Near Northsider – Houston

Danza Azteca at Moody Park 2012

We were invited (via Facebook) to a Danza Azteca (Aztec Dance Circle) taking place in Moody Park.  The event hostess is an old friend of mine from the Northside who has been traveling the US and Mexico learning this type of Dancing.  She was in Houston for a short time and decided to do a dance circle in Moody Park, open to whoever wanted to participate regardless of their familiarity or experience.  We joined in and so did a few other park-goers who passed by the gazebo where the dancing was taking place. Everyone dancing had to get smudged (cleansed with a type of incense) before participating.

My friend told me that she had seen quite a few of these kinds of events happening regularly in neighborhood parks when she lived in California.  It sounds like maybe there isn’t much of this going on in Texas, much less in Houston.  You can see from the photo above that park goers that day were equally as interested as we were.  Some young soccer players stopped by and watched for probably 30 minutes.  A small family who came by to watch later joined in the dancing.  A group of older men sitting at some tables nearby leisurely watched the whole thing unfold that Saturday morning at the park.

We were very glad to see that she decided to just come out to the park one day and do this and we hope she does it more often.

The following Saturday, we came to see the Near Northside BOND annual March on Crime Parade.

Marshall Middle School band and dancers in the March on Crime Parade

The Northside Blocks Organized for Neighborhood Defense (BOND) puts on an annual parade called the March on Crime.  This time it started at Clemente Martinez Elementary School, through the neighborhood, ending up at Marshal Middle School.

Clowns in the Northside BOND March on Crime Parade

It’s possible that the route was chosen because of all the Light Rail construction on Fulton.  The neighborhood side streets were kind of cramped and quiet, but there were still people out on the lawns, on their porches, and just walking around that stopped to gawk and point out the clowns to their kids.

Ketelsen Elementary in the Parade

Going through the side streets was actually really nice.  It might have been a little more spectacular on Fulton, but making those tight turns near people’s houses made it strangely intimate.  Definitely something unexpected, but not so big and loud to be obtrusive.  They did a great job.

This little dude just had a really cool bike

Sometimes I like to google “Near Northside” just to see what I get. I guess I hope that I might find links to articles that mention this neighborhood whatever reason. Maybe I also kind of hope to find that someone else is blogging about the Near Northside, writing about us, making art about us, or making music about us. Mostly what comes up from these searches are references to the Near Northside in Chicago; which isn’t really what I’m looking for.

More searching brings up a few more results; adding “Houston” to the end or separating “Northside” into “North” and “Side”. The results come back a lot more relative to my search. Still, the links that show up on top are links to this, my own blog. Its a little flattering. Its nice to know that someone will most likely come across this site when searching for information on the neighborhood. Its also a little disheartening. I cant be the only person writing or referencing the Near Northside on the World Wide Web! Can I? Am I really? as it turns out, I am not.

One of my searches turned up this article in the Houston Chronicle from 2006 – Mayor, Councilman Sign Housing Deal. The Housing Deal appeared to be a plan to build more affordable housing in the neighborhood, a down payment assistance program, and money to buy land for future homes. According to the story, the deal was a plan by The Metropolitan Organization to preserve the character of the working-class community…

In recent years, residents and organizers have fought efforts by developers to build condos and other projects that would have raised property values, property taxes and forced residents out of their homes.

Because of its location within minutes of downtown Houston, the community was viewed as prime real estate in the ever-growing gentrification of inner-loop neighborhoods.

Another search yielded a blog entry from 2011 by a realtor who focuses on homes in the Heights. His entry asks, Is it time to recommend Near Northside Homes?  In his article Mr. Martin cites the amazing renovation by Saul and Ruben Obregon on their historic house on Everett.  The Obregon house was featured in a previous article in the Houston Chronicle by Lisa Gray (which Martin also mentions in his article).  Martin confesses:

I have always been asked about the area between Lindale Park and downtown.. I have seen some wonderful old bungalows that would make me drool if they were in the Heights. They are not in the Heights though, or in any other easily categorized area. This is generally known as Near Northside Houston.

He ends the article with his recommendation:

So, is it it time to recommend this area? I would look into it, especially if you can’t afford the Heights. There are some darling homes in Near Northside.

Then there’s the photo below which I happened to see recently on Eater Houston

Poppa Burger by Gary R Wise. Source: houston.eater.com

Eater Houston calls itself, “The Houston Restaurant, Bar, and Nightlife blog”.  The blog updates a few times a day with  hot new restaurant openings, craft beer releases, and other news that Foodies in Houston would need in order to plan their nightlife.  The photo above was the top image on a list of such daily links.  Of course, this is an image of the Poppa Burger on North Main and Harrington, across from the Casa De Amigos Health Center.  Not necessarily the place that comes to mind after a night of drinking artfully crafted cocktails at Anvil.  It probably doesn’t have the kind of cult following that Someburger or Frenchy’s might enjoy.  Still, there it is, next to links that describe the right way to eat sushi; on a blog that highlights the city’s gastronimic diversity.

These links show that other people have, in fact, been writing about and referencing the Near Northside.  Not necessarily Northsiders, but other folks in the City who have quietly been looking at this neighborhood over the last decade.  While we, the current residents, have been complaining about being neglected, others are watching and waiting; taking an interest in the local resources that Northsiders might have taken for granted.

So why is it so hard to find art, music, photography, or writing about the Northside?  Especially anything like this being done by Northsiders?  Do we lack the resources or the training or the facilities to do so?  Do we fail to recognize just what we have here because we live it everyday?  Do we set our creative sights elsewhere in the City (Montrose, Museum District, Theater District) or even farther (New York, LA)?

As Northsiders we have the opportunity to identify ourselves to the rest of the City and the rest of the world.  If we don’t do it, someone else will come in and do it – without an insider perspective, without respect for the history or the aspirations of the neighborhood, and without anyone’s permission.

Passing along this news of a few upcoming events at 713inc. Remember to continue shopping local, especially during this holiday season. If not in the Northside, there are always great shops in the Heights, Montrose, and the East End.

A mural on the brick wall behind 713 inc Art & Apparel

Hater Magazine defines a “Hater” as: Someone that can… cut through the spin, the phoniness and expose what’s real about the world around us…

This mural is on the brick wall behind the 713 inc Art & Apparel boutique at 1912 North Main near Hogan.  I have see different murals on the same wall, so I’m not sure how long this one has been there and how long it will stay.  The store itself is a great addition to the neighborhood and one that I hope is permanent.  In fact, it’s one of the only new retail establishments that has come to the neighborhood in a long, long time.  It opened about a year ago and sells men’s and women’s printed T-shirts designed by Real Street Kloze, as well as bags and small art objects.  It also sells art supplies for the urban artist including specialty aerosol paints, markers, paint sticks, sketchbooks, and magazines.

Opening a new independent retail store on North Main, during Light Rail construction, in a recession, seems a risky move.  Maybe it takes a Hater to pull off something like this.  The entrepreneurs behind this boutique have proven themselves braver and more entrepreneurial than all those other business who are supposedly “waiting” to invest in the Near Northside until the Light Rail is completed.  As a reminder, the North Light Rail Expansion is now scheduled for completion in late 2014.  Meanwhile,  one of our main commercial corridors in the Near Northside (North Main Street) is full of vacant lots, vacant buildings, and suburban-style surface-parking lots.  Northsiders like me, my family, and my neighbors are spending our hard-earned money elsewhere simply because of the lack of nearby amenities.  At this point, that’s three more years worth of going out to eat, out to a bar, shopping for clothes, shopping for electronics, and other general entertainment that we and our neighbors, and anyone will NOT be spending on North Main and in the Near Northside.  On the other hand, I would dare to say that the 713 inc Art and Apparel store on North Main has such a unique product that it likely brings in urban artists and urban art enthusiasts from all over Houston.

I, for one, welcome that business into my neighborhood.  I want to encourage that kind of energy and entrepreneurial spirit.  Unfortunately I have heard rumors that my neighbors don’t share my enthusiasm.  There seems to be a sentiment floating around that wants to discourage this business because it is accused of supplying vandals with the resources to commit their crimes, resulting in graffiti on nearby buildings that is costly to clean up.  To that I would say the answer is not to discourage local businesses, but rather to encourage more new local business.  I would say that maybe the problem is not the things this store sells, but rather the amount of vacant buildings and dark corners in the Near Northside; which is really what is providing vast opportunity for vandalism.  A busier, denser commercial corridor might be less prone to vandalism than a string of poorly lit, empty, neglected structures.

So to those business that are waiting for the Light Rail to be completed before they want to invest in our neighborhood, I ask “what are you really waiting for?”  I encourage you to be creative and take risks!  If you do, I think you’ll find that the Northside will reward you.