Envy Apartment

Juan Parras gives one hell of a tour of Houston’s east side. He’s charming and funny. Wearing a beret, he strikes an old-world look, like he might lead you to a cafe on a plaza. He doesn’t charge a fee for his services. After all, you’re on a “toxic tour,” and Parras is on a mission. Parras grew up in 1950s West Texas . He remembers segregated schools, the restaurants that wouldn’t serve him, the unpaved roads, and the people who lived closest to the local refinery . Those experiences led him to a career as a social justice advocate . The resident of Houston’s heavily industrial east side has worked in a city housing department , for a union, for a law clinic, and on a campaign that stopped a PVC factory from being built in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.” For the last decade, he has served as executive director of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (better known as t.e.j.a.s.). Part of his work is leading tours past the heaping piles of scrap metal along Houston’s Buffalo Ba...

For decades, the skyline of Toronto's Bloor and Sherbourne area has been dominated by the mostly pallid apartment towers found in the St. James Town neighbourhood . In recent years, additions like the James Cooper Mansion and 561 Sherbourne have added some height and visual variety to the area, and now another major tower is beginning to punctuate this skyline with some colour, and is soon to add a higher-end option to the rental apartment mix in the area. The Selby, from Tricon Capital, Mod Developments, and OP Trust, will rise to a height of 50 storeys. Designed by Chicago-based bKL Architecture, it is being clad in a precast concrete panels inlaid with real red brick on the surface. When we last updated The Selby's construction progress just over a month ago, work had begun on the tower’s 25th floor, while the red brick cladding had reached the 14th floor. Installation of glazing for the building’s punched windows followed a few levels behind, reaching the 9th floor ...

As President Donald Trump promised to unleash 'fire and fury' on North Korea,  a slightly-built, bearded TV evangelist bragged of his recent visit to the White House and warned of an up-coming ' nuclear winter .' Jim Bakker's studio audience whooped and cheered – before reaching deep into their pockets to buy 'Staying Alive' food - buckets full of freeze- dried products apparently capable of sustaining survivors through the Apocalypse. The charismatic pastor then made an impassioned plea for money to keep his ministry afloat – suggesting a year's supply of pancakes with a 30- year shelf life for an apparent bargain $550 or four cheaply published books for $40 to tide readers over through Armageddon. sell food buckets full of freeze- dried products , claiming the meals will keep followers alive after the Apocalypse" class="blkBorder img-share" /> Jim Bakker (pictured with wife Lori) uses his platform as a televangelist to sell f...

April 06, 1998 | By Larry Carson | Larry Carson,SUN STAFF Dundalk residents who last month rejected a government-aided plan to renovate the Hidden Cove Apartments over fears it would cater to the poor hold out hope that a new buyer will appear and convert the 32-year-old complex into elderly housing or condominiums. But neither is likely, say a variety of county officials and real estate experts , who predict more slow decline for the unprofitable 30- acre waterfront complex in West Inverness , a densely populated community of about 2,000 brick townhouses. The $ 9 million sale price , combined with the multimillion-dollar cost to renovate or demolish the 504-unit, three- story brick complex , makes any purchase or extensive redevelopment problematic without government aid , county officials and real estate experts say. "The numbers won't crunch" for a conventionally financed deal , said county Councilman Louis L. DePazzo, a Dundalk Democrat who supported the plann...

At the ribbon cutting this month for the Wesley Village affordable housing complex in Garden Grove, Laura Archuleta couldn ’t resist referencing Joni Mitchell ’s 1970 environmental protest “Big Yellow Taxi.” Built on underused land that’s part of the Garden Grove United Methodist Church campus on Main Street, Wesley Village offered Archuleta , president of the nonprofit community organization Jamboree Housing Corp ., a chance to riff on one of Mitchell’s most famous lyrics. Where Mitchell sang “They paved paradise/And put up a parking lot,” Archuleta told about 300 people packed into the steamy church sanctuary on a hot afternoon that “Today we are going to learn how a group of dedicated organizations and individuals re-purposed a parking lot and put up a paradise.” Then she and others who spoke, including a single mom with six children who now reside at Wesley Village , told how the project became reality through a unique collaboration that involved the church, Jamboree and other...