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Thanks for the softball. How about 3.4 miles? Or 5.4 miles (mostly freeway)? The Walmart on Crosstimbers is in an appropriate location. Tons of access. 4 lane roads on the side and back of the development. The front of the development shares a drive with a large retail development that fronts the feeder. Does not directly abut residential development. Tons of pre-existing retail development. Silber is a little more of a shoehorn fit, but far better than Yale St. Also does not directly abut residential development. Traffic on Silber is light compared to Yale St. Not as critical an artery for commuters. So, why in a city that is grown by leaps and bounds do you pile on tax dollars to get an extra Walmart when residential, retail and other uses are sorely needed inside the loop?

Yeah. It has always just been about HEB instead of Walmart and my personal preferences. It had nothing to do with the fact that a mixed use development would have generated way more in property tax revenue, would have done way more to move up property values in the West End (development would have taken place because of the new development instead of inspite of the new development), and nothing to do with the undeniable need for more housing (net gain of only @100-150 units over @35 acres including all the various parcels) and wanting what everyone else in Houston is getting (City Centre, Post Oak on W. Gray, West Ave, Regent Square, etc.) instead of the FM 1960ification of the Heights. The real "wow" is that Houston is such a dynamic and fast growing city, but people actually look at a dead end development like this Walmart and fail to see the obvious negatives. But, that is to be expected from those who have just gone a long for the development ride with Houston and are happy with the slogan "Houston: You should have seen it ten years ago".

The type of retail that is desired by the neighborhood's demographics. With a few exceptions, the Airline markets are generally serving a Spanish speaking lower/middle class demographic that has largerly moved out of the Heights.

It is generally par for the course north of I-10 in terms of quality of construction. I have seen better work done in Montrose/River Oaks on higher end townhomes. Townhomes don't fit in with the neighborhood. However, I will give them some credit for at least paying lip service to the craftsman architecture in the neighborhood. If you look at the renderings in the har.com post above, you will see that they are giving it the old college try, save and except for the lick and stick stone siding.

1. It is on the best route out of the neighborhood that does not have a rail road crossing at grade. 2. Many of the anti-Walmart leaders were from the West End, not the Heights. The guy who started the facebook page lived just behind the Walmart. 3. Just what the hell are the boundaries for Montrose, anyway? 4. As noted above, Montrose got a beautiful HEB and is just as close to retail development south of 59. For the Heights, there is very little retail development in the area by comparison to the areas from Rice Village up to W. Gray. The Walmart property was our best chance to see some comparable development. 5. Who said that people in Montrose weren't against Walmart? I saw lots of posts from people in Montrose on the anti-Walmart facebook page.

The address is 2802 Morrison. http://search.har.com/engine/2802-Morrison-309-Houston-TX-77009_HAR46285252.htm It is not the old folks home. It is on a 25,000 sq ft lot that is just north and perpendicular to the old folks home.

I meant the Piedmont, which is actually on Rosine. The Mirabeau down the street on Waugh is definitely higher quality and for a different market segment. I think that people aren't looking for condos in Houston, but will have to settle for them if they want to live inside the loop, whether in the Heights or elsewhere, at the $250-350k price point. It is just one of those critical mass things with condos. It is a big risk to buy if the resale market is weak. That has been the case for Houston for a long time. But, if the resale market gets some steam due to the lack of housing at the $250-350k price point, then condos become an attractive alternative to renting.

That is what I am getting at. Atlanta underwent a big condo conversion push when Buckhead got hot in the late 80s early 90s. Atlanta certainly has enough sprawl that everyone can get an affordable home in the burbs. But, all the young singles and couples, as well as confirmed bachelors and empty nesters, wanted to be in Buckhead. There wasn't enough land to build more apartment and not enough big investment dollars to do high rises (those would eventually come later). So, they started converting apartments into condos. If the current trends continue unabated, I could see condos becoming more popular in Houston as rent prices get to be the same as owning. Just not sure whether people would want to buy a condo in the current ubiquitous pencil box design or would prefer new construction like this place, the condos on Waugh or the one in Jackson Hill.

Ugliness aside, that is very interesting. Given the price inflation of single family and town homes inside the loop, you would think that there would be more development of condos at this price point (217k-364k). But, we just keep seeing apartments getting built. It will be interesting to see whether Houston gets swept up by condo conversions like what happened when areas of Boston, Atlanta, Chicago went got hot in the 80s. Also would be interesting to see whether this kind of product will replace the medium sized garden style apartment complexes in the Heights area. According to the website, they have already sold 11 of 36 units with pre-construction pricing through September. If they can reach 60-70% sold before construction starts, that will mean enough demand to get similar projects financed in Houston.

Hearing through the grapevine of a mid-rise multifamily going in on Morrison. Only possible lot would be where the old folks home is currently located. According to HCAD, that property was sold to what looks like an investor back in 2007. Plans to build may have been put on hold during the market crash. Anyone heard anything?

It is my hypothetical. I can do with it as I please. And if you want to talk about sounding stupid, your endless parsing of "lot" and "clear cut" to somehow give you a feeling of superiority is stupid. But, I do readily play along for the fun of it, without conceding anything.

Hiring enough minimum wage employees to keep the shelves stocked is not expensive, especially for the largest retailer in the world (not the largest corporation in the world, Royal Dutch Shell and Chinese banks are larger). But Walmart is such a penny pincher that they actually lost sales because they skimped so much on labor costs that they did not have enough people to keep shelves stocked. Radio ads are expensive compared to the cost of an extra few minimum wage workers. But you think that your beloved Walmart could not possibly be anything other than a runaway success in the Houston market and cannot stand the fact that they are sweating the competition from Kroger in a big way, and confirming my original opinion that the Walmart is just there to try to take market share (originally Target, but now Kroger is much more in play with their Studewood store).

So, if you were a realtor and had a lot in the Heights that had two giant sycamore trees in the right of way, but was otherwise free of trees, you would advertise it as being "clear cut"? The point isn't property lines. The point is being completely devoid of trees. I was simply making the uncontroversial point that any normal person would not call a lot "clear cut" if there were trees in the right of way as those trees would easily protrude over the property line and cast their awful dead leaves all over the property and leave their horrific seed balls everywhere, dashing the hopes of the buyer who seeks a clear cut lot so they are free of the horrors of nature.

So, by "clear cut your lot", you actually meant clear cutting everything except for the trees in the right of way--the most visible trees on the entire lot. Not a very "clear" cut.

Or they can move to communistical West University. Oops.

I don't know. But, you should call the police and have them open a criminal investigation. You should also recommend to the developer/land owner that they should put up a $5,000 retainer to file a civil lawsuit. I can tolerate smash and grabs, bikes getting stolen and break ins, but trespassing arborists on vacant lots is something that must be stopped so we can all sleep at night. Where were those folks handing out free guns in Oak Forest when you need them?

If it is in the right of way, they can. If not, they may be able to do something in the future: http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/1371571107-Should-Houston-Try-Harder-To-Protect-Neighborhood-Trees.html

Walmart rarely does store specific radio advertising. I had never heard one until the Heights Walmart ads. Radio ads are expensive. If sales were good at the Heights location, Walmart would not invest in the advertising. They would just do their usual print fliers. There is no company in the world that is more cost conscious that Walmart. They are cost conscious to a fault. It is not at all a stretch to conclude that the ad campaign has been prompted by poor sales.

They have had a Heights specific radio campaign for a while now. It has been directed at Kroger. The ads have "Heights Moms" who allegedly have comparison shopped between Walmart and Kroger. At the end of the ad, there is a disclaimer that the "Heights Moms" have been compensated. Looks like Walmart isn't getting the kind of grocery sales they wanted.

A certified arborist from the Houston Arboretum examined the tree and found that it was in good condition and healthy. It had grown six inches since it was put on the tree registry. It just needed some trimming and TLC. The tree is on the corner of the property. It would have been easy to build around it. The developer is probably wanting to build another lot line monstrosity as it is outside of the HD. If you want a clear cut subdivision without any of those deadly killer trees, there are several million acres to choose from in Houston.

Ignorance is bliss. Why risk educating yourself about a subject and making an informed and objective judgment on the merits when you can just fall on your ingorant prejudices against people in the Heights who are outspoken about the development of their community.

A grassy field is better than a Walmart if that means that something better will be developed. If you look around Houston inside the loop, something better is being developed almost everywhere you look. West Ave, Post Oak at W. Gray, Regent Square, the Mix midtown, Kirby Grove, River Oaks District, Sage Hotel, and 2801 Weslayan. On every lot, you could put up a strip mall and say that it was better than what was there before (grassy field, run down garden style apartments, etc.). But if the developers went for the quick money and put in more strip malls and big box stores, development inside the loop would be crap compared to what is actually going in.

So, you are saying that the torrid housing market has nothing to do with it? Are you saying that Frank Liu has been selling out townhome developments that are going up next to rail yards and steel mills just because of the fine mediteranean architecture and not because the housing market inside the loop is off the charts? Redevlopment of the West End, including the properties next to Walmart, was in full swing long before Walmart broke ground. In the current market, the development of that property is just a footnote on the reasons why investors are buying up property and developing over there.

Are you saying new development wasn't already under way in the West End prior to Walmart?

Agreed. However, Portland has a very small half marathon (@1800) for a total of 10,000 to 11,000 finishers for both events.. The Houston half has over 10,000 finishers for @16,700 finishers for both events. The challenge for Houston has been balancing the two very successful events. The new course is designed to do that by taking away the choke points (via duct and where the half and full meet on the same street) and getting everyone to start on the same start line. Even though the course will miss out on a great neighborhood, it will still be way better than Portland which seems to go out of its way to find ugly inustrial areas and empty sections of highway for the race course. At least half of the course is through industrial areas of Portland. Houston is picturesque by contrast.