Charles Z

OP has a point on the rail's immediate vicinity. It can be sketchy in most areas, especially at night. Downtown is worse IMO. Walking near Reef has a different feel than walking 100 yards away near the rail at night unless there is an event at Reliant. The Superblock should help. Overall, it's improved over the years, however.

I think it's great. People should have a good time.

Been a couple times. Decent food, especially for a bar. It's upbeat and a good change of pace from some of the other bars. I stuck with beer, so I can't elaborate on the specialty shots except that they look neat. It's ideal if you don't want go to a nice restaurant but don't want to stay at home.

Petco was on the original proposal list, but looks like they took it off and added a spa instead.

When I look at capital's website, it says: Louisiana and McGowen New 14,500 SF Retail Building in the Heart of Midtown. Join Starbucks, PotBelly and Chipotle I assume the Torchy's orginally proposed for this area went to Rice Village???

Looks like this is opening today or tomorrow. http://www.facebook.com/goodlifemidtown?ref=stream

No more flop houses, especially those with multiple sex offenders Chick-fil-a Residental high rises Safer environment for women and children Black Walnut, or something similar More retail (not just bars and restaurants), PetSmart would work

Received this through some e-mails, so passing on the info for those who live by Baldwin Park. The City of Houston Parks and Recreations Department and the Mayor's Office have just approved the use of Baldwin Park on Saturday and Sunday, September 29 and 30, from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., for an event called "Feast of Joy," hosted by a local non-profit organization. During this two-day event, the organizers will "host bible study and other activities under a 20x20 tent as well as feed those who attend." (according to Ricardo E. Magdaleno| Senior Superintendent | Mayor's Office of Special Events). More than 500 homeless individuals are expected to attend and be fed during this event The date of this event has been changed. It is now September 29-30, 2012. -Editor

Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. § 1437f), often simply known as Section 8, as repeatedly amended, authorizes the payment of rental housing assistance to private landlords on behalf of approximately 3.1 million low-income households. It operates through several programs, the largest of which, the Housing Choice Voucher program, pays a large portion of the rents and utilities of about 2.1 million households. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development manages the Section 8 programs.[1] The Housing Choice Voucher Program provides "tenant-based" rental assistance, so an assisted tenant can move with assistance from one unit of at least minimum housing quality to another. It also allows individuals to apply their monthly voucher towards the purchase of a home, with over $17 billion going towards such purchases each year (from ncsha.org analysis). The maximum allowed voucher is $2200 a month. Section 8 also authorizes a variety of "project-based" rental assistance programs, under which the owner reserves some or all of the units in a building for low-income tenants, in return for a Federal government guarantee to make up the difference between the tenant's contribution and the rent specified in the owner's contract with the government. A tenant who leaves a subsidized project will lose access to the project-based subsidy. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and United States Department of Veterans Affairs have a special Section 8 program called VASH (Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing), or HUD-VASH, which gives out a certain number of Section 8 vouchers to eligible homeless and otherwise vulnerable US armed forces veterans.[2]

SteveW, do you just own property in midtown or live in midtown as well? Please explain section 8 for me. I can't see how anyone who owns a townhome or house would view it favorably, but I need to learn more about it.

That area is on the move. The French restaurant just opened as well. 24 is solid. New pastry shop.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2012/01/state_sues_to_close_midtown_co.php

Have you heard anything new on this lot? With Post building towards it and the group of old houses on the its edge, it seems like it will only become more valuable.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Suspect-arrested-in-nightclub-shooting-2412221.php So he had a gun on him in the club. Glad he was caught and arrested.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Three-shot-near-Midtown-bar-2410717.php I was out of the area this weekend, but sounds like there was a shooting near Link Lounge.

I agree. I think it looks hideous. I liked the open to the sidewalk look. Very disappointed.

Cool, thanks for the link.

The Cheerz Bar is now Midtown Drinkery. The old Tipsy Clover crew got together with the Drinkery on Washington owner and opened this weekend. They seemed fairly excited. The place is being renovated to have more of an open feel outside. The bar had quite a few St Arnolds choices on draft. Was a good time.

Right, I would say we don't have a high number of violent type robberies, but with all the transients there is not much room for error on burglary. Either way they were bold enough to try to come in my house and my neighbor's. That can't be denied.

Couple years ago I accidentally left my garage door and house door open over night. It was a mix up with my girlfriend on her closing everything before she went home. Luckily I activated my intrusion alarm. And of course then they stole stuff out of my garage and opened my house door, but I think they were scared away by the alarm as far as entering very far into my house. You can call it a burglary, robbery, home invasion, or whatever, but just the shear fact that someone had the guts to try it has me waking up at 4am quite often nowadays. I double-check everything now before I go to sleep. Also installed a storm door because my neighbor had his regular door kicked in while he was at home on Christmas Day. I'm sure that burglar assumed no one was there during the holidays. It's still scary, and I can't say that my side of Midtown is necessarily safe no matter what the stats say.

Thanks for the feedback regarding the public safety meeting.

Yeah electronics will always attract thieves.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/28353431/detail.html another article

On the management district question, I'm not sure about HPD, but I think that roughly 50% of the budget from the fees we pay to Midtown goes to public safety. It seems that it allows us to have more coverage by Precinct 7. I can verify this with Cynthia Alvarado. The dues have stayed flat of late, so unless you have more tax payers, the amount of precinct 7 constables will stay flat. Brian might be able to elaborate more, but over the years we have slowly added more contables.

Or even how does Midtown compare internally? SE vs NW. Sure we could find the stats on all your questions. Maybe we can get the data from the management district at least for the city.