cwrm4

Was your spin in early, mid, or late morning?

It was about 10:30 in the morning, on a nice, bright, perfect day. The kind of day that makes you wish you could walk around to shops and cafes if only they existed in Midtown. But they don't because of the Greyhound station.

The first time it happened was about 4 years ago just after dark on a week night. A guy was walking across the street when he stopped in the middle of the street and let loose in front of me on the crosswalk on Webster. I do think he was severely drunk and/or "mentally disadvantaged". The guy Saturday was just being an a**hole.

I did have some friends' Midtown townhome robbed a few years ago by a guy who had been released from prison that morning. He said he had just started walking from the bus station, got hungry, and needed some money (he was caught in the act by a neighbor). They moved shortly thereafter.

Frankly, I think it needs to stay in the general vicinity of it's current location, but needs a north/south if it stays on the line instead of the current east/west alignment.

Great. And keep stunting the development of Midtown within 5 blocks of the bus station.

I am perhaps a bit bitter as Sat morning I took my old Porsche out for a spin. I got caught at the light, and some guy fresh off the bus dropped his bag, walked close to my car, and pulled out his johnson in an apparent attempt to urinate on my wheel. (I ran the light). Here's the kicker - that's the second time that exact scenario has happened to me by the bus station.

Midtown will never become a desirable place to live as long as the bus station stays in its current location. That's just reality.

So, will the new CVS be across the street from the new Walgreens, or cattycorner from it?

I suspect catty-corner to it; whether or not Tillman bought it is still a subject of debate, but Someburger looks like an easy target...

If the Walgreens fronted both sides of the street, looked Heights-ish, and had parking behind it or well-off the corner, I would not be opposed. But I fear a building set well off the street. I do not think in any way the former 7-11 reflects a "Heights Vibe"; I'd like to see it replaced with *something* that does. A suburban Walgreens is not it.

So the hot, disturbing rumour circulating throughout the neighborhood is that Walgreens is planning to build on the SE corner of 11th and Studewood, on the site of the current Texas Tamales Factory, and the adjoining lots.

The Tamales Factory looks pretty bad, but the opposing corners are Someburger, 11th Street Cafe, and Dacapos, which all fit nicely with the Heights vibe.

It sickens me to think of a Walgreens there, but, if I'm the guy trying to carpet Houston with Walgreens, that's a spot I'd choose.

Can anyone confirm or deny this rumour?

Its awesome they are devolping Cinty Centre so fast, I thought It would be years before they revitalized T&C, I guess it figures with the Katy FWY expansion and all.

Let's hope TxDOT has planned for the increased traffic in their end design. And let's hope the Katy freeway is finished before they even start construction on "City Centre". Yesterday at lunch it took me 35 minutes to go north on the BW8 feeder, from Memorial to the I-10 eastbound feeder.

Sounds like management theory BS to me. They put the big dogs in the center, so they are more accessible to the rank and file, then promote their "open-door" policy.

I suspect you are right, and, ironically, interior offices for partners will likely have the opposite effect. As a former Big 3/4/5 consulting executive myself, here's how it plays out in the real world. Partners are in the office at most 1 or 2 days a week. Any more than that, and they're on the way out, because very rarely can you generate revenue sitting in the firm's office. (fyi most firms use a "hoteling" arrangement such that there are no "permanent" offices).

You spend most of your time at a client, conference, or on an airplane. And you live in a state of deferred jet lag. Plus, nearly all execs have nicely outfitted home offices. The only reasons most partners go into is 1) a bigger partner is in the office, 2) look at the new "talent" fresh out of school, 3) take the new "talent", and anyone else you need a favour from, out to lunch on the company. So the best way for the rank-and-file to "network" with the big dogs is to be hanging around the office at lunchtime, looking hungry.

But let's say the partner, who has spent most of the week in an interior office/conference room/closet at the client site, and is jet-lagged to hell, and likely hungover, has to come in and fight off sleep sitting in a windowless office at "the office". Not likely. They'll stay at home, crack-berrying away. And the rank-and-file won't even see them. So much for generating an "open-door" environment. That's how the real world works.

Would someone please explain this quote from the above mentioned Chron article:

"The Gensler architecture firm is designing Deloitte's interior space in Heritage Plaza. Unlike its current space where partners are in window offices along the building's perimeter, the new space will have them in interior offices.

"It'll be a lot smarter space," Bennett said. "That's what we're doing in all the new offices we're building across the country."

Do Deloitte partners, who make an average of somewhere around $400k/yr, have some sort of ADD and the outside world is too much of a distraction for them? Does lack of sunlight make you smarter?

Source: Houston Chronicle, linked above^^^

Which direction is that view looking? South?

I wished they had built a Target SuperCenter instead. Last evening, I noticed a tagger has been defacing the area (entrance sign for Target/Wachovia). The store also has an active police presence scanning the parking lot area (witnessed the officer using binoculars). Did something happen recently?

I was there one night last week, and parked in a handicap spot was a Buick LeSabre with spinnin' rims, disgorging lots of blown-out bass sound, with two young urbanites sitting in the car passing a joint back and forth (you could smell it). Even I sped up a little walking past them. Imagine how a cute young white girl from some Gables complex would have reacted. I suspect those characters (and similar I've seen there) and part of the reason for the increased presence of Houston's finest.

And to think all the Heights yuppies once thought Sawyer Heights was going to be Highland Village, Part Deux.

It's always been funny to me that in Houston people hate the idea of living on a busy street or near the highway. In pretty much most of the world, the most expensive and highly sought after real estate is in high traffic, high density zones. Think Boston's Back Bay, Union Square, Mahattan...

Comparing Manhattan to I-10 frontage isn't exactly fair or correct. I have been lucky enough to live on or just off the "most happening" streets in a number of large cities, inlcuding 1 block off Orchard Rd. (Singapore); 2 blocks off the Champs d'Elysees; on Place Stephanie (Brussels), on Locust (Philadelphia), and more. I found the sounds of those cities invigorating...it was people and acitivity and life. And all I had to do was walk out my front door, and I was in it. I'll pay a premium for that.

But living 100 ft from the deafening, numbing, continual din of I-10 - and have to get in my car to go anywhere - is not something I'd pay for. That's annoying. And depressing. If I can't live where I can walk to whatever I want, I want peace and quiet (within an easy drive or long walk to the places I want to frequent). That's what I'll pay a premium for in Houston.

I suspect the fact that those houses on Pecore haven't sold is due both to traffic AND to the fact that a bulk of the crime in this neighborhood occurs on the main streets, including Pecore (just last weekend a guy was mugged at gunpoint at 9pm in Andy's parking lot). Houses on busy streets in the expensive big cities have minimal access points. Houses on Pecore do not.

The garage will likely be surrounded by the apartments, so hopefully we will not be looking at it. I cannot find the sketch that suggested that, and it is entirely possible that they have redesigned the apartments, but that is how I remember it.

Based on my quick glance last night it appeared that there were plumbing/sewer connections in front of the garage (i.e., between the garage and I-10), which would seem to confirm that the garage will be enclosed by the apartments.

Still, you have to wonder who would want to live in an apartment that close to the freeway. I did read somewhere recently that the apts would be shod in "vintage-style brick", so, hey, at least they won't be faux stucco, err, "Mediterranean-inspired".

Somehow the Houston Heights Association go them to modify (somehwat) the design of the one they built on 20th street...so there is hope but, given what CVS did with the one by Farrago, I wouldn't get my hopes up.

The CVS was mentioned in the recent WSJ article entitled "Houston's Midtown Vision Falters".

In that article, it stated the drive-thru lane would be between Main St. and the CVS building, "angering the Midtown Management District".

Based on my observations, a large majority of those who dwell in the newish apartments that litter Studewood (and soon Sawyer Heights) are single or newly married twenty-somethings that grew up in Kingwood or Sugarland, and moved to "downtown" after A&M because that's what everyone does for a few years. As soon as they hit 28 or so, they'll be married, expecting, and happily moving back to the 'burbs, where a night out means baby-rack ribs at 6 pm.

These people will be looking forward to the opening of Chili's @ Sawyer Heights. Reminds them of home. And makes them realize they want to move back.

Old Heights Gas Station

Unfortunately that one is a goner. That place, along with several houses around, it were sold off in one deal I believe (note the for sale signs on the two houses just north). That area of the Heights is in hyper McMansionization mode.

Great pictures though...especially the "real" mansions.

I've followed this thread for a while and finally ate at the District 7 today with my sister.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised...the food was excellent and the staff/owner very friendly (almost overly so). I had the tuna burger, and it was extremely good. I will definitely be back.

The owner told me they are in the process of getting a liquor license and are converting the area in front to a patio with awning.

In the early afternoon today there was a steady stream of customers, and even saw two different people walk over from the Post Lofts area and pick up take-out (not a very Houston thing to do!)

The only downside was that afterwards my sister said the owner and waiter talked only to me and not to her...perhaps its a cultural deal (the owner is Turkish I believe). I did not notice but she said she was slightly offended.

I think the best analogy to what Weingarten is probably doing is shaking up a Coke can, letting a bit of bubbles out, shaking it up again, letting a few more bubbles out, and then one day, at night, when the Coke is flat, in come the bulldozers, and no one is going to have the energy or interest to fight it.

I hate to see both sites demo'd, but I'm pretty sure it will happen eventually. This is a developer's city, as others have noted.

My grandfather was president of the National Association of Couny Engineers in the 1960s, and he told me on one occasion he was invited down to Houston by some of the county staff to lead a workshop about implementing zoning rules, neighborhood preservation, and creating "neighborhood-friendly" roads and freeways.

So he came to Houston, set-up the workshop, and the second it started, the "County Judge" walked in the room, told the participants to "get the hell back to their jobs" and told my grandfather that he had "5 minutes to get the hell out of Houston, and 2 hours to get the hell out of Texas, becuase we're gonna do damn well what we please in this town".

The few times he's been to Houston since, it's a non-stop commentary from him about "what could have been". As much as we'd like to think otherwise, I don't think much has really changed.

That plane in the foreground almost has the wing profile etc, of

a P-51 mustang... The twin on the lower left looks kinda like an

old Beech D-18... Can't make out the tail too good though..

The twin is a Cessna T-50 Bobcat, also known as the "Bamboo Bomber", since it was made entirely of wood. After the war they were sold cheap as surplus and bought as personal/business aircraft, but rot and the accumulated stresses of wartime training use meant many were soon pushed off into the weeds at the airport, an unfortunate fate that, from the picture, may have befallen this example as well.

What is really interesting is there is apparently a B-24 Liberator bomber on the top right. Only two of those exist in flying condition today out of the ~20,000 built during the war.

Those do appear to be P-51 Mustangs in the lower right. Restored, they would each be worth $1.5+ million today.

What a cool picture. Makes me get all nostalgic.

Well, here's what I've observed...my sister, who also lives in the Heights (though, bless her heart, still has one foot in the Old South), went right after Target opened. I asked her what she thought, and she said "nice store, but I didn't see any other white people in there". I just gave her a puzzled look.

So then on Monday morning I sensed an impending TP crisis and therefore decided it was time I checked out this hot new Target. I went about 7 pm on Monday night. Nobody hassled me, and every Target staffer, and customer I bumped into, couldn't have been nicer.

However, the customer demographic was definitely not what i was expecting. I'd say fully 70% of the people in there previously shopped at the Dollar General on Cavalcade. Not what I'd expect at a Target...I admit that my experience at the one on San Felipe generally makes me think of the place as being full of mid-twenties women looking for candles and picture frames to fill up their Gables apartments.

Obviously, the observations from my one visit Monday night may not be representative of the whole picture, but it makes me wonder what other tenants will fill out the complex.

If I were a developer and tracking the actual demographic that frequents the anchor store, I might be more inclined to put in an ACE Cash Express and an AutoZone instead of a La Madeliene and a Whole Foods. I didn't see many people during my visit who looked like they would buy crepes and soy milk, but I did see a few folks using jumper cables in the parking lot.

The large majority of people who spend money (and I money the people who REALLY spend the money) in that area gleefully tore down existing 1930's West U homes to build their generic McMansions...you can forget about these people feeling any pangs of nostalgia for the original Rice Village.

That development will happen, and so will many others that will wipe out what is left of the Village.

It seems the Weingarten family has found a stinging way to retaliate for the offensive treatment they long received from the River Oaks community.

Yeah, even if she went to prison and her husband screwed thousands of dumb but innocent Houstonians, you just don't not invite Lea (Weingarten) Fastow to your summer lawn party.

Momentum must definitely be building for a unprecented scale on the Save the River Oaks Theater initiative...I just got a mass email from a longtime friend in LONDON (who hasn't lived in Houston in years) about signing the online petition....

I lunched today at the Goode Co. BBQ on I-10 and was somewhat shocked when the worn-out cowboy type at the table next to me lighted up a Marlboro.

Looking around, I noticed that there were ashtrays on some of the other tables.

What gives? Is Goode Company in the City of Bunker Hill and thus not subject to the No Smoking Ordinance?

I just spoke to some Target trainees outside waiting for the bus, and they said the........ drumroll please.....

Chick-Fil-A

is going in next to Target.

They could be wrong I suppose, but that's the latest.

I suspect it is not coincidental that there is a Chick-Fil-A billboard, complete with the 3D cows, right next to the Target sign off I-10.

BTW mistergreen, love your place as well.

Is that in the city of Houston itself, or does that figure include suburbs?

...or the Harris County jail?