Houston Northwest Chamber Seeks Help Naming Our Community

[mrfootball]

Houston Northwest Chamber seeks help "Naming Our Community"

By TODD HVEEM

Chronicle Correspondent

The Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce will hold a "Naming Our Community" session from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, at the Cypress Creek Christian Community Center, 6823 Cypresswood Dr.

"This town hall is step one to not just name the community. We may or may not accomplish that," said Northwest Chamber of Commerce president Barbara Thomason. "This town hall also is for defining and visioning for the future. We want to take the first step toward creating the kind of community we want six to ten years down the road."

The "community" in question sits between Harris and Montgomery county, Thomason said.

"The people who live in the Cy-Fair area don't have this problem. They just say they are from the Cy-Fair area," Thomason said. "The people in our area have an identity crisis.

"We all know and love this area. But we have no firm boundaries. That is one of the things we want to do in this session is explore our boundaries."

Thomason said those boundaries range from the west side of Texas 249 the county line, east of Interstate-45 to Aldine-Westfield and south of the Sam Houston Tollway.

"We consider that to be our community," she said. "But it really doesn't have a name. Some people call it the Champions area. Others call it the Spring-Klein area, Northwest Houston or the Great Northwest. We also have had it called the FM 1960 area. But there is no definite name."

Thomason said all community members are welcome to attend the free three-hour event.

"This is going to be a facilitated session," she said. "We are going to divide into groups, answer questions about our values and amenities, then come back as part of the larger group and report our small group results."

Thomason said she has some names in mind, but she doesn't want to sway anybody's opinion before the session.

"We want this to be lively, interactive and, hopefully, a lot of fun," she said. "We want this to be kind of a process for everyone.

"I have been in a group process where my mind has been changed. We want everyone to be able to provide input and have their minds changed."

Thomason said the new Cypress Creek Cultural District decided to undertake this project before it started to promote the area.

"The Houston Northwest Chamber has provided money for the new Cypress Creek Cultural District organization," she said. "But we all decided that before we go forward, there are a lot of things we need to create as a foundation. This will be a big step."

Thomason said the Chamber plans to send out letters and invite elected officials and media members to the "Naming Our Community" session.

"We would be ecstatic if we had a name that day," she said. "But that is not our expectation. What is more important is the process over the product. The product will come if the process is handled right."

The meeting will be facilitated by Tom Davis, executive director for the Cypress Creek Cultural District and owner of The Davis Alliance.

"This is an important effort that will impact our area in a significant way," Thomason said. "Businesses will benefit from the fact that customers will understand where their establishments are located; the media will be better able to communicate our region to the rest of the world; and future generations will be glad for the steps we take to define the community."

Thomason said if a new name is selected during the forum, the group will bounce it off the local media before it makes the name official.

"The other day I was in a lunch meeting," she said. "One of the first things I asked was how many of you have ever struggled for a name to call our area. The first hands to shoot up were the reporters. We definitely want to include them in this process."

For information on the meeting or the Houston Northwest Chamber, call 281-440-4160

[ChampionsAdam]

That should be a fun one. The area has pockets of individual neighborhoods. Klein seems more suitable north of Cypress Creek or Louetta, Champions seems more from Stuebner Airline to Cutten and Bammel N Houston to Louetta. The area from Stuebner east to 45 and south of Cypress Creek is just more obscure I guess I think of it more as the 1960 area. It does seem to have a big identity crisis. I suppose pick a landmark and run with it. I could live with the Great Northwest, the area is full of history and interest. I don't think we will ever stop referring to the little pockets as "such and such" area however. HAR real estate listings are the same way... I'm considered 1960/Champions and further towards Kuykendahl it's 1960/45...so The Great Northwest sounds like a good way to package it all together!

[TheNiche]

The Great Northwest sounds like a good way to package it all together!

Does it need to be packaged all together?

[Guest danax]

Does it need to be packaged all together?

We've got another case of marketing here. They're trying to artificially name an area based on a map and I'm not sure if that ever really works, but it's fun to play with anyway.

I tend to generically call it Spring or 1960 area, although the stuff around the Belt is something else.

Hmm. As opposed to more inner-city areas where major streets are the acknowledged boundaries, in these suburban areas the freeways serve that purpose. So instead of SoDo we'd have Wo45?

Let's see; North of the tollway, west of Aldine-Westfield (or maybe the Hardy tollroad instead). How about "between the tollways" and shorten that to....BeTo. If they ever turn 249 into a toll road that would be perfect. And it has a spanish flavor too . Or just "NoBe" for north of the beltway, or NoTo for north of the tollway?

It's really Greater Houston, as opposed to Cypress and The Woodlands and east of Two-Forty-Nine and north of the tollway.

Gh-et-to? I give up.

[ChampionsAdam]

Gh-et-to? I give up.

what's up with the Ghetto comment? If that's in reference to the north Houston area you are sorely mistaken. Perhaps you have not been up to Champions? If so then your Ghetto comment is way out of line. I would certainly much live up here in a beautiful home in a well maintained deed restricted community than in "the loop".

[CDeb]

My parents live in Olde Oaks. When I call them, the phone bill says "Bammel." It seems like a lot of these places already have names (as someone posted earlier), why not just make those more known to the general populace?

[ChampionsAdam]

My parents live in Olde Oaks. When I call them, the phone bill says "Bammel." It seems like a lot of these places already have names (as someone posted earlier), why not just make those more known to the general populace?

Another pioneer family in the area. Named for Charley Bammel who settled in the area of 1960/Kuykendahl in 1915, according to area History. The Klein ISD has a cool little area on their website devoted to the history of the area and mentions this little piece of history on the Bammel name.

[Jeebus]

Thomason said those boundaries range from the west side of Texas 249 the county line, east of Interstate-45 to Aldine-Westfield and south of the Sam Houston Tollway.

The way these boundaries are described, it makes it sound like all the area in between 249 & 45 isn't even included!

what's up with the Ghetto comment? If that's in reference to the north Houston area you are sorely mistaken. Perhaps you have not been up to Champions? If so then your Ghetto comment is way out of line. I would certainly much live up here in a beautiful home in a well maintained deed restricted community than in "the loop".

Oh Hush.. Is he sorely mistaken? Then perhaps you can expain Camden Park? Perhaps you can also explain why Westfield High has become such a ghetto as well. There's more to the "Greater Champions Area" than just the Champions & the "fine dining" along FM1960.

[ChampionsAdam]

The way these boundaries are described, it makes it sound like all the area in between 249 & 45 isn't even included!

Oh Hush.. Is he sorely mistaken? Then perhaps you can expain Camden Park? Perhaps you can also explain why Westfield High has become such a ghetto as well. There's more to the "Greater Champions Area" than just the Champions & the "fine dining" along FM1960.

We can blame Spring ISD for the Westfield issue. If you don't live up here it would make little sense to have me explain it to you. But as a whole the area has stood up well to the test of time. You can't say that for most of the other areas of Houston that sprouted up in the 1970's and again I would rather live up here than down there.

[mrfootball]

Pardon me if I chuckle at some of the ignorant comments made by the clueless...

Excuse me, 'ghetto'? Hardly. Demographically, this area has one of the highest average household incomes in the city. 77379 is one of the top 10 zips in Harris county. As for Westfield and KF, well those are the only 2 out of some 9 area high schools that would fit that description. I can think of many other parts of town (yours perhaps) far worse off than that. Far more positives than negatives.

[ChampionsAdam]

Pardon me if I chuckle at some of the ignorant comments made by the clueless...

Excuse me, 'ghetto'? Hardly. Demographically, this area has one of the highest average household incomes in the city. 77379 is one of the top 10 zips in Harris county. As for Westfield and KF, well those are the 2 out of 9 area high schools that would fit that description. I can think of many other parts of town far worse off than that. Far more positives than negatives.

Thanks for the back up (sort of). Perhaps you can explain to me why the other Klein High Schools are "better" than Klein Forest? They all scored "acceptable" this does not make me believe KF any worse off than the other three. But, again perhaps you can shed some light on this for me? I hear the negative comments about Klein Forest I just want some good reasons.

[mrfootball]

KF has great neighborhoods zoned to it like Woods of Wimbledon, Greenwood, and a portion of Huntwick...ideally, they need to rezone these to Klein HS. Is there any movement on this?

For anyone interested, this is one of the most recent detailed Demographic studies of the area in the 'Great Northwest':

http://www.vintageparkhouston.com/demographics.pdf

[ChampionsAdam]

KF has great neighborhoods zoned to it like Woods of Wimbledon, Greenwood, and a portion of Huntwick...they need to rezone these to Klein HS. Is there any movement on this?

For anyone interested, this is one of the most recent detailed Demographic studies of the area in the 'Great Northwest':

http://www.vintageparkhouston.com/demographics.pdf

Why move the subdivisons to Klein? It doesn't make much sense to send kids from 1960 up to Louetta. What is the "problem" with KF? Again, all of the schools met with only acceptable school ratings, so I'm not getting this thing with Klein Forest. I would just like some answers to substantiate the negative stigma that is associated with the school.

[Guest danax]

what's up with the Ghetto comment? If that's in reference to the north Houston area you are sorely mistaken. Perhaps you have not been up to Champions? If so then your Ghetto comment is way out of line. I would certainly much live up here in a beautiful home in a well maintained deed restricted community than in "the loop".

Just having a little morning fun with words. I've always liked those jumbled word puzzles and poking fun at those creators of those contrived names.

I am familiar with that area. I used to live off of 1960 east of Aldine Westfield and my ex still lives there. She believes all of that area near her has declined. My daughter went to Spring High and her impression was that Westfield and Nimitz were "ghetto". Obviously, Champions isn't ghetto. I know someone who owns a home near 1960 and Ella and they feel there are many "ghetto" apartments nearby. My impressions of some parts south of 1960 and north of the Belt is "semi-ghetto" and likely moving more and more in that direction.

But, these are limited experiences which might not correctly reflect the overall quality of life in those areas. I do live inside the loop on the East End and my neighborhood might be considered "ghetto" but I know life is secretly good here, although I would like to see it more well maintained.

Good to see you all defending your area so vigorously and I wish the Chamber well in their attempt to name and promote the area. Perhaps part of their desire is to offset some of the growing negative perceptions of those mentioned zones.

[PureAuteur]

The demographic shift that took place at KF in the 1990s is becoming more complete now, leaving just a few upper middle income neighborhoods as maybe a 10% minority at the school. Those neighborhoods are where you will get the most volunteering and parental involvement. The neighborhoods on the right side of Bammel N. Houston as you drive north, as well as the neighborhoods south of the Beltway 8 zoned to KF are working class and mostly non-white students. I can see how there would be a demographics conflict there. The best way to resolve it would be to rezone some of those students to either Eisenhower or the new DeCaney H.S. and get more upper income neighborhoods into KF. This will also help the Klein I.S.D. overall, possibly keeping them from having to build another high school. They can get by easily with Klein Oak, Collins, Forest, and the original.

[RedScare]

How about the "Port of Northwest Harris County"? It worked north of here.

On a side note, I wonder why every thread about "The Great Northwest" always becomes a thinly (or not so thinly) veiled discussion of the racial makeup of the schools, neighborhoods and apartments located in the area. It is almost as if that is the defining criteria for everything in the "Great Northwest", be it schools, subdivisions, shopping centers or fast food restaurants.

[ChampionsAdam]

The demographic shift that took place at KF in the 1990s is becoming more complete now, leaving just a few upper middle income neighborhoods as maybe a 10% minority at the school. Those neighborhoods are where you will get the most volunteering and parental involvement. The neighborhoods on the right side of Bammel N. Houston as you drive north, as well as the neighborhoods south of the Beltway 8 zoned to KF are working class and mostly non-white students. I can see how there would be a demographics conflict there. The best way to resolve it would be to rezone some of those students to either Eisenhower or the new DeCaney H.S. and get more upper income neighborhoods into KF. This will also help the Klein I.S.D. overall, possibly keeping them from having to build another high school. They can get by easily with Klein Oak, Collins, Forest, and the original.

Thank you! That has been the most logical suggestion yet. You hit the nail on the head I think! We apparently have 2 discussions now going on about Klein and KF. I will keep my future Klein topics to that room and keep this for what it had been originally intended for, that being the "naming our community" maybe we could call the area "Konflicted Klein"

[RedScare]

...maybe we could call the area "Konflicted Klein"

Better yet, how about "Konflicted Klein Kommunity"?

[PureAuteur]

As far as naming the community, the reason it's so difficult is because the area in question is too big to be a community. The entire greater northwest is the size of everything inside loop 610, so obviously it will be difficult. Another difficulty is that the planning for the area was sporadic, so you have some signs of careful planning and other signs of sprawl, plus questionable boundaries. I would say that the area where Longwood is should be called North Cypress Creek. The area of Cypress around 290 should just be called Cypress. The area between Cypresswood to the south and Spring-Stuebner Rd. to the north as far as Northhampton should be called Spring, as it is now. Some of that new stuff way north on 249 needs to be called Tomball. The areas between 249 and I-45 that are a mile or two either side of 1960 should be Champions/Willowbrook, and either Bammel or Westfield area. The areas further south of that should be either Greenspoint area or just plain Houston proper. This should work for now.

ChampionsAdams- let me know when and where there will be a meeting on the KF boundary issues and I will attend and bring forth my proposal.

[brijonmang]

How about the "Port of Northwest Harris County"? It worked north of here.

On a side note, I wonder why every thread about "The Great Northwest" always becomes a thinly (or not so thinly) veiled discussion of the racial makeup of the schools, neighborhoods and apartments located in the area. It is almost as if that is the defining criteria for everything in the "Great Northwest", be it schools, subdivisions, shopping centers or fast food restaurants.

It's pretty much the same people continuing the same discussion. It just starts out differently in each thread. Anyways, I think something the lines of "The area formerly known as wooded" could be used to describe this, to some extent at least.

[Houston1stWordOnTheMoon]

On a side note, I wonder why every thread about "The Great Northwest" always becomes a thinly (or not so thinly) veiled discussion of the racial makeup of the schools, neighborhoods and apartments located in the area. It is almost as if that is the defining criteria for everything in the "Great Northwest", be it schools, subdivisions, shopping centers or fast food restaurants.

I wonder that as well. Where is Kinkaid? He usually calls this type of stuff out

[TheNiche]

KF has great neighborhoods zoned to it like Woods of Wimbledon, Greenwood, and a portion of Huntwick...ideally, they need to rezone these to Klein HS. Is there any movement on this?

For anyone interested, this is one of the most recent detailed Demographic studies of the area in the 'Great Northwest':

http://www.vintageparkhouston.com/demographics.pdf

It is the most recent and detailed study of the area of which you are aware. It uses a radial measure, however, with its epicenter smack dab in the middle of the wealthiest parts of the "Great Northwest". Its all that stuff south of 1960 that's going to hurt you.

[ChampionsAdam]

ChampionsAdams- let me know when and where there will be a meeting on the KF boundary issues and I will attend and bring forth my proposal.

That was good! Your idea really made sense geographically. MrFootball means well, but I'm not sure busing the kids near 1960 up to Louetta is really going to solve the issue (on top of that it screams race). The entire area needs to re-think it's boundaries.

[mrfootball]

As far as naming the community, the reason it's so difficult is because the area in question is too big to be a community. The entire greater northwest is the size of everything inside loop 610, so obviously it will be difficult.

Good post. It is a very large area we're talking about.

I grew up in the Champions area, and have moved all around (from Greenwood to Ponderosa to Champion Forest) and have watched it grow up. I live in Cypress now, but this part of Cypress seems to have more in common with the Champions, Spring and Klein areas than it does with other parts of Cy-Fair.

Communities within the "Great Northwest" and how people generally refer to where they live:

Champions - the original, established neighborhoods of the 1960 area

Spring - often intermixed with Klein

Klein - often intermixed with Spring

Cypress - area b/w 290 and 249

FM 1960 - area b/w Kuykendahl and I-45

Tomball - area north of Spring Cypress, west of Stuebner, East of Telge

Other areas in the region:

Aldine - Inside the Beltway, I-45 area

Greenspoint - the original central business district for North Houston, 45 North and the Beltway

Jersey Village - Beltway 8 and 290 area

Copperfield - area along Hwy 6 from 290 to 529 bordered on the North by Barker Cypress

Cy-Fair - will likely need its own designation...from Tidwell to just past Fairfield...from Huffmeister over to Clay Rd., essentially.

Most of the development in this area was cobbled together from small farms owned by the original German families who settled this part of the Houston area. Unlike other suburban areas such as Sugarland, Katy and Cy-Fair which had larger ranch parcels and were more suited for largescale master planned communities, the Champions area is made of up of a bunch of wooded (or in some cases formerly wooded) smaller master planned communities, neighborhoods and gated communities...

[ChampionsAdam]

Great Northwest works or the... westadorponderosaforestbammelforestoldeoakescypresswoodkleinwoodenchantedoaksnor

thgateforestchampionswoodsofwimbledonesatesracquetclubfountainheadgreenwoodfores

t

championforestmemorialnorthwestoakcreekvillagespringcreekoakshuntwick

[Guest danax]

How about the "Port of Northwest Harris County"? It worked north of here.

On a side note, I wonder why every thread about "The Great Northwest" always becomes a thinly (or not so thinly) veiled discussion of the racial makeup of the schools, neighborhoods and apartments located in the area.

I know you know the reason is because a lot of the formerly white areas have become minority areas and this, along with the large-scale development in the northern parts of this area, are probably the two most significant happenings in the past 10 years there. So naturally, the GNW topics will validate this by both of these happenings being mentioned frequently, with the racial being sometimes "thinly veiled", although we should be able to be discuss such a phenomenon as observant scholars. Have these areas declined because of the "demographic shift"? I have no idea. Most of what I hear about the area is from HAIF.

I was being flippant with "ghetto". We toss that term around lightly and possibly offend people who live in those areas without realizing it. I haven't been through Bammel in maybe two years and it looked pretty basic, certainly nothing scary. About like it did 15 years ago.

And more than racial, it's economic makeup that seems to be the more often discussed fear factor.

[ChampionsAdam]

I would not agree that the area has become a "minority" area, in fact it is mostly caucasion. I would however agree that the demographics have become more diverse which is not a bad thing (Houston itself has become more diverse). The original buyers of the area were upper to middle class families moving away from the some of the inner loop areas which were decaying in the 1970's or relocating to Houston in it's oil hayday of the period. It was a swank area of town with beautiful homes on wooded lots and great schools (which hasn't changed much) and looked every bit the suburban dream. The economic downturn in Houston in the 1980's changed some of that, as many people lost their homes or simply walked away from them. They are wonderful homes with beautiful detail (almost all custom) and most of the subdivisions are still pretty amazing, Huntwick quickly comes to mind. I know people from the Houston area that have never been up here, one being a Real Estate agent (or vaguely recall buying something on 1960) which always makes me wonder where they have been the last 30 years? I love to show the area off to my out of town friends...they are amazed at the houses...and the prices.

[Guest danax]

I would not agree that the area has become a "minority" area, in fact it is mostly caucasion. I would however agree that the demographics have become more diverse which is not a bad thing (Houston itself has become more diverse).

I'm talking about the area closer to the Beltway.

There are a lot of nice homes north of there that are just entering middle age and have a chance at being appreciated as historic architecture at some point. As you said, they were homes built for upper-middle class people and as such, are larger and so have a shot at surviving to some degree any possible redevelopment of those areas in the future.

[rps324]

How about the "Port of Northwest Harris County"? It worked north of here.

On a side note, I wonder why every thread about "The Great Northwest" always becomes a thinly (or not so thinly) veiled discussion of the racial makeup of the schools, neighborhoods and apartments located in the area. It is almost as if that is the defining criteria for everything in the "Great Northwest", be it schools, subdivisions, shopping centers or fast food restaurants.

It is not a very progressive part of town when it comes to "celebrating diversity." The not so thinly veiled discussions you refer to are just a reflection of it.

[CDeb]

It is not a very progressive part of town when it comes to "celebrating diversity." The not so thinly veiled discussions you refer to are just a reflection of it.

Hey, slick, kids that go to Westfield know plenty about "celebrating diversity."