Around the Heights
Tips from the District C Office on Houston’s New 311 Platform
The Office of Council Member Kamin recently passed along some helpful information about the City of Houston's new 311 platform called CRIS (Customer Relations Information System) and we'd now like to pass that info along to you! CRIS (Customer Relations Information System) is designed to make interaction for residents easier, quicker, and more convenient! There are three ways to use the new CRIS system to create a 311 report: smart phone app (Apple and Google) use the website the 311 call center As always, a new system means that there are kinks [...]
Help Us Fill Our 2022 Board Seats this Fall
Seven of the fifteen positions on the HHA Board of Directors are up for election. We have 6 highly qualified candidates who have been nominated for those seats. The five candidates receiving the most votes will serve 3-year terms and the candidate with the sixth-highest vote count will serve a 2-year term. Because we have more positions on the board coming open than we do nominees to fill those spots, the seventh board seat (a one-year term) will be filled by the HHA Board in the new [...]
True North’s Bill Peck Visualizes Our Lives in the Digital Age
At first glance, Bill Peck’s brightly-painted steel sculpture evokes whimsical fun on a beloved childhood playground apparatus—the seesaw—but further examination reveals a more complicated portrayal. “Searching for Balance” is a snapshot of the complexity of a family’s daily life—balancing the many challenges. Peck says, “Digital devices—cell phones, computers, television—are continually utilized to connect the family to an expansive world but sometimes ultimately at the expense of family balance.” Photo courtesy of Kolanowski Studio Peck’s interest in sculpture began at an early age when he began welding at [...]
August 2021 Yard of the Month: 927 Merrill
Congratulations to our August Yard of the Month: Lloyd Jones and Anne Montgomery’s Garden at 927 Merrill Lloyd Jones and Anne Montgomery's garden at 927 Merrill has been evolving for many years. Every year they try to add a little more to their limited space. Their emphasis has been the creation of a friendly bird, bee, and butterfly environment. Among the many flowering plants, there are lavender, cone flowers, cosmos, dianthus, and four types of salvia currently in bloom. Larger trees and shrubs include white crepe myrtles [...]
Pillowy Fun on the Esplanade by Lubbock-based Artist William Cannings
Evoking images of luxurious and dreamy slumber—or a playful pillow melee—this towering and ethereal sculpture by Lubbock-based artist William Cannings is one of eight arresting sculptures presented by True North 2021, a Heights Boulevard sculpture project. Engineered to imperceptibly tack with the wind, the beguiling sculpture—which sits in the 900 block of the boulevard—is made from forms of flat steel, welded together with the precision of fine stitch work. The welded forms are then pneumatically inflated—like a rubber tire—producing a dynamic and fresh metamorphosis from 2D pattern [...]
True North 2021 Artist Brings Meaningful Focus to Native Texas Plants
Austin artist Jamie Spinello’s enchanting sculpture “Allochory”—named for a method of seed dispersal—was inspired by the triadic seed pod of the Red Yucca, a native plant of Central and West Texas. “I created this sculpture as homage to humans dedicated to the proliferation of native Texas plants in our cityscapes and home gardens,” says Spinello. Texas has over 5,000 species of native plants. Because of its size and geography, it is one of the most biologically diverse states, with forests, deserts, mountains, hills, prairies, and coastal plains. [...]
