distressed houston retail property

[datasuspect]

had a movie theater as an anchor, now defunct.

nowhere near any pedestrian facilities, restaurants, or sub-par stores.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Houston's got NO zoning codes. Shit city. nt

[kentauros]

2. And I LOVE that aspect to my home town!

Zoning takes all the character out of a place :P

[Captain Hilts]

3. Different strokes for different folks...nt

[texanwitch]

4. We had to much over building.

This was bound to happen.

[datasuspect]

5. the development cycles matched the boom/bust cycles.

plus the set-offs from major roads, mandatory huge lots, and lots of oil money helped to ensure the sprawl.

especially in unincorporated north and northwest harris county, where the City of Houston basically claims the major roads and commercial developments, but not the residential. i think they did this to keep the number of repubs down in the city council.

i don't know how it is now though. however, the scope of the sprawl is breathtaking and almost beautiful in its own way.

[MadMaddie]

6. That has happend all over the country

We have a business park near where we live and I would say that the occupancy is at about 20% if that. Lot's of big empty buildings....

[kentauros]

7. They did that kind of thing, too, back before the S&L crisis.

Built lots of buildings and strip-centers just to let them fail and somehow make money off of that.

[texanwitch]

8. Lots of trees were cut down and now we have flooding.

Cement everywhere.

[kentauros]

9. A lot of the flooding problems started in the 50s

when the Corps of Engineers turned any bayou they could get their hands on into nothing more than concrete ditches. Look at Braes Bayou for instance...

[texanwitch]

10. or White Oak.

I have seen pictures of old White Oak Bayou, it was beautiful.

People used to fish and swin in the bayous.

[Capn Sunshine]

12. But there's gators in the bayous!

I'll never forget post Hurricane Gilbert looking out at the creek in my backyard in The Woodlands and there's a six foot gator crawling out of it.

Is that building in Spring by any chance?

[texanwitch]

13. The bayous are just ugly now.

The old pictures make me cry.

[MadMaddie]

11. The Howard Hansen dam in Kent WA is projected to fail

the next time we have a solid daily big rains.....ummm we are in WA and it rains in late Fall, Winter and Spring...

Where did they build the dam in a huge flood plain....and what is below the dam a multitude of businesses and neighborhoods....brilliant!

Another Corps of Engineers project...

It's not if it will fail...it's when...

[texanwitch]

14. We have that same ideas here.

Houston builders love to build in a flood plain

Our neighborhood has been spared by the bad economy now.

Hundreds of townhouses were to be build in a major flood plain.

[Capn Sunshine]

15. oh they did that in Cypress

that neighborhood off the 45 near FM 1960 floods every time it rains over ten inches.

[texanwitch]

16. The damage as been done.

the area was lower then the neighborhood, just a train yard.

The land is now 2ft. higher, at least it is dirt not cement.

[kentauros]

19. Or in even worse places

like inside of a fucking reservoir!!!

Addicks Reservoir

I have never, ever understood who got the "brilliant" idea to not only build residential, commercial and even a State Highway through a reservoir, but to also "sell" that idea to people. I really have to wonder just how stupid people can be to accept that as a logical thing to do.

"Oh sure, honey, let's buy that $400k house that will flood the next time we get another Allison-style Tropical Depression through here. What could possibly go wrong?! They even built a dike around us to keep the water out. Oh wait..." :P

[texanwitch]

20. I know somebody who bought in Bear Creek Park.

They flooded last time when we had that big rain in the Katy and Beltway area.

I was standing on my porch looking at dark clouds and lighting.

I did warn them about buying there.

Now they are stuck with a house they can't sell.

[kentauros]

21. To me it's just a no-brainer to look at flood maps

before you move in somewhere. Don't listen to the realtor; they just want to unload a property on some unsuspecting dumbass. We really need to teach kids how to read topo maps so they can go home and tell their parents how, too ;)

[texanwitch]

22. They had flood insurance so the house is repaired.

But know they can't sell without a major reduction in price.

They have a big house note.

[kentauros]

23. Well, I hope they find a way out of it.

It's a horrible feeling to learn such a thing.

I'd be happy to show them how to read a topo map, though ;)

[texanwitch]

24. I tried to get them to buy in my neighborhood.

We can flood but the house I wanted them to buy was remodelded old house, raise off the ground with blocks.

Really nice, double lot, shade trees, nice fence, for less then half then the house they bought.


If I had the money I would have bought it and rented it out.

[XemaSab]

17. Welcome to any town in California

:(

[datasuspect]

18. This Could Be Anywhere (This Could Be Everywhere)

Cold concrete apartments
Rise up from wet black asphalt
Below them a few carcasses
Of the long gone age of privacy

It takes a scary kind of illness
To design a place like this for pay
Downtown's an endless generic mall
Of video games and fast food chains

One by one
The little houses are bricked up and condemned
A subtle hint to move
Before the rats move in

This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere
Those new kids at school seem cool
But dad says not to talk to them
Stick to your old friends
They're not our kind
So now there's lots of fights

So many people I know
Come of age tense and bitter-eyed
Can't create so they just destroy
C'mon!
Let's set someone's dog on fire

Empty plastic
Culture slum suburbia
Is a war zone now
Sprouting the kinds of gangs
We thought we'd left behind

This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere
Kids at school are taking sides
Along color and uniform lines
My dad's gone and bought a gun
He says he's fed up
With crime in this town
This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere
This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere
Anywhere
Everywhere
I hope I'm gone before it explodes
I linger late at night
Waiting for the bus
No amount of neon jazz
Could hide the oozing vibes of death
My dad's a vigilante now
He's bringing home these weird-ass friends
Like the guy who fires blanks at his TV
When Kojak's on
Or the guy who shows off his submachine gun
To his sixteen-year-old daughter's friends
Whose sense of pride and hope
Is being in the police reserve

This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere-Everywhere

[Manifestor_of_Light]

25. The other problem is pumping groundwater out for decades.

That causes subsidence.

Back in the early 1980s, there was a lawsuit over a subdivision in Baytown called Brownwood. It sank into Goose Creek or whatever and had to be abandoned.

[dembotoz]

26. seemed like a good idea at the time

so much vacant space out there and yet they build more.

the flushing sound is hear is hopes and dreams and lots of cash.

[TrogL]

27. What architect designed that abomination?

I wouldn't have gone to it when it was new.