• Home
  • popular
  • EVENTS
  • submit-new-event
  • CHARITY GUIDE
  • Children
  • Education
  • Health
  • Veterans
  • Social Services
  • Arts + Culture
  • Animals
  • LGBTQ
  • New Charity
  • TRENDING NEWS
  • News
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Home + Design
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Innovation
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • subscribe
  • about
  • series
  • Embracing Your Inner Cowboy
  • Green Living
  • Summer Fun
  • Real Estate Confidential
  • RX In the City
  • State of the Arts
  • Fall For Fashion
  • Cai's Odyssey
  • Comforts of Home
  • Good Eats
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2010
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2
  • Good Eats 2
  • HMNS Pirates
  • The Future of Houston
  • We Heart Hou 2
  • Music Inspires
  • True Grit
  • Hoops City
  • Green Living 2011
  • Cruizin for a Cure
  • Summer Fun 2011
  • Just Beat It
  • Real Estate 2011
  • Shelby on the Seine
  • Rx in the City 2011
  • Entrepreneur Video Series
  • Going Wild Zoo
  • State of the Arts 2011
  • Fall for Fashion 2011
  • Elaine Turner 2011
  • Comforts of Home 2011
  • King Tut
  • Chevy Girls
  • Good Eats 2011
  • Ready to Jingle
  • Houston at 175
  • The Love Month
  • Clifford on The Catwalk Htx
  • Let's Go Rodeo 2012
  • King's Harbor
  • FotoFest 2012
  • City Centre
  • Hidden Houston
  • Green Living 2012
  • Summer Fun 2012
  • Bookmark
  • 1987: The year that changed Houston
  • Best of Everything 2012
  • Real Estate 2012
  • Rx in the City 2012
  • Lost Pines Road Trip Houston
  • London Dreams
  • State of the Arts 2012
  • HTX Fall For Fashion 2012
  • HTX Good Eats 2012
  • HTX Contemporary Arts 2012
  • HCC 2012
  • Dine to Donate
  • Tasting Room
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • Charming Charlie
  • Asia Society
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2012
  • HTX Mistletoe on the go
  • HTX Sun and Ski
  • HTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • HTX New Beginnings
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013
  • Zadok Sparkle into Spring
  • HTX Let's Go Rodeo 2013
  • HCC Passion for Fashion
  • BCAF 2013
  • HTX Best of 2013
  • HTX City Centre 2013
  • HTX Real Estate 2013
  • HTX France 2013
  • Driving in Style
  • HTX Island Time
  • HTX Super Season 2013
  • HTX Music Scene 2013
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013 2
  • HTX Baker Institute
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • Mothers Day Gift Guide 2021 Houston
  • Staying Ahead of the Game
  • Wrangler Houston
  • First-time Homebuyers Guide Houston 2021
  • Visit Frisco Houston
  • promoted
  • eventdetail
  • Greystar Novel River Oaks
  • Thirdhome Go Houston
  • Dogfish Head Houston
  • LovBe Houston
  • Claire St Amant podcast Houston
  • The Listing Firm Houston
  • South Padre Houston
  • NextGen Real Estate Houston
  • Pioneer Houston
  • Collaborative for Children
  • Decorum
  • Bold Rock Cider
  • Nasher Houston
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2021
  • CityNorth
  • Urban Office
  • Villa Cotton
  • Luck Springs Houston
  • EightyTwo
  • Rectanglo.com
  • Silver Eagle Karbach
  • Mirador Group
  • Nirmanz
  • Bandera Houston
  • Milan Laser
  • Lafayette Travel
  • Highland Park Village Houston
  • Proximo Spirits
  • Douglas Elliman Harris Benson
  • Original ChopShop
  • Bordeaux Houston
  • Strike Marketing
  • Rice Village Gift Guide 2021
  • Downtown District
  • Broadstone Memorial Park
  • Gift Guide
  • Music Lane
  • Blue Circle Foods
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2022
  • True Rest
  • Lone Star Sports
  • Silver Eagle Hard Soda
  • Modelo recipes
  • Modelo Fighting Spirit
  • Athletic Brewing
  • Rodeo Houston
  • Silver Eagle Bud Light Next
  • Waco CVB
  • EnerGenie
  • HLSR Wine Committee
  • All Hands
  • El Paso
  • Avenida Houston
  • Visit Lubbock Houston
  • JW Marriott San Antonio
  • Silver Eagle Tupps
  • Space Center Houston
  • Central Market Houston
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Travel Texas Houston
  • Alliantgroup
  • Golf Live
  • DC Partners
  • Under the Influencer
  • Blossom Hotel
  • San Marcos Houston
  • Photo Essay: Holiday Gift Guide 2009
  • We Heart Hou
  • Walker House
  • HTX Good Eats 2013
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2013
  • HTX Culture Motive
  • HTX Auto Awards
  • HTX Ski Magic
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2014
  • HTX Texas Traveler
  • HTX Cifford on the Catwalk 2014
  • HTX United Way 2014
  • HTX Up to Speed
  • HTX Rodeo 2014
  • HTX City Centre 2014
  • HTX Dos Equis
  • HTX Tastemakers 2014
  • HTX Reliant
  • HTX Houston Symphony
  • HTX Trailblazers
  • HTX_RealEstateConfidential_2014
  • HTX_IW_Marks_FashionSeries
  • HTX_Green_Street
  • Dating 101
  • HTX_Clifford_on_the_Catwalk_2014
  • FIVE CultureMap 5th Birthday Bash
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2014 TEST
  • HTX Texans
  • Bergner and Johnson
  • HTX Good Eats 2014
  • United Way 2014-15_Single Promoted Articles
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Houston
  • Where to Eat Houston
  • Copious Row Single Promoted Articles
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2014
  • htx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Zadok Swiss Watches
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2015
  • HTX Charity Challenge 2015
  • United Way Helpline Promoted Article
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Fusion Academy Promoted Article
  • Clifford on the Catwalk Fall 2015
  • United Way Book Power Promoted Article
  • Jameson HTX
  • Primavera 2015
  • Promenade Place
  • Hotel Galvez
  • Tremont House
  • HTX Tastemakers 2015
  • HTX Digital Graffiti/Alys Beach
  • MD Anderson Breast Cancer Promoted Article
  • HTX RealEstateConfidential 2015
  • HTX Vargos on the Lake
  • Omni Hotel HTX
  • Undies for Everyone
  • Reliant Bright Ideas Houston
  • 2015 Houston Stylemaker
  • HTX Renewable You
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • HTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Kyrie Massage
  • Red Bull Flying Bach
  • Hotze Health and Wellness
  • ReadFest 2015
  • Alzheimer's Promoted Article
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Professional Skin Treatments by NuMe Express

    Taste police or neighborhood protectors?

    It started with an orange door: Confessions of an HOA president

    Tarra Gaines
    Oct 31, 2010 | 9:59 pm
    • My proudest accomplishment as a homeowner came when the board drew up pool rulessolely because they had just bought a pool rule sign. They got to the hoursline, ready to Sharpie in a closing time, when I asked why we needed set hoursas long as people were quiet. All politics begins locally, and locally, Isometimes like to swim at night.
    • Politically I’m socially liberal, fiscally moderate, but when it comes to HOAs,I’m a raving libertarian. Solar panels on your roof? We should all go green.
    • Poor Tarra can never get a quorum, so she's stuck as HOA president.

    In Houston, to think of the comforts of home sometimes causes people to ask: Is my neighbor’s home making me uncomfortable?

    In our famed city of no zoning laws, it’s a valid question. It can be the real estate wild west out there. Some revel in the chaos, but there are a few instruments of order to hold it back: City ordinances, deed restrictions, homeowners associations.

    The latter sometimes make me wary. Texas allows homeowners associations enormous power, including the right to foreclose on owners who are behind in their HOA dues. Just this summer, one case of an HOA board foreclosing on the Texas home of a Army National Guard Captain serving in Iraq made national news and provided one more story to reenforce that negative HOA image.

    My first run-in with a homeowners association came several years ago, when I was helping a relative move into a townhouse complex. The management company informed us that workers, included movers, weren’t allowed in the complex after 6 p.m. and threatened to call the constable. The truck was out by 6:30 and no one arrived to arrest us for getting that last box of dishes in 30 minutes late, but the whole incident left me with a wariness about HOAs and management companies.

    Yet today, somehow, I am the president of my condo HOA board.

    When I bought a home of my own, I wanted to attend HOA meetings to be active about pushing the board to not be so active, to use my voice for fewer rules, not more. I didn’t have much to worry about as, our homeowners association is small and our homeowners almost apathetic.

    My proudest accomplishment as a homeowner came when the board drew up pool rules solely because they had just bought a pool rule sign. They got to the hours line, ready to Sharpie in a closing time, when I asked why we needed set hours as long as people were quiet. All politics begins locally, and locally, I sometimes like to swim at night.

    My transition from meeting attendee to HOA board member began with my hatred of the color orange.

    The previous year the homeowners had voted first to commit to a special assessment for painting the exterior of our little development and then a second vote for colors. The winning pale green was not especially hideous, but we weren’t allowed a second vote for a front and garage door color. I never learned if the board and manager had simply tired of collecting votes or if one board member in particular really liked orange. The decree came down from on high: If we picked green, the doors had to be orange. Ever after we had no need for additional Halloween decorations. People have tried to assure me that the color is actually a nice brick or rust color and I have politely assured these people right back that they're colorblind.

    So later when every member of the board wanted to retire, I volunteered, hoping to right the orange-haters’ disenfranchisement. I became the VP and a year later, president.

    I admit I’m not presidential material. Politically I’m socially liberal, fiscally moderate, but when it comes to HOAs, I’m a raving libertarian.

    Want to paint your front door purple with yellow poke a dots? I’m sure that will be lovely.

    Want to plant a blooming corpse flower in the communal flower bed? Great excuse to invite a certain celebrity horticulturist over for tea.

    Solar panels on your roof? We should all go green.

    Of course, none of these fun issues have actually come up; instead, I know more than I ever wanted to know about wood fence caps, skylight sealants, security gates intercoms, shingle warranties, and parking influx patterns during the nearby, monthly roller derby tournaments.

    Now, almost five years after I said yes to becoming a board member, as the homeowner who never attends meetings stops me to complain for 15 minutes about a dying hibiscus plant in a communal bed, I have two thoughts:

    1) All I wanted was to make sure I could do laps in the pool after 10.

    2) I’m not getting paid for this shit.

    I’ve tried to retire gracefully, but even when we bribe homeowners with dinner at the annual meeting, we still can’t get a quorum to vote me out. So I continue to serve and have developed my own reluctant-president philosophy.

    I don’t think HOA’s should be the taste police. I love this city. It’s big, loud, eclectic, international, vibrant, and alive, ugly one minute and truly beautiful the next. But tasteful and restraint? Hardly ever.

    The tasteful ship sailed a long time ago, probably around 1836, after dropping off the Allen brothers at their landing. And fining neighbors for their excessive use of garden gnomes is not going to bring that ship back. We can’t control much about our environment in Houston, but that’s no reason to become despots over tacky lawn fountains. We need to learn to live with each others’ bad taste and stop evoking the god of property values for every minor aesthetic disagreement.

    I do think HOAs can be forces for community when people use them to ban together if a giant discount store, ugly parking lot, or feral hogs invade the neighborhood. Even if the associations can’t do much about those invaders, which in the end they many times can’t, perhaps just the attempt helps neighbors feel that sense of community, that we can all be in this together. Take comfort in each others’ support, while resigning yourself to the knowledge that your neighbor is a color-blind, gnome-loving, uncultured barbarian, but he's your barbarian.

    And yes, my damn garage door is still orange.

    unspecified
    news/real-estate

    Post Oak property redeveloped

    Renovated Galleria development will add 'greatest neighborhood restaurant'

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 4, 2025 | 1:08 pm
    Central Park Post Oak redevelopment rendering
    Courtesy of Midway
    The complex will add two new buildings.

    A Galleria-area office complex has announced a comprehensive series of renovations and upgrades designed to make it one of the area’s premier mixed-use destinations. Renovations are currently underway at the Post Oak Central development, which will now be known as Central Park Post Oak.

    Located at 2000 Post Oak Boulevard between Westheimer and San Felipe, Central Park Post Oak is a 17-acre parcel that consists of three high-rise office buildings with a combined 1.2 million square feet of office separated by an expansive lawn. Houston-based real estate development firm Midway, working with real estate investment firms 3Edgewood and Parkway, plans to replace that lawn with two new retail buildings and a greenspace. The changes are partially inspired by the Post Oak Boulevard redevelopment project that added more than 1,000 trees, wider sidewalks, and dedicated bus lanes to the bustling thoroughfare.

    "Our vision is to create a dynamic, walkable urban destination that honors the Boulevard’s rich history while meeting the evolving needs of Houston's Uptown District. We are crafting a lifestyle for those who work, shop, and dine here," Midway executive vice president Clayton Freels said in a statement.

    One anchor of the new retail component will be the first Houston location of The Henry, a restaurant that will occupy a newly-constructed, 7,000-square-foot, jewel box space. Part of Fox Restaurant Concepts (North Italia, Flower Child), The Henry is described as “the greatest neighborhood restaurant.” It’s open for weekday breakfast, weekend brunch, lunch, and dinner with an eclectic menu that includes sandwiches, salads, sushi, steak, seafood, and more.

    Other changes to the property include the addition of on-street parking, upgrades to the complex’s parking garages, and more new retailers and restaurants that will be announced in the coming months. The project began construction in April with plans to finish by fall 2026.

    In addition, Midway announced that TDECU will occupy 125,000 square feet in Central Park One and BBVA has leased a floor (20,000 square feet) in Central Park Two.

    Central Park Post Oak redevelopment rendering
      

    Courtesy of Midway

    The complex will add two new buildings.

    news-you-can-eatopenings
    news/real-estate
    CULTUREMAP EMAILS ARE AWESOME
    Get Houston intel delivered daily.
    Loading...