a park blooms in midtown

Houston's Midtown Park blooms with 2 prestigious design awards

Houston’s urban parks are truly blossoming with accolades and rejuvenation, with the highly anticipated renovation of Memorial Park, Buffalo Bayou Park’s recent award for urban excellence, and Levy Park securing the coveted international Open Space Award.

Now, another Houston-area urban park has joined the fertile mix. Midtown Park (2811 Travis St.) has just landed two distinct awards. The greenspace has won the Development of Distinction award and the People’s Choice Award from the Houston District Council of the Urban Land Institute (ULI Houston).

As visitors know, Midtown Park offers three acres of park and open space with adjacent pedestrian-oriented streetscapes. The park’s larger greenspace — located on 2.5 acres south of Camden McGowen Station — includes a lawn, a pavilion for flexible programming, a wetland stream and trail, native landscaping, interactive water feature, playground, public art, market areas, a dog park, and a 400 space parking garage. The park has direct access to the METRORail at McGowen, and BCycle Stations and Zipcar locations.

As for the awards, ULI Houston recognizes “projects that demonstrate best practices in design, construction, economic viability, healthy places, and more” according to a press release. The awards are modeled after the national Urban Land Institute Global Awards for Excellence.

The 2020 Award finalists were selected by a nomination panel of Houston real estate leaders. A jury of real estate experts from across the country and Canada toured all finalists’ projects as part of the process of selecting winners.

“It feels affirming,” said Matt Thibodeaux, executive director of Midtown Houston, in a statement. ”Being recognized by both the development community and park users makes me proud. It’s confirmation that the vision we had for the park; for it to be the central destination for people of all ages, has come to fruition.”

Midtown Park is Midtown’s newest green space and has hosted an array of events with more than 75,000 guests in attendance since its opening in 2017.

Midtown Park has won the ULI's Development of Distinction award.

Photo courtesy of Midtown Houston

Midtown Park has won the ULI's Development of Distinction award.

parks

Unhappy holidays

Porch pirates swipe nearly $2B in packages from Texas homes this year

Porch Pirate Person in Glasses Steals Packages

Getty Images

The Grinch isn't the only one stealing Christmas these days.

’Tis the season for porch pirates. If past trends are an indicator, the Grinch will swipe close to $2 billion worth of packages delivered to Texas households this year, with many of those thefts happening ahead of the holiday season.

An analysis of FBI and survey data by ecommerce marketing company Omnisend shows porch pirates stole more than $1.8 billion worth of packages from Texans’ porches last year. Porch pirates hit nearly one-third of the state’s households in 2024, according to the analysis.

Omnisend’s analysis reveals these statistics about porch piracy in Texas:

30.1 million residential package thefts in 2024.
An average household loss of $169 per year.
An annual average of 2.9 package thefts per household.

“Most stolen items are cheap on their own, but add them up, and retailers and consumers are facing an enormous bill,” says Omnisend.

Another data analysis, this one from The Action Network sports betting platform, unwraps different figures regarding porch piracy in Texas.

The platform’s 2025 Porch Pirate Index ranks Texas as the state with the highest volume of residential thefts, based on 2023-24 FBI data.

Researchers at The Action Network uncovered 26,293 reports of personal property thefts at Texas residences during that period. The network’s survey data indicates 5 percent of Texas residents had a package stolen in the three months before the pre-holiday survey.

The Porch Pirate Index calculates a 25.8 percent risk of a Texas household being victimized by porch pirates, putting it in the No. 5 spot among states with the highest risk of porch piracy.

The Action Network included online-search volume for terms like “package stolen” and “porch pirates.” Sustained spikes in these searches suggest that “people are actively looking for guidance after something has happened. Search trends serve as an early warning system, revealing emerging-risk areas well before annual crime statistics are released,” the network says.

Tips to avoid being a victim
So, how do you prevent porch pirates from snatching packages that end up on your porch? Omnisend, The Action Network and Amazon offer these eight tips:

Closely monitor deliveries and quickly retrieve packages.
Schedule deliveries for times when you’ll be home.
Use delivery lockers or in-store pickup when possible.
Ask delivery services to hide packages in out-of-sight spots outside your home.
Install a visible doorbell camera or security camera.
Coordinate deliveries with neighbors or building managers if you’ll be away from your home when packages are supposed to arrive.
Request that delivery services hold your packages if you can’t be home when they’re scheduled to come.
Illuminate the path to your doorstep and keep porch lights on.

holidays porch pirates crime