Our Bayous. Mrs. White, ChronBlog
The time is right to start making full recreational use of our bayou system on a regular basis, not just once a year. The Bayou Greens Initiative connecting 150 miles of trails and new Buffalo Bayou Park along Allen Parkway are great steps in that direction. In addition, the long-awaited site referred to as the Sunset Coffee Shop Building at 1019 Commerce at Main will offer kayak and canoe rentals by the end of the year. Another rental facility for boats will be located on the banks of the soon to be constructed "Lost Lake," which is at Dunlavy and Allen Parkway east of the Beth Yeshurun Cemetery. The put-in point for canoes and kayaks at Woodway near the 610 loop is set to be finished in early summer.I think it's a great thing that Houston (along with the county and several other private and quasi-governmental entities) has taken strides to improve the water quality and recreational potential for Buffalo Bayou. Truly this is a positive sign for the residents of Houston who might enjoy paddling down a lazy bayou on a sunny Summer's day.
As is usual, Mrs. White's problem is trying to make this something it's not. This gem was buried at the bottom of the editorial:
Lake Austin/Buffalo Bayou. Not exactly apples to apples, but we predict that the sight of canoes and kayaks on the bayou will become inceasingly [sic] more common. People enjoybing[sic] themselves on our waterways will be an economic boost for the area and good for tourism. Skeptics may believe there is a field-of-dreams quality about the bayou as a recreation center. But 180 years ago, a dream about the bayou became the city of Houston.
Ignoring the copy errors for a minute (which runs into another theme of how bad the copy editing is at ChronBlog) the idea that kayaking on Houston's bayou system provides a meaningful economic and tourism boost is wrong-headed. As is the idea Houston is an "indoor city".
Let me explain.
If you want to see evidence of the outdoor nature of Houstonians one needs only to visit one of Harris County's many parks on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. As I've mentioned before, I live on the NorthWest side of Harris County in the general vicinity of Bear Creek Park. On the weekends, the park is packed with families either cooking out of playing games of soccer (organized or not), flying kites, using the jogging trails or a host of many other activities. The same can be said for Memorial Park, Hermann Park, Disco Green, any of the multiple dog parks and other recreational areas with activities ranging from fitness circuits to disc golf.
Speaking of golf, have you ever tried to get a tee-time at Memorial Park on a Saturday?
The fact is many of Houston's residents take advantage of the great outdoors, even in the Summer when you don't need a grill to cook meat. The problem, as Mrs. White and others see it, is that Harris County residents are not spending their time outside inside the Loop. Outside of Disco Green, which I thought was a mistake at the time it was built but admit to being wrong about, downtown is better known for a good tunnel system, a train with a propensity of running down cars, bicyclists and pedestrians, but not outdoor recreation. Again, this doesn't mean that bayou kayaking is a bad idea, only that the image cast by the ruling class and their courtiers of Houston being a collection of sun-averse, mall shopping mole-persons is inaccurate at best, an outright lie at worst.
Yes, people in Houston shop at malls. So do people in Austin, Portland, Seattle and other cities that are considered outdoor meccas. But people in Houston also shop in Rice Village, Town Centre and a host of other outdoor areas where you can find them walking around outside. Have you been up to The Woodlands recently? What the Bayou Initiative is, at it's heart, is a good amenity for people who live inside the Loop, especially in the Heights and in the burgeoning Near Northeast side. It's a great thing for residents of those areas that people who live here might drive down to (since Metro seems incapable of transporting them) during a weekend.
Where Mrs. White falls short is trying to tie this to the great white whale of tourism and the enigma that is economic development. Houston has always been, and continues to be, a city where business gets done. It is not a tourist mecca, it is never going to be a top convention destination, although it does host conventions. Houston is a place where people want to live because there are jobs and a relatively low cost of living. Adding things like kayaking bayous will help increase the quality of living, but not tourism. I also highly doubt that the ability to paddle down a slow-moving estuary will be the kicker that determines whether or not people relocate here. Economic development is driven by jobs and industry.
What worries me most when I read such ramblings is the history of Houston's leadership to listen to the unproductive class and take their eye off the ball. This proclivity has led to a crumbling infrastructure and a focus on trinkets designed to generate names on plaques which some feel build legacies. Bayous and downtown parks are nice, as are bike trails. Modernizing and repairing the infrastructure, sequencing traffic lights, pollution control at a street level (Have you seen all of the litter strewn around Houston?) will do far more to improve Houston's reputation than a series of travel ads promoting our bayous to tourists.
That said, Mrs. White has always preferred the shiny over the practical, it's too bad there's little chance of this changing because a region that's as nice as Houston deserves better.
