If you’ve ever been to Miami, and if you’ve ever driven north up Collins Avenue, then you’ll understand what this rant is going to be about. If you start in South Beach and head north on Collins, you’ll drive for miles without seeing the Atlantic Ocean, even though it’s just a few yards out your passenger-side window. The reason you’ll never see then ocean is all the steel, concrete, and glass monstrosities that preserve the waterfront views for those who can pay for it and shield it from the rest of us in the poor, unwashed masses.
Yes, I understand the value of waterfront real estate, particularly in trendy Miami Beach, where you are your money. Until now, the Seabrook-Nassau Bay area has been free of that sort of blight. Sadly, that reality is changing. If you drive from I-45 in Webster east along NASA Parkway, the tallest building you used to see across is the Nassau Bay Hilton, which is perhaps 10 stories tall. My point is that this is a coastal community that has historically be very low to the ground. It’s also a fairly egalitarian community, as waterfront communities go. Yes, there’s money in evidence, but that sort of ostentatiousness has until now tended to manifest itself in single-family dwellings. Well, THAT’s about to change.
Endeavour Clear Lake is the first high-rise condominium complex to go up in the Clear Lake area, and to say that it looks out of place would be something of an understatement. Frankly, it looks like a giant middle finger extended toward the enture Clear Lake area by the developers- (&^% you…we’re here. We’ve got the money and the political connections. Deal with it and stop your whining. Endeavour Clear Lake will be followed in the not too distant future by yet another extended middle finger. Apparently, the developers responsible for these elitist monstrosities think there’s a market for waterfront high-rises among those with more money than aesthetic sensibility.
Yippee…on a clear day, I can see the BP refinery in Texas City!! You see, honey, I TOLD you the view would be spectacular!!
Of course, I understand that money talks, and that enough money means you can pretty much tell anyone and everyont to (&^% off. You don’t have to worry about the sensibilities of the surrounding community, the heritage, or the culture of the area. Commerce, after all, waits for no one…and if you don’t take advantage of the opportunity to build several tall, elitist monuments to conspicuous consumption, someone else will.
YAY, CAPITALISM!!!
Some folks will want to live in a community designed “for Houston’s elite who actively seek a lavish lifestyle on the water.” If money is no object, and you’re into spending $400k - $2 million to have a view of every refinery within a 20-mile radius- hey, knock yourself out. If you can afford to have someone cater to your every whim and need, why not? If you want to live in Miami Beach, then why in the Hell don’t you just move there? After all, the view’s a lot more pleasant, and the surrounding clubs are much trendier- and you’re not downwind from refineries and chemical plants.
I don’t know that NASA Parkway will ever come to resemble Collins Avenue, but it’s the possibility of exactly that result that so concerns me. The Seabrook-Nassau Bay area used to be such a low-key, unpretentious place. I suppose nothing lasts forever, eh?
YAY, CAPITALISM!!!
