cottonmather0

I drove over to Brother's Pizzza @ Hwy 6 & 10 around 6:30 and saw a column of smoke on the horizon... figured there was a fire. Then, when I was driving back to my in-laws house along the eastbound frontage road I could see the color of the flames in in the smoke and cars slowing down on the freeway to take a look. It looked close and I figured it was an apartment or housefire close by somewhere over in Bear Creek. Then I got home and saw the alert in the paper and saw it was over 10 miles away! I could see the flames!

Thank you for the replies. If she had just parked at the curb, I would not have been so annoyed, but she was in the backyard when I caught her and seemed rather indignant that I told her to leave. I have nothing to hide, but the West Texas boy in me says that she had no business just walking in like she did. Government is government, my taxes are paid, and HCAD will get a copy of the bank's appraisal when I file my annual protest this summer. That's all they need and that's all they'll get. Like I said, the building inspector has a legitimate reason to surprise me, the tax assessor does not.

As mentioned elsewhere, I'm currently wrapping up remodel project at my home. I happened to be here this morning getting caught up on some yardwork when I came out of the garage and noticed a woman standing in my driveway with a clipboard. She explained that she was from HCAD (as did her windbreaker and the sign on her truck) and she said she was there take a look at the progress of the work. I told her like hell she was and told her to come back later after asking for permission. She seemed shocked at my attitude, "uh, we don't make appointments!" but got in her truck and left. I called my contractor and he acted like it was no big deal, said they did it all the time, but was unsure if it was just something they did or if we were actually required to comply. So as far as I am concerned, the city building inspector has a legitimate reason to show up like this, but HCAD isn't interested in public health or safety, HCAD just wants my money and does this because they can get away with it, not because it's necessary. To me, HCAD is just another government agent and needs my permission or a warrant to search my property. Showing up to snoop for tax purposes in FEBRUARY is not a reasonable search. It's not like we have anything to hide, I just don't like the idea of them doing this and feel I am within my rights to refuse them access to the property without asking permission first. Certainly they need to have the proper information to correctly assess the house's value, but the whole "surprise" thing is what is really irking me here. Am I off base?

What about helping the not-so-great and merely mediocre visitors? Seriously, I like the idea of this. My family is all out there in Lubbock and the surrounding area and there are some really nice parts of Lubbock, just not downtown. The thing about development in Lubbock is that downtown is not very centrally located, at all, so no one spends money there - all of the nice stuff is south and southwest. But the problem for visitors is that to get to the south and southwest from the airport, they have to go through downtown and their first impression of the city isn't that great. Making downtown Lubbock look nicer and more updated would certainly help with this.

My inlaws live in Memorial Thicket, which is right across Memorial from Barker's Landing and BP. We have been staying out here for a couple of months while our house in Timbergrove is getting remodeled. My wife and I both work downtown and have been carpooling to take advantage of the HOV Lane because the traffic on the mainlines is just so gawdawful during rush hour. That said, if the commute wasn't so bad, I would consider moving out here. (I know the freeway is being expanded, but that's still 2+ years off and then it's just going to fill up again, anyway, I say) But, if you work out here and don't have to commute, it's a great area. The houses in MT and BL are HUGE and very fairly priced, most have been renovated and have very interesting architectural variation around the neighborhood. Also, very nicely landscaped public areas and most yards are nice, too. Fleetwood is slightly more cookie-cutter and slightly more crowded, but it's still a nice area. You're not far from Katy or West Oaks, either, and still within the whole Nottingham/Westchester sphere. The only downside is that the Hwy 6 / Reservoir area is still just a little bit cruddy, but they are indeed cleaning a lot of that up and developing it and the freeway is going to help in that regard. It

Welllllll, I was being slightly rhetorical with my post. I understand some people don't want to deal with remodeling. I think my point is moreso that I'm always surprised (and continue to be) that hordes of people are so apparently willing to chunk down large amounts of cash for a (usually poorly contructed) vertical structure on a tiny sliver of land wedged into the back of a subdivided lot. Not to mention buying new construction is a hideously poor investment decision when there is so much unused land and teardown capacity for someone else to buy their own new construction in 3 years instead of your "old" townhouse. As far as location: we both work downtown, so, yep, that's why we bought the house. 10 minutes to work garage-to-garage.

What I don't understand is why people are willing to pay $350,000 for these tiny little shoeboxes in the Heights and Rice Mil when you can buy a bigger house on a bigger lot in Timbergrove or Lazybrook for less money. If granite countertops and recessed lighting is that big a deal, you can get a lot for $100,000 and 3 months of remodeling of a well contructed older house, plus you still get a yard, trees, and parking that doesn't require precision 4 point turns.

I live 6 blocks away from the new site and I cannot believe they will even come close to recreating the location on Birdsall. Maybe 5 years ago before Allison, but that location is no longer heavily wooded (or even partially wooded for that matter) and the views are nothing special - the backsides of HEB and Foodarama and the big grassy ditch that is White Oak Bayou. Very surprising that they would even attempt to use that site, but we'll see what they have planned.