Closing off streets is a tough thing to do.
On Feb. 1, signs went up announcing the city’s plan to abandon Polk Street between St. Emanuel and Hamilton streets. The closure is part of Houston First Corporation’s $2 billion overhaul of the George R. Brown Convention Center, aimed at modernizing the area and preparing the city to host major events like the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Republican National Convention.
The change has left some East End residents, including Farrar, concerned about losing a key access point to downtown — and worried they won’t be part of the decision-making process. A group of East End residents has raised concerns that Houston First Corporation hasn’t been transparent about the closure, warning that the East End community will suffer if Polk Street is cut off.
Coupled with the construction challenges from TxDOT’s North Houston Highway Improvement Project, residents like Amy Erickson say the closures are symbolic of how the city treats the East End.
“It’s whittling away, chopping off our access here in the East End. It’s not acceptable,” said Erickson. “We live, work and play here too.”
Erickson joined the advocacy group People for Polk to push for more community involvement in the decision-making process and to reduce the impact of the street closures. She emphasized that her group is not opposed to the convention center expansion.
“We just want there to be time for traffic studies, for alternate methods to allow us access in the meantime,” Erickson said. “If this is going to be a 15, 20 year project, we don’t want to wait that long to be connected.”
A spokesperson for Houston First Corporation said in an email to the Houston Chronicle that the expansion has always aimed to reconnect downtown with the East End through public spaces and improve access to the convention center from the east.
“However, we recognize that as impactful as that long-term plan is, shorter-term solutions are necessary to preserve access between Downtown and the East End,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
The spokesperson also noted that as part of the Interstate 45 expansion, TxDOT will permanently eliminate Polk Street between St. Emanuel and Hamilton streets. Houston First plans to extend that closure by two additional blocks, from Hamilton to Avenida De Las Americas.
See here for the background. I don’t know what a good answer is for the folks who are directly affected by this, though as noted the I-45 project would be causing these problems regardless of what’s happening with the GRB. There’s a public meeting tomorrow at 6:30, see the People for Polk site for the details, if you want to speak up or just hear more about it.