This Abandoned Eyesore Has Been Like This For Years
First Pictures Taken on June 27, 2007

This page has many pictures, hence it will take a while to display. 

Pictures are in chorological order.  That is, the second, third and subsequent visits are toward the end.  The start of each new visit is highlighted in RED

Click Here for the history of my attempts to contact the City about this

It's at Cyberonics (old street name Skywalker) & Tiffany (map).  Amazingly it was across the street from the Houston police station in Clear Lake City until they moved to their new location.  I'm not sure how long this monstrosity has been here -- 5-10 years?  For some time I've been planning to take these pictures to try to get something done about it.  It wasn't until I began taking the pictures that I realized it isn't just an eyesore, it's an "attractive nuisance" in the legal sense.  There are two or three apartment complexes very nearby, and children from these apartments play here among the disheveled building materials. 

I appeal to you to have this thing torn down or made into a building.

Built as a Scam?
I have no way to know if this story is true.

One day while at the location taking pictures a building contractor stopped by and told me this story.  He said the eyesore is owned by a church (That part's true, I'd already determined that from property records).  He said it was built as part of a scam to get loans from local banks.  At first the bank would only lend them a small amount.  They used the small loan to start construction.  This convinced the bank they were sincere about building a church and granted them a major loan for completion.  This money was sent to the parent church in Africa.  Having served it's purpose, the project was abandoned.  He said this scam had been repeated several times in Houston. 

As I say, I have no way to know if this is true, but the property is owned by a church, construction stopped long ago and the church seems to have no intention of following through with building a church here.

 

The first few pictures are how it looked in June of 2007

 

As you can see, children play here among the metal building materials.  The standing boys are skateboarding around the disarrayed building material.  Note the apartment building in the background.  It is but one of a few nearby.
I Went By Again on July 10, 2007

 to See if Anything Had Been Done
Here's What I Found


Apparently someone mowed???  See the area in the foreground.

 


And the area behind the weeds is actually mowed

 

On August 10th the City of Houston Posted this YELL-O Sign

This sign requires the place be cleaned up (not made into a real building, or torn down as I'm asking for) by August 25th or some kind of action would be taken.   This sign was removed on or before August 20th????  Nothing had been done, so I don't know why. 

______________________________

The Next Pictures Were Taken on August 30th

All that's been done is a better lawn mowing.  All the same junk is still there.  Look carefully at the picture below.  Remember the childhood game "How many [somethings] can you find in this picture?"  Well, how many different kinds of rubble can you find in the first picture below.  I didn't spend much time looking and found 13 kinds.


 

The Following Pictures Were Taken on October 2nd, 2007

In mid-September they boarded it up with sheets of raw plywood.  It does look like some of the rubble has been tidied up.  It was such an ugly monstrosity to begin with it never dawned on me they could make it even worse, but they've managed to do it. 

No good deed goes unpunished
 -- Clare Booth Luce

If you look in the middle of the plywood in the picture above you
see a yellow sign.  You probably think it says something.  Here it is up close . . .

The following stop-work order was posted on June 29th.  I haven't yet been able
to find out if they got the required permit before putting up this plywood. 
Apparently they didn't get one before erecting the monstrosity.

At this point (Oct. 07) I stopped getting replies from council member Wiseman's office.

As of Jan '08 I have a new council member -- Mike Sullivan.  I contacted him on
May 6th, 2008 about this issue.  Click here to see the results so far.

The Following Pictures Were Taken on March 30th, 2008

Soon after the plywood was put up it got pushed in in the front and a piece
removed from the side.

Sorry about the blurry pictures but they illustrate children are still playing inside --
Now they have more privacy to do things their parents and
society might not approve of.

The Following Pictures Were Taken on August 29th, 2008

Note the front panels that were pushed in above have now been pushed all the way down

 

Note hole in back kids have made to get inside before the front was pushed down.
Made it impossible to know they were inside.

The Following Pictures Were Taken on April 15th, 2009

Hurricane Ike has returned it to roughly the same state it was in when I started trying
to do something about it two years ago.

Below is a right side view

I drive by this location about once a week and still regularly see kids playing in the rubble. 

Still junk inside.  I think the kids use the rickety thing this side of the chair as a skateboard ramp.

Still junk outside

The Following Pictures Were Taken on November 5th 2010

They've cleaned up the area and put heavy wire around the perimeter. 
This makes it look better and solves the danger to children,
but it's as ugly an eyesore as it was 10 years ago.

I've Given Up.  No One Is Willing To Do Anything.
This monstrosity may well be there for the next fifty years.