Misplaced Pages

#236763

130-627: Some articles of the Houston Chronicle describe it as within Third Ward , while some articles discuss Riverside Terrace as being a separate community. Development of Riverside Terrace began in 1924, and it was initially done by the president of Guardian Trust Company, Clarence Malone, who had cofounded the company. Guardian provided the financing, and the first section to open was the portion between Almeda Road, Blodgett Street, Live Oak Street, and Oakdale Street. The brochures highlighted

260-528: A "fair" rating and stated that it continued to be a "viable community that is generally well maintained" although the northern portion was "in a stage of incipient decline" and that overall "continued decline was likely." By the 1980s area residents were concerned that gentrification from white people and property acquisitions from area universities and the Texas Medical Center may affect their community. Riverside Terrace house sales did not follow

390-545: A "soft landing" for the market. However, based on unprecedented rises in inventory and a sharply slowing market throughout 2006, Leslie Appleton-Young, the chief economist of the California Association of Realtors, said that she was not comfortable with the mild term "soft landing" to describe what was actually happening in California's real estate market. The Financial Times warned of the impact on

520-475: A California-based Pacific Investment Management Co. said, It's a blood bath. ... We're talking about a two- to three-year downturn that will take a whole host of characters with it, from job creation to consumer confidence. Eventually it will take the stock market and corporate profit. According to Donald Burnette of Brightgreen Homeloans in Florida (one of the states hit hardest by the bursting housing bubble)

650-401: A U.S. congressperson, said that Riverside Terrace has "a real potpourri of people that like inner city living in a beautiful neighborhood." She added that Riverside Terrace is "a great neighborhood for children.". Other noted residents have included actresses and sisters Phylicia Rashad Allen and Debbie Allen, also a noted dancer and producer. The community includes Weingarten House, which was

780-502: A bookkeeper. Jones took an interest in the young man's career, and put him through law school. Creekmore passed the bar exam in 1932 and returned to work for Jones. He held several positions in the Jones business empire. In 1959, he was named to the board of Houston Endowment, and was promoted to president of the board in 1964. By 1965, Creekmore had persuaded other directors of Houston Endowment to sell several business properties, including

910-449: A broader spectrum of consumers. ... Where once more-marginal applicants would simply have been denied credit, lenders are now able to quite efficiently judge the risk posed by individual applicants and to price that risk appropriately. These improvements have led to rapid growth in subprime mortgage lending; indeed, today subprime mortgages account for roughly 10 percent of the number of all mortgages outstanding, up from just 1 or 2 percent in

1040-410: A bust was to come. The housing bubble was partly subsidized by government-sponsored entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and federal policies intended to make housing affordable for all. National Association of Realtors (NAR) chief economist David Lereah 's Explanation of "What Happened" from the 2006 NAR Leadership Conference The booming housing market halted abruptly in many parts of

1170-519: A catastrophe? ... Their true weakness will finally reveal the abyss into which the housing market is about to plummet." A New York Times report connected the hedge fund crisis with lax lending standards : "The crisis this week from the near collapse of two hedge funds managed by Bear Stearns stems directly from the slumping housing market and the fallout from loose lending practices that showered money on people with weak, or subprime, credit, leaving many of them struggling to stay in their homes." In

1300-473: A citywide program that provides needy children between the ages of two and ten with toys during the winter holidays . In 2003, Goodfellows distributed almost 250,000 toys to more than 100,000 needy children in the Greater Houston area. In 1926, Jesse H. Jones became the sole owner of the paper. He had approached Foster about selling, and Foster had answered, "What will you give me?" Jones described

1430-560: A community in the Riverside Terrace area. Another area civic associations include Riverside Civic Association, which is bounded by Highway 288, Blodgett, the Columbia Tap Biking Trail and North MacGregor. It includes Riverside Terrace Sections 1-5. West MacGregor Home Owners Association also includes Riverside Terrace sections. Riverside Terrance is less than a mile away from Texas Southern University and

SECTION 10

#1732771735237

1560-578: A concerted push for a historic district. Citing that there were not enough people in Riverside Terrace wanting the historic designation, in June 2022 Mayor of Houston Sylvester Turner announced that he nixed the plan. Riverside Terrace is in proximity to the intersection of South MacGregor Way and Texas State Highway 288 . It is east of the Texas Medical Center and Hermann Park , and south of Interstate 45 (Gulf Freeway). Riverside Terrace

1690-520: A different address—Main Street. Financial analysts predicted that the subprime mortgage collapse would result in earnings reductions for large Wall Street investment banks trading in mortgage-backed securities , especially Bear Stearns , Lehman Brothers , Goldman Sachs , Merrill Lynch , and Morgan Stanley . The solvency of two troubled hedge funds managed by Bear Stearns was imperliled in June 2007 after Merrill Lynch sold off assets seized from

1820-410: A federal government bailout of subprime borrowers in order to save homeowners from losing their residences. Opponents of such proposal asserted that government bailout of subprime borrowers was not in the best interests of the U.S. economy because it would set a bad precedent, create a moral hazard, and worsen the speculation problem in the housing market. Lou Ranieri of Salomon Brothers , inventor of

1950-537: A hard landing", said Robert I. Toll , CEO of Toll Brothers. Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide Financial , said "I've never seen a soft-landing in 53 years, so we have a ways to go before this levels out. I have to prepare the company for the worst that can happen." Following these reports, Lereah admitted that "he expects home prices to come down 5% nationally", and said that some cities in Florida and California could have "hard landings." The World Bank lowered

2080-515: A historic district was proposed. After an initial failed attempt, as the majority of the residents in the original area voted it down, the proposal was scaled down to include 18 houses, and the people in that territory voted in favor. The passing threshold of each vote was 66%. Some area residents oppose the proposal for fear it could increase prices of housing. Erica Greider of the Houston Chronicle argued against trying to immediately make

2210-464: A loss of market liquidity and subprime defaults . A real estate bubble is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local, regional, national or global real estate markets. A housing bubble is characterized by rapid and sustained increases in the price of real property , such as housing ' usually due to some combination of over-confidence and emotion, fraud, the synthetic offloading of risk using mortgage-backed securities ,

2340-537: A major renovation and modernization project, which was completed in the late 1960s. On April 25, 2017, it was imploded and reduced to rubble. The site is now occupied by the Texas Tower. The newspaper and its staff have several times been Pulitzer finalists: In April 2004 the Houston Chronicle began carrying a Spanish-language supplement, the entertainment magazine La Vibra . La Vibra caters to speakers of Spanish and bilingual English-Spanish speakers, and

2470-417: A maze of corridors, cul-de-sacs and steps that seemed to spring on strollers at the most unexpected times." The facility, which was 106 years old in 2016, was originally four separate structures, which were joined to make one building. Jesse H. Jones erected the first Chronicle building, a long, narrow structure clad in granite, on the corner of Travis Street and Texas Avenue in 1910. The second building,

2600-475: A note for 500,000 secured by a mortgage on the Chronicle Building, the note to be payable (interest and principal) at the rate of 35,000 a year for thirty-five years, which I figured was about his expectancy. I would also pay him 20,000 dollars a year as editor of the paper and 6,000 dollars a year to continue writing the daily front-page column, "MEFO", on the condition that either of us could cancel

2730-539: A press release announcing that one of her reporters bad been caught making up sources over the course of several years. Barnes never explained why the Chronicle decided against being transparent to it readers immediately, instead of waiting for word to leak to the extent that other news outlets started planning stories. The sources being questioned in Ward's reporting were the product of "man-on-the-street" interviews from

SECTION 20

#1732771735237

2860-401: A ratio of between 65-85% White and 15-35% Black would be beneficial to members of both racial groups. The community gradually transitioned into being majority black and with both affluent African Americans and lower socioeconomic residents. Wealthy African-American doctors, lawyers, politicians, and university professors moved into Riverside Terrace. Houston Chronicle columnist Joy Sewing, who

2990-487: A school which was in Riverside Terrace, closed in 2009 and was consolidated into Lockhart. By Spring 2011 a new campus was scheduled to be built on the Turner site. In 2009 Turner, which occupied a building from the 1920s, had 259 students. The HISD board had approved the consolidation on November 12, 2008 despite the opposition of Sheila Jackson Lee and Sammye Prince Hughes, the head of the Turner parent-teacher organization and

3120-469: A story dealing with rebuilding efforts following Hurricane Harvey . Barnes said Houston Chronicle researchers had problems finding a number of sources quoted in Ward's story, so the newspaper hired investigative journalist David Wood, a Pulitzer Prize winner. On November 8, 2018, one day before Barnes left for a position as senior vice president of news at National Public Radio, the Houston Chronicle released some of Wood's findings. The paper announced it

3250-431: A toll on the economy and impact the impaired prices of homes. Bill Gross , "a most reputable financial guru", sarcastically and ominously criticized the credit ratings of the mortgage-based CDOs now facing collapse: AAA? You were wooed Mr.  Moody's and Mr.  Poor's , by the makeup, those six-inch hooker heels, and a " tramp stamp ." Many of these good looking girls are not high-class assets worth 100 cents on

3380-413: Is a slump or recession.” In January 2006, financial analyst Gary Shilling wrote an article entitled: “The Housing Bubble Will Probably Burst”. In May 2006, JPMorgan 's Christopher Flanagan, director of global structured finance research, warned clients of a coming housing downturn. In August 2006, economist Nouriel Roubini similarly warned that the housing sector was in "free fall" and would derail

3510-401: Is a subscriber-only site that contains everything found in the daily print edition. From its inception, the practices and policies of the Houston Chronicle were shaped by strong-willed personalities who were the publishers. The history of the newspaper can be best understood when divided into the eras of these individuals. The Houston Chronicle was founded in 1901 by a former reporter for

3640-639: Is about 3 miles (4.8 km) from Downtown Houston . Shad Bogany of Bogany Properties said in 2002 that the proximity to major landmarks such as tertiary educational institutions, the Texas Medical Center, the Houston Astrodome , and museums is "What sells Riverside Terrace". Allison Wollam of the Houston Business Journal stated that Riverside Terrace is bounded by Scott Street, North MacGregor, Almeda Road, and Wheeler Street. Laura Michaelides of Houston House and Home stated that

3770-404: Is at a record 4.2 million. Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns , respectively the world's largest securities firm and largest underwriter of mortgage-backed securities in 2006, said in June 2007 that rising foreclosures reduced their earnings and the loss of billions from bad investments in the subprime market imperiled the solvency of several hedge funds . Mark Kiesel, executive vice president of

3900-666: Is being transformed into an outpatient facility. The designated Harris Health System public clinic is the Martin Luther King Health Center. At one point, the MLK health center was located on the first and third floors of Quentin Mease. On May 14, 2010, MLK relocated to a site in southern Houston, on Swingle Road. The designated public hospital is Ben Taub General Hospital in the Texas Medical Center . The Parkwood Drive Civic Club (PDCC), established in 1924, serves

4030-485: Is causing the economy to slow"; he predicted that the correcting market would decrease U.S. economic growth by about one percent in the second half of 2006 and remain a drag on expansion into 2007. National home sales and prices both fell dramatically again in March 2007 according to NAR data, with sales down 13% to 482,000 from the peak of 554,000 in March 2006 and the national median price falling nearly 6% to $ 217,000 from

Riverside Terrace, Houston - Misplaced Pages Continue

4160-696: Is mainly distributed in Hispanic neighborhoods. In December 2004 the Chronicle acquired the Spanish-language newspaper La Voz de Houston . In the weeks following the September 11 attacks , the Houston Chronicle published a series of opinion articles by University of Texas journalism professor Robert Jensen that asserted the United States was "just as guilty" as the hijackers in committing acts of violence and compared that attack with

4290-494: Is now rededicated." Under Jones' watch, the Chronicle bought KTRH , one of Houston's oldest radio stations, in 1937. In 1954, Jones led a syndicate that signed on Houston's third television station, KTRK-TV . The board of Houston Endowment named John T. Jones, nephew of Jesse H. Jones, as editor of the Chronicle . Houston Endowment president, J. Howard Creekmore, was named publisher. In 1961, John T. Jones hired William P. Steven as editor. Steven had previously been editor of

4420-552: Is now spreading to near prime mortgages". The 30-year mortgage rates increased by more than a half a percentage point to 6.74 percent during May–June 2007, affecting borrowers with the best credit just as a crackdown in subprime lending standards limits the pool of qualified buyers. The national median home price is poised for its first annual decline since the Great Depression , and the NAR reported that supply of unsold homes

4550-613: Is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas , United States. As of April 2016, it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times . With the 1995 buyout of its longtime rival the Houston Post , the Chronicle became Houston's newspaper of record . The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper owned and operated by

4680-424: Is uninfluenced by unworthy motives, and unbought by the desire for gain. A newspaper which can be neither bought nor bullied is the greatest asset of a city or state. Naturally, a newspaper makes mistakes in judgment, as it does in type; but, so long as errors are honestly made, they are not serious when general results are considered. The success or failure of a particular issue is of little consequence compared with

4810-629: Is within Trustee District IV, represented by Paula M. Harris as of 2009. Zoned elementary schools serving portions of Riverside Terrace include Lockhart in Riverside Terrace, Thompson, MacGregor, and Poe outside of Riverside Terrace. All area residents are zoned to Cullen Middle School. Most residents are zoned to Yates High School in the Third Ward, while some are zoned to Lamar High School in Upper Kirby . Beginning in 2018

4940-590: The Tulsa Tribune and the Minneapolis Star Tribune , and credited with turning around the declining readership of both papers. One of his innovations was the creation of a regular help column called "Watchem", where ordinary citizens could voice their complaints. The Chicago Tribune later called this column a pioneer and prototype of the modern newspaper "Action Line". Steven's progressive political philosophy soon created conflict with

5070-527: The Art Deco and Mid-Century Modern architectural styles. The houses built early in the community's history tend to be Colonial and Tudor Revival varieties while the Mid-Century houses were built in the 1950s. Many styles of houses in Riverside Terrace include those developed by John Chase, John Staub , Katherine Mott, and Joseph Finger . In 2002 Katherine Feser of the Houston Chronicle said "Today,

5200-399: The Chronicle endorsed Wendy Davis for governor in 2014 , and Sylvester Turner for mayor in 2015. Additionally, the Chronicle initially endorsed Jeb Bush for the 2016 Republican primary, but did not endorse any other candidate after he dropped out. In September 2018, then-executive editor Nancy Barnes released a statement on the Chronicle ' s website notifying readers for

5330-607: The Chronicle switched to being a morning-only paper. With the demise of the Houston Post on April 18 the next year, the Chronicle became Houston's sole major daily newspaper. On October 18, 2008, the paper endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election , the first Democrat to be endorsed by the newspaper since 1964, when it endorsed Texan Lyndon B. Johnson. It endorsed Mitt Romney in 2012, but endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020. Locally,

Riverside Terrace, Houston - Misplaced Pages Continue

5460-558: The Chronicle . Everett D. Collier replaced Steven as editor. Collier remained in this position until his retirement in 1979. J. Howard Creekmore was born in Abilene, Texas, in 1905. His parents died while he was young, so he was raised by his stepmother. The family moved to Houston in 1920. Howard enrolled in Rice Institute, where he graduated with degrees in history and English. After graduation, he went to work for Jesse Jones as

5590-483: The Chronicle . Houston oilman John Mecom offered $ 85 million for the newspaper, its building, a 30 percent interest in Texas National Bank of Commerce, and the historic Rice Hotel. Early in 1966, Mecom encountered problems raising the additional cash to complete the transaction. He then began lining up potential buyers for the newspaper, which included non-Houstonians such as Sam Newhouse, Otis Chandler and

5720-534: The Hearst Corporation , a privately held multinational corporate media conglomerate with $ 10 billion in revenues. The paper employs nearly 2,000 people, including approximately 300 journalists , editors , and photographers . The Chronicle has bureaus in Washington, D.C. , and Austin . The paper reports that its web site averages 125 million page views per month. The publication serves as

5850-479: The Ku Klux Klan (KKK). He sold the rest of his interest to Jesse H. Jones on June 26, 1926, and promptly retired. In 1911, city editor George Kepple started Goodfellows. On Christmas Eve 1911, Kepple passed a hat among the Chronicle ' s reporters to collect money to buy toys for a shoe-shine boy. Goodfellows continues today through donations made by the newspaper and its readers. It has grown into

5980-407: The U.S. economy of the "hard edge" in the "soft landing" scenario, saying "A slowdown in these red-hot markets is inevitable. It may be gentle, but it is impossible to rule out a collapse of sentiment and of prices. ... If housing wealth stops rising ... the effect on the world's economy could be depressing indeed". "It would be difficult to characterize the position of home builders as other than in

6110-581: The Wilson administration , helping to found the Red Cross during World War I, and later famously under the Roosevelt administration, described the paper's mission in these terms: I regard the publication of a newspaper as a distinct public trust, and one not to be treated lightly or abused for selfish purposes or to gratify selfish whims. A great daily newspaper can remain a power for good only so long as it

6240-663: The general housing slump in the United States of the late 2000s. The late 2000s has also seen couples and families moving into Riverside Terrace to improve formerly derelict mansions, though some houses remained neglected and abandoned. By 2008 some older properties were demolished and replaced with newer housing. Lisa Gray of the Houston Chronicle stated that this too was a gradual process. Recent improvements include re-development of hike and bike trails along Braes Bayou, aesthetic improvements to Almeda Road (including brick pavement and decorative street lighting), as well as renovation and modernization of some notable older homes. In 2021

6370-446: The subprime market ; they said that rising late payments and defaults on Alt-A mortgages made in 2006 are "disconcerting" and delinquent borrowers appear to be "finding it increasingly difficult to refinance" or catch up on their payments. Late payments of at least 90 days and defaults on 2006 Alt-A mortgages have increased to 4.21 percent, up from 1.59 percent for 2005 mortgages and 0.81 percent for 2004, indicating that "subprime carnage

6500-569: The " newspaper of record " of the Houston area. Previously headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building at 801 Texas Avenue, Downtown Houston , the Houston Chronicle is now located at 4747 Southwest Freeway . While Houston Chronicle staff formerly published on the ad-supported, non-subscriber site Chron.com, today Chron and Houston Chronicle have separate websites and newsrooms. Houstonchronicle.com, launched in 2012,

6630-498: The "two most profitable quarters in the history of our company", yet the company filed for bankruptcy protection less than one month later on 6 October. Six months later on 10 April 2007, Kara Homes sold unfinished developments, causing prospective buyers from the previous year to lose deposits, some of whom put down more than $ 100,000 (~$ 141,598 in 2023). As the housing market began to soften from winter 2005 through summer 2006, NAR chief economist David Lereah predicted

SECTION 50

#1732771735237

6760-403: The 1960s some white residents who wanted the neighborhood to stabilize as an integrated neighborhood posted signs stating "This Is Our Home It Is Not For Sale." In response to the influx of black residents and spurred on by unscrupulous real estate agents instigating anxieties about falling home values, many white residents sold their homes and moved to other areas of the city. In the spring of 1963

6890-529: The 610 Loop campus, at the intersection of the 610 Loop and U.S. Route 59 / I-69 ( Southwest Freeway ). The facility, previously used as the Houston Post headquarters, will have a total of seven buildings with a total of over 440,000 square feet (41,000 m ) of space. The original building is a 1970s four-story " New Brutalist " building. As of 2016, the building housed the Chronicle Production Department, as well as

7020-622: The African-American community) and the Houston Tribune (an ultra-conservative paper). Both papers had rather small circulations and no influence among the city's business community. The two major newspapers in Houston never mentioned Steven for many years thereafter. John J. Jones left the Chronicle not long after Steven's ouster. J. Howard Creekmore, president of the Houston Endowment, took John Jones' place at

7150-607: The Apostle Middle School was formerly in the area. St. Peter the Apostle in the Third Ward , before its closure, was a PreK-8 school. Its peak enrollment was about 600 students in the 1960s. Prior to 2009 St. Peter was a middle school with grades 6-8; that year St. Philip Neri School merged into St. Peter, making it PK-8. From 2014 to 2019 enrollment declined by 70%. In 2019 St. Peter the Apostle had 33 students; in May 2019

7280-686: The Archdiocese announced that it was going to close. Debra Haney, the superintendent of schools of the Galveston-Houston diocese, stated that the enrollment decreased due to the proliferation of charter schools . The Third Ward area, including Riverside Terrace, is served by the Houston Public Library Smith Neighborhood Library at 3624 Scott Street. MacGregor Park , Riverside Park, Mills Bennett Park, and Parkwood Park are located in

7410-858: The Bear hedge funds are now primarily history, those millions and millions of homes are not. They're not going anywhere ... except for their mortgages that is. Mortgage payments are going up, up, and up ... and so are delinquencies and defaults. A recent research piece by Bank of America estimates that approximately $ 500 billion (~$ 708 billion in 2023) of adjustable rate mortgages are scheduled to reset skyward in 2007 by an average of over 200 basis points. 2008 holds even more surprises with nearly $ 700 billion ARMS subject to reset, nearly ¾ of which are subprimes ... This problem—aided and abetted by Wall Street—ultimately resides in America's heartland, with millions and millions of overpriced homes and asset-backed collateral with

7540-485: The Black moneyed elite, one of the wealthiest minority neighborhoods in the country" and that it has "central boulevards and bravura mansions" which means the road "recalls—in quite deliberate fashion—the shoulder-to-shoulder palaces of River Oaks." Riverside Terrace has 1,315 houses, which range from 2,000 square feet (190 m) to 6,000 square feet (560 m). 23 subdivisions are within Riverside Terrace. Many houses use

7670-604: The Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation . He was ignored, and later called it an incidence of Groupthink . That same year, his second edition of Irrational Exuberance warned that the housing bubble might lead to a worldwide recession . Also in 2005, economist Fred Harrison commented: "The next property market tipping point is due at end of 2007 or early 2008... The only way prices can be brought back to affordable levels

7800-502: The Downtown facility, the presses there were decommissioned in the late 2000s. The newsroom within the facility had bullpen-style offices with a few private cubicles and offices on the edges. The facility was connected to the downtown Houston tunnel system . Turner wrote that "in recent decades," 801 Texas Avenue "offered viewers an architectural visage of unadorned boxiness.... An accretion of five buildings made into one, it featured

7930-463: The Endowment board had ordered him to dismiss Steven. Jones had to comply. On September 3, the paper published a story announcing that Everett Collier was now the new editor. No mention was made of Steven or the Houston Endowment board. Houston Post staff wrote an article about the change, but top management killed it. Only two weekly papers in Houston mentioned it: Forward Times (which targeted

SECTION 60

#1732771735237

8060-474: The Majestic Theater, was built west of the Chronicle building. The second building built by Jones opened in 1910. In 1918, the third Jones building, Milam Building, opened west of the theater. An annex was built on the north side of the main building in 1938 and gained a fifth floor in the 1960s. The fifth building was a production plant, built north of the original four buildings. They were joined in

8190-604: The Purification School ( Kindergarten through grade 5). St. Mary, located in the Riverside Terrace area, opened in a temporary building on September 8, 1930. The building was blessed on October 27. The Sisters of Dominic operated the school until it closed in 1967. The school reopened in 1980 as a Montessori school . Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church operates Wheeler Avenue Christian Academy which currently serves students in Kindergarten through grade 5. St. Peter

8320-521: The Scripps-Howard organization. Creekmore strongly believed that local persons should own the paper. He insisted that Mecom pay the $ 84 million debt immediately in cash. Mecom cancelled his purchase agreement. In 1968, the Chronicle set a Texas newspaper circulation record. In 1981, the business pages—which until then had been combined with sports—became its own section of the newspaper. Creekmore remained as publisher until Houston Endowment sold

8450-535: The South Macgregor Promotion Committee formed. It says that it placed the "not for sale" not because it was against African Americans moving in, but because it wanted to prevent block busting . African-American and civil rights figures backed the "not for sale" campaign. In 1963 the community had 175 African American families. The South Macgregor group, which had no black members in 1963, and African-American leaders met and decided that

8580-681: The United States in the late summer of 2005, and as of summer 2006, several markets faced ballooning inventories, falling prices, and sharply reduced sales volumes. In August 2006, Barron's magazine warned, "a housing crisis approaches", and noted that the median price of new homes had dropped almost 3% since January 2006, that new-home inventories hit a record in April and remained near all-time highs, that existing-home inventories were 39% higher than they were just one year earlier, and that sales were down more than 10%, and predicted that "the national median price of housing will probably fall by close to 30% in

8710-591: The University of Houston. Riverside Terrance is also close to Rice University , University of Saint Thomas , The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston , University of Houston–Downtown , and Houston Community College - Central. As of 2002 many residents attend magnet programs in public schools and private schools. The neighborhood is zoned to schools in the Houston Independent School District . The community

8840-443: The ability to repackage conforming debt via government-sponsored enterprises , public and central bank policy availability of credit, and speculation. Housing bubbles tend to distort valuations upward relative to historic, sustainable, and statistical norms as described by economists Karl Case and Robert Shiller in their book, Irrational Exuberance . As early as 2003 Shiller questioned whether or not there was, "a bubble in

8970-420: The all-important principle of a fearless and honest newspaper. This I intend the Chronicle shall always be, a newspaper for all the people, democratic in fact and in principle, standing for the greatest good to the greatest number, championing and defending what it believes to be right, and condemning and opposing what it believes to be wrong. Such have always been the policies of the Chronicle and to such it

9100-1020: The area as well as the Brays Bayou Greenway Trail and the Columbia Tap Trail. Riverside Park is in Riverside Terrace Section 5. Parkwood Park is in Section 10. The original 1920s brochure emphasized the community's proximity to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Hermann Park . See also: List of companies in Houston See: List of colleges and universities in Houston [REDACTED] Category [REDACTED] Texas portal 29°43′01″N 95°21′58″W  /  29.717°N 95.366°W  / 29.717; -95.366 Houston Chronicle The Houston Chronicle

9230-575: The area. Other large houses were converted into housing for fraternities and sororities. Many area businesses catering to the wealthy closed, and nightclubs moved in their place. Jon Schwartz, creator of the 1985 documentary, This Is Our Home It Is Not For Sale , a film documenting Riverside Terrace, states that the neighborhood stabilized after 1970. Circa 1981 the Houston Planning Commission, in Kaplan's words, gave Riverside Terrace

9360-515: The boundaries were Almeda and Calhoun on the west and eastern ends, and that Riverside Terrace was on both sides of the Brays Bayou. Laura Michaelides of Houston House and Home stated that the "gracious" houses on large lots, "large overhanging trees", and a "remarkably hilly" terrain make the area "truly picturesque". Lawrence Wright of Texas Monthly , in 1982, described Macgregor Way, a major road through Riverside Terrace, as "the center of

9490-517: The buyout of Foster as follows: Wanting to be liberal with Foster if I bought him out, since he had created the paper and originally owned most of the stock, and had made a success of it, I thought for a while before answering and finally asked him how much he owed. He replied, "On real estate and everything about 200,000 dollars." I then said to him that I would give him 300,000 dollars in cash, having in mind that this would pay his debts and give him 100,000 spending money. In addition, I would give him

9620-400: The central campus of Houston Community College (HCC), and the first Riverside Terrace section was in proximity to Southmore Elementary School (now MacGregor Elementary). The original brochure for Riverside Terrace from the 1920s highlighted the proximities of the schools. The current Lockhart building, constructed as part of the 2007 Bond, has 85,960 square feet (7,986 m) of space. Turner,

9750-468: The corresponding loss in equity from the drop in housing values caused new problems. "It is keeping even borrowers with good credit and solid resources from refinancing to much better terms. Even with tighter lending restrictions and the disappearance of subprime programs, there are many borrowers who would indeed qualify as "A" borrowers who can't refinance as they no longer have the equity in their homes that they had in 2005 or 2006. They will have to wait for

9880-427: The country's largest subprime lender, New Century Financial , plunged 84% amid Justice Department investigations, before ultimately filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 2 April 2007 with liabilities exceeding $ 100 million (~$ 142 million in 2023). The manager of the world's largest bond fund PIMCO , warned in June 2007 that the subprime mortgage crisis was not an isolated event and would eventually take

10010-525: The crisis was easing: Over the period studied, the percentage of families behind on mortgage payments fell from 2.2 to 1.9; homeowners who thought it was "very likely or somewhat likely" that they would fall behind on payments fell from 6% to 4.6% of families. On the other hand, family's financial liquidity had decreased: "As of 2009, 18.5% of families had no liquid assets, and by 2011 this had grown to 23.4% of families." General: International property bubbles: Tully, Shawn (4 May 2006). "Welcome to

10140-406: The departure of area businesses, the growth of UH and TSU campuses, construction of Highway 288, and the decision to locate a county psychiatric hospital in the neighborhood. As time progressed foreclosure and white flight lead to neglect of several mansions. Due to lack of zoning, many large single family houses were converted into apartments, and additional low income apartment blocks were built in

10270-517: The dollar. ... And sorry Ben, but derivatives are a two-edged sword. Yes, they diversify risk and direct it away from the banking system into the eventual hands of unknown buyers, but they multiply leverage like the Andromeda strain. When interest rates go up, the Petri dish turns from a benign experiment in financial engineering to a destructive virus because the cost of that leverage ultimately reduces

10400-412: The early 1990s. Because of these remarks, along with his encouragement for the use of adjustable-rate mortgages, Greenspan was criticized for his role in the rise of the housing bubble and the subsequent problems in the mortgage industry. Subprime and Alt-A loans account for about 21 percent of loans outstanding and 39 percent of mortgages made in 2006. In April 2007, financial problems similar to

10530-517: The editorship and/or the MEFO-column contracts on six months' notice, and that, if I canceled both the column and the editorship, I would give him an additional 6,000 dollars a year for life. I considered the offer substantially more than the Chronicle was worth at the time. No sooner had I finished stating my proposition than he said, "I will take it", and the transaction was completed accordingly. In 1937, Jesse H. Jones transferred ownership of

10660-465: The end of its first month in operation, the Chronicle had a circulation of 4,378—roughly one tenth of the population of Houston at the time. Within the first year of operation, the paper purchased and consolidated the Daily Herald . In 1908, Foster asked Jesse H. Jones, a local businessman and prominent builder, to construct a new office and plant for the paper, "and offered [a] half-interest in

10790-512: The fact that one of their reporters had been cheating for years under their noses. In many instances over the course of years, Loeb worked directly with Ward and even rewrote his stories for final publication. The Austin American Statesman , where Ward worked as a reporter for 25 years covering the state's political class prior to joining the Houston Chronicle in 2014, also conducted an internal review of "his final years" of work at

10920-469: The first time that the paper's Austin bureau chief, Mike Ward, had resigned and was the subject of an internal investigation after questions were raised by a staff member over fabricating sources. Barnes opted not to disclose the source-fabrication or Ward's resignation to Chronicle readers and the general public until she was contacted by reporters at other outlets pursuing a story about the Chronicle ' s scandal—one full week after Ward had resigned. By

11050-441: The funds and three other banks closed out their positions with them. The Bear Stearns funds once had over $ 20 billion of assets, but lost billions of dollars on securities backed by subprime mortgages. H&R Block reported a quarterly loss of $ 677 million on discontinued operations, which included subprime lender Option One , as well as writedowns, loss provisions on mortgage loans and the lower prices available for mortgages in

11180-515: The future of home prices". The Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) showed that in summer 2006, the for-sale housing inventory in Phoenix had grown to over 50,000 homes, of which nearly half were vacant (see graphic). Several home builders revised their forecasts sharply downward during the summer of 2006, e.g. , D.R. Horton cut its yearly earnings forecast by one-third in July 2006,

11310-523: The global economic growth rate due to a housing slowdown in the United States, but it did not believe that the U.S. housing malaise would further spread to the rest of the world. The Fed chairman Benjamin Bernanke said in October 2006 that there was currently a "substantial correction" going on in the housing market and that the decline of residential housing construction was one of the "major drags that

11440-454: The growth to the changes instigated by Steven. In the summer of 1965, Jones decided to buy a local television station that was already owned by the Houston Endowment. He resigned from the Houston Endowment board to avoid a conflict of interest, though he remained as publisher of the Chronicle . On September 2, 1965, Jones made a late-night visit to the Steven home, where he broke the news that

11570-538: The historical family residence of the Weingarten's grocery and real estate family and housed the University of Houston president from 1961 until 1977. Riverside Terrace, like The Heights and other inner-loop communities, is experiencing gentrification, with more white people moving into the neighborhood. There are emerging issues of displacing African American residents due to rising property taxes and dismissing

11700-433: The history of U.S. attacks on civilians in other countries. The opinion piece resulted in hundreds of angry letters to the editor and reportedly over 4,000 angry responses to Jensen. United States housing market correction United States housing prices experienced a major market correction after the housing bubble that peaked in early 2006 . Prices of real estate then adjusted downwards in late 2006, causing

11830-821: The homes in Riverside Terrace are as diverse as the characters that shaped its history." As of 2002 many houses have burglar bars. Feser said in 2002 that "[m]any homes have been refurbished but chipping paint blemishes several of the beautiful old brick homes." Lot sizes range up to 2 acres (0.81 ha), while some lots are small. As of 2002 Riverside Terrace houses were priced from $ 30,000 ($ 51,000 in today's money) to $ 1 million ($ 1.7 million in today's money). By 2008 McMansions and townhouses began to replace older housing units. In 2004 some properties in Riverside Terrace sold for below $ 200,000 ($ 320,000 in current money), but real estate listings were scarce. Residents of Riverside Terrace include athletes, politicians, educators, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals. Sheila Jackson Lee ,

11960-466: The housing market" that might in the near future correct. Based on the historic trends in valuations of U.S. housing, many economists and business writers predicted a market correction, ranging from a few percentage points, to 50% or more from peak values in some markets, and, although this cooling did not affect all areas of the United States, some warned that the correction could and would be "nasty" and "severe". Chief economist Mark Zandi of

12090-534: The impacts of rapid economic growth on life in the city. It did not perform investigative journalism. This resulted in a stodgy newspaper that failed to capture the interests of newcomers to the city. By 1959, circulation of the rival Houston Post had pulled ahead of the Chronicle . Jones, a lifelong Democrat who organized the Democratic National Convention to be in Houston in 1928, and who spent long years in public service first under

12220-460: The location of Riverside Terrace, which was considered favorable at the time. Riverside Terrace was designed for wealthier families. In 1927 it was annexed by the City of Houston. Jewish families moved to Riverside Terrace in the 1920s and 1930s since they were not allowed to settle in other wealthy Houston neighborhoods, including River Oaks . Therefore it became known as the "Jewish River Oaks". At

12350-404: The magnet middle school Baylor College of Medicine Academy at Ryan also serves as a boundary option for students zoned to Blackshear, Lockhart, and MacGregor elementary schools. The magnet school Energy Institute High School is in the area. The original section of Riverside Terrace was several blocks away from South End Junior High School, which later became San Jacinto High School and is now

12480-598: The market to recover to refinance to the terms they deserve, and that could be years, or even a decade." It is foreseen, especially in California , that this recovery process could take until 2014 or later. A 2012 report from the University of Michigan analyzed data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), which surveyed roughly 9,000 representative households in 2009 and 2011. The data seemed to indicate that, while conditions were still difficult, in some ways

12610-594: The merger of Houston's National Bank of Commerce, in which Jones had a financial interest, with another Houston bank, the Texas National. In 1964, the Chronicle purchased the assets of its evening newspaper competitor, the Houston Press , becoming the only evening newspaper in the city. By then, the Chronicle had a circulation of 254,000—the largest of any paper in Texas. The Atlantic Monthly credited

12740-426: The monthly mortgage payments. Some homeowners began defaulting on their mortgages in mid-2007, and the cracks in the U.S. housing foundation became apparent. In March 2007, the United States' subprime mortgage industry collapsed due to higher-than-expected home foreclosure rates, with more than 25 subprime lenders declaring bankruptcy, announcing significant losses, or putting themselves up for sale. The stock of

12870-431: The mortgage-backed securities market in the 1970s, warned of the future impact of mortgage defaults: "This is the leading edge of the storm. ... If you think this is bad, imagine what it's going to be like in the middle of the crisis." In his opinion, more than $ 100 billion of home loans are likely to default when the problems in the subprime industry appear in the prime mortgage markets. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan praised

13000-482: The neighborhood. He stayed despite the fact that a bomb detonated on his front porch. Several Riverside Terrace residents opposed the growth of the community's black population, with some not wishing for racial-based violence to occur in the community and with some on the grounds that property values could decline. In 1959, land clearance began for the construction of the new Texas State Highway 288 freeway, destroying several Riverside Terrace houses. Although Caesar's home

13130-457: The newspaper as a down payment, with twenty years to pay the remainder. Jones agreed, and the resulting Chronicle Building was one of the finest in the South." Under Foster, the paper's circulation grew from about 7,000 in 1901 to 75,000 on weekdays and 85,000 on Sundays by 1926. Foster continued to write columns under the pen name Mefo , and drew much attention in the 1920s for his opposition to

13260-729: The next three years ... simple reversion to the mean." In Boston , year-over-year prices dropped, sales fell, inventory increased, foreclosures were up, and the correction in Massachusetts was called a "hard landing" in 2005. The previously booming housing markets in Washington, D.C. , San Diego, California , Phoenix, Arizona , and other cities stalled as well in 2005. Fortune magazine in May 2006 labeled many previously strong housing markets as "Dead Zones"; other areas were classified as "Danger Zones" and "Safe Havens". Fortune in August 2005 also dispelled "four myths about

13390-605: The now-defunct Houston Post , Marcellus E. Foster. Foster, who had been covering the Spindletop oil boom for the Post , invested in Spindletop and took $ 30 of the return on that investment—at the time equivalent to a week's wages—and used it to fund the Chronicle . The Chronicle ' s first edition was published on October 14, 1901, and sold for two cents per copy, at a time when most papers sold for five cents each. At

13520-568: The offices of the Spanish newspaper La Voz de Houston . The Houston Chronicle building in Downtown Houston was the headquarters of the Houston Chronicle . The facility included a loading dock, office space, a press room, and production areas. It had ten stories above ground and three stories below ground. The printing presses used by the newspaper spanned three stories. The presses were two stories below ground and one above. In

13650-488: The paper to the Hearst Corporation. On May 1, 1987, the Hearst Corporation purchased the Houston Chronicle from Houston Endowment for $ 415 million. Richard J. V. Johnson, who had joined the paper as a copy editor in 1956, and worked up to executive vice president in 1972, and president in 1973, remained as chairman and publisher until he retired on April 1, 2002. He was succeeded by Jack Sweeney. In 1994,

13780-516: The paper to the newly established Houston Endowment Inc. Jones retained the title of publisher until his death in 1956. According to the Handbook of Texas online, the Chronicle generally represented very conservative political views during the 1950s: ... the Chronicle generally represented the very conservative political interests of the Houston business establishment. As such, it eschewed controversial political topics, such as integration or

13910-450: The paper. A copy of the original story that led to the investigation has been removed from the Chronicle ' s website. But Austin-based NPR affiliate KUT interviewed Ward for the radio in the days after the story ran and still has the story posted on its website, despite the fact that the sources used in Ward's reporting are suspected of being fake. On July 21, 2014, the Chronicle announced that its Downtown employees were moving to

14040-468: The peak of $ 230,200 in July 2006. The plunge in existing-home sales was the steepest since 1989. The new home market also suffered. The biggest year over year drop in median home prices since 1970 occurred in April 2007. Median prices for new homes fell 10.9 percent according to the U.S. Department of Commerce . Others speculated on the negative impact of the retirement of the Baby Boom generation and

14170-555: The period of low interest rates in order to purchase the home of their dreams. Initially, they were able to meet their mortgage obligations thanks to the low "teaser" rates being charged in the early years of the mortgage. As the Federal Reserve Bank applied its monetary contraction policy in 2005, many homeowners were stunned when their adjustable-rate mortgages began to reset to much higher rates in mid-2007 and their monthly payments jumped far above their ability to meet

14300-481: The president of the Southwood Civic Club. The current Lockhart building was dedicated on August 22, 2013. Residents were previously zoned to Ryan Middle School (at the current BCM Ryan location); it closed in 2013 with students reassigned to Cullen Middle. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Houston operates area Roman Catholic private schools. There is one Catholic school in the area, St. Mary of

14430-628: The price of assets. Houses anyone? ... AAAs? [T]he point is that there are hundreds of billions of dollars of this toxic waste and whether or not they're in CDOs or Bear Stearns hedge funds matters only to the extent of the timing of the unwind. [T]he subprime crisis is not an isolated event and it won't be contained by a few days of headlines in The New York Times ... The flaw lies in the homes that were financed with cheap and in some cases gratuitous money in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Because while

14560-520: The relative cost to rent on the declining housing market. In many parts of the United States, it was significantly cheaper to rent the same property than to purchase it; the national median mortgage payment is $ 1,687 per month, nearly twice the median rent payment of $ 868 per month. In 2005, economist Robert Shiller gave talks warning about a housing bubble to the Office of the Comptroller of

14690-463: The research firm Moody's Economy.com predicted a crash of double-digit depreciation in some U.S. cities by 2007–2009. Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research was the first economist to identify the housing bubble, in a report in the summer of 2002. Investor Peter Schiff acquired fame in a series of TV appearances where he opposed a multitude of financial experts and claimed that

14820-417: The residents had lived in Riverside Terrace in 1955, and of the population that did not, 78% previously lived in central Houston. 95% of the residents of the section north of the Brays Bayou were African-American during that year. Riverside Terrace had 12,519 residents and was 5% white in 1970. In the 1991 Houston mayoral race (see Mayor of Houston ), most Riverside Terrace voters voted for Sylvester Turner ;

14950-536: The rest of the economy, causing a recession in 2007. Joseph Stiglitz , winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics , also said that the U.S. might enter a recession as house prices declined. The White House Council of Economic Advisers lowered its forecast for U.S. economic growth in 2008 from 3.1 per cent to 2.7 per cent and forecast higher unemployment, reflecting the turmoil in the credit and residential real-estate markets. The Bush administration economic advisers also revised their unemployment outlook and predicted

15080-413: The rich culture of the community. In 2017, The Houston Forward Times penned the article, "The Disrespect of Gentrification" Riverside Terrace had 7,635 residents in 1950. It was initially a majority white community, as 97% of its residents in 1950 were white; the remaining black population was mostly domestic servants living with their employers. It had 10,027 residents and was 25% white in 1960; 11% of

15210-537: The rise of the subprime mortgage industry and the tools used to assess credit-worthiness in an April 2005 speech: Innovation has brought about a multitude of new products, such as subprime loans and niche credit programs for immigrants. Such developments are representative of the market responses that have driven the financial services industry throughout the history of our country ... With these advances in technology, lenders have taken advantage of credit-scoring models and other techniques for efficiently extending credit to

15340-440: The secondary market for mortgages. The units net asset value fell 21% to $ 1.1 billion (~$ 1.56 billion in 2023) as of April 30, 2007. The head of the mortgage industry consulting firm Wakefield Co. warned, "This is going to be a meltdown of unparalleled proportions. Billions will be lost." Bear Stearns pledged up to US$ 3.2 billion (~$ 4.53 billion in 2023) in loans on 22 June 2007 to bail out one of its hedge funds that

15470-657: The subprime mortgages began to appear with Alt-A loans made to homeowners who were thought to be less risky. American Home Mortgage said that it would earn less and pay out a smaller dividend to its shareholders because it was being asked to buy back and write down the value of Alt-A loans made to borrowers with decent credit; causing company stocks to tumble 15.2 percent. The delinquency rate for Alt-A mortgages has been rising in 2007. In June 2007, Standard & Poor's warned that U.S. homeowners with good credit are increasingly falling behind on mortgage payments, an indication that lenders have been offering higher risk loans outside

15600-539: The time Barnes informed the public about what would turn into the biggest journalism scandal of 2018, it had already become one of the worst kept secrets in Austin among the capitol press corps that writes about Texas politicians. The scandal had also become popular fodder among staffers who work at the capital. Within 45 minutes of being contacted by a freelance reporter for the Texas Observer , Barnes hastily issued

15730-446: The time most residents of Riverside Terrace were Christian. Allison Wollam of the Houston Business Journal stated that Riverside Terrace "was once on the same affluent level as the swanky River Oaks area." During that period the neighborhood hosted the houses of the prominent Weingarten , Finger, and McGregor families. By the 1950s initial development finished. In 1952, a wealthy African-American cattleman named Jack Caesar moved to

15860-475: The unemployment rate could rise slightly above 5 per cent, up from the prevailing unemployment rate of 4.6 per cent. The appreciation of home values far exceeded the income growth of many of these homebuyers, pushing them to leverage themselves beyond their means. They borrowed even more money in order to purchase homes whose cost was much greater than their ability to meet their mortgage obligations. Many of these homebuyers took out adjustable-rate mortgages during

15990-538: The value of luxury home builder Toll Brothers ' stock fell 50% between August 2005 and August 2006, and the Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction Index was down over 40% as of mid-August 2006. CEO Robert Toll of Toll Brothers explained, "builders that built speculative homes are trying to move them by offering large incentives and discounts; and some buyers are canceling contracts for homes already being built". Homebuilder Kara Homes announced on 13 September 2006

16120-536: The very conservative views of the Houston Endowment board, especially when he editorially supported the election of Lyndon B. Johnson , the Democratic candidate for president. However, more than political philosophy was involved: Robert A. Caro revealed in his biography of Johnson that written assurance of this support from John T. Jones had been the price demanded by Johnson in January 1964 in return for approval of

16250-584: The voter turnout for Riverside Terrace was almost 50 percent. Houston City Council District D covers Riverside Terrace. As of 2020, Carolyn Evans-Shabazz represents the district. Harris Health System (formerly Harris County Hospital District) operates the Quentin Mease Health Facility (formerly Quentin Mease Community Hospital) within Riverside Terrace. It was previously a long-term care hospital but as of 2021

16380-499: The wake of the mortgage industry meltdown, Senator Chris Dodd , Chairman of the Banking Committee held hearings in March 2007 and asked executives from the top five subprime mortgage companies to testify and explain their lending practices. Dodd said, "Predatory lending practices endangered the home ownership for millions of people". Moreover, Democratic senators such as Senator Charles Schumer of New York were proposing

16510-449: Was born and raised in Riverside Terrace, wrote, "Even the more affluent Riverside Terrace area, which was once considered the 'Jewish River Oaks' and loosely part of Third Ward, has never been given its respect. When Black professionals began moving into the area in the 1950s and '60s, white folks got scared and moved out. A few history reports say it became 'Black River Oaks,' and it did." Riverside continued to be shaped by forces including

16640-480: Was collapsing because of bad bets on subprime mortgages. Peter Schiff , president of Euro Pacific Capital, argued that if the bonds in the Bear Stearns funds were auctioned on the open market, much weaker values would be plainly revealed. Schiff added, "This would force other hedge funds to similarly mark down the value of their holdings. Is it any wonder that Wall street is pulling out the stops to avoid such

16770-449: Was in the path of the freeway, it was moved to another location south of Houston. Many White families left Riverside Terrace and settled in suburbs . The percentage of the population being white declined from 97% in 1950 to 5% in 1970. The population during that period increased due to the subdivision of former mansions and houses into smaller housing units and the establishment of apartments, going from 7,635 in 1950 to 12,519 in 1970. In

16900-441: Was retracting a total of eight stories. Barnes later went on to tell Columbia Journalism Review that the widespread fabrication apparent in Ward's articles was unprecedented, in her experience: "I've been an editor a long time and I have never seen anything like this, period.". None of the Chronicle ' s editors responsible for overseeing Ward's stories—including then-managing editor Vernon Loeb—assumed any responsibility for

#236763