park life

Game-changing new park with restaurant, kids spaces, tunnels and more breaks grounds in west Houston

Houston's push for more public green space has now grown to the west side. Camden Park, a new, 3.4-acre park in the Westchase District, has broken ground on Wilcrest Drive just north of Richmond Avenue, per an announcement.

Aimed at producing public green gathering spaces in one of Houston’s most park-deficient areas, the WiFi-enabled Camden Park will offer a 30,000 square-foot activity lawn with multi-purpose pavilion for free concerts and cultural performances, per press materials.

More features include an onsite restaurant open daily with indoor and outdoor seating, a children’s playground with rolling hills, play structures, water features, and a fenced dog park with turf-covered mounds, tunnels, and separate spaces for large and small dogs.

About that restaurant: Ginger Kale will be patterned after a similar concept in Hermann Park and will open daily from 7 am–7 pm for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Locals will enjoy a with a menu designed specifically just for them, per Westchase.

This new park from Westchase District will also boast an outdoor reading room with free books for young readers. Exercise stations, space for food trucks and farmers market vendors, and restrooms will add to the public gathering space experience. Speaking of green, a dozen Highrise live oak trees also will be relocated to the park from medians along Westheimer Road.

“This will be a destination park experience unlike any other in west Houston,” says Sherry Fox, vice president of communications for Westchase District, in a statement. “As a fully programmed setting, Camden Park will offer hundreds of year-round free events, all programmed by Westchase District, focused on fitness, education, arts and culture.”

Named in honor of the park’s primary donor, Camden Property Trust, the park purchased by the City of Houston in 2016 using open space money set aside by multi-family developers as required by the Parks & Open Space Ordinance, per press materials.

Some 21,000 residents and nearby employers are located within a 20-minute walk of Camden Park.

Rendering courtesy of Westchase District

An aerial view of Camden Park.

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