trymahjong

Looks like the new restaurant, La Casa del Cabballo" is up and running and made the Chronicle. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/food/article/Fine-Mexican-Steakhouse-opens-in-Montrose-4330735.php

There was a CIP gathering hosted by Ellen Cohen at multiservice center on Gray yesterday--around 150 +- attending Repairs to Westheimer Road from Elgin to Montrose were suspciously absent from COH public Works list of streets needing repairs based on "Worse gets repaired First" (this part of Westheimer is within my Civic asso boundaries--6 from Avondale came to try to add voice to our squeaky wheel status --unforunately only 7 of Cohens constituents were allowed to speak.) The lack of Repairs on Many of the torn up streets of Montrose (very few made list)were pointed out by David Robinson, president of Neartown (he first made me aware of the change from COH Van with laser as basis for worst gets fixed first to new formula that adds 3-1-1 calls and reports to City Council people to "algorithm) If you travel Alabama from Shepherd to Travis--- not at top of list either.

Mayor Annise Parker Launches Make Safe Saturday Neighborhood Cleanups Target Properties with City Code Violations Houston Mayor Annise Parker kicked off a brand new city program in Sunnyside over the weekend. Make Safe Saturday, which will occur every quarter, targets cleanup projects with city code violations for which the owners have received notices and have failed to take action to correct the problems. Many such properties are not only neighborhood eyesores but also often serve as havens for crime. At the kick off for Make Safe Saturday, city crews and community volunteers cleaned up seven blighted properties in the 5100 block of Mallow Street in Sunnyside. A total of 96 blighted properties will be cleaned by the end of March 2013 as apart of this quarter's effort. Make Safe Saturday is a collaborative effort between the Department of Neighborhoods Inspections and Public Service division (IPS), Public Works and Engineering Department (PWE) and Solid Waste Management Department (SWMD) to board abandoned homes, clear weeds, mow overgrown lots and remove heavy trash and debris. BARC Animal Shelter and Adoptions (BARC) is assisting with stray animal control in the targeted areas. The Houston Police Department (HPD) is handling security at the work sites. Keep Houston Beautiful is providing equipment, materials and supplies for the cleanup. The next Make Safe Saturday is scheduled for June 2013. Residents, civic groups and local businesses are needed to help with to help with beautification projects, de-littering, mowing and the removal of trash and debris from abandoned buildings. Donations of supplies and materials by local businesses are welcome. To find out how you can help, contact Andrea Jackson-Taylor at andrea.jackson@houstontx.gov or 832.394.0660. For more information visit BARC at www.houstontx.gov/barc, IPS at www.houstontx.gov/ips, HPD at www.houstonpolice.org, PWE at www.houstonpublicworks.org and SWMD at www.houstonsolidwaste.org.

Master Traffic Plan for Spring Break Houston March 9 - 17, 2013 Mayor Annise Parker has partnered with the Texas Medical Center , Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Houston Museum District, Hermann Park / Houston Zoo and METRO to create easy access to Houston 's hottest spring break destinations - the rodeo, museums and zoo. For Spring Break Houston, Saturday, March 9 - Sunday, March 17, 2013, more than 350,000 visitors are expected to join Houstonians in enjoying the many attractions Houston has to offer. Residents and visitors are urged to use suggested routes and parking plans, which will help provide a continuous flow of vehicles coming and going throughout the week. Visit http://www.houstontx.gov/specialevents/springbreak2013traffic.html for recommended driving directions and parking information. For regular updates visit www.houstontx.gov.

yep-- but I called it in instead of using my app--I started calling it in about 2 years ago. Each time I thought it had gotten deeper ;/ My civic assoc did take the time to encourage me to walk Avondale and take pictures of all those horrible streets, potholes,water leaks sidewalks, grafiti, and nuisances on properties, that COH needed to be made aware of. Avondale's state of decline is such that i am regularly using my app.

I heard John Silva (asst director pub/wrks) speak at the gathering of Ellen Cohens CAPs on Thursday. It seemed pretty evident that LESS of the input received from the Van algorithm and MORE of the 3-1-1 calls (plus calls put to COH city council reps) will determine what crappy pothole gets fixed first. At lease that seemed to be how I received the message of worse gets fixed first. I hope a whole slew of Houstonians show up Tomorrow at the Multiservice center on Gray and get their voices heard---- as far as getting the damaged roads fixed where you live it will more likely be the squeaky wheel algorithm, that gets you to the top of the list for repairs. :/

There is a pot hole when heading west on Westheimer at Montrose just in front of a Bus stop that seems deep enough to swallow your entire wheel. When it rains and a truck goes through anyone seeking shelter at that Bus stop is caught in a deluge of drain water--yipes/yuck!

Funny that much of Westheimer is labeled medium to low need for repairs

I attended the Neartown meeting last night and was updated on the COH Van-- For the last year a City of HOuston Van equiped with a 7 foot wide laser drove over every (this is what the City has assured everyone) street in Houston. The data provided by the laser that swept over the surface of each street was put through a special algorithm and could determine which streets in Houston need repairing using a "Worse fixed First" protocol. determined just damage--not where (or in whose City council district) the damaged street is located. There were a few "kinks" in the process. The Van only drives over each street once----most streets are 12 feet wide, laser only 7 feet wide. Curb damage and close to curb damage is missed, sometimes. One of the first streets fixed was JFK blvd by the airport---this REALLY surprised me since I have to travel Westheimer between Bagby and Shepherd and am afraid the damage in the right lane will break my car axle. There is a movement to "tweak" the algorithm and place 1) location => whose City Council District damaged street is located and 2) how many 3-1-1 calls have been received on each individual damaged location within the protocol. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm It makes me think that 1)the more persuasive (squeaky wheel) Council people and 2) the more organized Civic associations (getting many members to call3-1-1 on a 24/7 basis to focus on particular damaged streets within the Civic association area WILL EQUAL chaos! Plus the really damaged streets will get bogged down in all the red tape these new improvements produce. There is an opportunity to discuss all this with the City of Houston Civic Improvement Plans (CIP) people ---I plan to give them an earfull. http://www.houstontx.gov/cao/2013cip.html Tue., Mar. 5 NOTE: 6:30 to 8:00 Metropolitan Multi-Service Center (Gymnasium) 1475 West Gray

Got this email from COH, thought this might be forum for it. Please attend an educational seminar Residential Deconstruction in Houston Thursday, February 28, 2013 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Green Building Resource Center (GBRC) City of Houston Public Works and Engineering Houston Permitting Center 1002 Washington Avenue Houston 77002 Recycling is improving in the City of Houston. What about old houses? What options do you have to divert construction material from the landfill? What do salvage professionals want from old houses? How can you be part of the solution? Guest Speakers Lynn Edmundson, Executive Director, Historic Houston Carolyn Stevens, ReStore Director, Northwest Harris County Habitat for Humanity Ernest Maldonado, Principal Architect, Glassman Shoemake Maldonado Architects Keith Koski, Manager, City of Houston ReUse Warehouse Ms. Edmundson and Ms. Stevens will discuss what they do, how their organizations handle the deconstruction process and what generaly happens to the deconstructed material. Mr. Maldonado will discuss the deconstruction of a house on the site of a LEED Platinum house he designed, and how the owners benefitted from the ensuning tax credit. Mr. Koski will inform you about the ReUse Warehouse as a destination for reusable construction material. Please RSVP to Steve Stelzer at steve.stelzer@houstontx.gov or 832.394.9050. Visit www.greenhoustontx.gov/gbrceducation.pdf for more details and a map.

a news story about it-- http://blog.chron.com/bookish/2013/02/houston-seeking-its-first-poet-laureate/ .

The City of Houston Urges Residents to Sign Up for Emergency Notifications The City of Houston, in partnership with the Greater Harris County 9-1-1 Emergency Network, is now offering emergency notifications to mobile phones through the Emergency Notification System (ENS). These emergency alerts will help residents get more information about emergencies in their neighborhoods, such as hazardous chemical spills, floods and large fires. Staying informed is an important way of keeping yourself and your family safe when emergencies occur. Landline home or work telephones are already a part of the ENS system, and now residents can register their cell or internet phone numbers

Houston Seeks First Poet Laureate Application Deadline is Friday, March 8, 2013 Houston is seeking its first Poet Laureate. The Houston Poet Laureate Program (HPLP) celebrates Houston's rich culture and diversity through the work of a poet who will represent the city by creating excitement about poetry through outreach, programs, teaching and written work. The Houston Poet Laureate will receive an annual honorarium of $5,000 through Houston's Initiative Grant Program of the Houston Arts Alliance (HAA), and serve a term of two years April 2013 through April 2015. Individual poets may seek the position of Houston Poet Laureate or he/she may be nominated for the position. The deadline is March 8, 2013. For more information about how to apply, visit

It doesn't matter which direction I travel on I59 between 288 and 610---------It's always congested! Its a bit scarey to see the traffic back up while headed east at the Main street exit!'

This came in an email from Ellen Cohen's office: NBA All-Star Weekend is here! Council Member Cohen met with city officials to finalize logistics for accommodating the expected influx of tourists. In District C, a temporary no-parking zone will be enforced on some streets along the Washington Corridor. Though on-street parking is normally available on Washington Ave. and Center St, parking will be temporarily restricted on the north side of each of these streets over the weekend to allow access for emergency vehicles. Please keep these restrictions in mind when planning your weekend!

I love the pictures and glad you came to Avondale. You noticed perhaps that these old house entries are not only "guarded" by the obligatory lions statues, but also gargoyls, african lions and the occasional suleika dog statues as well. ;}

How can you spotlight the lower Westheimer parking/walkability issue with COH?

Parking in areas such as lower Westheimer is a tricky undertaking. I hate seeing empty buildings there and love new business coming in. But to be succesful, there has to be customers ---a lot of customers for sustained success. I can't see success being sustained with only "walking" customers--so the parking issue comes into play. That issue is an expensive one for new business owner. Here's the part that baffles me. Unless a lower Westheimer restaurant is "grandfathered" so the current parking requirements don't apply-- the financial outlay to build (buy land, tear down ole structure, pave lot) a parking lot can cripple (financially) a new venture. It's because of that cost ($25,000 per space-I think) most new business only build a surface lot, rather than a multi-level parking garage. The next new business has to start the process of meeting parking requirements all over again. OKRA has aa good idea in sharing parking as Blacksmith does with Hay Merchant. A lot of useable building get torn down in the quest for parking lots. The baffling part is that I'm sure the current parking requirement was the solution COH came up with when local Civic clubs complained about new business patrons "taking over" parking in the residential neighborhoods---even tough those organizations hate it when those useable houses are razed. I wonder why COH couldn't have partnered with a business or two and helped defray the cost of multi-leveled parking garage. COH gets a kazillion complaints about parking in this area. COH wants new business in this area. Wouldn't a COH partnered multi-level parking garage be a solution? COH collaboration wouldn't be easy. Still,It seems it could be an effective answer.

I am lucky enough to be able to walk to most of the lower Westheimer Restaurants. I am reminded of the earliest community meetings with Metro, when the route of the Richmond Rail had not yet been decided. Metro had done some sort of study and the results were that the average Houstonian probably wouldn't walk more that 8 blocks to their destination. I've always wondered about that statistic.

I'm not sure how COH gets the criteria for the cut off numbers on square footage. I think Bobby Heugal used 'Blacksmith" as an example of how hard it is to meet the criteria of under 2000 sq ft. That is a small venue but doesn't meet the criteria. In location such as lower Westheimer-- It's hard to find space for a parking garage that doesn't require tearing down useable houses. I keep wondering what percentage of patrons to lower Westheiomer walk? I wish the findings of that committee would have been published--before it went plifst :\

It's interesting about that quotation on multi-family. I am new to the church, and haven't heard anything in that direction. However, the church has reoccurring financial "woes" the endowments, aren't what one would expect. The upkeep of a 100 year old building and the 100 year old Historical building next door (just recently purchased) seems to strain Monies dedicated for maintenance/restoration. The Historical (Bering House) building is said to be destined to be a Multi-arts of a sort--but no residential. I sat thru a very short presentation on the parking lot use-- centered on retaining ownership, allowing the church to have free parking during church service times---paid parking for everyone else. The monies this plan would generate-- seemed respectable--- No mention at all about residential living space.

Do you mean Trinity Episcopal parking lot at Holman and Main? I think the church is in early early talk of building a multi-level parking garage to take advantage of the additional parking needs especially of the New Multi-arts Complex going in across Main street.

In the Chronicle article--Ellen Cohen makes the same reference------

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2013/01/parking_regulations_city_hall.php This article is useful as background reading-- Realistically-If Houston really wants to promote and champion walkability--some sort of realighnment of the parking requirements has to take place. Somehow the percentage of patrons who are likely to walk to your establishment has to be included in the parking requirement. Also the square footage of the establishment should be taken into consideration. COH says sure--if it's under 2000 square feet. OKRA says the exemption should be set at 4500 square feet. The Chronicle article in first post says "the parking task force launched last year. . . appears to have fizzled-" that's worrisome to me. I want walkability and that is more likely if there are attractive, interesting things (like great restaurants) to walk to.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/ This is article that brings forth the desparity of new restauranteurs that open their places in "walkable" older neighborhoods where parking is at a premian as opposed to- in the surburbs where there seems to be abundant parking. I guess it really isn't so cut and dried. But perhaps that is the heart of it. I heard Bobby Heugal speak a while ago ( and maybe another--owner of Poison Girl-maybe) about the dilemma of having to find places for parking (to meet COH parking requirements) and realizing you had to tear down useable buildings/houses to put in concrete parking lots all the while cheerleading the idea of establishing your business in an area known for it's walkability. I think it was the first I had heard of OKRA Organized Kollaboration Restaurant Affairs- They all shared the same concern-- just how many good, useable buildings would have to be torn down to meet Houston's parking requirement.What part did "Walkability" play into the equation? Was there a way to way to have different areas of town, reviewed and given different requirements. A city parking task force was launched-- The parking requirements were changed---a new debate develops. I "groan" along with Hyde Park Civic-- each time a house is razed for a parking lot.