hbg.50

Don’t shoot the messenger…I’m getting concerned about this mayor myself! Houston city officials halt major part of Shepherd and Durham redesign, risking millions in funding Houston city officials have put the brakes on the middle piece of a planned redesign of Shepherd and Durham along the edge of the Heights, a decision that community officials and others say puts millions of dollars destined for the city at risk. Rumored for weeks, and predicted by critics of Mayor John Whitmire’s transportation policies, the city's decision to not support any plan that removes lanes along the parallel, four-lane-wide corridors is likely to leave a gap in bicycle lanes along the streets between Interstate 10 and 15th Street. For the segment from near White Oak Bayou to north of 14th Street, it may also mean that no repairs other than routine maintenance happen in the coming months or years. “The potential exists for the project to be canceled entirely and for its associated federal funding to be reallocated somewhere else in the region,” Anne Lents, chairwoman of the Memorial Heights Redevelopment Authority, told board members, according to a printed copy of a monthly report she delivered Thursday. “At this point, this is out of our direct control as a redevelopment authority. Ultimately, we are an entity of the city and are reliant on the (mayoral) administration and city permitting and approvals to advance projects.” WAITING ON THE BUS: Changes to Metro's Silver Line bring end to bus rapid transit Marlene Gafrick, a senior adviser to Whitmire and former city planning department director, confirmed she told the redevelopment authority, which is building the project with local and federal funds, it would only receive city support – and permits – if it redesigned the project. The two criteria Gafrick gave the redevelopment authority, which also operates a tax increment reinvestment zone of the city, is that the project “maintain the original lane widths and number of lanes” and maintain only six-foot sidewalks. That conflicts and makes the fully designed project impossible unless the redevelopment adds the cost and complexity of acquiring land, and even then turns planned 10-foot paths into smaller ADA-minimum sidewalks. Proponents of the street redesign said the decision to only allow it if is maintains all vehicle lanes makes little sense when repeated engineering analyses have found Shepherd and Durham will have minimal travel time changes, safety will be improved and much of the project simply keeps more consistency for drivers. “This project is right-sizing Shepherd and Durham and harmonizing the existing sections,” said Joe Cutrufo, executive director of the advocacy group BikeHouston. “It makes it safer for everyone whether they are inside a car or not.” Shepherd and Durham – which act jointly as a large thoroughfare with Durham running south and Shepherd north – are each only four lanes in certain locations. From Feagan, near Buffalo Bayou, north to Washington Avenue, the streets last year were trimmed to three lanes in each direction with wider sidewalks and a curb-protected bike lane on each. “It is a lot safer to cross now, no question,” Rice Military resident Scott Pardo said Friday afternoon as he waited to cross Shepherd at Feagan. “I know sometimes it makes traffic a little worse, when it is jammed, but I will trade that for this.” The street flares to four lanes north of Washington and remains four until 15th Street, where an ongoing first phase of the rebuild narrows it to three lanes. The bridge carrying Durham over White Oak Bayou, however, is three lanes. Above 15th, where drainage and cross-street work was included, crews are slowly finishing the wide sidewalks intended for pedestrians and bicyclists, separated with raised planters. Work north of 15th is expected to finish later this year. NEW DEAL: TxDOT leaders proceed with $1.7B plan terminating Texas 288 Toll Lanes agreement Lents noted the center segment was rigorously studied, and officials verified it made sense as a better street for the community. “These reports concluded that the new design is not just appropriate for current traffic but for traffic in the future,” she said. “The project is designed to encourage and support economic growth and development along the corridor – which we’ve seen explode since the project was announced.” When the first phase of work began in 2022, it was with the assumption the middle phase would follow. Both phases enjoyed support from local officials. The phase north of 15th Street won $25 million in federal funds, which officials in 2020 credited to U.S. Rep Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, who until redistricting represented the area north of 14th Street as part of his oddly-shaped district in northeast parts of Harris County. In 2020, a wide swath of officials – including Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, then-Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis and then-state Sen. John Whitmire – submitted letters in support of the project. "The reconstruction of Shepherd and Durham are critical components of the transportation infrastructure of the City of Houston," Whitmire's letter said. Still, construction has frustrated some businesses and drivers, as the work has kept Shepherd and Durham limited to two lanes at times, cut off some local streets and led to abrupt loss of electricity and water as lines are repaired or replaced. What is uncertain, Lents told board members, is the way ahead for the center segment. Officials planned to ink a deal with a construction company by the end of September. If the work does not proceed, she said, the redevelopment authority and the city would have to go back to the Houston-Galveston Area Council to revise its funding plan. That means the region’s Transportation Policy Council would need to reapprove the project, at a time when Houston is sparring with the regional board about its representation on the council. “In other words, triggering additional H-GAC action creates risk for the project’s existing federal funding,” Lents said. WALKING TALL: Federal money aimed at neglected areas to pour $43.4M into Gulfton, Kashmere Gardens sidewalks That regional process, she said, could end with Shepherd-Durham unable to spend its money on time, H-GAC sending the money to another project in the Houston area and Shepherd-Durham at an indefinite standstill. Effects, however, might move far from the Shepherd-Durham corridor, as Whitmire officials pause other projects that could face the same challenges. A major rebuild of sidewalks in Kashmere Gardens and Gulfton also relies on potentially narrowing some streets, as does a planned redesign of Telephone Road and many of Metropolitan Transit Authority’s bus and light rail projects. Those projects either have or hope to receive competitive federal funds, which because of the Biden administration’s focus on climate and infrastructure are available. Drawing a hard line and not eliminating any vehicle lanes, however, might make Houston less competitive, said Kevin DeGood, director of infrastructure policy at the Center for American Progress. “Federal grant programs are very competitive,” DeGood said. “And the Biden administration is naturally going to prioritize projects that align with their vision and goals." Local elected officials are hopeful the changes can still keep federal money flowing. Asked if the demands to keep lanes open and alter federally funded projects risks losing money, U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, who now represents all of the area in the Shepherd-Durham rebuild, said in a statement cooperation is necessary. PLANNED ROADWORK: Houston-area road construction tracker "It is because of the strong collaboration and partnership with our leaders and experts in our community that we have been able to deliver important and much-needed funds," Fletcher said. "I have had productive conversations with Mayor Whitmire on ways to collaborate moving forward, and I look forward to working with him and city and county leaders to advocate for federal funding opportunities." Still, if that does not align with where the White House wants to spend money, it is a difficult case. "To the extent Houston is putting forward applications that diverge from that vision, it will make them less likely to receive funding," DeGood said. Even turning back money could send the wrong signal, he said. “Canceling a project that has been chosen for a federal grant award demonstrates that you are an unreliable partner,” DeGood said. “I think the current mayor has an obligation to follow through on the good-faith commitments of the prior mayoral administration.”

Sign on Starbucks

For the anti-car activists 😂 from The DMN... New book argues for removal of I-345 in Dallas In ‘City Limits,’ author Megan Kimble examines the costs of urban highways — and what to do about them. That highways don’t belong in cities may be news in Texas, but it is hardly a new idea. Back in 1963, in his book The Highway and the City, the critic and historian Lewis Mumford wrote that “arteries must not be thrust into the delicate tissue of our cities; the blood they circulate must rather enter through an elaborate network of minor blood vessels and capillaries.” Even Dwight D. Eisenhower, the president who signed the 1956 legislation that funded the postwar American highway boom, didn’t think those roads belonged in cities. And yet, our cities are crossed and encircled by highways that divide neighborhoods, privilege driving over other means of transit and have been linked to other ill effects, from asthma to climate change. Downtown Dallas, for instance, is choked by a noose of urban highways. The impacts of those roads — and what we can do about them — is the subject of a new book, City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America’s Highways, by Austin-based journalist Megan Kimble. Over email, Kimble talked about the policies that led to this situation, the targeting of minority communities and the plans to tear down Interstate 345. The conversation has been edited for clarity. You spend a great deal of time writing about those displaced by highway building and the impact that construction had on minority communities. In what ways has race shaped the building of urban highways? In the 1950s and 1960s, city planners and highway engineers intentionally routed urban highways through Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. That’s very clear in the historical record, the idea that highways could help clear so-called blighted areas. I found a study that showed that redlined neighborhoods — communities that had been denied access to credit and government-backed mortgages simply because Black and Hispanic people lived there — were more than three times as likely as the best-rated neighborhoods to have an interstate highway routed through them. Highways not only displaced and demolished communities of color, they also helped segregate cities. In Austin, for example, I-35 was built along East Avenue. Two decades earlier, the city’s first comprehensive plan had prohibited Black people from living west of East Avenue. The highway only cemented this segregation, creating a wall between a Black neighborhood and the heart of the city. Highways not only displaced and demolished communities of color, they also helped segregate cities. In Austin, for example, I-35 was built along East Avenue. Two decades earlier, the city’s first comprehensive plan had prohibited Black people from living west of East Avenue. The highway only cemented this segregation, creating a wall between a Black neighborhood and the heart of the city. This brings us back to I-345, the dilapidated elevated highway that divides downtown Dallas from historically Black Deep Ellum. Back in 2013, when I began writing about the plan to tear it down, I was told it was a fool’s errand. Today, a teardown is a reality, though the city is planning something of a half measure — trenching it instead of removing it. What would be the best outcome, and what do you say to those who believe removing it will lead to traffic Armageddon? I think TxDOT’s “hybrid option” for I-345 — the trench you mentioned — is a clever bit of branding, implying that the state has somehow found a compromise between a highway and a highway removal. But a trenched highway is still fundamentally a highway, and it offers none of the benefits of full removal, namely freeing up or otherwise enhancing dozens of acres of land to build on and restore to Dallas’ property tax rolls. When TxDOT presented the full removal option to Dallas, it presented a vision of carmageddon — 19,000 hours of travel delay! But those traffic models don’t account for how people’s travel behavior changes according to ease of access. Anytime I get in the car, I look at Google maps to find the quickest route to where I’m going. If that’s not on a highway, I won’t take a highway. People are rational consumers of goods, and roads are a good like any other. In every city that has removed an urban highway or otherwise reduced car capacity, traffic volumes go down, even on parallel routes. People simply drive less. The corollary to induced demand — which says that as you add car capacity, cars fill up that capacity — is reduced demand. If Dallas wants to build a less car-centric city (and I think it’s an open question as to whether it does), then removing I-345 is the best place to begin.

You’re the one who sounds like an insolent fool. And ALTA is not even near Norhill!

I can see the images…had problems about a month ago but the issue corrected itself…

Thanks for posting this. Before I open a new topic I always perform a search to see if one already exists. I did this recently with Hollywood Cemetery. Nothing came up on search so I opened a new topic. Within an hour a mod merged my post with an existing topic. I thought I was going crazy. The “archived” issue explains it. Thanks!

corporate waste…

Strange…I thought Austin was Oracle’s HQ?? This doesn’t bode well for Austin… Ellison said Nashville's prominent health care industry is a major draw for the company because of its increasing emphasis on health care software products. "Nashville is already a health center," Ellison said. "We’re moving this huge campus which will ultimately be our world headquarters to Nashville." He then mentioned the governor of Texas and said: "I shouldn't have said that." Oracle's headquarters are in Austin, Texas and Oracle officials have previously said the Nashville and Austin campuses will both be U.S. headquarters locations. "There will be a concert venue, a lake with a floating stage where we can have concerts for the community. We want to be part of the community. Our people love it here and we think it’s the center of our future."

Historic Hollywood Cemetery is undergoing a 2-year restoration, including a new mosoleum. New Floral and Park Regulations have been adopted and will be enforced, eliminating much of the existing clutter on existing gravesites (i.e., flags, balloons, pinwheels, fences, etc.) This is a welcomed turn of events! From TSHA... HISTORIC HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY. Historic Hollywood Cemetery in Houston was founded in 1895 when Confederate veterans and brothers Samuel B. Moore and William James Moore made a series of land purchases that totaled approximately fifty-five acres. Their enterprise first appeared under the name of Hollywood Cemetery Co. in the 1895–1896 Houston City Directory. The cemetery’s name came from the Hollywood family—the family was admired by the founders and was later buried there. The original entrance crossed a single-lane bridge over Little White Oak Bayou near the intersection of Cottage and Trimble streets, through the Strangers Rest section for burial of anonymous (and often indigent) deceased. Baby’s Rest sections accommodated victims of high infant mortality rates experienced before 1900. One original brick road remains, to avoid damaging the underlying roots of large old trees. Some notable burials include Houston librarian Julia Ideson; Japanese naval officer Shinpei Mykawa, who helped introduce rice agriculture in the Houston area; Lawrence Shipley, Sr., founder of Shipley Donuts; suffragist and pioneering attorney Hortense Ward, the first woman to register to vote in Harris County; Andrew George Simmons, inventor of the ice cream cone; and Confederate spy Mollie Bailey, the “Circus Queen of the Southwest.” Other notable burials include Sarah Jane Gillis (1826–1938), who, before her death at age 111, recounted her story of the Texas Revolution and how she (at nine years old) hid in the woods and watched Gen. Santa Anna’s troops burn her home along with the rest of Harrisburg as he marched to fight Sam Houston at the battle of San Jacinto. With no money available for a headstone, she is buried in an unmarked grave between the Avey and Archer plots. Blacksmith Fritz Hahn (1875–1935), cofounder of Gulf Coast industrial equipment supplier Hahn and Clay, is also buried in Historic Hollywood Cemetery. His chromed anvil serves as his headstone and is topped with miniature tongs and a hammer.

On the rail line…nice…

I was merely referring to the article… What began as growing contention over the implementation of a paid parking program in the Historical Downtown Heights community has now evolved into concerns about the future of retail and small businesses in this quaint Houston neighborhood. At the center of the controversy is the Heights Marketplace, which consists of two retail strip centers fronting W. 19th and divided by Nicholson Street. Tenants of the shopping center say that nearly four years ago, when property management changed hands, rents increased substantially, forcing some businesses to raise prices and others to leave. Outdoor landscaping and decor were overhauled and, most recently, one of the first paid parking programs in Downtown Heights was implemented. Last fall, according to tenants, they received a 2-page letter from third-party parking program managers, SP+ and Parking.com, letting them know what had already been decided and implemented; all of this occurring, tenants say, without any prior warning or communication from property management. Shortly thereafter, before managers had an opportunity to reach out to their respective business ownership, dozens of signs, described as unattractive and even threatening, littered the parking lots. … JLL was repeatedly contacted for their side of the story but failed to respond to multiple requests for information and comment. At one point, they even denied that Heights Marketplace was in their portfolio. However, a corporate source from JLL finally provided the first name and cell number of a retail property management contact for the Houston area. After multiple texts to an individual named ‘Jessica’ we received a brief call in which she confirmed that she is, in fact, the property manager for the Heights Marketplace property. However, she declined to answer any questions and refused to provide her last name. She stated that she would be texting an email address to “forward any questions or concerns”. To date, neither the text nor subsequent email contact information have been received. “That is not surprising in the least,” said Chris Newlin, a frequent patron of Heights Marketplace and a Heights homeowner for nearly 35 years. “It’s really about corporate greed. You’d be surprised to learn how many conglomerates have quietly bought substantial holdings in The Heights. There is growing fear that the excessive rent increases, unjustified demands and, most recently, the unnecessary parking program are all laying the groundwork to eventually scrape and replace the Heights Marketplace with higher grossing commercial or residential properties.” Newlin added, “I understand the need for gentrification, but this is going too far.”

If only they cared about The Astrodome! Alas, neither of them is from Houston. 😒

Does anyone really know what problem the landlord is trying to solve? The lot with the UPS can get busy. The lot with Collinas doesn’t ever seem that busy. As The Leader article implies, maybe the landlord is just trying to upset his current tenants so he can do something else with the properties?

Finner retains widespread council support Most of the council members who spoke with the Chronicle said they were confident that Finner could adequately handle the police investigation into the suspended cases while also continuing to serve as the police chief. Several said that while Finner had been the one to break the news, he was not the one who created the “SL” code issue, which predated his tenure as chief by some five years. “I don't believe this started with him, but I do believe from what we have seen thus far he is committed to ending it,” Kamin said. And since the scandal broke, members say Finner has been forthcoming with new information and updates about the investigation’s progress. “We just have to give him time to make it right,” Council Member Tarsha Jackson said. However, the only elected official with any say in whether Finner stays or goes is Whitmire. The mayor has formed a five-member committee that he’s tasked with independently looking into the suspended incident reports — in addition to the police investigation that Finner announced would end in late April. Council Member Amy Peck says she believes both Finner and Whitmire, by kicking off these two reviews, are taking the necessary steps to address the issue and to ensure it does not happen again. “I'm really eager to see what that independent board’s report is going to show because I feel like there's still a lot more information to get from this,” Peck said. WHITMIRE’S HPD COMMITTEE: Mayor Whitmire gives details on committee investigating more than 264K dropped Houston police cases Not every member is unwavering in their support of Finner. Council Member Julian Ramirez, a former Harris County assistant district attorney who helped train police officers at the academy, said that while he respects Finner, he wants to let the facts of the mayor’s independent investigation color any decision-making around Finner’s professional fate. “Personally, I like Chief Finner, but you know, obviously, personal feelings should not enter into a decision whether to keep someone on when a big mistake has been made,” Ramirez said.

I'm sure bishop Fiorenza would rather you go inside the church (ungated) than the little plaza. So silly to be complaining about the fence... but whatever...