Inside Today: Nine local athletes sign to play college sports • Page 4B PREMIER PROPERTIES
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SATURDAY | February 16, 2013 | Vol. 59 | No. 16 | www.theleadernews.com | @heightsleader
THE BRIEF.
Finally a city update?
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Waltrip creating legacy brick courtyard As part of the renovation of the Waltrip High School campus, the Imperial Guard Alumnae are selling “legacy bricks” to form the new courtyard. Members of the community are encouraged to honor or memorialize any former student, faculty or staff of Waltrip with a commemorative brick. A 4” x 8” brick with up to three lines is $50, and an 8” x 8” brick with up to five lines is $100. Funds raised will go to the IGA’s scholarship fund. For more or to order, go to www. imperialguardalumnae.org and click on the “Legacy Brick” tab. Deadline is May 31. The IGA is a contemporary extension of the Imperial Guard, a service organization which served the school and community from 1960-’82.
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WHAT: Girl Scout Cookie Sale hits the booths. WHEN: In earnest this weekend, running through March 24. WHERE: Outside markets and other retailers throughout our neighborhoods. There’s no avoiding them. HOW MUCH: $4 a box LEARN MORE: www.gssjc.org EDITOR’S TAKE: Their timing seems diabolical – door-to-door sales coincide with New Year’s resolutions, booth sales with the Lenten season. But Girl Scout cookies are one guilty pleasure that’s hard to forsake. Plus they’re a major source of funding for Scouting activities, and they give girls business and confidence skills when they see how easily they wear down your resolve.
Subdivision ordinance could impact neighborhood development by Cynthia Lescalleet For The Leader Mention “Chapter 42” and reactions tend to vary from passing curiosity about what it is to near-apoplexy to builder fever. Since 10 amendments awaiting a City of Houston Planning Commission decision carry citywide ramifications, let’s take a look inside the pages of Chapter 42. Just don’t call it the “development ordinance,” city sources said. “Rather, it is one piece of a much larger development regulation structure,” explained Brian Crimmings, chief of staff in the Department of Planning and Development. “It’s the part of our code that establishes
the rules on how land can be subdivided or assembled for the purpose of development – it’s a subdivision ordinance. (Unlike a zoning ordinance, a subdivision ordinance does not regulate land use, nor does it regulate building or infrastructure design standards.”) The city has changed dramatically since the last time the ordinance got an update 14 years ago, Crimmins explained in an email response. About six years of meetings and public dialog led to the current, final stage of the amendment process.“The time is right to make improvements to the ordinance, protect our neighborhoods, and position Houston for the future growth,” he said.
PAGES 1B & 2B
see Chapter 42 • Page 8A Photo by Patric Schneider
Tiny Bubbles Albert goes from snow queen to pipeline poster girl by Cynthia Lescalleet For The Leader aybe it was her spirit, or maybe it was her camera-friendly features. Either way, Tiny Albert, 85, became an inadvertent poster girl for the 2012 energy vote campaign of the Keystone pipeline. Oversized ads feature Albert’s sassy stance in a yellow shirt and button-fly jeans beneath the slogan “I’m an energy voter.” The full-page ad appeared in USA Today and Time Magazine as well as on the sides of buses on the streets of the nation’s capital. Ditto the subway. Her grandchildren, located all over the U.S., used social media to further spread the smiling presence of their kinda cool “Grandma.” She, however, was not able to swing seeing the rolling billboards in person. The spunky Albert, 85, clearly gets a kick out of her later-onset notoriety, but she has no opinion on the pipeline itself. Really. Her involvement in the campaign was totally by chance, she said. When she rode shotgun to an adult daughter’s scheduled photo shoot last year, Albert agreed to the photographer’s offer to take a free candid or two of her as well. When she heard her spontaneous stills had earned her notice, Albert was flabbergasted, shocked and a bit amused, actually, since other candidates at the photo call were in their 30s to 50s and media-seasoned, including some professional models. “I wasn’t even nervous,” she recalled of the photo session. “I had no time to think about it.” Albert thinks cameras make her blink. A wall of family photos in the Candlelight Plaza home she shares with husband-of-62-years Joe suggests otherwise. It’s a marvelous timeworn timeline of their family of three daughters growing up and almost exponentially expanding to include 11 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, with more weddings on the docket. Each of the younger two generations will receive a copy of the energy voter ad annotated with remarks of love and wisdom from a pistol-of-a matriarch they might never get to know well. That’s one of the reasons Albert penned a 25-page biography of her Wisconsin farm birth and childhood. Its contents have already provided some of her
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see Albert • Page 8A
Park murder victim was mother of 4 A clearer profile emerged last week of the young woman who was murdered in the parking lot of T.C. Jester Park Feb. 4, as an impromptu memorial grew for her at the park. Family members of Melissa Chavez, 28, described to ABC-13 news a loving mother of four little boys – the youngest one only 2 months old – all reportedly fathered by the man accused of running her over as many as 15 times after a early morning argument. Police are now saying 29-year-old Jessie Blanco, charged with murder and being held on $100,000 bond, first hit Chavez after they fought about 3 a.m., struck her with a crowbar before hitting her with his SUV and dragging her across the lot, then circled and ran over her body repeatedly. The victim’s family said Blanco had a history of domestic violence against Chavez and had served time for assaulting her in 2008 and for threatening her brother with a gun in 2006. Chavez’s funeral was held Monday at the Guardian Angel Funeral Home on West Little York.
Tiny Albert of Candlelight Plaza strikes a pose with the Keystone Pipeline support ad that gained her national exposure. (Photo by Cynthia Lescalleet)
The scene of the murder of Melissa Chavez has a growing memorial to the young mother who was run down in the parking lot in the early morning of Feb. 4. (Photo by Ivee Sauls)
Local families mastering parental balance by Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com
THE INDEX. Public Safety Hipstrict Topics Obituaries Coupons Puzzles Sports Classifieds
Stories about your neighbors, friends and the events at this year’s Rodeo.
2A 3A 4A 8B 6A 8A 4B 5B
Nora Nester shows a sample of her artwork from the summer program at Art Studio on the Boulevard in the Heights. (Submitted photo)
Not too long ago, downtime was a dirty word with regard to children. Keeping up with the Jones’ meant competing with all those darn Jones kids. The one who started T-ball at three or danced en pointe by 11. The swimmer, the artist, the diminutive violin player coasting through Sonata No. 1 on YouTube. To some degree, we are influenced by those around us, but it does seem like there’s a bit of a pendulum shift in recent years. With all the research about the adverse effects of overscheduling children’s activities, many parents try
hard to strike that delicate balance between enrichment and encroachment. Among them are Leader readers who were asked about their experiences. How much is too much? The right amount of activity depends on both the parent and the child. For Shepherd Park Plaza’s Elizabeth Humbert, the magic number is never more than two things at once, with a maximum time commitment of two days per week. “I really value time at home as a family,” she said. “I like a real dinner around the table and reading books and going to bed on time.” First-grader Nora is involved with dance at her elementary school and
spring soccer at the YMCA, as well as an art camp during the summer. “We have not chosen swimming, partly for the drive, partly for the time commitment,” said Humbert. “I want my kid to be a strong swimmer, but want a freedom that that schedule doesn’t offer.” For Oak Forest’s Allison Ford, the family decision is not to put their two boys in something more than three times a week. “I want to expose them to different interests so they can figure out what truly moves them to learn,” she said. “I think it is important to find something you love.” But when she and her husband are see Parenting • Page 8A