99 Problems: Your Children Don’t Need the Grand Parkway

by Jay Blazek Crossley



If you look at a map of migratory bird routes for the Western Hemisphere, they usually show a series of lines that reach out across North America and converge at a point just before making the leap over the Gulf of Mexico to then spread out across Central and south America. That point of convergence is the coastal prairies of Texas, including the once great Katy Prairie, most of the Western side of the growing metropolis of Houston starting at about Loop 610 and stretching out westward.

Apparently because of the prospect of using stimulus funds to cover half the cost, Harris County and the Texas Department of Transportation have awarded around $20 million over the last two weeks to consultants who will plan construction of segment E of the Grand Parkway that will drive through the heart of the Katy Prairie. While this will certainly preserve jobs at these firms and their associated contractors, any number of transportation improvements could have produced more jobs, a better city, and less devastation to one of the most diverse eco-regions in the United states, of which the Katy Prairie is but one of at least 10 unique ecosystems in the Houston region.

You may have heard that the suburbs are growing in Houston, that sprawl is the nature of Houston, and that we’re doomed to spread out forever driving by ourselves in an SUV. The funny thing is that you probably picked up the Free Press at a record store, bar, or coffee shop and you probably were standing on your feet at the time. The really funny part is that while every Houstonian is not like you, you represent a much bigger chunk of our population than you think. And the neighborhood you picked up that Free Press in is actually growing faster than the suburbs.

The Woodlands was the most active single development in the Houston region in 2006 building 1,440 new homes. In that same year, 992 apartment units were under construction on Richmond Avenue between Main Street and Kirby. Those homes in the Woodlands are spread out over 24 square miles of land, while this little stretch of Richmond is just one of the many busy avenues across the Houston region with thousands of families walking, driving, and riding transit as part of their complicated lives that are not monolithically auto-dependent.

Not that the Woodlands is a bad place to live. Their plan has been for years to densify the center of the development to make possible the sort of things all of us want close to our homes, such as retail, coffee shops, safe neighborhood schools, and – on the top of our minds these days – jobs. This kind of walkable urbanism has been available for a hundred years in the original transit-oriented suburbs of Houston, such as the Heights and Montrose, and it will be much more difficult to achieve for all of our existing suburbs if the Houston market is spread out across the distant exurbs.

Majorities of Americans are seeking stronger communities and easier access to all the basic activities of life according to several recent studies including one by the National REALTORS Organization. This shift in American sensibilities could not have come at a better time when we are trying to deal with our outrageous consumption habits in the face of a changing global economy and climate.

Montrose and our other dense mixed-use neighborhoods allow lower carbon lifestyle while supporting the nearby urban cores, Downtown, the Medical Center, Greenway, the Uptown – Galleria area, and Greenspoint. These dense cores – which each have more jobs than downtown Miami or San Diego – are hotbeds of our economy where innovation and efficiency will continue to drive our growth throughout this Century.

Growth in Houston has continued unfettered since the Allen brothers decided that the City of Harrisburg was the ideal location for a city due to its location on Buffalo Bayou – a transportation corridor – and then decided to start a city further up stream since Harrisburg was already there. Our leaders have always guided our growth through transportation planning and until the last half century that transportation infrastructure was based mostly on rail.

The Houston style of development that produced the areas of town where a majority of the residents of the City of Houston now live was changed in the second half of the 20th Century. As opposed to making investments to provide better access for Houstonians, transportation infrastructure began to be used to “open up areas for development” so that the combination of cheap oil and government subsidy could make long distance commutes just barely affordable to families choosing to buy a cheaper home further out. Because of our investment in freeways, part of Houston’s growing population made a logical trade off between housing price and living close to other people, jobs, services, and neighborhood schools.

If we build the Grand Parkway today, decades of Houstonians will factor that perversion of the residential land market in the tough economic choices of their lives. Some of them will choose to live on top of what is still today intact Katy Prairie. If we could spend stimulus money for a change on a variety of transportation options, such as improving walkability, accelerating our light rail plans, and laying the ground work for commuter rail down the 45 corridor to Galveston and Clear Lake and out the densifying northwest side of Houston, our children will have quite a different menu of lifestyle choices.

Do we want to invest in infrastructure that draws more people out into the surrounding wilderness and prime agricultural land or do we want to use our transportation money to improve existing Houstonians lives?

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Jay Blazek Crossley does Program Development and Research at Houston Tomorrow, an independent nonprofit focused on improving the quality of life for the Houston region. He grew up in Montrose, has a Masters in Public Affairs from the LBJ School at the University of Texas, is in the band Woozyhelmet, and returned to Houston three years ago to help build the city of our future. His opinions do not necessarily represent those of the staff and board of Houston Tomorrow.