Will Houston’s East Side ever be renovated? (Galveston, Spring: appointed, 2015)

[SanJac]

I took a drive yesterday to check out progress of the new Houston Botanic Garden at the site of the former Glenbrook Golf Course. When I was younger I played that course quite often. I followed Google Map directions which had me exit on Howard and then circle back under the freeway.

I have to say I was super disappointed with the state of the neighborhood on the east side of the garden. There are slum apartments at the corner of the freeway and Glenview Drive. The houses along the street almost all have burglar bars and look run down.

I decided to check out the Park Place side of the Garden where the entrance will be. If you’ve ever been there you know that the Park Place/Broadway intersection is a nightmare and confusing. Nothing has changed. From Park Place I could see the Botanical Garden construction and the new entrance bridge, but the surrounding area is not nice.

Rather than turn around and head back to I45 I used google maps to guide me home and it took me towards Old Galveston Road. OMG that area is really bad. It was dumpy. In one lot there was a stack of at least 50 old tires. It looked like a junk yard. I would hate to think tourists could get lost in this area of Houston.

I grew up in Northeast Houston off Hwy 59 so I am not a stranger to “hood” neighborhoods, but this was a wake up call for me. Clearly I have been insulated in my Heights and West Houston bubble for the last 20 years. It makes me sad that people still live in those conditions in East Houston. What will it take for this area to be renovated? Gentrification?

One silver lining of my trip home was Google Maps took me over the 610 Ship Channel bridge, which I dreaded. But I caught a glimpse of a SPECTACULAR view of the Houston skylines...downtown, the Med Center, Uptown, all in the same panoramic view. WOW! I wish I could have taken a picture.

After this scouting trip I am less bullish on the impact of the Houston Botanic Garden. I think the city will need to spend some serious money to beautify the area around the Garden if it will become a tourist destination.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by SanJac

I took a drive yesterday to check out progress of the new Houston Botanic Garden at the site of the former Glenbrook Golf Course. When I was younger I played that course quite often. I followed Google Map directions which had me exit on Howard and then circle back under the freeway.

I have to say I was super disappointed with the state of the neighborhood on the east side of the garden. There are slum apartments at the corner of the freeway and Glenview Drive. The houses along the street almost all have burglar bars and look run down.

I decided to check out the Park Place side of the Garden where the entrance will be. If you’ve ever been there you know that the Park Place/Broadway intersection is a nightmare and confusing. Nothing has changed. From Park Place I could see the Botanical Garden construction and the new entrance bridge, but the surrounding area is not nice.

Rather than turn around and head back to I45 I used google maps to guide me home and it took me towards Old Galveston Road. OMG that area is really bad. It was dumpy. In one lot there was a stack of at least 50 old tires. It looked like a junk yard. I would hate to think tourists could get lost in this area of Houston.

I grew up in Northeast Houston off Hwy 59 so I am not a stranger to “hood” neighborhoods, but this was a wake up call for me. Clearly I have been insulated in my Heights and West Houston bubble for the last 20 years. It makes me sad that people still live in those conditions in East Houston. What will it take for this area to be renovated? Gentrification?

One silver lining of my trip home was Google Maps took me over the 610 Ship Channel bridge, which I dreaded. But I caught a glimpse of a SPECTACULAR view of the Houston skylines...downtown, the Med Center, Uptown, all in the same panoramic view. WOW! I wish I could have taken a picture.

After this scouting trip I am less bullish on the impact of the Houston Botanic Garden. I think the city will need to spend some serious money to beautify the area around the Garden if it will become a tourist destination.

East end already gentrifying closer to downtown. Ship channel is a little bit of a detriment, but it will eventually happen.

[Watchful]

Originally Posted by bu2

East end already gentrifying closer to downtown. Ship channel is a little bit of a detriment, but it will eventually happen.

Some of that gentrification is in micro-neighborhoods. Seems like a lot of potential close in to downtown. Glenbrook Valley is still a gem. Idylwood. Some beautiful blocks of homes between Garden Villas and Bellfort if I remember correctly - near Mount Carmel.

The areas near Chavez HS east of 45 don't have a lot of eye appeal but are hardly "slums" - lots of working Latino families in that area.

[Redlionjr]

I thought I read somewhere that they plan on gentrifying that area your speaking of once they expand the East End of the Bayou. I could be wrong though.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Yes it will happen sooner than later. EaDo is already another world from what it was a decade ago

[modster]

Many older areas suffer from the main thoroughfares being dumpy, but the areas are better once you get into them. Even relatively "nicer" areas have this same issue. If you were unfamiliar with Garden Oaks, for example, and just saw what you see along Shepherd by that Sears, you wouldn't really get a true feeling for how nice the rest of the neighborhood is. Shepherd thru the Heights has only very recently cleaned up any, it was very ugly for years. We won't talk about the main thoroughfares in Spring Branch, or the junky houses facing 43rd, west of the bayou, in the trendy Oak Forest area. Even some decent neighborhoods on the west side, like Briarmeadow out on Richmond and Hillcroft area, has some super sketchy stuff around it. That's just Houston, but for some reason, it seems like people make a bigger deal out of the same things when it's on the east side.

Near the new Botanical Garden, if you'd take River Drive, from the feeder road around to Park Place, you'd see a very nice area back there. Nice older homes on large lots with some hills and valleys. The Houston Audubon Society also has an education center in an old log cabin on River Drive, backing up to one of the old oxbows of Sims bayou. They have just broken ground on $4,500,000 in improvements to the roadway & sidewalks along Park Place leading up to the Botanical Garden & I believe some additional landscaping improvements and banners and such will go up as well.

Of course Scenic Houston did about $7.5 million in landscaping along Broadway Boulevard a couple of years ago. A Management District is now in place for the commercial properties in some of that area across the freeway from the Botanical Garden site.

There are a few other balls in the air that could be game changers for the area, or not, only time will tell. The Gulfgate TIRZ was suddenly expanded to include not only the Botanical Garden, but all of Broadway leading up to Hobby. Supposedly this was pushed by Ed Wulfe, the major developer, prior to his passing. Why they did that, I can't say, but I somehow doubt they did it willy-nilly for no reason. Something is up with that.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...me-5946231.php

Also interesting is how on the heels of Hobby expanding with international flights, one entity bought up all the old Harold Farb complexes by Hobby, assembling 80 acres next to the airport. I have to wonder if they did that simply to run some $h!*show class C- complexes. Possibly not. They have been quoted in the past as saying ultimately they would like to redevelop some of the site, and demo permits were just issued for a section on the northwest corner of Morley and Broadway. (If you drive by, windows are out, they are completely empty in that one part). https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/...plex-near.html

So you have a management district in the area, this sudden expansion of the TIRZ, one entity assembling massive land blocks, a botanical garden opening later this year. Add in the improvements to major thoroughfares like Broadway and Park Place, Glenbrook Valley's historic designation, with a jump in the median price per square foot in there from $65.85 in 2015 to $109.32 in 2019, & things look a lot more optimistic around there than they have in a while.

[Watchful]

Originally Posted by modster

So you have a management district in the area, this sudden expansion of the TIRZ, one entity assembling massive land blocks, a botanical garden opening later this year. Add in the improvements to major thoroughfares like Broadway and Park Place, Glenbrook Valley's historic designation, with a jump in the median price per square foot in there from $65.85 in 2015 to $109.32 in 2019, & things look a lot more optimistic around there than they have in a while.

Great update modster!

[SanJac]

You make good points @modster. I’ll go deeper into the neighborhoods next time I’m out there. Glad to see things are happening!

You reminded me too that not too long ago there were slum apartments at the entrance of Woodland Heights on Taylor street and White Oak. Those apartments have since been razed and replaced by Elan Heights upscale apartments. So change does happen over time.

[elnina]

I wonder if the slow pace has something to do with the east side more vulnerable to hurricanes destruction? Houston expands more to the west. Everything new and shiny is build to the north and west of Houston, no?

Maybe I am wrong. Here is an "opportunity" map:
https://kinder.rice.edu/2018/03/23/n...ings-questions

[jfre81]

Once you get toward the port enough where the air quality is poor, then not so much, but west of there, the sky is the limit. There's the light rail on Harrisburg. The general area along that is essentially a less dense version of some of this N/NW Chicago Hermosa/Belmont Cragin/Kilbourn Park north and west of my spot right now. Light industrial/commercial on the main drags and neighborhood off it. Here, the transit connection is relatively poor compared to the rest of the city; for Houston that Harrisburg corridor is one of the best connected now. That will drive development faster there while here it's just kind of on the fringe of the redevelopment hotspot.

The process got started with EaDo and will work its way down, but it'll hit that barrier at some point eastward. You won't have luxury midrises going up in Manchester.

Suppose I was going to set back up in Houston, I probably wouldn't mind being somewhere Harrisburg-ish, 69th-ish. It sure won't be unfamiliar territory.