Houston mayor pro tem says goodbye during final town hall

Brian Freedman, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, shared with Martin a proclamation thanking him for his years of service. Despite living in Kingwood, Martin has served Clear Lake well and is “one of us,” Freedman said.

“I don’t know what it is about Clear Lake. It’s been a wonderful, wonderful area to represent,” Martin said.

The details

Jimmy Spence, senior marketing specialist at the Houston Spaceport, said soon every astronaut in low Earth orbit and on the moon will have had their spacesuit developed at the Houston Spaceport, a fact spaceport leaders said they are proud of.

Collins Aerospace, one of the spaceport’s tenants, is building new spacesuits for missions to the moon. Likewise, Axiom Space, also at the spaceport, will build a commercial space station and also develop spacesuits, even working with fashion label Prada to create the suits, Spence said.

Venus Aerospace is another company with a presence at the spaceport. The company is working on a hypersonic airplane capable of flying nine times the speed of sound at an elevation of 150,000 feet—high enough to see the blackness of space. The plane would be capable of flying from Houston to Tokyo in two hours, and spaceport officials said they hope such flights will launch from the spaceport one day, Spence said.

Finally, Intuitive Machines, another spaceport company, has a lunar lander expected to launch before the end of the year. Originally, the lander was going to launch Nov. 16, but it’s been bumped back a bit, Spence said.

Explained

Mark Wilfalk, director of Houston’s Solid Waste Department, said he’s aware there has been an issue with yard waste collection in the Clear Lake area. The reason for that is the department has been down on employees; the department has 473 employees but could use 50 more, Wilfalk said.

However, the department has hired five or six additional employees who are now learning the routes. Additionally, Mayor Sylvester Turner started the One Clean Houston initiative, and through that, the department appropriated $3 million for vehicles to remove heavy trash quicker than residents are used to.

Wilfalk said residents should expect to see some improvement in collection soon.

Remember this?

Director of Capital Projects Michael Ereti spoke about some of the recent roadwork in the area, including the widening of El Dorado. The $7.1 million project was completed in 2022.

However, some residents protested, saying there is still work to be done on the road. In particular, there is one sidewalk that hasn’t been paved yet.

Martin’s staffers explained that is because the contractor installed a faulty pipe that needs to be replaced. Harris County officials are preparing to take the contractor to court to enure the contractors completes the job correctly, but in the meantime, officials don’t want to pave a sidewalk just to tear it up later to fix the pipe and then have to repave. Instead, gravel has been laid in the area as a temporary path, staffers said.

Martin said it would cost $1 trillion to fix all the street issues across the city. Particularly in Clear Lake, the roads were never designed for commercial traffic, but with H-E-Bs and other major stores in the area, 18-wheelers are using the roads, tearing them up faster. Additionally, the drought the area just went through is causing more potholes as well, Martin said.

What else?

Houston Police Department Cmdr. Claudia Cruz said while some crime is increasing in Clear Lake, it’s a citywide trend and not specific to Clear Lake.

Overall, crime is down 27% in Clear Lake. Murders are down 30%; robberies are down 27%; nonviolent crime is down 10%; and violent crime is down 24%, Cruz said.

However, vehicle thefts are still up. Cruz said residents should always lock their vehicles and not leave valuables in their vehicles in sight.