Neartown Houston

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The Houston skyline, viewed from Neartown

Neartown is an area located in west-central Houston, Texas and is one of the city's major cultural areas. The location has a distinctive character of eccentricity and a diverse population. The eastern–southeastern portion of Neartown is colloquially referred to as Montrose.

Neartown is bounded by U.S. Highway 59 to the south, Allen Parkway to the north, Bagby Street on the east, and Shepherd Drive to the west. Once a magnet for the hippie movement, the area's characteristics are similar to San Francisco's the Haight-Ashbury and The Castro.

The section of the Neartown area at Van Buren Street was the Houston Press 2002 "Best Hidden Neighborhood." ^[1]

1 Overview
2 History
3 Crime
4 Places of interest
5 Education
6 Police service
7 Media
8 Health Services
9 Community information
10 Notes
11 See also
12 External links

[edit] Overview

Vintage shops along Westheimer Road—a major arterial traversing Neartown

Neartown is considered one of the eccentric and demographically diverse areas of Houston. In recent decades, the area hosts a significant community of young adults, gay men and lesbians, punk rockers, artists, as well as a vibrant thrift, vintage, and second-hand shopping area.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Neartown was known for its Bohemian flavor—this would spawn both the Westheimer Colony Art Festival in 1971 and the subsequent street fair in 1973, which would become known as the Westheimer Street Festival. Neartown, like Haight-Ashbury, is still a central location for teen runaways in the southeast Texas region. In recent decades, many young gay and lesbian runaways have made their way to Neartown.

During the 1990s through to recent times, this area has become increasingly gentrified with a trend towards remodelled and new homes, high rents, upmarket boutiques and restaurants. Neartown has become an eclectic niche market for office buildings in Houston, with both new development and redeveloped older buildings dotting Montrose Boulevard.

Additional neighborhoods in Neartown that have retained their original names include Courtlandt Place, Winlow Place, Hyde Park and Cherryhurst. ^[2]

[edit] History

Houston's urban real estate boom starting in the 1990s transformed Neartown and significantly increased property values. The area around the intersection of Montrose Boulevard and Westheimer Road went from being a place with lots of abandoned buildings, sexually-oriented businesses, and low rent, to a neighborhood full of yuppies and new condominium construction. Inner Loop neighborhoods, despite the fall of Enron, have continued to be a prime market for redevelopment. This has increased interest in the area and pushed the median home price to $230,200 in 2005.

Residential property in Neartown

A majority of townhouses were built in the Midtown area east of Neartown; right before the Westheimer Street Festival's demise in the early 2000s, some Neartown residents have voiced their concerns about the festival affecting their quality of life issues, ranging from street parking to traffic gridlock.

From the United States Census 2000 demographics, about one-quarter of the residents are homeowners, whereas three quarters consists of renters: including many students from the University of Houston, Rice University, and the University of Saint Thomas, as well as for those employed in the Texas Medical Center, Downtown Houston, and Greenway Plaza. The area is also ethnically diverse, with primarily Latinos, Filipinos, and Whites living in the area.

The City of Houston's Planning Department refers to the Neartown area as a mixed-use community which serves as a model for other neighborhoods to follow. Since the 1990s gentrification, the demographics of those renting have changed; because of higher rent due to redevelopment, musicians and artists have been replaced with yuppies and professionals (attorneys, educators, medical professionals). Other Houston neighborhoods, such as Meyerland, Westbury, and Second Ward (east of Downtown Houston) have become popular places for the artistic and gay and lesbian communities to move when Neartown becomes too expensive. Twenty-three working artists reside in Neartown, according to a survey revealed in a November 12, 2006, Houston Chronicle article titled "An Artistic Movement."

[edit] Crime

Youth street gangs reside in Neartown.

According to some children in the Neartown area, as reported by the Houston Chronicle, Crazy Crew has around 100 members and is made up of mostly Hispanics. No girls are allowed in the gang. Crazy Crew is a family affair with the low income residents in the Neartown, with brothers and uncles together. The group is known for minor crimes. The "boundaries" of the gang are, as of 2006, roughly Richmond, West Alabama, Mandell, and Shepherd. On June 6, 2006, Crazy Crew gained notoriety when a girl associated with Crazy Crew members, 16-year old (at the time) Ashley Paige Benton, killed a 15-year old boy named Gabriel Granillo in the Ervan Chew Park in Neartown. Granillo, who associated with a group of MS-13 members, died after Benton stabbed him with a knife. The altercation began at Lamar High School. After police forced the gangsters to leave, they drove to Ervan Chew Park through stop signs and red traffic lights ^[3]^[4]^[5]

According to "Greñas," a member of a group calling itself "MS-13" testifying at Benton's trial, his friends did not fear Crazy Crew because his members did not believe that Crazy Crew was a "real" gang; his friends referred to Crazy Crew as "little kids from Lamar." Benton was a student at Lamar for several months before the stabbing ^[6].

[edit] Places of interest

Museums

Menil Collection art museum
Rothko Chapel
Houston Center for Photography
Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum
Museo Guadalupe Aztlan
Museum of Printing History
Dan Flavin permanent exhibit

Consulates

Radio

KPFT 90.1 FM, a Pacifica Radio affiliate, located at 419 Lovett Boulevard

Community

Houston GLBT Community Center
Pride Committee of Houston.

Festivals

The Greek Festival, is usually held in October on the grounds of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral located on Yoakum Boulevard.

Parades

The annual Houston Gay Pride Parade is usually held on the final Saturday in June (in some rare cases, around the weekend before or after June 23 to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Riots). Since 1997, the parade is held in the evening as a night parade.

Cathedrals and Churches

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral
Chapel of St. Basil at the University of St. Thomas (designed by esteemed architect Philip Johnson)

[edit] Education

The University of Saint Thomas

[edit] Colleges and universities

Neartown is home to the University of Saint Thomas.

Neartown is also in close proximity to Rice University, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the University of Houston, Texas Southern University, Houston Community College Central, and University of Houston–Downtown.

[edit] Primary and secondary education

[edit] Public schools

Pupils living in Neartown are divided into four separate elementary school attendance boundaries:

MacGregor Elementary School
- Residents south of West Alabama and east of Montrose Boulevard
- Residents north of West Alabama and east of Audubon
Poe Elementary School (in the Boulevard Oaks neighborhood)
- Residents south of West Alabama and west of Montrose Boulevard
Wharton Elementary School
- Residents north of Westheimer
Wilson Elementary School
- Residents north of West Alabama, west of Audubon, and south of Hawthorne
- Residents north of Hawthorne and south of Westheimer

Pupils in Neartown are divided between two separate middle school attendance boundaries:

Residents west of Montrose Boulevard are zoned to Lanier Middle School
Residents east of Montrose Boulevard are zoned to the Gregory-Lincoln Education Center

All Neartown area pupils are zoned to Lamar High School (in the Upper Kirby neighborhood of Houston).

High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, a magnet high school, is in Neartown.

[edit] Gallery of public schools

Wilson Elementary School	Wharton Elementary School serves a northern portion of Neartown	Poe Elementary School serves a southwest portion of Neartown	MacGregor Elementary School
Lanier Middle School serves the western half of Neartown	Gregory-Lincoln Education Center, located in the Fourth Ward - serves the eastern half of Neartown for middle school	Lamar High School	High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is a magnet school in the area