Nice. Probably fleeting, but still nice.
After months of delays, the controversial redesign of Montrose Boulevard was still in limbo Monday night when a split vote at a contentious public meeting stalled the project yet again.
The Whitmire administration favors a design that would preserve more of the existing trees on the major thoroughfare, but reduce space for pedestrians and bicyclists. The engineering firm handling the proposal for the mayor’s vision pitched a 60-day work plan to revise the project’s first phase — stretching from Buffalo Bayou to West Clay Street — at a public meeting Monday held by the Montrose Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, which spearheaded the project.
“We’re going to be hitting this very hard,” Muhammad Ali of Gauge Engineering said at the meeting, where Montrose TIRZ board members and residents first learned about the changes.
Following a heated public comment period, the Montrose TIRZ board members surprised attendees with a split vote on whether to pay Gauge to develop the plan aligned with new city priorities, stalling the project.
One member who voted against the funding was among several recent appointments to the board by Mayor John Whitmire’s team.
Ali said his firm had begun the revised project pitch after it “received direction from the city on the path forward.”
The Whitmire administration’s three priorities were to improve drainage in the area, to preserve as many trees as possible, and to resurface the roadway, he said. Block by block, Ali showed how the new priorities would largely preserve the current street and sidewalk configuration.
Drainage improvements were already featured in previous plans for the boulevard overhaul, first drafted by the Montrose TIRZ in 2022. But under the new plan, tree and roadway preservation priorities replaced the previous goals: Adding more space for pedestrians and bicyclists while reducing the size of the road’s lanes and removing more of the existing trees on either side of the roadway.
Local city council member Abbie Kamin had been disappointed at city pushback over the TIRZ-led plan since Whitmire took office Jan. 1, but said at this point “the neighborhood needs a resolution,” and that improved drainage and safety were key.
[…]
Many spoke with disappointment at Monday’s meeting, failing to see much compromise in the city’s new ultimatum.
“I’m seeing safe crossings eliminated. I’m seeing designs that encourage speeding. I’m seeing pedestrian and bicycle facilities scaled back to appease folks who have deep anxiety about change in their neighborhood, and I think it’s just heartbreaking. It’s overriding the public input process,” said Alex Spike, a Montrose resident who moved to the neighborhood in 2008 when he was in the fifth grade.
Before voting, the board members who rejected funding a new plan to meet city specifications echoed similar concerns.
Abby Noebels, a member of the TIRZ since 2021, said she was worried about the rushed changes and the scaled-back focus on safety. Robert Guthart, the new TIRZ vice-chair appointed under Whitmire, said he found “the design changes that are coming from city hall disappointing and not forward-thinking.”
See here, here, and here for the background. You don’t have to convince me that this administration and its minions lack vision, but I’m still happy to hear it being said. All that said, I have the feeling that this was a bump in the road, and that after “further consideration” some new “compromise” plan that is 95% or more of the Mayor’s plan will be approved. I could be wrong, and if nothing else the folks who got this delayed have a victory they can build on. I wish them well. There’s some good commentary on Twitter if you want more, from Mighty Lizard King, HTX Valeria, Bike Houston, Robin Holzer, and more.
Let us remember that Mayor Whitmire is all in on pedestrian accommodations including reduced lanes and even a traffic-slowing pedestrian crossing signal, as long as they are by his house. If these niceties are near your house, or planned for your neighborhood, they are a menace to free flowing car traffic and will be stopped or ripped up.
I drove down Montrose yesterday for the first time in a while and that road is in terrible shape. Are they holding back any patchwork repairs because they think they’re gonna tear the whole dang thing up anyway?