RedScare

I've got a bit left over, but admittedly, I have been out collecting signatures to oppose the historic district, so I've missed some of the kids coming by.

Did I miss the link? Was it to this? http://www.myhoustonhouse.com/?p=1195 Thought that was an excellent post.

Yes, that is it. It seems to have disappeared on my post. It is a great example of the unitended consequences of this ordinance. Most people in the Heights are fans of old houses, and support preservation (including me), but this ordinance does not do it. I hope people will actually READ the ordinance, because, as they say, the devil is in the details. The friends of the preservationists at City Hall blew it.....Big Time.

Unofficial tabulation so far indicates that South and East Heights already have enough signatures for a re-vote, and West Heights is close. There are many petitions still in the pipeline, so all 3 districts are likely over the limit. However, there has never been a doubt that all 3 districts would get enough petition signatures for the re-vote. The continued signature gathering is intended to show City Council the depth of the opposition to the ordinance. The final size and outline of the districts can also be redrawn. It is important to get your (and your surrounding neighbors') petitions in to ensure that your block is left out if the entire district vote is close.

The petitions are attached to post # 534 above. Download, sign and contact me to get them turned in.

Also, you will notice that houston's more expensive areas (River Oaks, West U, etc) do not flood....thats not because they receive disproportionate amounts of flood control money, its because they are built on higher (more expensive) ground. The areas that flood are definitively lower income, so this is just another tax that redistributes peoples income. Everyone will pay, but most of the projects that will likely be completed will have much larger impacts on lower income areas, than on everyone else...Its just another tax.

Really? Then what do you think the City installed those two massive box culverts under Kirby Drive for...pedestrian walkways for River Oaks dog walkers?

http://blogs.har.com/774/12261/Pictures-of-the-Historic-Preservation-Ordinance-and-How-It-Affects-the-Houston-Heights

I suppose you did not live here in 2001, when both the Medical Center and the Downtown tunnels and courthouses flooded...decidedly NOT low income areas. Oh, and try finding a house in Bellaire or West U that is NOT in the flood plain.

http://maps2.tsarp.org/tsarp/

NOTE: I am still opposed to this proposition, in spite of your uneducated post.

How many years did we do fine in the Heights without preservation and histroic districts?

My 1920 bungalow was doing great until 2 weeks ago. Now, my ongoing renovation is in danger of screeching to a halt, even though I have received many compliments on what I have done so far. It seems some people in the Heights and City Hall prefer ugly additions and dilapidated structures to tasteful remodels. Makes no sense to me, but what do I know? I just live here and pay the note.

Maybe once the new Walmart opens I can afford the higher fees required to go in front of the HAHC to get denied on my COA.

Does anyone have an update as to how the petitions are going? Specifically, has 10% already been reached for Houston Heights West? I looked on the Responsible Historic Preservation website but I don't see anything there.

I am checking on that for you. Meanwhile, here is a blog illustrating what impact the new historic district ordinance has on actual Heights residences. If you have not signed the petitions, send me a PM so that I can get you one.

EDIT: This is for everyone else. I know kat_zor has already signed a petition and I enjoyed meeting her.

You can call 311, BARC, or the police non-emergency number. The keeping of 4 or more dogs for any reason constitutes a "dog kennel", requiring a permit. Additionally, all dogs and cats in the City of Houston are required to be licensed, so if they are not tagged, or if there are more than 3, it will be a violation, regardless how much noise they make. Be sure to point these possible violations out in addition to the incessant barking.

Here is the definition of a 'dog kennel', as well as other ordinances.

http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientId=10123&stateId=43&stateName=Texas

Go to Chapter 6, Article I.

The mixed-use site...

Apparently, this means they will have both office buildings AND parking garages.

It is around 22nd or 23rd Street. If you look at one of the old Heights boundary maps, it will show the exact street, but it is either of those two.

EDIT: Actually, it is 23rd Street, but only on the east side of Yale. The west side is dry over to Shepherd.

Map located in this thread.

Wow! How did he know?

Ok, I laughed.

For those who do not read the City Hall forum, I posted this over there about how to sign the petitions...

ATTENTION historic district residents!

I may have figured out how to attach the petitions to this post. Download both petitions and fill them out. When you are finished, you can PM me for my address to drop them off, or to give me your address to come get them if you can't come by. I'll send my address by return PM.

Here is a paragraph about how to fill out the petitions...

Quote

I am sending you 2 petitions. The Microsoft Word document titled 'HPO Petition For Reconsideration' is the official City of Houston petition to force the recall vote. You'll need to type in the name of the historic district that you are in (for example, 'Heights South'), and fill in the other blanks. It must be signed by one of the property owners. If you do not know your lot, block and subdivision, you can look it up on HCAD or leave it blank. We will verify the legal description and fill it in.

The 2nd petition is a petition requesting that your specific property be excluded from any historic districts created. We hope to impress upon City Council the overwhelming opposition to this ordinance and perhaps get the ordinance changed. I urge you to sign both petitions, but the City petition is most important. If you can print off extra petitions and get your close friends and neighbors to sign as well, you make our job easier. Please consider helping out in this way.

Once both petitions are filled out and signed, you may drop them off at my house at 935 Columbia Street. Just put them in my mailbox. If you cannot make it by, let me know and I'll come by to pick it up. Any questions, send me a PM.

Thanks to all,

RedScare

HPO Petition for Reconsideration.doc

HISTORIC PRESERVATION BINDER.pdf

ATTENTION historic district residents!

I may have figured out how to attach the petitions to this post. Download both petitions and fill them out. When you are finished, you can PM me for my address to drop them off, or to give me your address to come get them if you can't come by. I'll send my address by return PM.

Here is a paragraph about how to fill out the petitions...

I am sending you 2 petitions. The Microsoft Word document titled 'HPO Petition For Reconsideration' is the official City of Houston petition to force the recall vote. You'll need to type in the name of the historic district that you are in (for example, 'Heights South'), and fill in the other blanks. It must be signed by one of the property owners. If you do not know your lot, block and subdivision, you can look it up on HCAD or leave it blank. We will verify the legal description and fill it in.

The 2nd petition is a petition requesting that your specific property be excluded from any historic districts created. We hope to impress upon City Council the overwhelming opposition to this ordinance and perhaps get the ordinance changed. I urge you to sign both petitions, but the City petition is most important. If you can print off extra petitions and get your close friends and neighbors to sign as well, you make our job easier. Please consider helping out in this way.

Once both petitions are filled out and signed, you may drop them off at my house at 935 Columbia Street. Just put them in my mailbox. If you cannot make it by, let me know and I'll come by to pick it up. Any questions, send me a PM.

Thanks to all,

RedScare

HPO Petition for Reconsideration.doc

HISTORIC PRESERVATION BINDER.pdf

I have sent petitions to everyone who has asked for them...I THINK! If you sent me a PM or an email and have not received a response, PLEASE send another request. I could have overlooked one or two (Yes, I have received that many requests already).

THIS IS IMPORTANT! Take a few minutes and ask your neighbors to sign the petitions as well. Remember, your efforts to repeal the historic district in your neighborhood are for naught if we do not get at least 51% of the property owners to vote against the district. By signing the petitions, we will have a list of people to contact during the vote. Do your part or suffer the consequences. Thanks in advance for your help.

Information on historic district maps, and how to get or sign the petitions is available on the Hisoric District Repal Petition thread.

For those who are wondering if they are included in one of the Heights historic districts, I have a couple of maps linked here.

Heights South Historic District Map

ALL other historic district maps

Additionally, I have the petitions for anyone in any district that wishes to sign them. If someone could send me a message on how to post a PDF and a Word document to this forum, I'll gladly do it. Otherwise, send me your email address by PM and I'll send it that way.

Did anyone go to the meeting last night? I'm kind of behind on everything.

Yes. You can read about it here. There was a very good turnout of people opposed to the new ordinance as passed by Council. Many of the residents opposed (like me) are not at all opposed to historic preservation, but the badly written ordinance that requires bad architecture so that the "original structure" may be preserved. I seriously doubt the supporters of historic preservation realized that they supported an ordinance that will make the neighborhood uglier and cause many homes owned by residents of limited incomes to fall into disrepair. But, this is exactly what the ordinance does. The HAHC, in an effort not to be arbitrary, will (and already does) deny quality remodels that do not strictly follow the ordinance, in favor of ugly remodels that do.

Perhaps this is the goal of the mayor and Councilwoman Lovell, that the required modifications be so unattractive that the homeowner will not go forward in order not to have an unsellable house afterward. It is truly a situation where everyone lost. A much better solution would be a concerted effort to enact the deed restrictions that allow for construction in keeping with the character of the Heights, while keeping out the condos and highrises that no one wants. But, we're stuck with this hideous ordinance, and no other choice but to defeat it.

Those who wish to sign the petition should PM me so I can get you a copy.

That old wooden railroad trestle was taken out about 10 years ago. It seems likely that even if it was still there, re-habbing an old wooden railroad trestle into a bike and pedestrian bridge (and then continuing the maintenance on an old wooden railroad trestle) would cost more than building this new structure. Especially when one considers the ingress/egress points provided by the new bridge vs. what would have been provided by the old railroad trestle.

You mean like they just did with the railroad trestles over White Oak Bayou and Studewood for the Heights bike trail?

I'm just wondering about the legality of a developer knocking down residential apartments (where people still live) to build a commercial business, that's all.

You are correct that it is generally illegal to knock down apartments (or any other building) while the residents are still there.

There will be another meeting Saturday at 1 pm for those who were unable to make it last night. We had a large turnout of probably over 100 people, so the opposition to this ordinance is strong. Those who have time to help gather signatures can send me a PM.

It is important to know that the way Council set this thing up, 51% of the property owners in a district must send in the voting cards opposing the district, or else the district remains. NO ONE even needs to vote in favor of the district! If 49% of the owners vote NO! and 0 owners vote Yes, we lose. This is the most un-democratic voting system I have ever experienced, but this is the hand we were dealt, so we will deal with it. However, it is important for everyone to help canvass the neighborhoods to ensure the petitions are signed and the voting cards are returned.

Interesting observation of the night: There are 2,200 properties in the 3 Heights historic districts. Only 110 yellow supporter signs are posted in yards in all 3 districts. Only 5% of Heights residents care enough about historic district status to even stick a sign in their yard. In contrast, there are hundreds of opponent signs thoughout the Heights. Let's make sure that opposition is put to good use through petitions and returned voting cards.

I did not say that heavy rail alone would change the amount of pedestrian activity, but heavy rail in addition to the other things I suggested would make a difference. Also, I am not suggesting that the current P&R routes be converted to heavy rail, I am suggesting that there be heavy rail between downtown and the TMC, Galleria, and Greenway Plaza, while going through the inner loop residential neighborhoods. The currnet P&R routes are fine, though I would like to see commuter rail to Galveston and maybe up 290. Tens of billions? For a core heavy rail system, it would be tops 10 billion. It's not about "getting the same coverage as buses," it's about ridership. Ridership of heavy rail would be much higher than buses, for reasons that should be obvious. For commuter rail, however, ridership would only be slightly higher, as P&R buses do the job fairly well considering they have their own lane in the middle of the freeway.

This infatuation with heavy rail is reminiscent of citykid's theories, which never have proof to back them up. I'll leave you to your fantasy that somehow a heavy rail line should replace the light rail. I have no interest in a factless debate. However, I did highlight one statement because of its sheer ridiculousness (also without proof, or even explanation).

NOTE: Reading your response for the 3rd time, it appears you have switched your argument to innercity rail, when before we were discussing suburban rail. I'm just going to ignore this whole thread from here on out. The point has been made.

Some people that drive to work every day would rather have a subway, so their commute would be cheaper. I'm sure the trade off of having to walk outside (gasp) would be worth it to them.

This number would be infinitesimally small, as the overwhelming majority of those people now take the convenient, inexpensive and reasonably comfortable Park&Ride. And despite claims that Houstonians will not walk outside, nearly half commute to downtown, and many of the rest leave their cars in the garage all day, walking to lunch. I know, I used to be one of them.

Do you really think that if we had an extensive heavy rail system, there wouldn't be more pedestrians downtown? The fact that almost 50% of commuters ride METRO means that the majority of downtown workers drive to their parking garage, walk in their tunnel/skybridge, and are never on the sidewalk.

Look, it's fine with me if you're 100% satisfied with the current downtown situation, forgive me for suggesting ideas to increase foot traffic. Besides, the fact that almost 50% of downtown workers commute via METRO is irrevelant anyway, since we are talking about after work. The P&R options aren't available at that time.

No, actually, I don't think a heavy rail system would change a thing. The reason I believe so is because of the number of Park&Ride routes that would have to be converted to heavy rail. It would take tens of billions to get the same coverage as the buses. There are a few routes that would work, and those routes would probably have more stops that the current P&R routes, making those few routes more accessible, and therefore more popular. But, it would be nearly impossible to get the same coverage for all routes.

By the way, 50% transit use is probably one of the highest in the country outside of New York. For instance, over half of Chicago workers take transit downtown, compared to Houston's slightly less than half...in spite of Chicago's famed heavy rail system. Los Angeles, which has spent billions on expanding its rail system, has only 25% transit usage by its downtown workers. Boston isn't much better, at 32%.

Again, on the foot traffic. There is plenty of it, simply not where you want it. Since the purpose of downtown is for workers and businesses to produce...not for tourists to look at them...I suspect that you won't garner much support for closing the tunnels and forcing the workers to the streets. I fully understand your view that a busy sidewalk conveys a sense of vibrancy. I just don't think many people are willing to indulge your fantasy, not when there is work to be done.

Well there are many reasons why more people walked back then. First and foremost, Houston was more centralized back then, there was no Galleria, Greenway Plaza, or TMC (as someone earlier pointed out). Also, this was before the many highways were completed, so most of the people that lived in central Houston stayed there. My grandparents always talked about how for out Bellaire was back in their day, it was truly a suburb.

Also, there was more retail and signage. Creative lighting, signage, and advertisements just attract people (don't ask me why). That's pretty much the only reason Times Square is so crowded, becasue of all the lights/ads. I think Houson should cancel the "no signage" ordinance, it really sucks life out of the downtown area when there's nothing interesting on the streets.

The tunnel system also took away a large percentage of pedestrians downtown. Had we not buit that, there'd be more people today.

Another thing that would help increase pedestrian activity is building a better transit system, so if someone is just going downtown for a concert, they will ride METRO and walk from the stop to their destination, instead of driving to an underground parking garage and walking across the street in a tunnel.

I know what you are trying to say, but you make many incorrect statements in attempting to say it. For one, the tunnels did not drive a single person away from downtown. It didn't drive away pedestrians, either. They are all still there, only in the tunnels, not on the street. You can't see them as you drive down Louisiana Street in your air conditioned car, but they are there.

What percentage of people taking transit would qualify as "better"? 10%? 20% 30%? Would it surprise you to learn that nearly 50% of Downtown workers take transit to work?

http://www.downtownhouston.org/site_media/uploads/attachments/2010-09-10/1-Office_Market_Overview_Report_2Q10.pdf (see page 2)

What you lament is that it doesn't LOOK the way you want it to. Your ideal involves everyone walking on the sidewalks. The fact that they walk where you cannot see them bothers you. And, you want them all to arrive at work by train. The fact that 29% take a Park&Ride bus, and 11% carpool doesn't have the trendy cool transit factor you crave. But, make no mistake, Houstonians DO take transit to downtown, and they ARE pedestrians.

Sorry, I couldn't give you an educated answer. I gather you don't think so.

edit: wow, if this is true, it's just crazy...

"The National Debt has continued to increase an average of$4.18 billion per day since September 28, 2007"

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

Well, think about it. $2 trillion dollars each year would not be spent on goods and services while the debt is being paid off. Our $14 trillion economy would shrink by 14.3% overnight, as money normally spent on goods and services built and sold by Americans suddenly is paid in taxes. To put that in perspective, the huge recession involved a shrinking of the economy of less than 6% for a period of 6 months.

Keep in mind that the National Debt is not currently hurting the economy. The concern is that over time it will grow to unsustainable levels. The debt should be contained, but we don't need to crater the US economy to do it. In fact, all that extra debt goes to spending that grows the economy.

I'm not sure it's flawed in their eyes. I think that's exactly what they want to do. They claim it will pay off the deficit in 7 years, which this is the only way they could do that AND pay for all their new social programs.

Do you think a $2 TRILLION a year taxing scheme will help the country during a period of near (if not outright) recession?

If ever anyone wished to see an example of semantics in action, this thread is it. My property taxes are assessed on the value of my house. The drainage "fee" is assessed on the amount of land my house covers. Just because the way the tax is levied seems equitable does not make it not a tax.

None of this changes that there is no plan for the use of these fees/taxes. I recommend a 'NO' vote, so that the proponents can engage the City on an actual plan for the use of this money. Just as HISD had to tell us what they planned to build with the $800 million in bonds we voted for, the City should tell us what projects they plan to undertake with our $8 Billion.