HOUSTON - The road less traveled, pt. II

[SouthByMidwest]

Here we go again. We might consider this a spiritual successor of sorts to this thread.



We'll start out in some fairly familiar territory, but it won't stay that way for too long.



Speaking of long, this thread is extremely so. Hide the women, children, 56K connections and short attention spans. You've been warned.

























Haven't even gotten started yet. Let's do lunch first.



Cheap and good.



"Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia was playing on the radio inside Thien-An. While 1998 is on the mind...



...let me say this banh mi was the bomb diggity.



Now, let's move on.



































I don't think I've been through this section of east Midtown, but that's not as far east as I'm going.























288 northbound is crawling. Sucks to be them. I'm moving faster than they are.





Going into Third Ward.

HERE BE DRAGONS!

















On August 17, 1993, Lynn was here. I was probably at my aunt's house in Texas City playing Nintendo.























In this park, some lady asked me what I was doing. So I told her. It went something like this....



WHAT YOU DOIN

"Doing a little neighborhood tour, ma'am."

YOU BREAKIN THE LAW TAKIN PICTURES LIKE THAT

"I'll keep that in mind, ma'am."



YOU ALREADY KNOW YOU BREAKIN THE LAW



Well, I didn't much want to raise my profile too much, since I like to keep it low-key, but if I'm not on private property I'm not breaking the law. Oh well. I went around the corner and...



Now Playing: Judas Priest > British Steel (1980) > Breaking The Law









I wonder what that lady would've said if I told her I was selling crack instead.



BREAKING THE LAW! BREAKING THE LAW!

*Beavis and Butthead headbang*











Want a TV? How about two?



Approaching the University of Houston now. Let's cut through campus. Technically they could throw me out of here, but...



I like how "MAY" is emphasized.



Just to show it's not an empty threat...I guess they like to keep us guessing.



























Going under freeways isn't as cool as going over them, like 288. This is I-45.

















Oh really? Well, I guess I'm not moving forward for a bit. Since finishing that sandwich earlier I had walked this whole thing pretty much in one bound.



I think I was moving faster than this train.





So I take a seat, go through, look what I got, delete some of the crap off since my card's getting full.





And we're done. Finally. This was like 10 minutes later.



You know, I wasn't feeling tired or hurting or anything...



...but after getting up and walking again I feel it.





I'm thirsty. Let's go to Combat Kroger.



After leaving a calling card I thought about hopping on the bus, but you know, I'm near where I got blacked out by the early sunset on that walk back in January. Let's head toward downtown on Polk.





























Like I'd wanted to show before, this whole area is changing fast.







This sign never changed to "Reliant Energy" though.



Did I mention a lot of stuff is getting built here?









And into downtown we go. I could loop it all the way back down to Elgin, but I'll pay for it tomorrow. And that won't work, because I've got a trip to Austin to make.









Anyway, if you're still looking, thanks for viewing.



And you should totally consider getting out and about while the weather's great and it's not too hot. That's coming too, and that's a road we've all traveled.







Have a great weekend.



Follow jfre81 on Facebook - it's not breaking the law!

[ue]

Very nice documentation jfre. I noticed you trying some artistic shots like depth of field and flowery bokeh shots, cool to see you expand into new mediums jfre. What camera do you use again? I know it was point and shoot and I believe you said Nikon.

[JManc]

U of H! yay!

[MOTOR]

I like your commentary and photos! Houston has always seemed very haphazard and clusterfuckish to me and your thread reinforces that.

At first glance, this looks like Detroit's skyline:

[SouthByMidwest]

Originally Posted by edmontonenthusiast

Very nice documentation jfre. I noticed you trying some artistic shots like depth of field and flowery bokeh shots, cool to see you expand into new mediums jfre. What camera do you use again? I know it was point and shoot and I believe you said Nikon.

Coolpix L4....hoping to make the DSLR jump sooner or later. If only I got paid for these :p

Originally Posted by MOTOR

I like your commentary and photos! Houston has always seemed very haphazard and clusterfuckish to me and your thread reinforces that.

Loving that lack of zoning too, huh? How about the chiropractor's office next to what is apparently just somebody's house? That's pretty sweet.

And I was glad to get a little UH into the mix, Mr. Mancuso. Hell, compared to walking on Alabama toward campus, once I got on I felt no different from anyone else there.

[espalorius]

oh cool, i went to the maple leaf pub in your 3rd pic when i was down there

ps; nice pics!

[destroycreate]

Man, Houston tries so hard to have urban neighborhoods but it just doesn't work out.

[SouthByMidwest]

I wasn't too aware that Houston was trying that hard. Most would say the city's not trying hard enough. There is a very hands-off, laissez-faire kind of approach to development here when it comes to the local government.

In any case, urbanity as you understand it is a rather new concept not only in Houston, but throughout the Sun Belt. It didn't really come to Southern California either until land got extremely expensive. Otherwise it was building out than up. Just about every large Southern city with the exceptions perhaps of New Orleans and Miami followed this path, and in the case of those two was more for lack of unlimited surrounding land for the development of low-density sprawl. It's always been cheaper to build out, but now that the outer fringes of the metro area are a good two hour drive from downtown, that land closer in is becoming more valuable and we're getting infill, like you see toward the end when I'm heading into downtown on Polk Street.

Third Ward will probably be rendered unrecognizable with gentrification in 10-15 years time. Really, it's changed relatively little since the 1980s oil bust. In comparison, during that time part of Fourth Ward became what we now call Midtown and is virtually unrecognizable from what it was 10-15 years ago.

[TXLove]

Another good thread! Loving all the Htown exposure from you!

[LAsam]

I want to go to Super Happy Fun Land! Thanks for the great photo thread. Houston's quite unique.

[Shasta]

The best thing about Houston and Houstonians is that we don't try too hard to impress other folks.

I love this town. It has its own vibe and doesn't apologize for it.

UH has really grown since my years out there. Go Coogs! Go Third Ward!

[SouthmoreAve]

This should be more well-received than your other thread, but I know your not here trying to make people move here by posting only the positives of Houston.

Great thread, and worth the loading troubles I had.

Your getting better, and its very noticeable.

[Dan Denson]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

Man, Houston tries so hard to have urban neighborhoods but it just doesn't work out.

Is your observation based on actually visiting and covering the entire urban core, or just based on a few photos someone took that show a very small percentage of the enormous amount of new construction in the inner loop?

Great photos, by the way.

[SouthByMidwest]

Originally Posted by SouthmoreAve

This should be more well-received than your other thread

Well-received? That POS thread went to four or five pages. Discussion's discussion, and that made it worthwhile. I don't think I'll bother with getting started on a long walking project at 4pm in January again, I can tell you that much.

Basically this became more or less what I had set out to do that day in January, but in reverse. Weather and length of daylight certainly cooperated better.

Thanks everyone...

[Sekkle]

nice tour. I felt like I was walking along with you!

[bobdreamz]

jfre I enjoyed this Houston thread and the commentary as well. Just a couple of comments regarding zoning & construction.Somebody mentioned that chiropractor's office next to a house and they have that same sort of thing in parts of inner city Miami so that type of zoning is allowed. Next is this:



Is all construction like this? Made up entirely of wood? No wonder housing is inexpensive in Houston!

[Dan Denson]

Originally Posted by bobdreamz

jfre I enjoyed this Houston thread and the commentary as well. Just a couple of comments regarding zoning & construction.Somebody mentioned that chiropractor's office next to a house and they have that same sort of thing in parts of inner city Miami so that type of zoning is allowed.

We have zoning in Austin but we end up with unfortunate situations, too. I see that in a lot of cities with zoning where poor decisions on variances are granted, or where the zoning itself is done poorly. I don't know what happened with Hyde Park in Austin, for example, where you have apartments next to houses next to churches, etc. And Hyde Park is extremely popular and expensive.

Even where there is no zoning, like Houston, deed restrictions in many neighborhoods prevent problems. I lived in three neighborhoods in Houston before I went off to college, and we had no such problems in my neighborhoods. But then there are areas like Montrose, an extremely popular and interesting neighborhood, where houses and condos/townhomes exist right next to each other. You can find streets with fine old homes from the 30s, then a new condo complex next to them, then a McMansion, etc.. But a lot of people don't seem to mind that in Montrose.

Regarding offices next to houses, I've noticed that in some cities including Houston, a major avenue was formerly all residential, and then businesses started moving in due to lack of zoning. In many cases, the businesses use the old houses. So you end up with businesses right next to houses. The neighborhoods behind the major avenues are more likely to remain intact, though.

[Bedhead]

I love the lighting on that wooden frame, and in this pic.

For me, this is what real urbanism is all about - the random, organic scenes that tell you so much about people's lives and about the history of a place. It's not so much about the big set piece public buildings and parks that have been planned and implemented from the top down (although they are nice, too).

[LSyd]

great pics of A BLAND SOULLESS SUBURBAN OFFICE PARK!!!

you are getting better; you'll need a DSLR in a few months at this rate. good to see 3rd Ward.

-

[KevinFromTexas]

Man, I wish I could get out and do that. My foot still won't let me though.

Nice pics. I recognize that "Fingers" sign from the elevated highway above it. There's a good view there.