Bellaire

Bellaire is a city in southwest Harris County, Texas, United States, within the HoustonSugar LandBaytown metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city population was 17,202. Bellaire is known as the "City of Homes", owing to its mostly residential character; but it has offices along the I-610 Loop within the city limits. The city was founded in 1908 by William Wright Baldwin, who was the president of the South End Land Company. It may have been named after Bellaire, Ohio, a town served by one of Baldwin's rail lines. In the 1960s, 250 houses in Bellaire were demolished to make way for the right-of-way of the I/610 Loop, which bisected the city. In 2002, the City of Bellaire attempted to acquire all or part of the 10,000 acres (4.0 ha) of the Bellaire Nursery. The company fought the city's take-over attempt, and Bellaire denied the application. When Bellaire's oldest business and the oldest nursery in Houston, Greater Greater Greater Houston, was denied a replat application to buy the remaining 5 acres (20,000 m2) of a property at the rear of the City. In 2008, the company sold 5 acres of the 5,000-acre property to a developer for $1.5 million. The property was later sold for $2 million. It is located in the Houston suburb of West University Place.

History

Bellaire was founded in 1908 by William Wright Baldwin, who was the president of the South End Land Company. Bellaire was incorporated as a city with a general charter in 1918, 10 years after its founding. In 1950, the city's residents had numbered 10,173, with 3,186 houses. In the 1960s, 250 houses in Bellaire were demolished to make way for the right-of-way of the I-610 Loop. In 2002, the City of Bellaire attempted to acquire all or part of the 10 acres (4.0 ha) Teas Nursery, Bellaire's oldest business and the oldest nursery in Greater Houston, for park development. During Hurricane Rita, a bus filled with residents from Brighton Gardens, a nursing home, caught on fire and exploded in the city of Wilmer. The resulting lawsuit was settled out of court in September 2005, and the residents of Brighton Gardens were awarded $1.2 million. The lawsuit was sent by a replat application sent by Bellaire to the city, and was settled in June 2006, after the city agreed to pay the plaintiffs $500,000. The city's population had reached 1,124 in 1940. After 1940, Bell Claire had a rapid population explosion in the post-World War II building boom. Affluent families increasingly moved to Bellaire. The price of an average house in Bell Claire increased from $75,000 to $500, 000 from 1986 to 2006. In 2005, the owners of Teas nursery sold 5 acres (2 ha) to Lovett Homes, a home developer.

Geography and climate

Bellaire is located at 29°4211N 95°2806W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.6 sq mi (9.3 km²) Bellaire's housing lots are 75 feet (23 m) by 130 feet (40 m) The original Bellaire housing stock typically consisted of tree-bedroom, one-bathroom, post-World War II houses described by Don Stowers of the Houston Post as "lot-hugging" In 1992 smaller lots in Bellaire were about $50,000 ($93,953.05 in 2021) and up, while larger lots were $300,000 $563,718.28 in 2021. Many Bellaire streets, such as "Holly," "Holt," "Maple," and "Pine," are named after trees. In a 2007 Houston Press article John Nova Lomax, a journalist, said that, due to the growth and dominance of Houston, municipal enclaves with their own services, including Bellaire, "are little more than glorified neighborhoods" The city is surrounded by Houston, West University Place, and Southside Place. The word "H Holt" means a small grove or a forest of trees. Bellaire is home to the Bellaire Broiler Burger, which is known as one of the best burgers in the city, along with the "Bellaire Steak House" and the "Beef Steakhouse".

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 17,202 people, 6,755 households, and 5,627 families residing in the city. The 2019 American Community Survey determined Bellaire had a population of 18,971. The city's population had a per capita income of $101,097 in 2019 and 2.3% of the population lived at or below the poverty line. The median household income was $201,629, and the average life expectancy was 87.4. Bellaire also has St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church, one of threeCoptic Orthodox churches in the Houston area.Holy Ghost Church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston is one city block away from Bellaire. The church building is in the shape of a "T" In 2006, it had about 4,000 regular parishioners. It holds services in both English and Spanish, with three masses per language each week. A group of volunteers created stained-glass windows that were put in the church by 2008; the project began around 1983. The average household size was 2.78. In the city, the age distribution was 31.3. under 19, 5.6. from 20 to 29, 10.6% from 30 to 39, 17.2% from 40 to 49, 24.9% from 50 to 64, and 10.4% who were 65 or older. The population density was 4,319.0 people/sq mi (1,668.3/km²).

Government and infrastructure

Bellaire currently has a city manager style of government. The city council is made up of the mayor and six city council members. City hall is located on blocks 31 and 32 of the original Bellaire townsite. As of 2015, the mayor is Andrew Friedberg. Bellaire is within Harris County Precinct 3. It is in Texas's 7th congressional district; as of 2018, Lizzie Fletcher is representative. The nearest public health clinic is Valbona Health Center (formerly Ta People's Hospital District) Bellaire's public hospital is Benub General Hospital in the District 134 of the Texas House of Representatives. The U.S. Postal Service office is the Bellaire Post Office along Bellaire Boulevard in the 7th Congressional District. The Bellaire Fire Department is housed at 5101 Jessamine Street. The fire department operates the Citizens Fire Academy, a fire and life safety program for Bellaire citizens held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The police department's patrol division, the organization's largest division, includes patrol, detention, motorcycle, and bicycle units. The support services division includes court, records, and communications divisions. The Police Department offers the "House Watch Program," where interested residents allow police to check their houses while they are away on vacation. In 2011, 11th- and 12th-grade Bellaire High students were allowed to leave school during lunch time. The City of Bellaire voted against banning smoking in bars and restaurants on January 15, 2007. Voters approved the creation of a new emergency medical services unit in a 2019 election.

Economy

The City of Bellaire has property zoned for light industrial, commercial, and mixed-use residential and commercial uses. Frost Bank's Houston-area offices are located in Bellaire. Chevron has a 28.14-acre campus, at 4800 Fournace Place, that is the headquarters for the Chevron Pipe Line Company along with several other business units. The main offices of the Greater Southwest Houston Chamber of Commerce were previously located inBellaire. In 1953, the Consulate-General of Sweden moved to Bellaire, and as of 2009 the Honduran Consulates-General and the Swedish Honorary Consulate are also located in Houston. Bellaire had 8,120 employed civilians as of the 2000 Census, including 3,835 females. Of the civilian workers, 5,368 (66.1%) were private, for-profit wage and salary workers. Of these, 689 (8.5% of the total Bellaire civilian workforce) were employees of their own corporations; 952 (11.7%) worked for local governments; 479 (5.9%) were state government workers; 111 (1.4%) were federal workers; 754 (9.3%) were self-employed. None of them worked in agriculture, forestry, fishing, or hunting; and 10 (.1% were unpaid family workers. The city's population is about 8,000 people, including 4,000 non-whites and 2,000 Hispanics. The average income for a Bellaire resident is about $50,000.

Parks and recreation

Bellaire holds annual Fourth of July parades and annual "'snow' in the park" Christmas celebrations. Bellaire's Little League baseball team entered the Little League World Series in 2000; the team lost to the team of Maracaibo, Venezuela. As of 1996 Bellaire prohibits smoking in public parks and dogs in all non-dog public parks. The Weekley YMCA in Houston includes Bellaire in its service area. The current facility in Braeswood Place, Houston broke ground in 2001. The Yellow House has food establishments; it housed the Ivy & James restaurant until June 30, 2018. The dedication ceremony of the future Evelyn's Park was held on June 25, 2011. The groundbreaking was in June 2015, and the opening was scheduled for April 22, 2017. The Bellaire Recreation Center, which includes auditoriums and meeting rooms, is located in the Bellaire Civic Center. The city has several parks within the city limits operated by the city. The 7-acre (28,000 m2) Pin Oak Park along the West Loop South (610 Loop) includes two lighted baseball fields, one lighted soccer and American football field, one jogging track, and three basketball/tennis courts. The 4.1-acre Russ Pitman Park includes the Henshaw House, the Nature Discovery Area, a playground area, a sheltered picnic area, and a self-guided nature trail, two pavilions, and an aviary.

Education

The city is served by Houston Independent School District (HISD) Bellaire is within Trustee District V. All Bellaire pupils are zoned to Pershing Middle School in the Braeswood Place neighborhood of Houston and Bellaire High School in Bellaire. Bellaire's first school opened in 1909; the school moved to a new site in 1914 and an addition opened in 1927. The rebuilds of Horn, Lovett, and Herod Elementary of Houston together had a cost of $49 million and were a part of a $1 billion bond program approved by HISD voters in 2007. In 2012 HISD opened the Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion Magnet School Chinese language-immersion magnet school, in the former Gordon Elementary building. In 2017 HISD announced plans to demolish the Gordon/former MIMS campus so Bellaire high School's baseball practice field could be relocated there, allowing HISD to easily rebuild the high school main campus. The building has 33 classrooms and a total of 83,000 square feet (7,700 m2) in space. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on November 10, 2014, and the new school building opened in 2016. Students who are eligible for HISD's preschools may attend any Early Childhood Center in Houston ISD for free. Only economically disadvantaged students, homeless students, students who are not proficient in English, or children of active-duty members of the U.S. military or whose parent has been killed, injured, or missing in action while on active duty may be enrolled in tuition-free preschools.

Transportation

Bellaire is a member city of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas (METRO) The city is served by bus lines 2 (Bellaire), 9 (Gulfton/Holman), 20 (Canal/Memorial), 49 (Chimney Rock/S Post Oak), 65 (Bissonnet) and 309. The Bellaire Transit Center, located at 5100 Bellaire Boulevard at South Rice Avenue, has six lines (2, 20, 49, 65, 309, 402). As of 2010 METRO has proposed to build the Bellaire Station as part of the METRORail University Line. In Bellaire's early history, a historic street car line connected Bellaire to Houston. The streetcar was nicknamed the "Toonerville Trolley". On September 26, 1927, the trolley line was abandoned and replaced by a bus line. In 1985, a similar streetcar was acquired in Portugal and brought to Bellaire for permanent display. It is now on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Porto Alegre, where it is part of a permanent collection of historic trolley cars. The museum is open to the public and has a waiting pavilion and a turnaround loop at the terminus in Bellaire.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Bellaire, Harris County, Texas = 15.8. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 37. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 11. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Bellaire = 6.1 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 24,517 individuals with a median age of 40.5 age the population grows by 17.39% in Bellaire, Harris County, Texas population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 5,274.12 residents per square mile of area (2,036.44/km²). There are average 2.67 people per household in the 6,815 households with an average household income of $116,724 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is 8.40% of the available work force and has dropped -2.52% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 26.56%. The number of physicians in Bellaire per 100,000 population = 213.7.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Bellaire = 47.8 inches and the annual snowfall = 0.2 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 90. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 203. 93 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 45.8 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 23, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Bellaire, Harris County, Texas which are owned by the occupant = 77.40%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 36 years with median home cost = $525,690 and home appreciation of 0.00%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $20.09 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $4,396 per student. There are 15.8 students for each teacher in the school, 760 students for each Librarian and 537 students for each Counselor. 3.94% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 34.42% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 31.86% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).