New Development Projects On FM 1960

[Montrose1100]

Klein Forest has an oddly drawn attendance zone that takes kids from Acres Homes (249 and West Montgomery) for obvious reasons which is ridiculous when Eisenhower High is right next door...

But the 1960 area and Klein area is a product of Greenspoint moving north along nort-south arteries of Veterans, Ella and Kuykendahl.

Look at Louetta now and I-45...there's a HUD housing project coming up and the Louetta wal-mart has had its fair share of news in the past year.

It's no wonder Montgomery is seeing all these new homes built...

Thats in Harris though

[ENGcons]

utpsyc:

I drove past that property this weekend and picked up the flier on the for sale sign. It is down the street from my folks place. Probably the nicest house in the neighborhood imo, definatly the best maintained. If I were to buy in Greenwood that is the house I would want. However I do not want my kids going to KF becasue of the south side of the district, I'll stick with the new HS that is coming in 2010.

[H-Town Man]

I briefly substitute taught in KISD a couple years ago. The first day at Klein Forest, I wrote up four students (before running out of discipline slips). One wouldn't leave the room, and I had to get another teacher to come and persuade him. I had my hands full all day with students carrying on cross-room conversations about who's pregnant with who, etc. When I left that afternoon, I told myself that if I were ever to wake up and find that I was a teacher at Klein Forest, I would probably slit my throat.

Klein Oak, and especially Klein Collins, were heaven by contrast. Never subbed at Klein (although I went to high school there).

The reason for the long, unusual shape of KISD has to do with integration back in the 60's. They brought in Acres Homes so as to have some black students in the district. It was for this reason that Mr. Klein High School in 1972 was none other than Sylvester Turner, of Acres Homes.

[H-Town Man]

Does anyone remember when you could look across Champions Golf Course while driving down 1960? This was before they built the wall, sometime back in the late 80's. Looking back, the construction of that wall seems sort of symbolic... like an end of innocence for the area.

Champions Golf Course, by the way, was the first thing out here - it was built all the way back in the late 50's, and hosted the U.S. Open in the 60's. People in Houston who wanted a country retreat to do their golfing would drive out here... 1960 was a two-lane road with nary a light between I-45 and the course.

It was the building of Intercontinental Airport in the 60's and big corporate relocations such as that of Shell Oil Company from New York to Houston that first brought neighborhoods to the area. The earliest were Champions, built by the owners of the golf course on adjacent land not used for the course, and Bammel Forest, built on the site of an old pecan orchard on Kuykendahl. The next wave - including Westador, Enchanted Oaks, Ponderosa, Greenwood Forest, and Huntwick - were built in the late 60's/early 70's by Vincent Kickerillo.

[Montrose1100]

My father always talks about how the area on 1960 use to be as well. Infact, he remembers when Chayns was opened. "Did you know it use to be a 2 lane road with forest on both sides?". And he tells me about when Bennigans opened, etc. Its interesting how the are has changed within a min. of 15 years.

[H-Town Man]

I don't remember when Bennigan's opened. I do however recall shopping at North Oaks Mall, when it was an actual mall - Target at one end, Craig's at the other. And I remember when my dad bought our first computer at Target, an Atari 800XL. 64Kb of RAM. I'm not kidding.

[mrfootball]

I remember when the only Cinema in the area was the Champions 2. Now it is some sort of Laser Tag facility. I recall many a b-day party at Games People Play across from what is today Northgate. That waterslide was 'the bomb' in its day.

I did not know that about Klein (gerrymandering to include Acres Homes for a little ethnicity). It would be an interesting research project to find out how and why the district lines were drawn as they are in the Houston area.

All in all, I grew up in the area and really loved it. Loved it so much I moved back (sort of...just a little bit over to the West...but still in the woods over here in Cypress) after having moved away for college and living in Midtown during my post-college single years.

Edited February 28, 2006 by mrfootball

[worldlyman]

Those nasty places serve their neighborhood. If the customers are immigrants, ghtto people and other dienfranchised segments of the population, then that is because the neighborhood is comprised of those groups.

Interestingly enough, rps is right. These butt-ugly strip centers house America's entrepreneurs. The "lifestyle centers" only contain national chains. There are no individuals in there. While you may be uncomfortable in these strip centers, they are the real America.

BTW, these strip centers are the southern version of street level retail in the rust belt cities.

Ain't that the truth. Some of these "butt-ugly strip centers" house some of the best pho, best boba, best pupusas, best lamb biryani in the USA.

I've enjoyed cruising through FM 1960, from I-45 all the way on down to I-10 (I avoid the death trap that becomes Highway 6). It's like the Westheimer of north Houston. Scattered, disorganized but replete with all sorts of entertainment, cafes, ethnic grocers, novelty shops, neighborhoods...and store front NIGHT LIGHTS. It has its ups and downs...but I wish it had sidewalks like Westheimer, at least, does. It's not as smooth as Westheimer but FM 1960 has some nice lush green for a different effect.

[ENGcons]

Wow, bringing back memories. North Oaks Mall, my best freinds dad owned Harmony Surf and Sunwear in there. Games People Play. That place was awesome, especially when they built the water slide. And I remember when the Champions wall was not there, and before Willowbrook Mall. When Del Frisco's was Del Frisco's, and west of 249 was no mans land. And going to Two Peso's, which is now a Jared's, and hanging out in the parking lot behind McDonald's at North Oaks in high school with everyone else. Good times, good times.

[H-Town Man]

Wow, bringing back memories. North Oaks Mall, my best freinds dad owned Harmony Surf and Sunwear in there. Games People Play. That place was awesome, especially when they built the water slide. And I remember when the Champions wall was not there, and before Willowbrook Mall. When Del Frisco's was Del Frisco's, and west of 249 was no mans land. And going to Two Peso's, which is now a Jared's, and hanging out in the parking lot behind McDonald's at North Oaks in high school with everyone else. Good times, good times.

Wow, I don't remember pre-Willowbrook. I do however remember when it was not 249, but FM 149.

Games People Play always stirs bad vibes because some kid once told me that there were seams between the different sections of the waterslide that could cut your back as you went over them. I was petrified going down that slide every time afterwards. Never enjoyed it again.

We sound like a bunch of old-timers.

[infinite_jim]

My father always talks about how the area on 1960 use to be as well. Infact, he remembers when Chayns was opened.

i've heard that chayns "shane's" is a swinger's club

is this true?

[mrfootball]

i've heard that chayns "shane's" is a swinger's club

is this true?

For Teachers...yes.

[ENGcons]

Chayn's, or whatever was a bar for older singles. I remember being 21 and a buddy of mine and I walked in to see what it was like and we were pronptly told that we could not come in because the minimum age to enter was 25. So I just chalked it up to being older divorced hags in there that wouldn't be worth my time at 21.