VicMan

Oh Vicky! Several generations of leave me the ........ alone would have to be overcome to pull this one off .

That also reminds me - what will a new influx of people from various sources (Galveston, the Rust Belt, etc.) change in these cities?

it was a hole. went there to see a movie a few weeks ago; the building reeked of mold, the place was littered with trash and the sound system crapped out halfway through the movie.

Which one are you talking about? Magic Johnson? Or the Edwards Marq*E?

Now that you guys mention the Marq*e, if I remember correctly Magic Johnson Owns that.

Regal Cinemas owns Edwards and therefore owns the Marq*E.

I know that Westpark (along U. S. 59) outside of 610 and before the Westpark recycling center has day laborers.

I heard the most ridiculous thing this morning. California local town govts. are passing bills that if big companies like Home Depot and Lowe's want to do business in their towns, that THEY have to build day labor sites with shelters and bathrooms and drinking water, either on property or close by. This is THE stupidest thing I have ever heard of govt. trying to do.

Which towns and cities?

I agree that is incredibly DUMB.

Since METRO built light rail to be bus replacements, why not offer both commuter rail and light rail to IAH?

The light rail would mainly be intended for airport employees, but the commuter rail would cater to business visitors and tourists in Houston.

Islander East Condominiums has a website here: http://www.islandereast.com/

Now, the Islander East is in Galveston ISD.

GISD's old school boundary maps are from prior to 2006: http://web.archive.org/web/20040512003633/...boundaries.html

In that case, these condos would be zoned to in 2007-2008:

* Rosenberg ES

* Austin MS

* Ball HS

But, in fall 2008, Galveston ISD will rearrange its middle schools so that one campus will hold 5-6 (Weis), one will hold 7-8 (Central), and one will be a 5-8 magnet (Austin).

So, the 2008-(undetermined) school assignments will be:

* Rosenberg ES

* 5-6 MS

* 7-8 MS

* Ball HS

Huh? I thought the Marq*E was dominated by rich people in Memorial...

Did the Cinemark Memorial City Mall sap the Marq*E?

On a brighter note it could always be worse. They could have announced a Fiesta store opening. or what about a Soccer stadium!?

There is a Fiesta in the Houston city limits nearby the Memorial Villages.

Now, here are some school closing steps that HISD should perform now...

1. Close J. Will Jones ES

2. Rezone the closed portions of J. W. Jones ES north and west of SH 288 to either Gregory-Lincoln K-8 and/or Macgregor ES

3. Rezone the closed portions of J. W. Jones ES south and east of SH 288 to Blackshear ES

Now, when Blackshear becomes too small, it can be turned into an early childhood school for the Third Ward area. Ryan can become a K-8 and pick up the former Blackshear ES students.

This project is zoned to Galveston ISD schools.

If all of that land around I-45 to the north of Scholes Airport is zoned to Parker Elementary School (Using the prior to 2006 map here: http://web.archive.org/web/20040512003633/...boundaries.html - As the Parker boundary, I believe, still has that specific area.), that is where this place will probably be zoned to.

In 2007-2008, it will be zoned to Weis Middle School. Yet, in fall 2008, Weis will be converted into a 5-6 facility, while Central will be converted into a 7-8 facility. Both Weis and Central will serve all of Galveston Island.

Ball High School is GISD's sole high school, so this condo will be zoned there.

if did but it wouldn't have worked out with ed wulfe's plan.

Oh - I'm not familiar with Ed Wulfe's restructuring plan.

So, what will go in place of the theater?

I guess Wheatley has been able to revive itself because of the new campus and the fact that MCTC was merged (sort-of - the program moved but the actual school closed) into Wheatley.

Anyway, this reminds me of the debate about the now mostly-African-American Prince George's County. The Next American City wrote an article about PG County, which is in Maryland near Washington, D. C.: http://www.americancity.org/article.php?id_article=135 - This is the DC equivalent of Missouri City.

In other words, while HISD's student base decreases in the inner city, many suburban districts will find that many of their areas will behave like (formerly) inner city areas.

Mo. City was known for not having many apartment complexes and damn near came to blows with Sienna Plantation for the new complexes they are going to build in the neighborhood

They've built a new complex off Hillcroft before Beltway 8 and that's HISD......anything off 288 is HISD

you won't see any complexes come in FBISD closer to Willowridge as the area is landlocked and single family homes sell pretty fast out there....

The africian american areas are ones feeling the effects of the magnet schools....Lamar is using that as a way to get athletes from those areas....but it was a bad effect at the gate athletic wise as those same kids who bus crosstown aren't getting much support when games are played way at Butler Stadium.

AMC now owns Loews and Magic Johnson - So I believe AMC made the decision to axe the Magic Johnson Northline.

If the Magic Johnson had stadium seating... then that's sad.

once again, the key to the next successful movie theatre is who can get the SW Houston market between 2234 to Almeda Road as there's no theatre nearby in those areas

Pearland is the closest but outside of that it's a 15-minute drive at least to the nearest theatre for my old area.....we lost Cinema 6 in Mo. City as other theatres popped up with better amenities and Meyer Park is gone also....

they may need to do one of those zip code surveys to see where most of that area is attending movies...

Magic Johnson's Theatre wasn't bad to attend....nothing but youngsters hung out there but it was decent...I wonder why he's not reopening it as there's a big void on I-45 until Loews in Spring I think....all that does is push the moviegoers to Tinseltown on 290, AMC in Willowbrook or AMC in Humble

I wonder if the Dickinson, Santa Fe, League City, La Marque, and Texas City school districts should be merged into one. That way, all of the residents of southern mainland Galveston County (many of whom would be former GISD residents) would share educational resources.

Also, I notice Tiki Island is split between two school districts...

My point was that you need these hospitals in the ghetto. Just look at our "Doctor's" hospitals on the northside. We need a few of them on the southwest side to give poor Southwest Memorial Herman some relief.

The issue, though, is that this particular hospital was so poorly-run that its license was revoked. Now, UCLA-Harbor, nearby, also treats poor people but spends less money on doctors and has more patients.

King should reopen... as a completely different hospital with a completely new set of staff.

Note: Alamo ES is already gone. I'm not sure which school it was merged into. I should e-mail GISD and ask.

I know that the kids at San Jacinto ES were scattered all across Galveston, and the attendance boundary switched to Rosenberg ES.

I was surprised that it closed - though I probably would not have been if the theater was NOT stadium seating.

The vicinity of Northline Mall has been a seedy area - But I thought that the Aldine/Northline Mall population could support a basic theater from a first run company.

So, that leaves AMC with 8 movie theatres - I believe two (Dunvale and Gulf Pointe) are in the Houston city limits.

EDIT: There are three in the Houston city limits - Willowbrook Mall is in Houston as well.

Aside from Houston, in Harris County, AMC has one in Humble (Deerbrook Mall) and one in unincorporated Harris County (Loews Spring 10).

In Fort Bend County, AMC has one in Stafford (Loews Fountains), one in Sugar Land (First Colony), and one in Katy (Katy Mills Circle).

The closest public hospital is UCLA-Harbor View - several private hospitals surround King-Drew. King-Drew's size was slashed before the event, so the closure should not disrupt the surrounding hospitals too much.

Finally LA County is planning on closing King-Harbor Hospital, formerly King-Drew Hospital.

It became infamous when hospital doctors, janitors, and area police let Edith Rodriguez, who had a perforated bowel, die. That's torture.

Turns out King-Drew had problems since it started.

See: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-kingd...09.storygallery

By 1987, Jones had 1737 kids... below today's standards for 5A (I believe that is around 2,000 pupils): http://www.schooldigger.com/go/TX/schools/...503/school.aspx

By 1988, it fell to 1617. In 1989, it fell to 1399.

I want to check to see if Pearland and Missouri City zone out apartments. If so, this means that Stafford and southern portions of Houston will take the slack for apartments around Pearland and Missouri City.

EDIT: Well, it looks like Missouri City does not have very many multi-family complexes allowed.

See its zoning laws here: http://www.ci.mocity.tx.us/depts/planning/.../section123.pdf

And look at its zoning map: http://ims.ci.mocity.tx.us/zoning/viewer.htm

That means that a lot of Missouri City-area apartments would have to be in Stafford (if Stafford allows any more apartments) or Houston (which has no zoning).

NOW, as for Pearland:

The map is here: http://gisweb2.ci.pearland.tx.us/web/imaps/ (You will need Internet Explorer to view this)

Pearland seems to also zone away many apartment complexes. This puts the apartment burden on portions of Houston.

Now, as for the examples for magnet school draining:

Also, Waltrip's population in 2005 (1819) is higher than it was in 1987 (1759); yes, the population fell after 1989, but it rose after 1999: http://www.schooldigger.com/go/TX/schools/...604/school.aspx

Sharpstown was at 1910 in 1987, and 1761 in 1988. Now it is at 1702 in 2005: http://www.schooldigger.com/go/TX/schools/...583/school.aspx

Jones was the white area (South Park) between 3rd Ward and Sunnyside...it was far from Milby and the Hiram Clarke area wasn't what it was then so that's why it was needed....but at one time, Jones still had 5A enrollment up until the 90s or so when the school changed...

the younger families have migrated south to Pearland, Mo. City, etc. so when people discover South Park's proximity to the loop and the city down the line...no telling who will inhabit the area...

I would say that a combination of perception of better schools (this is often true considering some of the zoned schools in HISD) AND lower housing costs are leading families within 610 not zoned to the elite schools to the suburban districts. This seems to be inevitable even without the magnet schools since the housing costs are rising within 610.

There are some families within HISD that cherrypick schools (e.g. they put kids in HISD public school if the kids get into the "good schools," and opt for charter or private school if the kids do not get into the "good schools.")

I especially agree with the bolded part. The fundamental problem with almost all large school districts across the country is that families are losing confidence in them and they are electing to a.) move to the suburbs, b.) bite the bullet and enroll their kids in private schools, and/or c.) both a) and b.)

The magnet program is like a hybrid of public and private school.

Which magnet schools do you recommend then?

In terms of magnet comprehensives, these schools tend to be favorites:

Middle:

* Johnston

* Lanier

* Pershing

* Pin Oak

High:

* Bellaire

* Lamar

* Westside

And for non-comprehensives...

Elementary & Middle

* T. H. Rogers

High

* Carnegie Vanguard

* DeBakey

* HSPVA

Jones and Sterling could be combined into one attendance boundary.

The reason why Jones, Worthing, and Sterling are in close proximity is due to the days of segregation (I believe Jones and Sterling were White and Worthing was Black). Now, if Jones became a military academy and the attendance boundaries were rezoned to Sterling, let's see what would happen.

Jones: 1,011 in 05-06: http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Jones_HS.pdf

Sterling: 1,114 in 05-06: http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Sterling_HS.pdf

Combined, that would be 2,125 students.

As for the sports rule, why not require out-of-zone students signing up for athletics in Lamar/Bellaire to also take PreAP and AP Core Classes? This requires them to focus on both academics and athletics.

If I had the power to change school district boundaries, I would add Willowridge, and have four comprehensive high schools in the South District. I would put Dobie, Clear Lake, and a newly-built HS (to cover for Houston areas zoned to South Houston HS and Pasadena Memorial HS) in a "Clear Lake Region."

Jones' best days are behind them and Sterling will lose more residents to Dobie and Pearland...a nice-sized neighborhood, Gulf Meadows off Fuqua and Telephone, is zoned to Sterling but closer to Dobie and alot of folks have crossed the lines over the years...Alot of Sterling kids have went to Lamar and with the new Pearland school coming off Cullen, it's going to continue so might as well consolidate now

HISD should've at one time lumped all magnet programs into one central area with the exception of ones needing access to facilities like Sterling's aviation program...as time went on, you would've got a better account of school enrollment and who's going where...

my deal is...if your going to cross the borders...you can't play sports....that would drop populations at Bellaire and Lamar down alot

HBCU, I found a Houston Chronicle article called "HISD wonders if time is right to seek $1 billion" from the Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metrop...an/4911155.html

This does NOT duplicate the insert seen in the newspaper article.

The overall enrollment is expected to shrink from 200,694 students in 2007 to 192,447 in 2016. Knowing that figure...

The South District is expected to grow by 2.2% by 2016 (from 29,639 to 30,281)

The Central District is expected to shrink by 8.0% by 2016 (from 38,425 to 35,343)

The East District is expected to shrink by 10.1% by 2016 (from 32,351 to 29,087)

The North District is expected to shrink by 7% by 2016 (from 39,493 to 36,717)

The West District is expected to shrink by .5% by 2016 (from 54,947 to 54,648)

So, of the three that would shrink substantially, let's look at the newly-yuppie and declining neighborhoods within their bounds (I.E. they are losing low income and family populations):

* Central: Third Ward, Montrose, Midtown, Freedmen's Town, Houston Heights

* East: Eastwood, Second Ward (Also, I believe some industrial areas are losing families too)

* North: Fifth Ward, Northside Village, Downtown Houston, Warehouse District (Yes, that area feeds into Wheatley)

As for other comments:

"consolidate Jones, Sterling and Worthing for a big South Side High School off 288" - I am okay with rebuilding Worthing off of 288 and moving Attucks into the old Worthing campus. Now, the issue is that I wouldn't consolidate Jones and Sterling (at least yet) because the South District is projected to grow by 2.2% by 2016.

"could've been latched on with exisiting schools in the city" - Many magnet groups/parents do not want to be in existing campuses. Some magnets left their comprehensive campuses (While, in the case of MCTC, that school latched on to Wheatley).

"if they move Lamar's IB program to Jones or so...." Jones used to have a magnet, but it split in 2002 and became Carnegie Vanguard High School (CVHS occupies a former elementary school - that school merged into Woodson MS to form Woodson K-8). After the Jones debacle (Read about it here: http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2002-03-07/feature.html), I do not believe that any magnet program will be willing to relocate to Jones. Also, people want an avenue to get into Lamar even if they aren't zoned to Lamar.

"Booker T. has a strong program and needs building renovations..if anything, make it bigger and split Kashmere to Wheatley and Booker T." - Well, I'm not sure if Kashmere kids want to be bussed to Booker T. (Since B. T. Washington is far away). We could merge North Forest into HISD and let the campuses in better condition survive (while the not-as-good condition campuses are closed or converted into military academy schools or some other niche magnets).

The impact those specific FBISD schools had on the district's success now is hard to replace...you let them go and they flourish in HISD, that's alot of tax revenue you lose...Madison isn't growing that much to need all of those areas..alot of their students are at Lamar and Bellaire. If anything, expand Madison to accomodate future growth, consolidate Jones, Sterling and Worthing for a big South Side High School off 288 and your problems are solved.

Since the magnet programs, which were phased in to spread blacks out in the old days for number purposes, are killing enrollments, HISD needs to reasses the programs. In all reality, the losers are the inner city areas because they can't get the programs to attract the large amount of students available...if they move Lamar's IB program to Jones or so....they can spread the enrollment out...Health Professions, law Enforcement, Barbara Jordan and HSPVA could've been latched on with exisiting schools in the city as separate wings or combined for one school instead of individual structures needing individual attention

Acres Homes is split 3 ways and HISD isn't dependent on them as much now...Booker T. has a strong program and needs building renovations..if anything, make it bigger and split Kashmere to Wheatley and Booker T.

http://www.houstonisd.org/HISDConnectDS/v/...nextfmt=default

Due to an expired lease, the Las Americas Education Center (http://ms.houstonisd.org/lasams/) of HISD (5909 Glenmont) is closing.

The early childhood school is being consolidated with the nearby Gabriela Mistral Early Childhood Center.

The fates of the Las Americas Middle School and the Kaleidoscope Middle School are not known as of writing.

Generally-speaking people tend to move away from bad schools and gravitate towards good schools. Thus the declining populations in many areas of HISD. Rather than spending hundreds of millions repairing these facilities. They should certainly demo or selloff these useless assets and consolidate or build new ones.

Most upper middle class and nearly all upper class families with children, who don't live in the Bellaire or Lamar feeder systems will wind up sending their children to Private schools.

If I was HISD, I would not have repaired Blackshear ES (or I would make sure that the building is used in some OTHER capacity) - I would have instead opted to consolidate Blackshear into Ryan MS and turn Ryan into a K-8. Perhaps HISD could turn Blackshear into a regional Early Childhood center for Third Ward families (HISD will introduce tuition-based PreK). HISD used that trick to turn Concord into an Early Childhood school and move the elementary school kids to Isaacs ES.

Now, even though Kay On-Going (which was renovated with our bond package) later closed as a school, the district is using the building as a HQ for the police department, and there are plans to move the Harper Alternative School to the Kay On-Going campus.