Good morning, Houston. If you're hoping that the United States will one day be free of its dependence on foreign natural gas — and we're sure at least one of you is — this isn't your lucky day: According to a report from the Energy Forum at Rice University's Baker Institute, there's no end in sight to our use of imported gas. Natural gas accounted for 22 percent of total primary energy use in...
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Results tagged “housing”
A fire erupted this morning at a Sharpstown-area public housing development mostly populated by senior citizens. The fire, causes of which are still unknown, began on the fifth floor of the seven story building, and required multiple firetrucks responding from several stations. As firefighters fight the fire, residents are taking shelter in a nearby apartment building, Regency Square, and some are being moved into that complex already. The 210-until Bellerive Senior Highrise is home to...
Last week the AIA hosted their annual home tour, and tomorrow the Downtown Houston Alliance is giving folks a chance to see residences in some of Houston's most historic and moneyed buildings. The Live Downtown Home Tour is from 10am to 5pm on Saturday, November 3rd. Stops on the tour include Commerce Towers, The Beaconsfield (not the Savoy across the street!), the Four Seasons, Hogg Palace (no, not this place), and several other loft properties....
Our favorite at-work timewasters over at TMZ.com are reporting that Houston's pop/R&B princess herself has reunited with original Destiny's Child member Michelle Rowland to open an apartment building: The Knowles-Rowland Temenos Place Apartments, for people trying to improve their situations who might not otherwise have a place to live. Through her charity, the Survivor Foundation, Beyonce and her family are building and financing the building, which will be a 48 unit "short term to longterm...
With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked...
Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take...
Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,...
Everywhere we turn, we see new homes being built in the inner-city. Unfortunately, many of these are new homes (or townhomes, in many instances) where some historic houses and bungalows once sat. However, if the latest news in real estate holds true for the rest of the year, we may finally see a dramatic slow down in new homes being built. The Chronicle is reporting that new home sales have fallen 18 percent in the...
While running along Montrose Ave this morning, discovering the sidewalks (and subsequent ankle-twisting cracks) of a neighborhood we have often admired, but of recent become a resident, we got an upclose look at many of the establishment we have visited many a time, yet on foot were allowed to explore a bit more. In the effort of being visionaries, we've decided to name this strip of road SoMo (or South Montrose, for you slow pokes.)...
Good morning, Houston. As we prepare for the rain chance to increase again — yeah, sorry, we hate to be the bearers of bad news — we're stopping for a second to realize just how much it's rained so far this month. Officially, we've had 8.34 inches of rain so far in July, smashing the 2.34-inch average for the month and making this the eighth-wettest July on record. And there's still a week left...
Good morning, Houston. If you ever stop to think about all the ordinances in effect in the city — admit it, you do — you probably wonder just how much space all those laws would take up if they were written down. Well, now we know: around 5,000 pages. That tidbit comes from the Chronicle's Matt Stiles, who recently reported that the city approved a new three-year contract with the Municipal Code Corp. of...
The Chronicle reported this weekend on the current state of the former AstroWorld site — and it's not too good: The site's new owner, Angel-McIver Interests of Conroe, has been cited by the city for letting the 104 acres become overgrown. Angel-McIver last week was given 30 days to clean up the site or face a city cleanup bill and a fine of up to $1,500; officials with the company blamed the recent rainy weather....
Good morning, Houston. So what was the last bonus gift you got at work? A fruit basket? Maybe an engraved Space Pen? Well, if you worked for La Porte-based Texas Stress, you might have ended up with a Harley: Gary and Joni Hagar, the owners of the company, rewarded each of their top 10 employees with $21,000 and told them to pick out their own hogs. "I've never heard of a boss doing this...
Good morning, Houston. We all know there are some perennially bad traffic spots around town — seriously, we all know — and now one of our local traffic nightmares has made Forbes' list of America's worst traffic traps. The spot is the Katy Freeway/West Loop interchange, which Forbes says costs drivers a whopping 25 million-plus hours of delays each year. That makes the 10/610 interchange the second worst in the country, by Forbes' reckoning,...
So you've heard all the discussion about how cities must lure the so-called "creative class" if they want to be great places, right? Basically, the idea is that the creative class — knowledge workers, artists, intellectuals and creative types, a subset of workers identified by economist and author Richard Florida — spurs economic power, high-tech industry, new ideas and growth in places that court it. Sounds like something Houston should be trying to attract, right?...
Joshua Royce Mauldin, the 19-year-old Arkansas man accused of burning his 2-month-old daughter in a microwave in a Galveston motel room last week, was indicted yesterday on a charge of felony injury to a child — and he's blaming the incident on stress, police say.
Wednesday morning HPD raided the Silve Trading Post, a Houston building supply retailer known as "Little Home Depot." Although owner Bernie Gonzalez has maintained that everything about her business is legal, she is suspected of selling stolen materials and running the biggest dealer in the city's building supplies black market. When pressed on the issue, Gonzalez said that she believes the materials that are delivered to her and then sold aren't stolen, they're just leftovers.
The consensus of people at an urban planning workshop on the Main Street corridor Monday? In short: It needs to be more urban. The Planning Partnership, a Toronto firm hired to create a development plan for Main Street, held the workshop, which was meant to get the public's input on how to guide future construction along the corridor. Because the MetroRail line is already in place and major buildings already stand along Main, planning will...
KHOU is speculating about whether U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales could return to his hometown of Houston if he ends up getting the boot in Washington. Gonzales, a graduate of MacArthur High School in Aldine, was a partner with Vinson & Elkins from 1982 to 1997, when he became the Texas secretary of state (from there, he was appointed to the state Supreme Court and then became White House counsel to President George W. Bush;...
Last Thursday, city officials including Mayor White and Housing Director Richard Celli along with the Ibn Sina Foundation celebrated the opening of a new medical center at 11226 Wilcrest. The center houses a number of specialty medical clinics for low-income families as well as a pharmacy and dental clinic. The clinic, which takes up 5000 square feet, was funded by contributions from the city of Houston, Houston's Philanthropic Community, and Community Development Block Grant. At...
Lindsay Perth is a transplanted Canadian artist who now resides in Scotland. She is one of the artists whose work is exhibited in the Never Been to Houston show. On the right is one of her photographs from the exhibit. Lindsay answered a few questions about Houston and the show for us. Read on: What was your perception of Houston before you started this project? My perception was of lots of glass and reflections and...
The Chronicle reports this morning that Mayor Bill White has decided to delay the addition of two City Council seats until the 2010 Census, saying none of the recent population estimates are accurate enough to trigger the potentially messy redistricting process.
Austinist gets arty with an interactive guide to SXSW, loved some local art galleries and a new art exhibit and lamented the possible loss of "Friday Night Lights" production to New Mexico. Bostonist was happy they finally found an Anna Nicole Smith connection to their fair city and that an Apple Store was opening up. They were less happy that new rules have been established limiting underage shows and that their Governor is spending...
One of the big topics around Houston last year — among people who care about such things, anyway — was that the flood of hurricane evacuees who came here in late 2005 would push the city's population over 2.1 million, which would trigger a provision in the city charter calling for the addition of two City Council districts. Officials were waiting on the results of a Census Bureau estimate released during the summer before they...
So, the big political news around Harris County today is that County Judge Robert Eckels will step down. It's not like nobody expected the announcement — rumors have been going around for at least a couple of weeks — and it's not like we know when Eckels will quit or what he'll do afterward, but still, it's big news. Right? Eckels, reportedly fighting back tears, began his goodbye during Thursday's State of the County address:...
Registration for AIDS Walk Houston 2007 is open, and even though the event doesn't happen till March 11th, it's not too early to get involved. Register to walk before the March 2 deadline to receive your walker kit and begin fundraising as soon as possible.
Good morning, Houston. In these days of strange diseases, air and water pollution, global warming and assorted health warnings, we sometimes begin to wonder if anything's safe anymore. And the answer? No, nothing. Example: Today, nearly a million Easy-Bake Ovens are being recalled because one can get one's fingers or hand stuck inside — and slowly nuked. Of course, Houstonist understands the need for safety, but now we're afraid to make dessert tonight. Life...
First Saturday in the Heights & Yale Street Arts Market Heights First Saturday is a day full of shopping, activities, and food designed to bring people from all over the city to the Heights area. This month, in addition to their usual self-proclaimed "small-town cool," will be featuring sign-up for spring classes at HITS Theater, a Heights area food pantry drive, and Buchanan's Blood Drive. Their website features more information about drop-off places for the...
Houston Public Library's Julia Ideson building, which houses the Texas Room and Archives/Houston Metropolitan Research Center, is long overdue for an expansion. Not only did Cram & Ferguson, Watkin, and Glover's original 1920s plans of the library include an additional wing that was to the south of the building facing Lamar St., but local archives have been amassing in the building since the late seventies. The Julia Ideson Preservation Partners was created at the request...
As the world holds its breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning. Austinist was in a musical frame of mind as they listened to the new Shins album, updated the SXSW band listings and got called "punk rock" for their efforts by MTV. And an ice storm swept through the area. Bostonist said goodbye to John Kerry's plans...