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Asbestos remediation going on at the old Blue Line Bike Lab location that Agricole bought. Never heard anything about what they were going to do over there, but it looks like they are getting started on something.

The old Lee’s Fried Chicken building is turning into a Common Bond take out concept.

For those of you who enjoy consuming their mass quantities, Barnaby's is moving to the spot where Pi Pizza used to be.

So, China dumps steel on the US market and Trump starts a trade war with big tariffs. Saudis do the same with oil (yes, I know it is traded on an international market, but effect is the same) and no one bats an eyelash. Is the benefit of cheap energy to US business great enough that the government just looks the other way and makes the O&G sector take one for the team? Or is our alliance with SA as a counterweight to Iran more important than the domestic O&G sector? I can see how the 2015 glut was something that the energy sector could be expected to ride out as the economy was otherwise doing well. But the Saudis' move potentially could set off a systemic crisis in financial markets with a waive of bond defaults coming out of the O&G sector and spreading to the rest of the corporate bond market. Or does the government just let the Saudis have their fun, bailout the O&G sector and try to recoup the money in arms sales to the Saudis?

https://houston.eater.com/2020/3/10/21173134/sams-fried-chicken-and-donuts-closes Sam's (f/k/a Lee's) Fried chicken and donuts is closing. With the addition of Voodoo donuts, we are certainly at peak donut in the area. And it never seemed like Sambrooks put much effort into Sam's or Pi Pizza.

https://houston.eater.com/2020/3/5/21166526/hoke-poke-heights-open New poke bowl restaurant. I believe it is in the space where Mams and then Taco la Marco was.

Burger Joint is open. Flower Child opens end of March. Be More Pacific opens this week.

Whoever renovated that house put too much money into it. Lousy location. Polk is a busy/noisy street. All that modern cabinetry/design is generally not what people are looking for when they buy a 1920s bungalow. And that all stuff is expensive. So the owner probably has a lot of money in that house. Probably will have a hard time selling it for a price that starts with a 5 instead of a 4, especially as the oil and gas markets are roiling.

Eastwood is about where the Heights was 10 years ago in terms of pricing. House flippers are scurrying around Eastwood like crazy now. I do not think there will be the same trajectory as the Heights because the location is very different. But that is a good thing because the next phase of gentrification would be to teardown everything and build 4400 square foot lot line houses.

That is it. I tried searching for it, but didn't pull up anything for 18th st. or Bevis. When you call everything the "Heights" that is withing a 5 mile radius of the actual Heights, it gets confusing.

Harvey is the builder. Haven't seen anything on the web about it. 7 floors, senior living. Shuffle board courts going in at McIntyre's.

The argument makes the assumption that the incentive was needed. It was not. There are over two thousand multifamily units under development in the Heights in addition to about another 1250 that were built from about the time the downtown living initiative went into place. No one needed a $15k tax credit to build those units. Without a significant increase in affordable housing, Houston will go the way of San Fran, Portland, Seattle, etc. Piles of homeless people everywhere, teachers, fire fighters, police, etc. having to live way out in the burbs and housing costs eating into Houston's ability to compete for new businesses. And the last one is a huge issue as we have no Mt. Rainier, Golden Gate Bridge or Mt. Hood.

The city's budget is $500k. HCDD just administers the distribution of funding from the Feds. The Feds sent Texas @$5 bil after Harvey. About $1.1 bil got sent to Houston. Of that HCDD has put up $100 mil for multifamily. But that is really a Harvey recovery program. The low income housing tax credit also comes from the Feds and is administered by the City. It is a complicated and controversial program. The Houston Housing Authority has the big money. But that is also all from the State and Feds. And that money is for running section 8, maintaining public housing etc. HHA does not build that much anymore. The LIHTC program was intended to replace government run housing. The City of Houston can and should be far more aggressive in building affordable housing. Austin used 380 agreements to get developers to set aside a percentage of units for affordable housing.

The city gave out 15k a unit tax breaks to developers building luxury high rises in downtown Houston. The city damn well better do at least as much for low income housing. Over the next ten years, gentrification on the East Side and near northside is going to take off in a big way and all but catch up to the rest of the inner loop. That will mean that anyone in Houston who cannot afford $1,000+ a month in rent will have to live way outside the loop and have a very long commute into the city and may not be able to find employment in the city if they cannot make public transportation work.

Soft opening at Taqo Kitchen.

DNC won't get away with it this time. This time, the Bernie camp knows it is coming and is prepared. The Bernie team knew that the Iowa caucus was going to be a cluster and had monitors in place at every location. When the app crashed, the Bernie team released their internal results to let the DNC know that they weren't going to be able to get away with anything. The DNC obviously tried to fire back by sending out the results in a way that would grab Pete the Rat a headline to keep him from being totally embarrassed over his "victorious" line. But Bernie won. Now, Bernie has a huge advantage on the ground in NH as Pete the Rat put all his chips on Iowa and has very little presence in NH. The big question will be whether Warren will be the tool for the establishment or give in and throw her support to Bernie in exchange for a VP nod or cabinet position. I think it will become clear that the current DNC leadership's days are numbered and everyone will gradually start lining up to be on team Bernie.

https://www.chron.com/entertainment/restaurants-bars/article/Katz-s-Deli-to-open-in-the-Heights-in-fall-2020-15031794.php#item-85307-tbla-10 Renderings for Katz's. Michael Hsu seems to now be the architect in residence for the Heights.

I was in the apartment market back then. I really wanted to live in Post-Midtown because it was actually like a real city street. The rent for 1 beds was one of the most expensive in the city at almost $1,000. Camden Midtown was more reasonable, but a crumbier complex with ground floor hobos instead of retail. But it was still on the expensive side for back then due to the proximity to downtown. I don't think that this part of the East side is going to gentrify like Midtown and you could actually make a case that Midtown was dumpier back in the early 2000s. But I think this is a good location for affordable housing. There is gentrification creeping out from Eastwood towards Pecan Park. Once it hits a Heights-esque critical mass, the need for affordable housing will just continue to grow. This city needs as many affordable housing units inside the loop as can be built.

https://theleadernews.com/hha-asking-heights-community-to-reimagine-popular-park/ Leader article

https://www.facebook.com/events/794392881037484/ Stay tuned. HHA is going to propose $1 mil redesign of the park.

Architecture in the Heights isn't that hard to figure out. We have late Victorian, Craftsman, some Art Deco and a few MCMs. It is not at all difficult to design something that is in the ballpark of those styles. The Broadstone Waterworks gave it the old college try. Re-vive, Radom and Braun have generally done a nice job paying respects to the historic architecture while also incorporating what the market wants in terms of a more modern aesthetic. The whole "Heights eclectic" thing is basically a way for developers to get a free pass on architecture by looking at buildings that were obviously built without any regard for the historic neighborhood. Just because one guy built a bunch of fake New Orleans style houses in the Heights in the 1990s and early 2000s doesn't mean that the "style" has now become a legitimate part of the Heights. Same for strip malls, McDonalds, public housing, etc. built long after the original Heights went in. Also, I don't think they are being vague about a real project that is in the works. I think that they are just throwing out a design to see what kind of interest is out there. I have seen a bazzillion renderings of projects in and around the Heights and this one is so over the top that I have to say that it does not look like it is anything that will actually happen.

This looks a bit too SimCity to be real. It looks large enough to go all the way from Yale to Rutland. It also looks very purposefully vague as to whether it is office or multifamily on top of retail. I suspect this is just an attempt to see what kind of leasing interest there would be in the property and not an actual rendering of a project that is ready to build.

The space she was in was too small to be anything more than a mere storefront for her bakery business. And midtown is much more of a sleep in/brunch neighborhood with very few families. And, yes, there are apartments above, but there is also Cocos, Minutti and Cafe Poetes nearby selling similar treats with ample seating. It is a no brainer to pick the Heights over midtown if you want to expand out into breakfast and coffee. And it is easier to sell sugar and carbs to an older crowd than to young single people who are all on Keto, caveman or whatever diet that eschews carbs. And there are 2000 multifamily units under development in the Heights. The only question I have for Fluff is why did they leave the Heights to go to midtown in the first place?

Fluff Bakery relocating to Shady Acres and adding breakfast. http://houston.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/01-13-20-fluff-bake-bar-new-location-the-heights-shady-acres-rebecca-masson/

Mainland Autosales moved out. Demo work going on right now on the property to get ready for the Katz's development. The Art Guys statues are gone.