KatieDidIt

Two attempted break-inf one street over from us at 5:30 am. Police response time was 12 minutes on a 911 call. They did catch the guy coming in on foot along the run-off easement. I wish the MUD district would lt us fence those things off like Houston does.

You know, for a subdivision almost the size of San Francisco (42.2 sq miles to 47 sq miles), that police blotter sure was weak. For a city of 75,000, I would expect to see some serious crime, not a bunch of shoplifting and drug possessions, with a couple of assaults thrown in.

To call The Woodlands "out of control" seems to me to be a bit....hyperbole?

Red, there was more going on Friday night and last night that hasn't hit the blotters. The point is there are NO police cars anywhere, to be found...EVER, in the back of the Woodlands. There is drag racing on the new streets at all hours of the day, with gun shots. And yes, to have all these things going on without one cop car at least staking out the area is out of control to me. If there wer police around, I wouldn't say it was out of control, I'd say we have become the city. And because of the Walmarts and strip malls they are building back here, the lack of coverage is only going to make it worse.

You have to understand, I lived in a neighborhood of 1500 homes for 15 years, with three 24/7 off duty cops patrolling all the times. The response time was 3-5 minutes for any emergency or non-emergency. Up here, the lady across the street had an attempted break-in at 3am this summer, with the alarm going full blast. The cops came 20 minutes later. They aren't in the area, so how can they respond quickly? That's the scary thing.

There is a problem, and its mostly with the company that owns the Woodlands. They care more about the money making and the "image" of the place, vs. the actual saftey of its residents. IF there was a mayor and some true politics going on up here, I think things would straighten out quickly. Also, the population in the part of MOntgomery County has grown faster than the utilites and services can keep up with it. There is a big lag between demand and supply. i.e. We haven't had great water pressure for a year, they are just now starting to build a well or They build the Walmart before widening the country lanes.

As a neighborhood we have decided to hire our own private patrol. But we were told that we may be fined by the association for doing that..........Fined for protecting ourselves is a hoot don't ya think?

Katie, who are the Oak Ridge North Police Dept. ?

Of course you could always take matters into your own hands and shoot the pervert yourself !

Oak Ridge is a township up front by I-45. The Woodlands is a Corporately OWNED, unincorporated place. In other words, its the Wild Wild West......Most associations have a patrol, this place doesn't because its grown to almost 80,000 residents. The corporation would loose money if they paid for our protection. SO they leave it to the understaffed Montgomery County Sheriffs office. Off course the Development Company does pay for extra patrol up by the waterway, because that area makes them money.

The sooner Houston annexs this place the better in my opinion. We would get the Houston Police and City water, therefore the loss of mud taxes and the gain of police presence and response time.

The old "idea" of the Woodlands no longer exists. We need the same protection as the city now, as the city has grown up to here.

Um, does TW have any law enforcement outside of the county sherriffs?

NOPE

Um, does TW have any law enforcement outside of the county sherriffs?

NOPE, but they are considering a new taxing district to provide us with some in about 5 years.

30 cars were vandalized in our area last night, two on our own street. Also, it appears a child predator is being very bold. This is also the same area that was covered in the news this summer, that had a man walking into houses where women were home alone. Where are the police you ask..............never seen one car in the year I have lived here. It took them 20 minutes to respond to our neighbors call.

Here is a report from a street close by.

>

>

> Just to let you know, a few weeks ago Greg and I had left to go out to

> dinner with friends, leaving Lauren and Maddie at home. Lauren was to

> have

> her girlfriend who lives on Buckridge walk over to our house. Not more

> then two minutes after we left, a man sitting in a car near our house saw

> Lauren's girlfriend walking and began following her in his car. Her

> friend

> noticed him so she began running up our walk and the man jumped out of his

> car and started chasing her. Lauren opened the door to let her friend in

> and saw the man running right up our sidewalk behind her friend. She let

> her friend in and locked the door immediately. He begain banging on the

> door yelling "let me in." Lauren told him she was calling the police so

> he

> left (not immediately though) and jumped in his car and sped away. The

> police came to our house to get a description of the man, but we later

> followed up with them and they told us they were not able to find him. He

> was NOT a high school boy. He was in his mid to late twenties and looked

> very unkept. Lauren thought he looked like he was on drugs. He was in a

> small grey or dark tan car.

>

> This just proves the point that we cannot feel totally safe anywhere!

>

> Pamela Michael

>> I thought you might like to distribute this to your Woodlands Watch

> list.

>>

>> Last Sunday a friend of mine left our church on W. Panther Creek and

> was

>> sitting at the light at Woodlands Pkwy and W Panther Creek when a man

> came

>> up to the passenger side of her car and tried to open the door.

>> Fortunately

>> her doors were locked, but the man began beating on the window and

>> yelling.

>> This went on for several minutes until the light turned and she was

> able

>> to

>> complete her left turn onto Woodlands Pkwy.

>>

>> This just highlights that we must always be vigilant and keep our car

> and

>> house doors locked.

>>

>> I have instructed my son that ANYTIME he gets into the car, he needs

> to

>> punch the door locks immediately so that it is harder for him to be

> car

>> jacked.

>>

>> So, I just wanted to share this with you and if you could distribute

> it to

>> anyone you know in The Woodlands maybe it will help to keep us all

> safe

[/quote

Woodlands residents are elitist in their tastes???? What WOodlands have you been too? Its all Dillards and Chili's tastes up here that I see.

Katie,

I have noticed that you Woodlands people have started going to Rancheros on 2978. There's even a line now sometimes (darnit).

I new Japanese place called Kobuto (sp?) also opened on 1488 west of 2978 a couple of weeks ago. It replaced another Japanese place that was there recently. We'll see if this one lasts. The food was pretty good.

yup and we still go after I found a big chunk of glass in my mouth while eating Queso Del Mar. Shows you how desperate I am.

...and yet the topic is regarding non-chain restaurants...

oh yeah.... and who called me a guy?

Katie-

Was that your previous home that you lived in?

If so, did you have to disclose that on your Seller's Disclosure?

Did that affect the selling price or next buyer's home insurability?

Did that negatively affect your own homeowner's insurance?

Yeah Pin, it was in our Tanglewood House. We did disclose it and it actually improved the resale value. Think about it, a 1960's ranch that is totally free of mold in Houston is a rare find. We sold it for 4 times purchase price.

as seen in the Conroe Courier

We found very minor mold in our ranch house in 2001. In fact I think you could have just replaced the hardwood and beleached the foundation and been fine. But our insurance company freaked and booked us into the Omni for a month, then into the Deerwood for 6 months. Fully gutted and rebuilt about 1700 sq. ft of our house. I guess we were really lucky compared to a major of mold claims.

Walmart attracts a criminal element? Walmart? And I thought it was mainly people looking for everyday low prices.

Sub, you can even google the "Walmart Effect." Or just ask those folks off FM 1960 what happened to Champions. I dunno, I have't even been to a Walmart that wasn't in a junkie stretch of town, so this will be interesting. Either it stays nice or the junk (Like all the storage units that are building around it already) move in.

yes, it totally sucks to eat at rockfish, p.f.changs, cheesecake factory, chuys, perry's, mi luna, the woodlands' resort, berryhill, cafe express, grotto, la madelin (sp?), tommy bahama's (love that goat cheese), amerigos, kirby's steakhouse, thai ocha, kobe steakhouse, sitar, (recently) nit noi and beck's prime all the time. my complaint is that there hasn't been any vietnamese food. it's not that i don't have a plethora of options.

god, you inner loopers can be so snobby. ok, i'll admit i'd like a barnaby's and a zimm's up here...but it doesn't suck to live here.

we used to drive to the galleria on a special occasion to take someone to the cheesecake factory. now, it's a regular occurance. it's somewhat strange to be in close proximity to so much good food.

i do love mark's on westheimer. i've never eaten food that brought me so close to.......physical pleasure(?). in fact, i could equate the dining experience at mark's with a really good sin.

but, making plans to "drive" to houston to eat at a place as special as mark's makes it even more of an experience. if it was next door, it would become less of an event.

I wouldn't complain if a Mark's type restuarant opened up here!! That way I could have 2 or 3 glasses of wine and not fall asleep on the way home. For some reason hubby gets all depressed when that happens I never got tired of having the best close by. Also, you could always get in to one of the great ones on any given night.

La Tovla in Tomball is very heavy and wonderful 5 star Italian with the hefty price tag, but the atmosphere BITES. And that is part of the dining experience for me.

As to the Woodlands being totally white and or white-bred...This is most diverse street I have ever lived on. People from different nationalities, color and backgrounds. Tanglewood was totally white, old Houston and all went to High School and UT together. I think there were two Houses off the Boulevard that were a South American Family, but that was IT! So, there are pockets of Houston that are certainly whiter than The Woodlands will ever be.

VICMAN "In Houston ISD, the wealth of an area perceivedly has a lot to do with the education. There's an article on kids fleeing neighborhood high schools and going to the rich area schools and magnets. E.G. everyone wants into the schools in the rich areas. "

The rich areas don't get any more money than the poor ones from the district. The PTO can raise more money in wealthy parts of town, therefore provide some extras. And its a heck of a lot safer, the kids calmer because there is usually one stay at home parent. They may get better teachers due to saftey issues also.

I've never heard of PE being daily at the elementary level.. And I did not have daily PE ever at the elementary level, neither at River Oaks ES, nor at the Parish School (The private school I went to) - PE goes 45 min. daily or 90 min. every two days daily at the middle school level, as far as I know. What's funny is that according to Great Schools.. Briargrove is rated statistically as a "good school" in several areas. http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3359

The security and temp school stuff is why I said wait at the Uptown area - Those issues will not last forever. Or one could just go somewhere else where construction is finished. Also, other schools have backloads of money stored.

And those expensive developments in central Houston will have to generate money soon.

SBISD and CISD have PE everyday on the elementary level, and yes I think its just as important as english. I think the wealth of an area has nothing to do with the quality of education provided by the school district. It does however effect the amount the PTO can raised to pay for basic needs not supplied by the school district.

The Woodlands is full of comfortable people and a few highly wealthy. HISD, while it can have extreme wealth in an areas (most of which will go to private) educates a much larger impoverished population. But the wealth of the residents has nothing to do with the district. When the district has no money, it cuts back. < wait Vic edited out his remark of CISD having a poorer popuation the HISD, so this no longer applies>

HISD is out of money. Didn't you hear about all this two years ago?

Anyway, and I will stick to this, the best public eucation in town is SBISD inside the Beltway. And sending a wealthly, sheltered white child to Lamar is just playing with fire. Especially if they are not in the IB program.

"I would stay away from the HISD school district. If you are looking for good schools you would want to be out in the suburbs like Spring, Klien, Jersey Village, SugarLand and Kingwood....but be prepared to drive to work."

Hydepark, don't be so simplistic.

There are good HISD schools out there. Instead of saying "Don't go into HISD", say "check out the individual HISD school to see if it is good or bad." In general, Lamar, Bellaire, and Westside High Schools along with their feeder schools are thought to be the best comprehensives in HISD.

Areas zoned to considered "good" HISD schools include: cities of Bellaire, West University Place, and Southside Place, Braeswood Place, Afton Oaks, River Oaks, Meyerland, parts of Willow Meadows, the Briar Forest area, Sunset Terrace, Old Braeswood, Southgate, Avalon Place. Also the elementary schools in the Uptown area are thought to be good (though Katie says that construction is causing some problems at the moment, so you may want to wait until the new campuses are built - Katie felt like construction was causing problems with the education at Briargrove, so she chose to move to the Woodlands) and Uptown has Lamar High as an option. For middle, if Grady doesn't impress, try to get your kid into Lanier. For others, visit the school and check out ratings.

If you choose to live in Westbury, elementary and middle should be fine, but try to get your kid into Bellaire High, a magnet school, or a private school when high school starts.

Of course, SBISD is also good.

Hey Vic, you still have missed my most valid concern about HISD--They're BROKE. They can't afford any of the enrichment courses that other school systems have. Their elementary campuses have PE, ART and Music on a 7 day rotation...that's not even once a week. You can't just study the 3 R's for the Taks Test every day. And with all the overweight kids lately, its just insane to cut out daily PE.

Briargrove was excellent for many years, but we saw it fading. The teachers are simply overloaded and under funded. The classes have 25 kids, many "latch key behavior" problem children from the Fountain View complexes. They had no security and moving to a temp school for an ambigious amount of time. Its didn't matter that the PTO raised at least 80 grand a year for supplimentals, it was still and HISD education. We had to pay for after school science and spanish courses, and what kid wants to hang around school another hour to be well rounded? We had just lost faith in HISD, not the school itself.

And as it is you can't get into Briargrove Subdivision for under 400k now...unless you buy one street off Westhiemer and be behind some Boobie Bars. Tanglewood now starts at 600k, untouched at 2,200 sq ft,backed up to Woodway or on Chimney Rock. (Real Tanglewood, not those Garden Homes on Potomac and Nantucket that like to say they are Tanglewood).

I obviously was not clear, sorry. Spring Branch ISD has some excellant elementary schools (Bunker Hill, Frostwood) where you can still find homes starting at $150,000 (just west of Bunker Hill Village).

Spring Valley doesn't have homes starting at that price range (unless you want a small tear-down). Even though Spring Valley's city taxes will rise due to the I-10 expansion, they will still be lower than the City of Houston.

Spring Valley's middle and high school is the same as for Hunter's Creek, Piney Point, Hedwig and parts of Bunker Hill.

Just east of Hillshire Village, in the City of Houston, that neighborhood is zoned to Hunter's Creek Elem.

uhh we just moved out of the Tanglewood area and you couldn't pay me enough to live NOrth of the old tracks. Other than those 4 streets in Brykerwoods, everything is zoned for Valley Oaks Elem. SBISD is re-zoning over there lately, so Spring Branch Middle won't be an option for long. WHIle its still a great school, Hunter's Creek Elem is at the breaking point with the influx of kids in the past three years.

And yeah if you can buy the RARE 600,000 Piney Point/Hedwig house, go for it. Keep in mind you'll have to put another 300k in it to make it liveable. If we could afford athe 1.8 million it takes to get in a new home there, plus the 30k a year in taxes, we'd be there in a heartbeat!

I am CRAZY about Piney Point (Mem. Elem, SB Middle, and Mem. Senior), but its simply not even on the radar for most.

Fonn Villas and is still reasonable, but not for long.Once you go West of the Beltway, you are in Stratford Territory. Stratford is a little more rough and tumble compared to Memorial.

I wish they would do something with the old Westchester and make it a real high school again. Yorkshire and Wilcester have some homes RIPE for the picking, if the high schools were top notch. Yorkshire's values got killed when they rezoned their elementary and middle school.

It seems to me that the the outdoor section of the mall (where Barnes and Noble is) is very inconvenient for parking. I've had to hike about at least 100 yards every time i've gone there. The fake street with fake parking in front doesn't do much.

Market Street parking is much more convenient. That might change when it gets totally built out.

100 yards is a hike?

<ducking>

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking on this board for quite a while, and I've found it invaluable for info about Houston neighborhoods.

My husband and I are relocating to Houston, most likely in early January. He's working downtown, I'm working at the medical center. We'd like to buy a house within 6 months or so, but want to live in the city for a bit before making that decision.

We're very interested in the Heights. However I am having a heck of a time checking out apartments in that area online. It seems like there aren't too many big complexes there, and that's fine, but I'm worried about getting a lease in a place that's less than safe.

Basically, we're looking to rent a two bedroom apartment or house for 6 months. We'll pay up to $1500/month. Don't require a garage or anything, just would like to know that the car won't be up on blocks when we get home one evening.

Can anyone recommend any complexes, buildings or landlords? I found a listing for an apartment at 907 Heights Blvd on Craigslist - is that a reasonable location?

Advice on areas/buildings to avoid would be greatly appreciated as well. Thanks!

There are other good areas to rent. tons of VERY safe townhomes in that price range off Bering (Galleria). Its a straight shot down Woodway, through Memorial Park, to downtown. I think it took my hubby 15 minutes max to get to his office on Louisiana.

http://har.com/search/engine/indexdetail.c...=0&backButton=Y

ie- GREAT Complex

I thought HCAD froze tax rates for those over 65? Maybe they could lower the age cut off for those getting taxed out of there homes in areas getting rejuvination?

As reported in the Chronicle: (link)

It seems excessive, but then I feared this would happen when I watched all the customers head to HEB.

Eegads, I can't stand HEB. Its all generic brands and I've had 4 rotten meat experiences there. I have no sense of smell, so one incident sent me to the ER. Fortunately the other 3 times people were there to smell it.

Strange they can't carry the same quality meats and produce as their Central MArket locations.

Kroger is ok, but the produce is awful.

I shop the Randalls up here. There really isn't much choice for me, pay a little more or puke.

Well, they're just a little too slow with introducing those "upscale products" 'cause when they took over, I never saw them! The old Randall's was run RIGHT and is what made them #1 in this market--the fact that Safeway bought them and they dropped to #4 should have told them something a long time ago.

A bit like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The old model worked....the Onstead family should have held on a little longer. I bet HEB would have bought them.

Are they closing the one at Voss and Woodway? The employees really made that store. They all stayed after the buyout.

I drove by today and they are starting to put up the brick. ...How can they say this is a special Woodlands Designed Walmart? It looks just like all the other new SuperWalmarts. Only difference is they left a sporatic, scrawny border of trees. It is in no way hidden anywhere along the parkway at any point.

Some Huge Church complex is being built across from it now. What they really need is a police substation right there. Arrest the criminal element Walmart attracks, not try to save them.

IT'S OPEN!!!!!! Yummy!

My husband is getting caught almost daily, upwards of 30 minutes at a time, by trains stopped across FM2978. This is the major artery to 249 and the Beltway for residents in the north. Today he sat for an hour and then came home.

I wonder how kids even make it to school?

Seems that they could park elsewhere, or reshedule trains to non-rush hour times.

What's going on and who can you contact about this?

I think terming any house a mansion at 3000-4000 sq. feet a joke. Some of the 60's rambling ranchs dwarf that in sq. footage. We live in a new 3,800 sq foot house, and it takes up less sprawl than our 1961 Tanglewood ranch that was the same size. Its just going up, instead of out.

I think mini-mansions start at around 5000 sq ft. Mansions are 10,000 and up.

JMHO

Come home! We'll leave the light on for ya.

Well, we started at ten years til we come back...now its 9. Tick Tock.

Off course, if we win the lotto and can buy a brand spanking new home in Piney Point or Hedwig, we'll be home the next day!