case forward to an online message board wasn't the best approach. Yours is not a cause that is going to be very popular among the general public (i.e. the ones you're trying to rip off).

You're probably right. It wasn't the best approach to propose a specific change to 10-451b here. It was too specific and too open to misinterpretation. I had hoped others had a situation similar to mine. That obviously was wrong. But I still hope people can see that this is one small part of a much larger problem in our City.

It's not just about a few lawns in one subdivision - or even a few hundred lawns in a dozen subdivisions. It's that's that the City of Houston likes to build grand projects and doesn't always take care of what it already has.

I used to live near Rice Village and Kirby Drive. The state that road got to before anyone bucked up to fix it - that's a disgrace to our City. And that's just one other example.

To look at it a different way - Discovery Green is the latest and greatest thing in the City. It's a beautiful park. But what happens in 30 years when Discovery Green isn't the latest and greatest? Will it still be beautiful? Or will it be forgotten, neglected, and dangerous? The way Houston City Hall works, this is a serious question. Whose to say they won't re-write the rules to make owners of surrounding buildings take care of the park? And then whose to say those building owners will actually do it?

You know, lots of out-of-towners view Houston as a City that doesn't care about itself. I've always denied that because I care, and there are lots of other Houstonians who care. Just by participating in the HAIF, you care to some small degree about this City.

Laws like paragraph 10 of 10-451b, coupled with the laws of human nature and reality - they make it SEEM like Houstonians don't care.

It does. But when you closed on your home, you agreed to take on many responsibilities that the City might conceivably be able to take care of for you if different laws were in place. Oops.

Now, rather than pawning off your responsibilities on all the other neighborhoods in the City which were designed well, perhaps you should work with your civic association or HOA and raise the tiny amount of funds per home that would be necessary to have them efficiently take care of those hard-to-reach places.

I'm amazed at how fast the misunderstandings are coming here.

First off, I AM President of my Civic Club. In fact I'm also an officer in a Super Neighborhood Council. And it's not MY house that backs up to the road.

Second, there are a few points to make or reemphasize:

- The subdivision was built in the 1950s. If you want to talk about 'bad design' - I direct you to your local cemetary.

- Many residents closed on their homes before the City wrote Ordinance 10-451b and don't know about it.

- My neighborhood is not alone in this predicament.

- The "tiny amount of funds per home" that you're talking about is actually most of our Civic Club budget. It would be a 'tiny amount of funds' to the City of Houston; not to us.

- Our taxes are going up regardless. If the City won't maintain the public ROW with our money, they'll just build new hotels downtown, new toy trains (um, light rail), and God knows what with it. Those are things that will cost ALOT more than this.

That said, the Civic Club probably will wind up coughing up the money to mow on our streach of City neglected road. As President I might even pay part of it myself. But I'm not going to just spend that money without a fight. Letters are being sent to residents who live there to see if they'll actually contribute (doubtful). And I AM trying here and elsewhere to bring some sanity to 10-451b, regardless of what insults you all might hurl at me for it.

doesn't sound like the City is the one shirking.

Please climb the fence to mow my lawn for me.

Doesn't that sound weird to you?

We all know we're supposed to mow on the public right of way in front of our houses - and if you're at a corner on the side too. But say your house backs up to a major street, and you have a fence back there and never go there. The City of Houston still expects you to mow it.

In a nutshell, this is what paragraph 10 of ordinance 10-451b says.

This is an issue for my subdivision and surely others. Neighbors in my subdivision are great about mowing the streets in front of their homes. But we back up to a four lane thoroughfare, and out of 22 homes backing up onto the thoroughfare, only two homeowners diligently mow along it.

The City of Houston should rewrite this absurd law. Having to mow on your address right of way is fine - and the other street at a corner. That's how it works everywhere. But having to jump a fence and mow out back on a third street? Ridiculous. The City should pony up the resources and mow its own streets in these circumstances.

Architecture is a lot like film in this regard. Every year there's a ton of crap, and one or two really great pieces. What movies were made in 1968? Space Odyssey. And what else?

The Menil Collection was built in 1987. What else graced the City that year? A few decent buildings. A boatload of crap.

On a somewhat related note, what really bugs me is how architecture schools seem to glom onto the latest building. When I was at Rice, the Beck Building opened at the MFAH. To listen to the professors talk, you'd think it was the best thing since sliced bread. I'm sure it was the same at UH. And in other cities it happens, too. Irritating. But worse, it's limiting for students.

Hey everyone,

I'm hoping to do some research for my MA thesis on the role the Parade of Homes events in the postwar housing boom. As discussed in some posts, Houston has a great PoH history. Does anyone know where the booklets (those rare, allusive things!) might be found? Or even where any archival materials- plans, photographs, records, builder information, etc- may be found for any of the larger PoH during the 1950s? I've come up empty-handed with the research I've done in the larger Houston archival repositories.

Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss the project.

I also just want to add that the interest and activism around Houston's modern legacy is very exciting and refreshing!

take care.

This promises to be an excellent thesis subject. The Mod is to Houston what the Brownstone is to New York City. Soon, if not already, there's going to be as big an interest in restoring Mods here as there is in Brownstones in NYC.

I have begun some research into Mid Century mods in Southwest Houston - Braeburn area to be precise. My own research was just to go through the old Houston Chronicles from the time and download ads and good articles. Time consuming, but well worth the effort. I found the Houston Chronicle feature stories about the 1954 Parade of Homes. Unfortunately it's over 2 MB so I can't upload here.

IN any case, good luck with the project, and if you find any original Parade of Homes brochures, let me know. I'd love to see them.

Seriously,

His blog hasn't been updated since mid-summer. Anyone know what's up? I'm missing my fix of intermodality...

Last time I talked to him, Mr. Spieler was starting a new job and (I think) working on taking the LEED exam. That's probably why he's been MIA from the forums and blogs and stuff.

Double deck the West Loop from 59 to I-10 AND put it underground. Ground level = giant park/esplanade connected to Memorial Park. 1st underground level = local highway; 2nd underground level = express lanes connecting 59 and I-10 without stops between.

Knock down both the Zone D'Erotica AND the adjacent Dillards, and build a new Uptown Transit Center on that site. Connect it to The Galleria via sky-bridge. Build a monorail or subway to connect the Uptown Transit Center with the Downtown Transit Center. Run express buses from the Uptown Transit Center all the way around the Loop, stopping at the transit centers and Park & Rides adjacent to the Loop.

Build more connecting sky-bridges between buildings: sort of like Downtown's tunnel system only elevated.

Build a line of luxury condos along the East side of the West Loop from 59 to Westheimer - fronting on the new esplanade.

That's all I can think of now. But since we're playing this game - may I suggest two other 'if you could play God' scenarios?

1: You just bought the Sharpstown Mall - what do you do with it?

2: You have complete control over bus routes in Metro. What routes do you impliment?

It is nice to see one done right. I have seen a couple of good mod foreclosures in Glenbrook that have been picked up by less talented house flippers and just screwed up. If this ones goes okay I don't suppose you would consider flipping one or two over there?

Amen to that. I bought a Mod in 2005 in the Braeburn area south of Sharpstown. They were already starting to work on it as a flip when I put my contract in. I stipulated that they halt all work immediately, and did my own renovation on the house before I moved in. God only knows what they'd have done to this place had I not intervened.

This part bothers me a little bit. In neighborhoods where there are organized and angry people they could tear apart a well-meaning landlord. And in neighborhoods that are apathetic or full of recent immigrants (who tend not to want to attract attention), apartment buildings could be left to rot because no one makes a stink about it.

I don't see vocal neighbors tearing apart a good landlord. It's not hard to distinguish between a troubled complex, and one that isn't troubled. And most neighbors aren't vindictive. Furthermore, council districts are big enough that the City has to pick and choose between different complexes. There could be a neighborhood that complains about apartments that really aren't that bad - but they'll be shot down by neighbors across the district who live near genuinely troubled apartments..

The second part of your concern is more valid. Neighborhoods with apathetic people may not have as big a voice in the T-CEP. Perhaps a second part of the Houston T-CEP should be that apartments face a 'roof to cellar' inspection if there's a serious crime on the property - like if someone is murdered there. Often apartments with code violations also suffer from serious crime problems. That would get around the neighborhood apathy problem. And it could also be a big incentive for landlords to take seriously the security of their tenants.

I'm worried that if we just inspect apartments every 5 years, the City might go first to properties that don't need it, while properties that really need it have to wait.

The post about 'old apartments' in the Crater Houston Alliance forum was absolutely right.

Apartments in Houston are deteriorating, and part of the reason is Houston's weak inspections of apartments. By concentrating on individual complaints, Houston's building inspectors miss some of the worst apartment complexes, and do incomplete inspections of others.

New York City's Targeted Cyclical Enforcement Program (T-CEP) was developed in 2005 to address exactly these problems, and it has results. In its first year, the program had 229 apartment buildings with a total of 3,637 apartments inspected. Legal action has been taken against the owners of the worst apartments.

The T-CEP program works using annual polls of City Councilmen, civic groups, and tenants to determine which apartments require attention. Those apartments recieve a 'roof to cellar' inspection by the City. Depending on the number and severity of the code violations, the City will either work with landlords to remediate the problems, or take the landlords to court.

A similar program in Houston would allow the City to better determine which apartments have problems. The City could then concentrate its efforts on those apartments that need attention; without wasting time inspecting apartments that are in good condition.

I'm of the view that this is worth bringing to the attention of Mayor Bill White and the Houston City Council. But what do you think?

I was wondering when this would show up on HAR.

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y

I've been riding my bike by it for a month now, and the For Sale sign has been up the whole time.

Does anyone know where to find copies of early (1950s) Houston "Parade of Homes" brochures and plan books? 1956 is online and I've found that. I've searched the card catalogues at Rice, UH, and the HPL and came up empty. I even went to Rice and asked a librarian; no luck.