City Life >>

• Best Bar Manager
  Betty Campbell, Little Woodrow's
  Tucked in the armpit of West U, Bellaire and the railroad tracks, Little Woodrow's seems out of place and time. Few of the mostly working-class regulars who frequent the area's only neighborhood bar live in the monstrosities that have sprouted in the adjoining neighborhoods, displacing the... More >>
• Best 15 Minutes of Fame
  A.J. McClure, Kaufman County
  On June 16, the New Black Panthers had every right to be pissed. They'd dressed all in eye-catching black. They arrived at the state GOP convention in Houston in a rare Hummer limousine. And most of them came to the protest party armed with all manner of menacing weapons: rifles, shotguns and an... More >>
• Best Car-Commercial Jingle
  Mossy Nissan
  Just another example of how overrated pop music songcraft is. Since a catchy five- or ten-second hook is usually described as genius, the little bit of pop profundity known as the Mossy Nissan commercial jingle also deserves as glowing a description. Over a snappy beat, a male voice sings the... More >>
• Best Bar Bathroom
  Prague
  Europeans may build great cathedrals, but Americans have a genius for bathrooms. At Prague, the WC marries old-world elegance with Yankee utilitarianism. When nature's irrepressible call rises above the club's techno beat, you can drift down to this swank unisex chamber of flickering candles,... More >>
• Best Motorcycle Parking Lot
  Wortham Theater Center
  Maybe these are just the moments that downtown finally arrives. Party on the Plaza is in full swing. So is its dynamic corner of the central city, with Bayou Place beckoning the masses across the street. And there, on the magnificent grounds that serve as the front entrance to the Wortham... More >>
• Best Use of Taxpayer Dollars
  Truck Enforcement Unit, Houston Police Department
  The stuff of public art, hike-and-bike paths, youth programs and parks are pleasant municipal amenities, to be certain. Even residents who don't personally partake of such things can still feel good about having them as part of life in Houston. But all those come after what ought to be the... More >>
• Best Place for a First Date
  Mi Luna
  Dating is like ordering tapas: You try a whole bunch of different things and you hope you get something you like that agrees with you and doesn't make you sick. Mi Luna is a fun "first date" -- it's like a fancy mall food court, because you each can get whatever you want, from baby clams and... More >>
• Best Random Act of Kindness
  J. Mark Davis
  There's no telling where Cynthia Flood and her two children would be living today if they hadn't crossed paths with Mark Davis. Last October, Davis read a story in the Houston Press that recounted how Flood's $250-a-month apartment in the Fourth Ward was in the path of a city-sponsored... More >>
• Best Public Make-out Place
  The underground parking lot at Compaq Center
  Journey back to your junior year of high school. You just saw a movie while seated next to the crush of your dreams, with your feet propped up on the back of the seat in front of you. Your hands touched in the giant tub o' popcorn. Happiness shot straight through you. You drove separately.... More >>
• Best Reason Not to Take Public Transportation
  Smog ranking
  Finally, now that Houston ranks No. 1 in something, why should we give that up? You thnk it's easy being top dog when it comes to ozone violations? This year shows all signs of a tough competition with Los Angeles, the traditional winner of the smog crown. Consider this: Houston's weather (hot... More >>
• Best Democrat
  Billie McClain Carr, the long-serving Democratic National Committeewoman from Houston
  Seventy-two-year-old Billie Carr has finally retired from her DNC position, and she'll leave plenty of devoted fans behind, including her old friend President Bill Clinton. Having fought her way to the top through the ranks of conservative Democrats who once dominated the party, Carr, by... More >>
• Best Local Girl Made Good
  Courtney Lanier
  The settlement of the mega-nasty divorce suit between Christopher and Valerie Sarofim in June suited more than just the parties themselves. Former mayor Bob Lanier's adopted daughter Courtney, who had paired off with Chris when he moved out on Val, would likely have gotten a ski ride through the... More >>
• Best Billboard
  Tony's signage on the Southwest Freeway at Kirby
  To grab your attention, billboards should be as explosive as a child's temper tantrum, and just as unsubtle. Vasectomy reversal! Who's the father?! When half's not enough! The best billboards are amusing as much for what they don't say as for what they do. "The church found out about our family... More >>
• Best Patio
  The Terrace on Main, Warwick Hotel
  Houston boosters are fond of reminding the uninitiated that Bob Hope once said the view from the Warwick penthouse was the most beautiful he had ever seen. If only the Main Street Coalition had as juicy a celebrity quote about the hotel at street level. Light rail or no light rail, the coalition... More >>
• Best Community Newspaper
  El Día
  If Houston's Spanish-speaking community has a paper of record, El Día is it. More than simply recap police blotter sagas, this daily diligently covers news affecting the city's diverse Hispanic community that otherwise wouldn't get covered. El Día has kept a watchful eye on police... More >>
• Best Restoration Project
  Rothko Chapel
  After a year and a half with its doors shut for a $1.8 million face-lift, the Rothko Chapel reopened in June, radiating renewed richness in its muted simplicity. The renovation work reached from the ground up, bringing the shrine closer to what Rothko had intended, says Suna Umari, the chapel's... More >>
• Best Place to Beat Road Rage
  Cullen Center park
  Afternoon rush hour. Traffic oozes south from the Cullen Center garage and north from Brazos Street, battling for the turn that will take commuters onto the Interstate 45 ramp at Pease. Others are roaring off the exit ramp onto Jefferson. The light turns red and stays that way just long enough... More >>
• Best Rest Stop
  Interstate 10, one mile west of FM 1489 in Brookshire
  The Texas Department of Transportation has the cookie-cutter approach to rest stops. Most of them are no more than off- and on-ramps from freeways, where the harried masses of motorists huddle at basic tables as traffic roars by a few yards away. The no-frills approach suits drivers just fine.... More >>
• Best Birthday Present
  Gulf Coast's salute to the University of Houston Creative Writing Program
  UH's Creative Writing Program turned 20 this year, and in its honor, the literary magazine Gulf Coast devoted its summer 2000 issue to essays, stories and poems by the program's alumni and professors. The fat issue (303 pages, about twice the magazine's usual size) bulges with surprises:... More >>
• Best Do-It-Yourself Nature Park
  The woods on 11th Street in Timbergrove Manor
  Just west of the Heights, in the largely undiscovered subdivision of Timbergrove Manor, sit 21 acres of pine-tree-filled land, one of the largest such plots left inside the Loop. The land is owned by the Houston Independent School District, and residents grew alarmed last year when HISD... More >>
• Best Gay Role Model
  Gene Mikulenka
  When he was growing up in the town of Hallettsville, Gene Mikulenka thought the word "gay" meant that you smoked pot, that you were cool. One day a couple of guys came into the restaurant where he worked and asked Gene if he was gay. "I did it a couple of weeks ago," he responded, "but I'm not... More >>
• Best Downtown Bar That's Still There
  Brewery Tap
  Don't get us wrong. We love the "revitalization" of downtown. We love the crowds, the foot traffic, the energy and the fact that in some bars you have to wear the right fucking clothes to get a drink. This is not our idea of alcohol consumption. Our ideal bar combines good spirits with an even... More >>
• Best Bridge
  Dunlavy Street bridge over U.S. 59
  Yeah, yeah. We know. The bridges being built over U.S. 59 have caused ridiculously frequent freeway closures. And on the occasion when 59 is open, drivers have to risk life and limb just negotiating the lane merges around heavy machinery. But as our own Mayor Lee Brown so prosaically put it,... More >>
• Best Judges
  14th Court of Appeals Chief Justice Paul Murphy and Justice John Anderson
  Justices Paul Murphy and John Anderson brought the wrath of GOP social conservatives down on their heads by ruling that the state's antediluvian homosexual conduct law discriminates against gays by banning sexual behavior that is legal for straights. Murphy and Anderson made up the majority on a... More >>
• Best New Downtown Club
  Mercury Room
  Dorothy Parker would drink here. The old Isis Theater has been restored to its swinging, speakeasy style. There's a 25-foot-long cherry-wood bar with a rolling library ladder to get to the good stuff. You can buy a $4 bottle of Bud Light and order caviar at the bar. Down the slippery slate... More >>
• Best Bureaucrat
  City Parks Director Oliver Spellman
  City Parks Director Oliver Spellman is without question Mayor Lee Brown's most popular appointee as a city department head. Spellman, formerly the Cleveland, Ohio, parks chief, faced a daunting task when he arrived in Houston in the spring of 1998. The department had been left in shambles by... More >>
• Best Country Club
  Harrisburg Country Club
  Trick answer: As you may have guessed by the street name, the Harrisburg Country Club is not a country club at all, but an exceptionally cheeky icehouse, and a fine example of the genre at that. "Just good folks" and "Just good food," promise the signs flanking the door, and while we can't... More >>
• Best Local Terrorist
  Lloyd Kelley
  Lloyd Kelley never worked for the U.S. Postal Service, but the former cop, city councilmember and controller has been living up to the standard set in the 1990s by the both-barrels-blazing mail clerks. Once a rising star in Republican political circles, the photogenic Kelley was on a fast track... More >>
• Best Road to Drive When You Happen to Have Your Martini Shaker Handy and Are Thirsty
  Westheimer
  So The Incredible Hulk gets ahold of our roads, and all the City of Houston can do is set up orange cones and sawhorses around the damage. Oy vey. Driving down Westheimer, specifically through the Montrose area, has become as jarring as navigating the lunar surface on a Huffy. The road has... More >>
• Best Bar Decor
  Dean's Credit Clothing
  Sure, we were sad to see the well-preserved grit and grime of the old Dean's go. But let's face it: The couches smelled like pee, and the dark, cluttered room was a minefield of opportunities to fall on your ass. Besides, the new yuppified version of Dean's makes a few nods in the direction of... More >>
• Best Mystery
  Why Lee Brown hired Jerry King as public works director
  Freshly elected in 1998, Mayor Lee Brown had a chance to add substance to his well-padded résumé by doing what predecessor Bob Lanier had only pretended to do: shore up the city's sagging infrastructure with an aggressive public works program. Lanier's program had been aggressive,... More >>
• Best Nonprofit
  Avenue Community Development Corporation
  While most people are loath to acknowledge it, Houston's housing boom has a downside, too: higher rents and less affordable single-family housing. Avenue CDC was formed in 1991 by a handful of residents of the Sixth Ward, back when demands for inner-city housing forced out lower-income renters... More >>
• Best Place for a Last Date
  Valentino's
  The grand doorway opens at this obscure Midtown corner on Fannin. A heavy sense of foreboding can be felt with the first step into the enormous premises. The clock freezes at the just-off-peak dining hour. Over in the hazy corner, by that faded mural of the canals of Venice, a jazz vocalist... More >>
• Best Event That No One Thought Would Ever Happen
  Opening of the Historic Oaks of Allen Parkway
  For almost 20 years Allen Parkway Village, the sprawling 963-unit public-housing project just east of downtown, was at the heart of a class war that pitted a small band of tenants and affordable-housing advocates against the Housing Authority of the City of Houston, or HACH, which wanted to... More >>
• Best Speed Trap
  Memorial Drive/Woodway, from Loop 610 through Memorial Park to Crestwood
  Ask most cops about the favorite HPD speed traps, and they'll chuckle. After all, speeders are everywhere in Houston. Traffic enforcement is like radar-shooting SUVs in a barrel. Perhaps a few miles over the limit can be tolerated in most areas, simply because there's not much reason to slow... More >>
• Best Car for Houston Roads
  High-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle (Humvee/Hummer)
  Elegance and efficiency. Durability with at least a dab of uniqueness. Houstonians aren't that different from drivers elsewhere. We want the best of all worlds: tungsten toughness combined with soft leather. Consumers pick the SUVs, the E-cars -- Ford Expeditions and Explorers, Caddy Escalades... More >>
• Best Local Boy Gone Bad
  District G City Councilman Bert Keller
  If anyone wants to dent a squeaky-clean political image in the course of one evening, look no further than the unfortunate 39-year-old Bert Keller for pointers. First the councilman, who was already estranged from wife Susan, took off after an Astros game for the inner sanctum of Centerfolds... More >>
• Best Use for the Astrodome
  Mock naval battles
  The poor Dome. The former Eighth Wonder of the World has to sit there helplessly and watch as, right across the parking lot, construction crews build the new NFL stadium that has a contract out to kill it. The humiliation is compounded by the endless speculation and discussions about what to do... More >>
• Best Dot-com Ad Campaign
  www.GroceryWorks.com
  Some folks think they're creepy, but we like the various foods that have taken on the personae of animals in the company's billboard campaign around the city. They have a banana that looks like an octopus, cherries made to resemble an ant, a watermelon as a turtle, and several other charming... More >>
• Best Zoo Animal
  Orangutan, Houston Zoo, Hermann Park, (713)523-5888
  Most of the animals at the zoo don't seem to care too much about visitors. They eat or pee or groom themselves or loll about, oblivious to the prying eyes and children's cries. But the orangutan knows what's going on. When a crowd gathers on the other side of her glass wall, she'll wander over... More >>
• Best Archival Project No One Has Heard About
  Crazy Cajun Records catalog
  Producer Huey Meaux was a perfect fit for Houston. Something of a wildcatter of Texas music, Meaux never showed any interest in history. His focus was always on the new thing: the next single, the latest thrill, the youngest girl. The past was only a tool to acquire something in the present, or... More >>
• Best Hidden Neighborhood
  Forest Hill
  It's not hidden if you live there, of course, but for plenty of us who've arrived at thinking-about-home-buying age in the last few years, it's all about -- in words lifted from the housewarming invitation of one recent arrival -- "East side, baby!" East side means different things to different... More >>
• Best Explanation of a Traffic Accident
  "...and then we were flying"
  On a Thursday morning last December, two automobiles collided at the T intersection of Hillcroft and Skyline. One car, traveling south on Hillcroft, was attempting a left turn onto Skyline when it slammed into a northbound vehicle. It's impossible to tell, by virtue of the police report, which... More >>
• Best Name for a Dry Cleaners
  $1.39? Dry Clean
  For a year, Vijay Grrala called his dry cleaners, located in a strip mall at Westheimer and Kirkwood, The Kirkwood Dry Clean. Situated down the mall sidewalk from an H-E-B and Half Price Books, it seemed a boring little name for a boring little dry cleaners, with cheap, plastic-framed... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Sculpture Garden
  Blossom Street Gallery & Sculpture Garden
  Three years ago, the square block of land surrounded by Shepherd, Durham, Blossom and Floyd was a debris-filled mess that did little more than depress the few drivers who bothered to notice it. Richard Roederer, owner of the Blossom Street Gallery, cleaned the place up and used it to display... More >>
• Best Time and Place to See Low-Riders (1 Comment)
  Richmond Strip, late Saturday night
  Yes, there are other cruising routes -- out on Airline or Irvington, say -- but this western stretch of Richmond club land is the oldest and biggest and most reliable. If the weather's good and the cops aren't swarming, car-watchers will be rewarded with a combination parade and dance... More >>
• Best Bus Stop
  Outside Sears
  A bus stop is pretty much a bus stop here in Houston. But there is one location that offers a little variety, not to mention style. Outside the Sears in the Garden Oaks neighborhood, north of the Heights, is a 1950s gem, with a space-age roof featuring the curves of an artist's palette and long... More >>
• Best Administrative Judge
  Chief Justice Michael Schneider, First Court of Appeals
  Even in the justice system, silence can be golden. While the 14th Court of Appeals has been in seemingly continual controversy in recent years -- justices even sued their chief justice at one point in a long-running dispute over administrative authority -- the First Court of Appeals has been a... More >>
• Best Y2K Story
  Butch Forest
  Last time we checked in with La Porte jack-of-all-junk Butch Forest (see "J-U-N-K in the Y2K," December 30, 1999), the conversation revolved around a complicated four-way horse trade involving a gutted 18-foot Airstream trailer in Manvel, a 14-foot fiberglass bass boat in Houston, a Hi-Lo camper... More >>
• Best Contribution to Downtown Redevelopment
  Randall Davis Company
  Enron Field? Hardly. The Astros' stadium may be a strong anchor to east downtown's revitalization, but the real stars of central city redevelopment were already playing hardball long before Drayton's dream ever hit the drawing board. The real pioneers are people like New York implant Sharon... More >>
• Best Ferry
  Lynchburg
  We dithered on this one: Lynchburg or Bolivar? Bolivar or Lynchburg? Lynchburg is a shorter ride, a smaller, perhaps cozier ferry, and it operates in the appropriately industrial seascape of the Ship Channel near the San Jacinto Monument, which is always a plus. The Bolivar ferries make for a... More >>
• Best Happy Hour
  JR.'s Bar & Grill
  Right in the center of Houston's gay bars, JR.'s has one of the longest and most entertaining happy hours around. Though its patrons are predominantly gay men, people of all persuasions are welcome (age 21 and older, that is). Happy hour begins at noon (yes, noon) but really starts firing up... More >>
• Best Mile of Houston
  The 1000 block of Memorial Drive to 900 Texas Avenue
  Houston's strength is in diversity and ever-evolving transitions. Nothing shows this off better than the last leg of Memorial Drive into the city. Relish the tribute to nature on the green-space trails along Buffalo Bayou, the ones accented with public art, the ones that could have been erased... More >>
• Best Place to Park Your Car and Walk Two Feet for an Ice-Cold Shiner
  West Alabama Ice House
  You're stuck in traffic, the temperature is over 100 degrees, and you're thirsty. Highway beer billboards are making you even thirstier. This is what hell must be like, you think to yourself. Pull off the highway and head to the West Alabama Ice House. Park your car and stumble to one of the... More >>
• Best Revolution
  Seabrook's recall election
  Democracy reared its not-so-ugly head in Seabrook this year when residents got mightily pissed off that their elected officials were determined to bring a mammoth billion (with a "B")-dollar container port to the doorstep of their small town. Visions of a huge rail yard and 7,000 trucks a day... More >>
• Best Bar with a Ghost Story
  The Ale House
  Lend an ear to anybody over at the hallowed beer hall, and they will tell stories of the apparition that has been lurking in the nooks and crannies of the place for ages. Just how long has this spook been around? Well, long enough that the people have given it a name: Maggie. Cynical social... More >>
• Best Citizens
  Mark and Louise Zwick
  For more than two decades the Zwicks have helped thousands of Latin American immigrants make the transition to life in the United States. What began as a humble shelter for refugees from war-torn Central America has evolved into a multifaceted operation that includes two health clinics, a labor... More >>
• Best Place to Meet Single Men
  Kay's Lounge
  Walk into this dive, and you're surrounded by beer and boys. The walls are papered in beer ads, and hanging over the Texas-shaped table is a faux Tiffany lamp advertising Pabst Blue Ribbon and Miller Lite. Around the Texas table are men, men, men. Men in lumberjack plaids, men in jeans, men in... More >>
• Best Lawyer
  Richard Burr
  Richard Burr is the veteran Houston attorney who devoted his intellect and emotions to fighting the death penalty long before Governor George Bush's run for president made the issue a hot-button topic with the national media. Burr started his career as a public defender in Florida and became... More >>
• Best Place to Take Out-of-Towners
  Cleveland Turner's house, 3311 Sampson Street
  Sometimes referred to as the Flower Man, Cleveland Turner is a former drunk who slipped the grip of booze by promising God he'd dedicate his life as a sober man to creating a place of uncommon beauty. God must have held him to the vow, because Turner's home and yard in the Third Ward are a... More >>
• Best Politician
  Paul Bettencourt, Harris County tax-assessor collector
  After the death of 51-year Democratic incumbent Carl Smith, former corporate salesman and GOP Harris County treasurer Paul Bettencourt ran a political gauntlet to win the post. After Commissioner Steve Radack pushed the appointment of former Oilers defensive back Willie Alexander through the... More >>
• Best Local Girls Gone Bad
  Krystal Maddox, Lisa Warzeka, Katie Dunn and Michelle Morneau
  The long arm of the law has permanently broken up that old gang of Kingwood High School convenience-store banditas whose rampage for cash and cigarettes earned them face time on such national news shows as 20-20 and 48 Hours. The trio most involved in the series of five robberies -- Krystal... More >>
• Best Landlord (1 Comment)
  Brian Copeland
  Brian Copeland is definitely the nicest landlord in town. He owns five area properties, but he has scaled down and sold a few apartment houses so that he and his partner, Tyler, can spend more time with their adorable son. Most landlords are just people who collect your rent check. When you call... More >>
• Best Local TV News Anchor
  Lisa Foronda, KHOU-TV Channel 11
  By now, any TV buff knows this show. Diverse characters come together under demanding conditions and fend for themselves on a remote island. Darwinism depletes their numbers as the weak-willed get culled -- voted off the island -- while others thrive on the primal challenges for their tribes.... More >>
• Best Reason to Join the Houston Zoo
  Zoobilee
  This annual members-only party takes place in early summer, but blessedly, it's during the cool of evening, when it's pleasant to stroll the grounds. Stuff your offspring full of free hot dogs, sodas and ice cream. Sway to the reggae band. Watch the clown wobble on stilts and juggle flaming... More >>
• Best Amnesia
  Phillip Lopate
  Essaying New Yorker Phillip Lopate (track down a copy of his out-of-print "Against Joie de Vivre") spent eight years, from 1980 to 1988, living and working and teaching in Houston, so he must have seemed a defensible choice when the editors of the New York Times Magazine assigned him to revisit... More >>
• Best Street Festival
  The Southwestern Bell African-American Arts Festival
  Oh, what were you expecting, the Westheimer Street Festival? The Houston International Festival, with its overpriced gyros and male Carmen Miranda impersonators? They may be the largest and most popular street fests in the city, but this modest weekend get-together should be rightfully... More >>
• Best View
  Chase Tower
  The sky lobby on the 60th floor of the I.M. Pei-designed Chase Tower offers the kind of view that gets kids oohing and asking really deep questions. "What would happen if there was no glass here?" queried one little girl as she and her brother pressed against the floor-to-ceiling window, peering... More >>
• Best Name for a Nail Salon
  Nail a La Mode
  With 547 manicurist shops listed in the Yellow Pages, Houston must serve as home to more nail salons per capita than any other American city. While we haven't statistically tested our hypothesis, we can't miss the glaring fact that a different nail shop sits on every other block. Why is the... More >>
• Best Insider's Shortcut
  The 2000 and 3000 blocks of Brazos
  Ah, progress. Northbound motorists on the Southwest Freeway have that elevated TxDOT marvel to get them to the I-45 interchange. The only problem, as any regular driver on that route knows by now, is the stop-and-slow traffic on what has turned out to be a consistent bottleneck. Age adds wisdom... More >>
• Best Time and Place to See Street Racers
  Westheimer
  From the Galleria past Beltway 8, as Saturday night gives way to Sunday, the strip-mall parking lots on Westheimer host impromptu car shows, with ball-capped guys checking out each other's mods. You hear words like "cams" and "noz." You feel the sub-bass rumble of Corvettes eager to exceed the... More >>
• Best Flack/ Public Information Officer
  Children's Protective Services of Harris County's Judy Hay
  Not only is University of Houston grad Judy Hay one of the best straight shooters in town in her dealings with the media, but she would surely be the last flack standing if Survivor had peopled its island with public relations types. Hay joined the agency in 1970 with a freshly minted sociology... More >>
• Best Postcollegiate Fraternity Experience
  Bronx Bar
  From the street, music blares from the Bronx Bar like a warning. Thump-thump-thump, the numbing bass line declares. At the sidewalk gate, a broad-shouldered bouncer clad in a black T-shirt gives the coveted silent nod. Inside, members of the mostly young and Caucasian crowd navigate around,... More >>
• Best White House Intern
  Kristen Jones
  In a world where the phrase "White House intern" elicits sniggers and blow-job jokes, we all can say we're relieved that Monica "I don't take dirty dresses to the dry cleaners" Lewinsky wasn't from Houston, but Kristen Jones is a White House intern we're proud of. The 20-year-old University of... More >>
• Best Freeway to Get Lost On
  Loop 610
  How can you get lost on a circular freeway? Easy. Other large cities have a natural barrier such as an ocean or mountain. In Chicago, you can go east only as far as Lake Michigan. The Atlantic gets in your way in Boston, Baltimore and Miami. Seattle has Puget Sound or Mount Rainier, and San... More >>
• Best Jukebox
  Warren's Inn
  A downtown fixture as venerable as Warren's would be incomplete without a fine jukebox to complement the (Houston Press) award-winning decor, martinis and staff. And there, placed innocuously inside the main room, sits the late-model Rowe Ami. It's not the flashiest box in town, but what sets it... More >>
• Best Bike Path
  Brays Bayou along North and South Braeswood
  While Houston has light-years to go before becoming a truly bike-friendly city, it is finally beginning to get at least tolerant of the two-wheelers. Nothing shows the détente with motorists better than the pathway system along Brays Bayou in the southern sector of the city. Paved lanes... More >>
• Best Whistle-Blower
  Charles Max Jennings
  Like a hand-hewn beam, Charles Max Jennings is both rough-cut and a commodity. He may come off as a crude old fart with an attitude ("You're goddamn right" is one of his favorite phrases), but Jennings is the worst nightmare of a corrupt bureaucracy. In his case, it's the City of Houston Water... More >>
• Best Place to Get a Traffic Ticket
  Revitalized section of downtown
  "Downtown...," sang Petula Clark, "...where all the lights are bright." And she's exactly right -- it's where all the flashing red lights are brightest. Perhaps the trade-off, the sense of security from crime, is worth it. But downtown cops seem dead set on writing up damn near every driver that... More >>
• Best Hero
  Texas Ranger Sergeant Drew Carter
  Houston-based Drew Carter's combination of law enforcement sleuthing and social working with the family of serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz resulted in the killer's bloodless surrender last summer. Carter, with less than one year's tenure with the Rangers, had become involved five months... More >>
• Best Place to Meet Single Women
  Ceramics class, Foelber Pottery Gallery & Studio
  She was bored. She had nothing to do after work except eat dinner and watch TV, and the reception was so bad in her apartment that the rabbit ears were useless. She wanted to do something fun, something artsy and hands-on. And she wanted to meet other people. A Leisure Learning catalog appeared... More >>
• Best Place to Smoke
  The State Bar and Lounge
  Walk up. Sit down. Light up. Savor. The State Bar, that one-flight-up reincarnation of the Old Capitol Club at the Rice Lofts, pays ample tribute to an earlier time when tobacco could be richly enjoyed, right along with well-mixed drinks and quiet conversation among trusted associates. Atop the... More >>
• Best Republican
  State Representative John Culberson, winner of the GOP nomination in the Seventh Congressional District
  This state rep ran a smart but vastly underfunded campaign against River Oaks big bucks Peter Wareing. He also showed rare political moxie by taking on westside political activist Steven Hotze and refusing to kowtow to the good doctor to get his endorsement. After leading a crowded field into... More >>
• Best Local Boy Made Good
  Tilman Fertitta
  Tilman Fertitta already had a sizable restaurant empire, including his highly successful Kemah Waterfront complex. Now he has snagged a prime pied-à-terre in the burgeoning downtown entertainment district as well. Fertitta recently won the competition to lease from the city the old Fire... More >>
• Best Response to a Houston Press Story
  Karen Gerstner
  In a story this past February about the suicide of lottery winner Billie Bob Harrell, we described Karen Gerstner, an attorney, as seeming "more likely to offer someone a glass of milk and a plate of cookies rather than cutting-edge financial advice." A couple of weeks later, Gerstner had a... More >>
• Best Place to Smoke a Hookah
  Star Cafe
  Star Cafe is for real. It doesn't cater to denizens of the mainstream American culture looking to try something it deems "exotic." Nope, at Star Cafe, the clientele is composed of Arabic immigrants, mostly from Egypt. They gather at this drab location (next to Sun & Ski on the far side of a... More >>
• Best Weathercaster
  Chuck George, KPRC-TV Channel 2
  During the long half-year that is the Houston summer, there's not much to the weather beyond hot and humid. Occasional rainfall will pass through; even less occasionally some severe weather will occur. But Houstonians still cling desperately to the romantic notion that maybe, just maybe, the... More >>
• Best Use of Dental Floss
  Texas prisons
  We're not sure of the brand, but this past March, Texas prison inmate Antonio Lara allegedly sawed through several cell bars using dental floss. Unfortunately, say prison officials, he then fatally stabbed fellow prisoner Rolando Rios as guards were escorting him to the shower. The incident... More >>
• Best Execution of a Business Plan
  Dickie Rosenfeld, KILT/610 AM
  The late Dickie Rosenfeld, who died in July, was a giant in Houston radio. He brought the Beatles to town in the 1960s and was the creator of the original Hudson and Harrigan show. He spent most of his 50 years in radio as general manager of KILT. But even the legendary Rosenfeld raised eyebrows... More >>
• Best Bike Lanes
  West Alabama at South Shepherd
  At least Houston now has bike lanes. The intersection where Alabama meets Shepherd has long been a congested one for Houston motorists. And now one of the lanes in either direction on Alabama has been converted into a lane for bicycles. It may not improve the traffic flow for gas-guzzling... More >>
• Best Roadway Improvement
  U.S. 59 from I-10 to just south of Humble
  Not that long ago, the Eastex Freeway was the obvious orphan of area transportation arteries, a forlorn, four-lane route to sheer frustration. Compared to its sister link, the Southwest Freeway on the other side of town, this section of U.S. 59 suffered from potholes, uneven pavement, antiquated... More >>
• Best Ditch
  East of the power lines between Gramercy and North Braeswood Boulevard
  The trickle of water emerges from a giant culvert and heads south in a straight line, carved years ago by machinery, bounded by a grass-covered levy to the east and power lines to the west. The water has a brownish hue, and at times a faint whiff of sewage speaks to origins other than rainwater.... More >>
• Best Aquarium
  Sawadee Thai Restaurant
  Fish are usually the featured performers in any aquarium, but at Sawadee, they take a backseat. Sure, there are a few exotic species swimming in the jumbo 500-gallon tank that greets customers near the door. But the real attractions are the stunning varieties of coral: spectacular tentacled... More >>
• Best New Downtown Bar
  Slainte
  Slainte (pronounced "SLAWN-cha") is a Gaelic drinking toast, which translates roughly to "Cheers!" Stools are situated around a big black barrel of Jameson whiskey, a James Joyce quote is on the wall, and Lord of the Dance music fills the air. You can order a blarney burger, Irish lamb stew,... More >>
• Best Driving Accessory
  Key Maps
  When it comes to getting around in a car, Houston is a sprawling, featureless, illogically laid out mess. Which means you should never attempt to get anywhere without a Key Map in the car. For 42 years the Rau family has been producing annually updated, easy-to-use maps of Harris County -- maps... More >>
• Best Lobbyist
  New Houston Port Commission Chair Jim Edmonds
  If he wasn't the best-known municipal lobbyist before he was elevated to the prestigious chairmanship in June, he will be now. For years affable, low-key Jim Edmonds has run with the big boys, ranging from developer Walter Mischer to financial guru Tom Masterson to previous port chair Ned... More >>
• Best Gadfly
  Dan Hart
  Dan Hart is the indefatigable property tax activist who bugs Harris County Tax Appraisal District officials with the persistence of a salt marsh mosquito. Hart, a retired Kinkaid School coach, has embraced the role of tax watchdog as a second career, and has even started up a nonprofit... More >>
• Best Source for Texas Political Info
  Quorum Report
  For a $175 annual subscription, this Austin-based political newsletter published by Bellaire High grad Harvey Kronberg churns up plenty of information. Features of the Quorum Report Web site (quorumreport.com) include bulletins in the form of the Daily Buzz plus an invaluable daily clip service... More >>