Mrs. White it seems, fully embraces the insanity that has become Houston Metro's fractured transit-backbone.*
Overpass obstinacy. Mrs. White, Chron.com
There is a certain irony to a light rail route that is lined with auto repair shops and tire stores, but that's what you will see along Metro's nearly completed East End line, which follows Harrisburg from downtown to the Magnolia Park Transit Center. It is a reminder that despite this mass transit investment, car is still king in Houston. With this automotive dominance, Metro and City Hall's refusal to work together to build an overpass for this line that accommodates not only rail, but also cars and pedestrians, seems both short-sighted and spiteful.
The argument of many anti-light rail (NOT anti public transit. There is a difference except in the minds of those who refuse to accept fact) advocates has always been that in a car-centric city such as Houston, taking away miles and miles of vehicular lanes to accommodate a glorified toy train that doesn't do anything to promote mobility is counterproductive to transit needs.
To this end, Mrs. White continues in the next paragraph...
It usually doesn't make sense to prioritize roads in what should be a walkable, multi-modal corridor. Anyone who has tried to drive down Main Street knows that.
The lack of logic in this statement, when combined with the talking points in the opening paragraph, is stunning. First, as Mrs. White acknowledges, Houston is still (despite Critical Mass' arguments to the contrary) a car-based city. From that perspective it makes little sense to turn roads in one of the regions largest employment centers into no-car zones.
The fact is, downtown Houston is a driving mess these days. Even now, when car/DangerTrain collisions have finally shown signs of diminishing, it's still tough to navigate and there are now roads that just end. For a city based on the concept of the car, this makes zero sense. It also raises the question as to why grade separation, argued for by DangerTrain critics but fought against by its supporters, is suddenly a "no-brainer" around Harrisburg but was considered necessary in one of the busiest traffic corridors within the City?
Additionally, you can add the Harrisburg overpass to another in the long list of promises to the community broken by Metro's insistence that the great-white whale be rammed down people's throats at all costs.
Despite these problems, an underpass has remained part of the conversation because it is what the community wanted, and what City Hall promised in 2010. Yet, further study has only demonstrated what City Hall and Metro already knew - an underpass is expensive and risky.
If City Hall and Metro both knew that an underpass was "expensive and risky" then one has to question why it was promised to the residents around Harrisburg in the first place? Could it have been to garner support for a project on false pretense?
Houstonians were promised many things upon passing the MetroSolutions referendum, a 50% increase in bus service (when, in fact, bus service has decreased over time), a specific route plan (which Metro apparently never intended to follow) and now an underpass which neither Metro or the City ever intended to build.
Predictably Mrs. White, following the charge laid out long ago in her rail memo, is advocating a solution in line with Metro wishes but which still flies in the face of citizen wants. This should not surprise you because Mrs. White has not operated as a citizen's advocate for a very long time. Instead, she beats every institutional drum loudly and often. That the public occasionally gains a benefit is seen more as a happy accident rather than a sign of good governance.
At this risk of continuing to beat a dead horse, Mrs. White's advocacy for Metro's wishes is doing more to hurt the poor than any of the imagined ills of private business against which she rails frequently. At the least, the business community is employing people and providing end-of-a-gun funding for the things New Urbanists like. At minimum, CM Rodriguez is attempting to keep the wishes of his constituents (customers) in mind. That's more that can be said for Metro and Mrs. White.
To Mrs. White, siding with the rank-and-file against the ruling class is something akin to City treason. If she weren't such a staunch supporter of gun control I would suggest that the editorial calling for dissenters to be taken out behind George R. Brown and shot wouldn't be too long in coming.
With editorials such as this the only logical conclusion should be that Houston would be better off without this group of institutional shills and that the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board should be disbanded with the resources re-deployed to the news desks. Quasi-governmental factions of the Houston institution already employ many former journalists in their PR departments, let's let them earn their keep.
*In honor of our Brazilian friends, I suggest we call the Light Rail system Neymar III
