Denson

Every spring the non-profit organization Children at Risk releases their Texas School Guide for HISD and surrounding school districts – giving each school a letter grade – and each year I’m ambivalent about covering it. That’s because over the past seven years freelancing at The Leader I’ve visited with a lot of dynamic principals and been inside a lot of schools with tireless teachers and enthusiastic students. Some of these schools have worked hard to prove their worth to the surrounding communities. Increasing numbers of them have active groups of parent volunteers who chose to send their kids to their neighborhood school and are spending hundreds of unpaid hours to build something special, not just for their child but for all of them. Then the rankings come out and these same … [Read more...] about School rankings rankle parents

I’ve thought a lot about kids in restaurants, most of all my own. We have to eat, right? And until that blissful time that we can leave them alone at home, or unless we spring for a babysitter, the kids are coming with us. I want us all to enjoy our meal, and by all of us, I mean the other diners too. It’s the death stare of another patron that I’m looking to avoid at all costs. To do that, I have some loose ‘rules’ that I hope will achieve that. I also think a restaurant with a patio allows my kids a little freer range. My husband disagrees. So did another diner last year at a local joint with a patio. Death stare not averted. The kids’ perimeter of movement went down to zero. Recently, I thought about this again when a post on a neighborhood Facebook page gave not only a restaurant … [Read more...] about Kids and restaurants, do they go together?

I don’t write many editorials for The Leader. Only when the spirit – or the publisher – calls. The first one I did in 2012 was about a subject I felt very passionate about. Called ‘Imagining commercial potential in her little corner of the world’, the article still lives online. Interestingly, it’s the first thing that comes up under a Google search for my name. As a near neighbor to the corner of 43rd and Rosslyn since 2004, I was continually bummed to see that nothing ever really took off at that corner. As I mentioned in my first piece, I was optimistic when a Super Cuts moved in at 4301 Rosslyn Road. Any tenant was going to get my business. Then after about a week, there was a fire. Then nothing for 13 years. I wasn’t exactly young when I started writing for The Leader but I was … [Read more...] about What will it take to move the needle at 43rd and Rosslyn?

There are two times each year that I am convinced that I will actually become a different, better, person. The first is the start of the school year. In getting ready to send my own kids off for another year, I remember the joy of a brand new Trapper Keeper (remember those?), the smell of new, unblemished, notebooks, and I think about all the things I never did that I’m finally now going to do. The other is New Years. After a fun, frenzied Christmas, filled with more than my fair share of good food and lots of events, some part of me is ready to de-stress my life and get on the exercise bandwagon again. But this year, even after seeing some pictures of myself that would in past years send me straight to a spinning class, I curled up on the sofa and started The Crown on Netflix instead. … [Read more...] about To resolve or not to resolve, that is the question

Over the years I’ve logged in quite a bit of time at the Juanitas on West T C Jester. I enjoy the cheerful interior, the convenience and the quick service, and oh yes, the margaritas. I’ve also encountered my go-to Mexican restaurant from a different vantage point – the White Oak Hike and Bike trail. From that view, I see a dumpster and employee cars, as well as the giant red letters reminding people not to forget about the Supreme Sandwiches in the same complex. My husband and I have wondered more than once if Juanitas has ever considered putting a patio on the bayou side of the restaurant. And the answer according to the staff members I talked to – nope. Likewise the manager at Supreme Sandwiches. He says they’ve never thought about it because people have never asked about … [Read more...] about Come so they will build it