Breaking it down
Of the $98 million, $86.5 million focuses on making improvements or reconstructing street and road infrastructure in areas such as Buffalo Speedway, West Alabama, Kirby Drive and Eastside. These include improvements and reconstruction to curbs, sidewalks, street lighting and right of way acquisitions.
More details
The rest of the funding will go towards projects such as:
- Upper Kirby Civic Complex: Levy Park will reorient from a north-south alignment to an east-west alignment, providing visibility and accessibility from two streets and will provide Houston’s inner city urban neighborhoods with expanded recreational opportunities. The cost is $8.5 million.
- Pedestrian Accessibility: Adding 18 pedestrian signals, 37 push buttons, 47 ramps and 32 sidewalk pads on streets such as Bissonnet, Westpark, US 59/Service Road, Richmond, West Alabama, Buffalo Speedway, Eastside and Wakeforest. The cost is $50,000.
- Greenbriar Drainage System Improvements: Replacing main trunk line, existing laterals and roadway construction on Green Briar, West Alabama, Sul Ross, West Main, Richmond and Lexington. The cost is $2.2 million.
- Shepherd Drainage System Improvements: A parallel 60 degree reinforced concrete pipe will be constructed, along with replacement of existing trunk line, laterals and roadway reconstruction on Shepherd, Harold, Marshall, Richmond, McDuffie, Portsmouth, Norfolk and Lexington. The cost is $762,000.
Houston City Council voted to approve the budget 15-1, with council member Julian Ramirez voting no and council member Letita Plummer absent.
Ramirez said he doesn’t agree with spending $8.5 million on Levy Park, which he calls a “world-class park” that has won numerous accolades. Ramirez said this kind of funding should go to the other Houston parks that are in “terrible condition.”
“In view of the problems that we have with our parks, [with] hundreds of our parks in terrible condition, many lacking basic playground equipment, I don’t think it’s fair to spend another $8 million on a park that is already world-class when we have so many parks in dilapidated conditions,” he said.
Council member Abbie Kamin, whose district represents Upper Kirby, said Levy Park faces its own challenges in an urban area such as being boxed in with low visibility of the park, but it’s a park that provides community members from all backgrounds a place to bring their kids to play or do activities, she said.
“Levy Park has close to three million visitors since reopening in 2017, the median household income for visitors is $69,000, 37% of visitors make less than $50,000 annually, the largest ethnic demographic users are Hispanic and Latino at 36%, [and] more than half of users travel from over five miles away to reach the park,” Kamin said during the city council meeting.
Something to note
Kamin noted that passing the budget does not mean $8.5 million will automatically be spent on expanding the park, but instead allows the Upper Kirby TIRZ to explore what they could do for Levy Park.
“Passing the budget on this item allows the TIRZ to do the due diligence and exploration of whether or not it is feasible to expand the park or whether it should be used for commercial development,” Kamin said. “I do think for Levy Park, this is potentially important.”
Kamin also took the time to discuss the redesign of West Alabama and how the Mayor’s administration directed the TIRZ to “reduce the public amenities” that were planned and added in through diminishing the size of the sidewalks.
“When we have children crossing these streets every single day; it’s not just one or two, they’re in packs,” Kamin said. “A standard sidewalk doesn’t work for that.”
