Inside Today: Oak Forest artist finds a niché in the neighborhood • Page 6B PREMIER PROPERTIES
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SATURDAY | February 23, 2013 | Vol. 59 | No. 17 | www.theleadernews.com | @heightsleader
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We’re auditioning for a 4-legged pet writer
DENIED The Houston Planning Commission told a developer that new apartments on Yale Street weren’t acceptable. Now what happens to the property?
Read about it in our monthly Real Estate section • Page 1B
We noticed two things from our recent, wildly popular Leader Loveables pet cuteness contest. 1) Leader Readers are nuts about their pets. 2) A fair number of them unashamedly channel their four-legged best friends and speak for them, in the first person. (As in “Hi, I’m Fifi and I’m a rescue calico who loves catnip and an occasional craft beer…”) We’ve decided to turn that into a novelty as we get ready to launch a weekly pet column. Instead of one of our human journalists writing about critters, we’re going to audition to choose a dog or cat author who can become our expert about things like spay and neuter clinics, rescue groups’ events and important information about health. So if you’re interested in having Fido or Whiskers become a celebrity in Leader neighborhoods – and if you’re willing to commit (on their behalf, of course) to follow our format and deadlines, drop us a line at charlotte@theleadernews.com and we’ll send you instructions on how to submit a sample. But first, figure out a way to keep that fur out of the recesses of your keyboard and how you’re going to keep them from playing Angry Birds.
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WHAT: Houston Heights Association’s annual Volunteer Appreciation and Community Improvement Awards Dinner WHEN: 5-8 p.m. Feb. 24. Starts with a BYOB mix-and-mingle hour, followed by the dinner and ceremony. WHERE: Heights Fire Station, 107 W. 12th St. at Yale HOW MUCH: $25 per person or $200 for a reserved table for eight LEARN MORE: info@houstonheights.org EDITOR’S TAKE: In a neighborhood shaped by its dedicated volunteers and their complex and meaningful projects, these are community awards that mean something. Even if you don’t live in the Heights, you probably spend time there, and their efforts are what have helped attract you – and deserve your attention.
THE INDEX. Public Safety Hipstrict Topics Obituaries Coupons Puzzles Sports Classifieds
2A 8A 4A 5A 6A 4A 9B 6B
It’s no secret we all love food. What’s better, for folks in the Heights, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest and North Houston is that we have no shortage of great restaurants. Today, we introduce a new publication that will appear the last week of every month called, THE LIST. And what better way to start a food publication than to focus on the greatest of American meals: The Burger. You can find it inside today’s edition of The Leader.
by Charlotte Aguilar charlotte@theleadernews.com For nearly three decades, this was an empowering time of year for neighborhood activists, when Houston city council members held individual budget hearings to help establish funding for things like parks, libraries, streets, sidewalk and drainage improvements that would be submitted for the overall city budget. You can still be involved “It used to be – Attend these meetings a case that who • District A - Helena Brown could get organized 6:30-8:30 p.m. Feb. 25 got a lot of what Spring Woods High School they wanted,” said • District C - Ellen Cohen 6:30-8:30 p.m. March 5 Brooke Boyett, chief Metropolitan Multi-Service Center of staff to District C 1475 W. Gray St. Councilmember El• District H - Ed Gonzalez len Cohen. 6:30-8:30 p.m. Feb. 27 Sheer numbers Sam Houston High School were impressive, 9400 Irvington Blvd. petition drives To go armed with information, you even more so. If can see a list, by district, of current sidewalks needed and planned projects at https://www. installing, potholes houstontx.gov/cip/ fixing, drainage expanding, those who hollered the loudest could often see results. Not so much any more. Five-year capital improvement plans are still required and the subject of annual meetings, as they have been since 1984. But now, formulas that rely heavily on technology – monitored traffic counts,for one, or calls to the city’s all-purpose 311 reporting line – largely dictate how money is budgeted and ultimately spent. With voters passing the Rebuild Houston pay-assee Capital • Page 9A
Helms Elementary: Where the wild things are by Ken Fountain For The Leader The Heights often bills itself as “a small town in the big city.” In at least one small corner, it’s also a nature preserve of sorts, home to turtles, crayfish and other wild things. Last Sunday, a few dozen students, both big and small, and parents gathered at Helms Elementary School, 503 W. 21st Street, to perform some much-needed restoration of the school’s Wetlands and Outdoor Classroom. Nestled along a back corner of the school’s fencing, behind the school’s temporary buildings, the facility is a veritable watering hole not unlike one you’d find out in the country. It consists of a couple of interconnected ponds, landscaped with rocks and vegetation, as well as an adjoining “community garden.” The project was founded in the late 1990s by then-science teacher Lindy Meador, said James Newman, Helms’ current fifth-grade science teacher. The wetlands project grew over time, with the assistance of the University of St. Thomas and a local landscaping
River McCarland, a freshman at Carnegie Vanguard High School, hands classmate Christine Lin a turtle she retrieved from a pond in the Helms Elementary Wetlands and Outdoor Classroom on Sunday. (Photo by Ken Fountain) company that donated its services, Newman said. Meador eventually retired, and in the past
couple of years, the wetlands has taken on a bit more rustic look through disuse, Newman explained. On Sunday, the group of volunteers
made a big dent in an ongoing project to make the center a little more manageable. Jamie Ford Scott, a Helms parent and chairwoman of the wetlands committee, is spearheading the effort. And she’s got some bona fides: a trained biologist who’s worked at, among other places, the National Zoo in Washington D.C. and the Houston Zoo, Scott is now a science teacher at Houston ISD’s Carnegie Vanguard High School. Under a crisp, bright sky, Scott and Newman arrived early to begin preparations for Sunday’s project. The main goal: drain the ponds of the somewhat fetid water and gather as many turtles that could be found so that they could be safely relocated. To help, Scott had enlisted many of her Carnegie ninth-grade students to do the lion’s share of the labor, as well as some hands-on scientific fieldwork. With the students gathered in a circle around her, Ford explained that as the turtles were collected, they were to collect three main areas of data: the species
see Helms • Page 9A