{"id":285618,"date":"2025-10-08T04:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T04:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/285618\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T04:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T04:38:10","slug":"houston-city-council-to-vote-on-abandoning-polk-street-amid-community-pushback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/285618\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston City Council to vote on abandoning Polk Street amid community pushback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><strong>HOUSTON<\/strong> \u2013 Houston City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to abandon a stretch of Polk Street in downtown \u2014 a move that would clear the way for the George R. Brown Convention Center expansion and TxDOT\u2019s I-45 overhaul.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Residents urge council to reconsider<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">At City Hall Monday, East End residents made last-minute pleas to city leaders, saying the plan would cut them off from the rest of Houston.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cWe are not against the expansion of the George R. Brown,\u201d said Scott Singleton, an East End resident. \u201cWe are against them doing it so that it permanently cuts off the East End from the rest of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Many who live in the area say it\u2019s not the first-time major projects have created barriers between the East End and downtown.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cWe feel like the East End has been historically cut off from the first George R. Brown, from the soccer stadium, from Minute Maid Park, and all of these other developments on that side of downtown,\u201d Singleton said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Concerns stretch beyond the East End<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Other residents say closing Polk would affect more than just their neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cAnybody who comes to a Rockets game at Toyota Center, anybody who comes with their kids to play at Discovery Green, anybody who comes to the convention center \u2014 they use Polk Street,\u201d said Ian Hlavacek, another East End resident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Hlavacek said residents aren\u2019t opposing progress but want a say in how it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cMost of us don\u2019t want it to go away. We want to be part of it though \u2014 we want to be able to get to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Singleton added that City Council should pause the plan until other alternatives are reviewed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cCity Council can either do the right thing \u2014 oppose the abandonment of Polk Street while the other alternatives are considered \u2014 or go along with Houston First and cut off the rest of the East End.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Houston First Corporation\u2019s Responds:<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cAs part of the North Houston Highway Improvement Project (NHHIP), the portion of Polk Street that crosses I-59 will be permanently closed. The closure of an additional two blocks of Polk Street is vital to the GRB transformation project, which is designed to work in tandem with the complete vision of NHHIP. In response to comments and concerns expressed by some community members, Houston First has committed to working together with Houston Public Works to convert Leeland Street to a two-way configuration. That project is moving forward and we believe will be complete within 12 months. Additionally, a recently released traffic study conducted by Transcend Engineers &amp; Planners LLC shows minimal additional travel time across 48 different intersections in the area with the changes proposed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Houston City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to abandon a stretch of Polk&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":285619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[9979,21265,26568,4345,26567,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-285618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-downtown-houston","9":"tag-east-end","10":"tag-george-r-brown-convention-center","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-polk-street","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115336701791235253","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}