Last Chance To See 600 sq mi: Hidden
Missed Connections: Gefilte Fish...and "Chain Connections"
H-Town Rock
Rock Talk, Vol. IX
About 350 people turned out yesterday to hear Houstonians tell the Metro board what they think about the route of the proposed University light rail line, and the message was a resounding "We're not sure what we think." Metro's plan to run most of the line along Richmond Avenue rather than Westpark, as originally proposed, has drawn concern and continued to do so Thursday:
Whatever the board decides late this year, it should "keep the city's long-term best interests in mind" and "build something our children and grandchildren can be proud of," said blogger Tory Gattis.Gattis also said that if Richmond is the choice instead of Westpark — the designated route in a 2002 referendum on Metro's transit plans that was narrowly approved by voters — the board should appoint "somebody with real power" to advocate for business and residents during construction, and ride herd on contractors to minimize harm.
Metro should also "consider a well-funded 'Support Richmond Business' campaign," Gattis said.
Among those against the Richmond route were Chris Seger of the Afton Oaks Civic Club and state Rep. Martha Wong. Afton Oaks residents have been vocal opponents of the line, and that's no surprise — the trains would be running right outside their front doors (just as thousands of cars and trucks do every day now). There is concern that running the rail along Richmond would make businesses go under, cut vehicular access to Richmond and ruin property values for homeowners. Very little of that would happen on Westpark because there's very little on Westpark, whereas a Richmond route would make a direct connection between Montrose, South Shepherd, Kirby, Greenway and Post Oak.
Metro is expected to decide late this year where to put the line. In the meantime, Metro Chairman David Wolff assured residents that "no decision has been made ... I can guarantee you that."
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Sis-in-law was one of those 350 attendees. She returned home last night vehemently opposed to running the rail along Richmond. What I'd like to know is --- why not keep the original plan and use the Westpark right-of -way? Does anybody have the REAL answer?
I used to live off of Westheimer and 610 4-5 years ago and they were just starting construction around the Richmond area.
Guess what? There's STILL construction around Richmond!
I find it hard to believe that anyone who drives or lives around there would be any more inconvenienced than they already are.
The problem with the original design is that Westpark is not pedestrian friendly. Westpark is practically a freeway now because of the tollway, and to have pedestrians and train riders walking all over the area certianly is a hazard for traffic and for them.
Richmond traffic is definitely safer since the road is so poor that you can barely go above 30 mph. Plus it also helps that people live, work, and play all up and down Richmond so less economic development will be needed to ensure the viability of the line.
jayci's essentially right. metro's looking at alternates because the westpark alignment probably doesn't have the ridership to get federal funding via new starts. wilson's noted this a couple of times.
again, they're not exactly sure -- they haven't done an eir/eis and other planning doc's. but they want to keep all options open. the "pro-richmond" crowd isn't necessarily "pro-richmond"; rather, they want to keep all study options open so that metro and the public are given information about all possible alignments. (westheimer's already been taken off the table, but that's more because of physical problems with using westheimer [tight rights-of-way -- think about the two-lane segments of westheimer.])
I have a couple of questions which hopefully someone can answer. Since Westpark starts at Kirby, what is the expected route from Wheeler to Westpark?
Secondly, if we are going to spend money no mass transit and we do need mass transit, it has to go close to where people want and need to go and that is along Richmond. A route along Richmond will stop close to the restaurants and store around Montrose, St. Thomas University, Lower Shepherd commericial area, Upper Kirby and Greeway Plaza. Finally, Westpark does not come close to the Galleria.
I'm seeing alot of NIMBY people and already near Richmond and Shepherd people are putting up sign against the rail. There are alot of abandoned buildings between Shepherd and Montrose on Richmond. That area could use some development.
the prelim alignments that metro's studying explains a couple of things (http://www.ridemetro.org/pdf/UnivBaseAlign1.pdf). first -- the expected route would be in the median of 59, which may be problematic due to the overpass bridges. i'm sure that'll be explained in the draft EIR/EIS.
here's caveat for you: the richmond alignment would probably end up exactly where the westpark alignment ends up -- on westpark and post oak. b/c of opposition from the afton oaks civic ass'n and narrow rights-of-way, richmond down to post oak is considered fairly dead. the proposed richmond alignment curves down to the westpark ROW on either weslayan, timmons, or the SP ROW to westpark, ending on westpark and s. rice. (southern end of the new uptown BRT line, probably.)
however, metro isn't totally ruling out (better in terms of actual alignment, but more problematic for a number of logistical reasons [afton oaks being one of them]) richmond and curving up to westheimer. if we let the technical process play out, we can see what experts say will and won't work.
and between shepherd and montrose? there's development there, just not commercial development. there's the menil (and its numerous offshoots--the flavin!), tapatia and random small quirky stores.
but yeah, the only way metro can build a sustainable system is to build alignments that fit major activity centers. that's why main's a success, and that's why richmond would be more successful than westpark. the most important thing, however, is to just let the technical process play out and see what experts tell us.