| Branding Chinatown: Neighborhood transforms
Flocking from SoCal to Houston," trumpeted a Los Angeles Times headline in December. "Vietnamese Americans are lured to the Texas city by cheap real estate, a lower cost of living and a burgeoning cultural enclave." Sell your house in Los Angeles, Houston Realtors urge, then buy a bigger one here for a third the cost and invest the rest in your business. The gold rush appears to be on, and new settlers are setting up shop in the boomtown. But as much as I like that Wells Fargo sign, with its Wild West stagecoach, it doesn't entirely work as a symbol of its neighborhood. In this new Chinatown, the West isn't charging into the East. Really, it's the other way around. So what would work as a visual symbol for the new Chinatown? How could you depict a place that's pan-Asian, old and new, united mainly by entrepreneurial zeal? "I don't know," says William Kao, chair of the Asian American Business Council's beautification committee.
Joint Venture Expands Its National Portfolio With Two Self-Storage ...
PHOENIX, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- 180 Development Services, LLC in its joint venture with Harrison Street Real Estate (HSRE) and Morningstar Properties, LLC announces the acquisition of two self-storage properties in the Houston, Texas market. The storage facilities, operated under the trade name Morningstar Mini-Storage, are located in Friendswood and West Houston and have a total of 129,000 rentable square feet and 1,140 storage units. This acquisition brings the number of properties acquired into the joint venture to seven representing approximately 420,000 square feet of storage space and 3,050 units. Larry Hoffmann, President of 180 Development Services said, "Through this acquisition, we have successfully added product to the portfolio that compliments our earlier purchase in Houston.
McCrory, opponents spar in debate
Pat McCrory used his first gubernatorial debate Thursday to highlight his long record as Charlotte mayor. His fellow Republicans used it, in part, to take a few jabs at that record. McCrory pointed to efforts to deport illegal immigrants, to work with Democrats on the City Council and to conserve water well ahead of the state's current drought. "The best way to predict future leadership is to look at leadership in the past," McCrory said in response to a question of how he would attract independent voters. "I've won seven elections in a city that has more Democrats than Republicans, and I've done that by getting not only Republican votes but by getting independent and Democratic votes." Fred Smith, a businessman and state senator from Johnston County, quickly cut in.
Margaret Truman Daniel, only child of President Harry Truman, dies at ...
KANSAS CITY, Mo.: Margaret Truman, the only child of former President Harry S. Truman and a concert singer, actress, radio and TV personality, and mystery writer, died Tuesday. She was 83. Truman, known as Margaret Truman Daniel in private life, died at a Chicago assisted living center after a brief illness, according to Susan Medler, a spokeswoman for the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence. She had been at the center for the past several weeks and was on a respirator, the library said. Her father's succession to the presidency in 1945 thrust her into the national spotlight while a college junior. "I feel that I've lived several different lives, and that was one of them," she said in 1980. "Some of it was fun, but most of it was not.
Housing starts fall 24 percent
Levitt and Sons of Fort Lauderdale filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors in November. Levitt, which has no developments in Palm Beach or Broward counties, recently received a loan of up to $10 million from Wachovia Bank, its largest creditor. Levitt is winding down its operations, but the Wachovia financing could keep the builder in business with limited operations for up to 23 months.
Another local builder, TOUSA Inc. of Hollywood, says it has serious doubts about its ability to stay in business. The company also is considering a Chapter 11 filing.
Meanwhile, Miami-based Lennar Corp. reported its biggest quarterly loss in the company's 53-year history in September. The company cut its work force by about 35 percent last year.
Many economists think the current slump in housing will rival the dive in the late 1970s and early 1980s when housing construction fell for four straight years before beginning to recover after the severe 1981-82 recession.
Inside the unit where babies cling on to life
Last month The Observer gained unprecedented access to one of the most influential and pioneering neonatal intensive care wards in Britain. Our investigation coincides with the first parliamentary battle over abortion laws for almost 20 years and the first nationwide survey of maternity services by the government's own health standards watchdog, in which mothers and babies were found to be treated poorly in overstretched NHS maternity wards. It is an issue this newspaper was among the first to bring to public attention almost three years ago through our Better Birth Campaign. Sited in the middle of Hackney in east London, one of the most deprived and multicultural areas in the country, and a referral centre for neighbouring hospitals, the neonatal unit at Homerton University Hospital is one of the busiest and most highly regarded in Britain.
House prices in Hampshire fall
I feel sorry for people who are priced out of the market but don't feel that social housing provided to people who just don't want to work or stop having children is the answer. We would all like cheaper housing no matter how much money we have, build more houses at a rate which will effect the market prices, that is the answer?? .
Ponderings from PapaBear
The NFL regular season has come to a close and the Cleveland Browns just missed making the playoffs. A few weeks ago it sure looked like they were in good shape as far as the post season was concerned, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Still, the Browns did register a victory over the San Francisco 49ers in their final game and there will be high hopes for this team entering the 2008 season. The Brownies finished with a 10-6 record, far exceeding expectations for this team entering 2007. This is the first time this franchise has reached a double digit win total since they re-entered the league in 1999. They provided many thrills for their die hard fans this season and belive me it was long overdue. I grew up in Cleveland and have been a life long Browns fan, so the following opinion might be a bit bias.
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