Get out of your bubble, Mr. Mayor.
Small business owners, community advocates and residents are rallying together to fight against Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s proposal to reverse 11th Street’s 2023 redesign.
The coalition sent a letter last week—authored by Gerald Fuentes, an organizer of the “I Love 11th Street Neighborhood Festival”—urging Whitmire not to reverse the addition of protected bike lanes and lane reductions on 11th Street.
“What was once a high-speed, dangerous thoroughfare is now a thriving and safe corridor,” Fuentes wrote in the letter addressed to Whitmire and the Houston City Council. “We witness more residents and visitors walking, biking, running, shopping, dining, rollerblading, pushing strollers, connecting with neighbors and enjoying community events.”
The letter urges Whitmire and city council members to maintain the elements of the design implemented in 2023 and to proceed with the planned installation of a HAWK pedestrian crossing signal at Nicholson Street.
State Rep. Christina Morales (D-Houston) and city council members Abbie Kamin and Mario Castillo have signed the letter supporting the community’s calls.
Kamin has criticized the possible deconstruction of what she describes as a $2.4 million “nationally recognized” safety project, particularly given the city’s projected $320 million budget deficit.
“I don’t understand the Mayor’s obsession with attacking kids and parents on bikes—we have much more pressing issues in our city—but this project was not even about that,” Kamin told The Leader. “11th Street was about safety improvements through the heart of neighborhoods…and it’s working.”
Whitmire recently signaled the redesign could be reversed, citing concerns from residents and local businesses—including a nearby doughnut shop—about the impact of bike lanes. He pointed to past emails from fire department officials that stated emergency response times could improve if the lane were removed.
“When I have fire department officials tell me, ‘We don’t go down 11th, we go down 10th, a residential neighborhood, because of parked cars and narrow space,’ that’s not my controversy,” Whitmire said. “I’m just trying to solve it.”
Whitmire has declined to confirm if he planned to officially remove the bike lane, instead opting to say he was listening to the public and public safety officials.
[…]
Houston Public Works evaluated the redesign’s impact. In a memo obtained by Axios, the department found that the project had dropped vehicle speeds, increased pedestrian and cyclist crossings, and failed to significantly impact travel times. The Houston Fire Department also confirmed no safety impacts to its operations from the redesign.
It’s the combination of claiming to listen to public safety officials and then lying about what they say that really chaps me. I’m so, so tired of trying to argue facts and data with people who just don’t care about them.
Anyway. Here’s a copy of the letter, with the signers at the bottom. The embedded photo is one I took on Friday of the marquee at Someburger. They misspelled the URL for I Love 11th, but their heart’s in the right place. Look, all we can do is make as much of a fuss as we can, and hope that Whitmire eventually moves on to some other obsession. The waiting is the hardest part.
(Also spotted on Friday on 11th, it looks like that HAWK light at the Nicholson trail crossing is in place and awaiting activation. Whether that’s a safety enhancement or a consolation prize remains to be seen. And, to circle back to a previous post, I saw one of those Evolve connectors, turning north from Pecore, which is what 11th becomes east of Studewood, onto Beauchamp on Friday afternoon. So I can confirm that they do exist. We’ll see how often that happens.)
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This entry was posted in Elsewhere in Houston and tagged Abbie Kamin, accidents, bicycles, bike lanes, Christina Morales, Department of Public Works and Engineering, Heights, Houston, John Whitmire, Mario Castillo, pedestrians. Bookmark the permalink.
