After I published about UH holding up construction on the Southeast Line over concerns about the route, I was forwarded a letter sent by UH English professor Irving Rothman to UH President Renu Khator asking her to get this issue resolved. Here’s the letter.
When I first arrived in Houston with my family in 1967, there was no easy transportation from my home in Meyerland to the university campus. I would take a bus to the Medical Center and then transfer to a second bus that transported me to Bellaire, Texas, where my wife would meet me in our car. Today, the situation has considerably improved. The 68 bus can take me directly from my corner bus stop to the university in one hour, a trip that takes about 25 minutes by car.
In the past, I have had students who could not attend class because their cars had broken down and they were far from bus stops. One student, during the gas crisis, with her mother out of work, did not have enough money to buy gas for transportation to the campus and sent me an e-mail apologizing for her absence. Rapid rail at relatively low cost per ride would offer more options for travel.
For the University of Houston to withhold the sale of minor parcels of land is shortsighted when one considers the greater advantages of Metro rail travel.
[…]
I hope that the University can immediately reconcile its differences with Metro, as reported in the Bellaire Examiner, and provide the needed parcels of land required for the completion of the system. We are an urban institution serving a diverse student body with faculty who also seek convenient transportation.
We’ll see what happens. If you’re connected with UH, what have you heard about this? Leave a comment or drop me a note. Thanks.
I’m very much in support of UH selling the 4.48 acres (because a) it doesn’t make sense to force students to run across Scott every morning, b) I have serious doubts that the businesses on the other side of Scott even have the frontage to allow for a rail line, and c) we just opened up a 2000+ spot garage in the stadium parking lot that this would affect.).
That said, it’s a little sad to read a letter that claims to list two immediate benefits, but only lists one. Especially a letter written by an English professor.
…unless the second paragraph (stating that other folks would be more likely to come to UH events) is the second benefit, and Prof. Rothman simply forgot to label it accordingly.
I’ll avoid the temptation to grade the work.
Construction is well underway- it is unrealistic to think that UH won’t sell this land to Metro. The University just wants a fair deal. The construction eliminates 500 parking spaces and will require the University to reconfigure a large portion of our campus. Metro has refused to make UH ‘whole’ and thats why they haven’t reached an agreement.
And if that Professor thinks UH is shortsighted, he should go check out the long-term plan for Metro in Houston. It’s a joke