Bad Blog Post for The Flying Cow

This is a bad blog post. We went to eat with my dah and her kids Thursday night but I was feeling blah and took no pictures. The Flying Cow even that is not acting right Looks write in preview There is an old video though

No Names

 So my wife says I cannot name names as I tell you about my dream.

Not sure where to start.  Names have been changed to protect people I really like.

I guess we start with Sue who is James Garners daughter and not Jennifer so not really.  Then there is Meg who is a former Houston City Council member.  We have Kim who is a current Congresswoman.  Meg it turns out is Kim's daughter.  We are all members of some Ivy League university club with a lot of dark wood paneling.

An FBI agent shows up to tap the phones on a room off a bar where we all hanging out.  A friend of Sue's offers to help with the wires and then connect a wire to his computer.  It turns out the people in the room are somehow doing arbitrage trading on the U. S. Mint and it is very profitable so it must be illegal.

Nope not illegal but now I know how to make a lot of money for people who are not me.

One Teeny Tiny Problem

 But I decided to eat it anyway.

... and that reminded me of at least three stories.

Story one is that in our family cemetery is a headstone that reads:

    This man came here and was sick.

    He died so we buried him.

Story two:

My widowed grandmother with four girls and two boys that were my mom, three of my aunts and two of my uncles took a wagon to visit an elderly relative.  That relative made biscuits for them before they set off for home.  One sibling did not eat any biscuits.  When asked why they had not eaten any biscuits they said it was because that relative's nose had been dripping into the batter.

Story three is about burnt toast and generally is passed on as relationship advice:

No need to tell the story just if someone you love serves you burnt toast, eat it.

A Middle of the Night Thread to a Flipper

So there was this person on twitter that seems to like container homes but also does gut and refurbs.  Seems some folks must have accused him of being a gentrifier.  He showed a nice looking refurb and a home that if in my neighborhood could have been my aged neighbor's across the street that walks the dogs at midnight and walks to the store three to four times a day.  Actually the home shown was in better shape than the one across the street.  Sometimes a home like that the owner will die without a will and no one claims it then taxes get so big there is little point and it gets sold for taxes.  Now I am old and my home is not in perfect shape.  I just spent $4000 due to the freeze and could easily spend another $40,000 on electric, a/c, kitchen upgrade and add another bath and a half that would make my home list at the comparable $425,000 two blocks from me.  That would be likely at least $250,000 to $275,000 more than what a flipper would offer me right now.  So there is nothing wrong with making a $200,000 plus profit on a less than $200,000 plus investment that takes six months to turn except that home has not sold yet so we will see but the comps seem about right without my actually going and computing comps but just ballparking what I have seen.

Now as I said I am old.  I have retired and would of course like to stay retired but medical costs, sometimes unexpected as well as unexpected costs for repairs here and family and friends that also have unexpected needs that I like to help with may make me at least try to set up a business here while I really just want to help others learn to do a lot of the building, repairing and IT skills I have acquired.

Oh, and annual taxes and insurance on my home running about $2500 and rising with some major jumps if I get appraised at much higher than my current sort of fair appraisal.

That person on twitter must somehow not only wanted to be "not the problem" but wanted to find investors who would also not only want to see themselves as being "not the problem" but also maybe want to see themselves as some sort of hero that is a rock that does not make ripples as it enters the water.  So that person blocked me and here is what I thought as I was awake way too early that morning.

**********

It is not so much that you are the problem yet you are the energy that creates the vector which drives displacement.  The problem is long term generational wealth that does not have critical mass and how the individuals in those homes may avoid displacement especially 

if healthcare, home repair costs from freeze, hurricane, pest or others and taxes exceed fixed income.  The taxing entities politicians may pretend to dislike you but in fact see you as the simplest conversion of a property to an income ( tax ) stream though 

at the loss of the property to the current owner and constituent who may get enough out of the property to survive elsewhere but seldom in the area that may be three or four generations deep.  Affordable housing for the displaced in the same neighborhood is a challenge. 

Additional words - you are not the problem, you are a set of parameters and not in control of all of the other parameters just as are all of us as individuals, couples, families, corporate or government entities.  Thank you for letting me put some of the parameters into words.

What I have seen you post I call refurb and infill that could involve the land bank or the land trust.  Something different will be the Hardy Yard and Yellow Cab Development which will soon have a NOFA.

The developer will likely not be able to build anything for current residents being displaced or for residents currently renting that are also being displaced.  The problem then becomes either new income or subsidies which is someone else's income.

So the problem from the view of the current resident is like watching flood waters and finding the resources to get to dry ground.

Smoke 1

Tweets to robot streets

mine

someone who types more

Old Us to Walmart and to see Art Art Art Outside in the Heights

So my sleep cycle came around to the time we could go and we got much more than expected.

You can see this work being built.  Creation of my favorite local artist.

a walk on 4 11 20

So we should get out and get a little exercise.

Just does not look the traditional representation of a pandemic.

Time to Make the Soup

Bright Sunny day

 We had been out earlier to B&W to stock up on meats and got the stew meat for what we call Stoup.  Nice big standard parking lot with lots of room for walking.  Years ago Weingarten's pulled their store off of OST and I am sure everyone from U of H to here is glad to have this store.  Sort of able to get there by bus but that is not the way we went today.

 Not sure how you access this dog park which I guess is really drainage and I wonder how the North Houston Highway Improvement water to be diverted to this are will impact it.

Plenty of room for walking on the inside too.

 So we need the veggies for the Stoup and a few other things.  Loads of people working here right now.  Third Ward right at 288 and MacGregor accessible from Northbound feeder or Westbound on MacGregor.

Always glad to see new grocery options available especially in areas that have not had many options.  Looking forward to when the Near Northside will have grocery options locally.

Keys to the City Maps

So loved when I was young and an Uncle would give me an Atlas and an Aunt gave me a globe.  I am really kind of a home body but I enjoy knowing what is out there.

On some forum last week someone mentioned a map store on Shepherd South of I-10.  Turns out it is on Durham and a pleasant place to visit.

Someone else had said somewhere that we could now throw away our Key Maps.  We could but then disaster or digital ransomware attacks so maybe a backup on paper is not at all a bad idea.

Azure

 Houston Map Company

I first learned to use a Key Map as an ambulance attendant when I was sixteen years old.

 There is a bike shop over there.

The sign says so.

Why Do I Have To Leave My Neighborhood

Crazy, yes totally crazy order these photos got added here.

Here I was still in the neighborhood where someone had trouble finding a trash can.

 Then here I was on my way from Ion to train station to go to Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

 

And yes that was a moment before that. Buzz.

 Part of the built infrastructure.

On my way to Ion.

 Aha, here is where the blog was supposed to begin with the not so completely evident but there row of service trucks at homes being gutted and rehabbed where folks are being good to front end loader remove trash elsewhere and neighbors trying to get ready for Friday bi-monthly heavy trash pickup but the ditch is really the only place for large amounts unless we block street or driveway.

 There is a beautiful Houston sunset as seen from inside Ion currently in building with Station

Something like a tree outside what was Sakowitz.

Tree inside old financial center.

 Ok back to the beginning again where I am wondering why I have to leave my neighborhood.  I am old so at a lecture I will be told old folks and children are the most likely to sort of have this need for stuff in the neighborhood.

 On the way to Ion.

y

Yep Same.   

Where Foley's was.

An interesting home in the neighborhood.

Museum District stop

Windows

 Cute kitty and the ditch and heavy trash infrastructure looking for a solution.

I do not know right now.

ZAZA

Yep

 Oh, here we are at the talk maybe about libraries but also about neighborhoods, heat waves, gentrification and more.

 Yes more built environment.

 I do not remember noting before that these are retractable.

To my left

Nice and wide walkways.

Headed out

ramp

 Part of The Situation

Hmmmm

Green Link

Future

Again

Clear

 

Down and to the Northwest

Straight On

Here I go