Jump to content

Heightsite

Full Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    215

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Heightsite

    Right turns

    in Traffic and Transportation

    Posted

    I've noticed a traffic trend lately that I really appreciate. People are staying in the center lane, or far left if there is one, to allow fellow motorists turning right to have passage. Instead of trying to get ahead of everyone else waiting at the light, folks are actually letting others make the right turn at lights. It seems to help ease congestion at stop lights and hope other Houston motorists catch on.

    I-10 Feeder Expansion

    in Traffic and Transportation

    Posted

    Thanks for the Leader link, Ari! I just saw the article last night. And, yes, I'm concerned about easier access to our area, too.

    Does TXDot publish plans or other documents that show the work they are doing? It's hard enough to try and jump on I10 from one of the Heights side streets as it is. I'm also trying to visualize the detention pond at 7th and Allston. I thought all the DP's were going to be along the feeder.

    I-10 Feeder Expansion

    in Traffic and Transportation

    Posted

    Anyone know what the plans are for how the new I10 feeder road will cross the hike and bike trail just northwest of Target? I haven't seen any plans but read that the new two lane feeder on the south side of I-10 is going to run from Westcott to Taylor (and on the north side, too).

    Development At 10th St. And Ashland St.

    in The Heights

    Posted

    As mentioned, I posted it from another site's post. I believe the incident happened on Thursday (garbage day) and I posted it the day I read it (Friday). The original post is a bit confusing, but I thought those of us who know the area could figure out the general block of the occurance. Hope that helps clarify my post.

    I realize we live in the big city and have lived in the Heights for years & years. I don't recall this many attacks, and various types of violent (or attempted violent) crime, in our hood since I've lived here. In the past, it's been petty theft of a bicycle, lawn tools, front porch flower pots, etc. Perhaps crime is being reported more, but without community forums, we'd probably never know what's gone on.

    Seems to me the uptick in violent crimes started in January with the home invasion on Oxford and 10th (I think). Within a month's time, there's been reports of:

    1. a neighbor calling the police on a man with a butcher knife & rubber gloves attempting to enter a Heights home at 1am

    2. a woman assaulted and robbed when returning to her home after she took her garbage to the curb

    3. an attempted assualt on a teenage girl on Studewood at 4pm

    4. a ratty van following a woman walking her dog over lunch on Shepherd/Durham (see previous post)

    5. numerous fires that no one knows who started

    I hope folks keep posting, get descriptions and share them, call the police when you see something out of the norm and remind all of us to be neighborly and aware of our surroundings at all times.

    Development At 10th St. And Ashland St.

    in The Heights

    Posted

    This from today's Chronicle:

    A fire heavily damaged a home in north Houston overnight.

    Details were sketchy, but the fire was reported around 1:30 a.m. at a home on North Main near 40 1/2 Street. It was extinguished, but arson investigators converged on the scene to learn more.

    The fire occurred several blocks north and east of a section of the Heights area where a string of 17 intentional blazes have burned structures, usually abandoned or unoccupied, since August.

    Houston Fire Department officials are not linking today's north Houston fire to the others. The cause remains under investigation.

    Interesting that KPRC reported this AM that HPD IS linking this to the Height's arsonist. And what's up with questioning the Reagan students this week? I spoke with a policeman recently who said they think it's more than one person and most fires are copycat fires taking advantage of the situation.

    Houston In The 1890s

    in Historic Houston

    Posted

    Just thought I'd add my .02 for anyone researching their old house...our Heights house was built around 1894 but HCAD has 1920 on the records. I wasn't surprised to see that my address was not on the list Bees Knees posted. Many homes in our area are reported being built in 1920 for some unknown reason. My neighbor's dad was born in our home, so I knew it was built before 1900. Since I knew my neighbor's maiden name, I was able to look up residency by old phone books through the microfiche files at the downtown library. Unfortunately my quest ended at 1894 because they couldn't find previous year phone books on microfiche.

    Crime In The Heights

    in The Heights

    Posted

    An alert and quick-thinking officer is being credited with saving a teen's life. Police said a young girl was being assaulted by a possible sex offender in broad daylight on Wednesday.

    Geez, the story says the girl was walking on Studewood around 4pm. This is the second sexual assualt attempt in a month and another fire in the Heights yesterday. Perhaps the increase in police presence helped prevent a serious crime, but the increase in violent crimes is getting old, frustrating and quite frightening.

    http://www.khou.com/video/topstories-index.html?nvid=410320

    White House War On Fox News

    in National Politics

    Posted

    From today's NY Times:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/us/politics/23fox.html?hp

    Interesting the other news outlets are watching, or should I say starting to watch. Whether it's to counter or concur, I want to hear both sides of an issue:

    By the following weekend, officials at the White House had decided that if anything, it was time to take the relationship to an even more confrontational level. The spur: Executives at other news organizations, including The New York Times, had publicly said that their newsrooms had not been fast enough in following stories that Fox News, to the administration’s chagrin, had been heavily covering through the summer and early fall — namely, past statements and affiliations of the White House adviser Van Jones that ultimately led to his resignation and questions surrounding the community activist group Acorn.

    Even FOX's competitors are uncomfortable with the way the WH is treating FOX:

    In a sign of discomfort with the White House stance, Fox’s television news competitors refused to go along with a Treasury Department effort on Tuesday to exclude Fox from a round of interviews with the executive-pay czar Kenneth R. Feinberg that was to be conducted with a “pool” camera crew shared by all the networks. That followed a pointed question at a White House briefing this week by Jake Tapper, an ABC News correspondent, about the administration’s treatment of “one of our sister organizations.”

    It's dangerous to attempt to stifle the press, regardless if they are on your side or not. The WH is acting like a repressive government and that is very, very scary.

    • Like 1

    Development At 10th St. And Ashland St.

    in The Heights

    Posted

    Sorry to get off topic, but this reply is important to Heights residence.

    From another site:

    in the general area west of Oxford, between 11th and 13th, and east of Studewood.

    My poor neighbor was attacked around 6:15 this morning in her house. While she was outside putting her trash can out by the street, and a man slipped in her door and attacked her when she went back inside. She was able to run to the back door and scream for our other neighbor, who called the police. The guy hit her in the face a few times, telling her to be quiet, and then ran off with her purse. The police found her purse a couple of houses away, and all that was missing was her wallet. She's extremely shaken up, but aside from some tenderness on her face where he hit her, physically okay. She lives alone and thinks the guy has been snooping around her house for at least the last couple of nights - she's been hearing some strange things that have had her on edge and she even thought she heard someone on her back porch last night or the night before around 9:30. When she went to look, she thought she saw the foot of someone ducking around the corner.

    So, this is the 3rd major incident this year on our block - we had our home invasion/attempted MURDER in January, the burglary across the street last month, and now this home invasion/aggravated robbery. I am just SO FED UP I don't know what to do! I guess we all just have to keep our eyes and ears open and listen to our instincts. I am still shaking to think of what might have happened if my other neighbor hadn't heard my neighbor's screams through the rain...

    She described her attacker as being around 5'7", heavy-set, Latino, close-shaved hair, wearing shorts, dark high-tops, and a plain dark-gray short-sleeved t-shirt. She didn't notice any tattoos, jewelry, or any peculiar scent.

    She thought he was between 30-37 years old.

    Houston mayor's race 2009

    in City Hall

    Posted

    The candidates who have announced themselves ready to answer such tall orders are as follows;

    Democrat Peter Hoyt Brown, a 73 year old U of H alumnus, adjunct professor, architect, and current City Council member, styles himself as a lifelong Houstonian. Brown served in the United States Army for six years after college and has, since 2005, been elected twice to At-Large Position 1 in Houston's City Council. Brown's official campaign biography lists "fighting crime and making our neighborhoods safer with tougher, smarter policing tactics and expanding economic opportunity and prosperity in our city with an Office of Economic Development and Job Creation" as among his top priorities. With respect to fundraising, Brown is currently ahead of the pack as his campaign has over 1.7 million dollars at its disposal.

    Fellow Democrat and attorney Gene L. Locke of Andrews Kurth fame is also in the race. Under former Mayor Bob Lanier, Locke was appointed to serve as City Attorney in 1995 and lays claim to a role in the negotiations surrounding Minute Maid Park, Reliant Stadium, the Toyota Center, and the City of Houston. Among other accomplishments, Locke is also a recipient of the NAACP Freedom Award for Outstanding Service. Relatively unknown as a politician, Gene Locke "will bring a new perspective to city hall and offer new ideas on how government can work to create opportunities for both its citizens and its businesses" as indicated on his campaign webpage.

    A third Democrat in contention for mayor is three term City Council Member and current City Controller Annise Parker. In a landmark 1997 election, Parker made history joining Houston's first African American Mayor Lee P. Brown as she became the city's first openly gay elected official (Verhovek, Sam H., December 8, 1997, New York Times). Prior to her career in public service, Parker spent two decades in the business world employed in the oil and gas industry. A graduate of Rice University, Parker claims via her website that she "has what it takes to manage our city through tough economic times as a businesswoman and neighborhood leader".

    The lone Republican vying for the position of mayor in the 2009 race is Lt. Col. (Ret.) Roy Morales. Morales is a UT Dallas graduate who spent 23 years serving the United States Armed Forces and NASA, respectively. Among his underscored accomplishments in the military, Morales "managed the integration of $1 Billion satellite projects that were launched on the Space Shuttle and Titan rocket" as noted in his official biography. In hopes of connecting with an increasingly diverse population in Houston, Morales points to his roots as a member of a hardworking Mexican-American family and a desire to immediately begin reducing the size of Houston's local government if he is indeed elected.

×
×
  • Create New...