Federal officials halt development on TxDOT's $7 billion rebuild of I-45 (Houston: apartments, mattress)

[travelguy_73]

Originally Posted by lotophage

What I think the city really wants (but politically can't really say) is more gentrification, not less. Hellish commutes bring more wealthy people into the center. Wealthy urban cores are very in fashion right now. If we looked a little more like San Francisco on the Gulf Coast that would certainly be a nice bullet point as we continue to pitch the city to big tech.

While I think it is more nuanced than this within the opposition groups, you definitely have a point. There HAS to be a sizable number of people who have latched on to the marginalized communities argument, though what they really care about is making the suburbs less attractive. And I can't say I blame them.

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by travelguy_73

It's not about gentrification, and more often than not the residents don't own and therefore don't participate in any value created. Also, having a freeway next door to you so that Woodlands residents can get to the office faster isn't a gentrifying force.

The freeway is already there. This is a rebuild.

[travelguy_73]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

The freeway is already there. This is a rebuild.

? The full extent of the project includes much more than the existing footprint of the North Freeway. If it didn't, no one would care.

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by travelguy_73

? The full extent of the project includes much more than the existing footprint of the North Freeway. If it didn't, no one would care.

Sure, the footprint is a little wider but it's not like building a new freeway through an area that has none. So now you're 200 feet from the freeway instead of 300 feet? There's no one in those areas that hasn't deal with freeway noise, pollution, and traffic all their lives. The noise will likely be less.

[houston-nomad]

A quick google search shows that the negative impacts of this project (and many others) on communities of color have been evident for years. If it took until now for them to be acknowledged, and the project paused, that doesn't mean the problems aren't real, it just means those problems weren't taken seriously until now, mainly because TXDoT seems to have been pretty okay with destroying communities of color.

https://www.npr.org/2021/04/07/98478...ources-report/
https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/20...ndence-heights
https://www.texasobserver.org/more-h...more-problems/

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

Sure, the footprint is a little wider but it's not like building a new freeway through an area that has none. So now you're 200 feet from the freeway instead of 300 feet? There's no one in those areas that hasn't deal with freeway noise, pollution, and traffic all their lives. The noise will likely be less.

This affects 1000 residences so maybe 3 or 4 thousand people tops in a city of 2.3 million that is a minute number for a project that will bring the freeway system in Houston into the 21st century.

The residence will get top dollar for their property and the businesses will relocate one block to the east.

Maybe the local officials think they will get a better deal from Biden's infrastructure plan and if that is the case and they execute it right then all bets are off and I will applaud them for their cunning. But on the face of it ,this delay sucks.

[gwarnecke]

Freeway constructions and expansions chew up the neighborhoods that sit next to them, this is nothing new. When BW8 was built, it sliced right through the middle of Memorial Bend and a bunch of homes in the neighborhood were leveled. When the Katy Freeway was expanded, plenty of homes in Spring Valley Village were sacrificed. It's unfortunate, but imagine what mobility in West Houston would be like today if BW8 and the widened Katy Freeway never happened.

I'm not convinced that the impacted neighborhoods along I-45 deserve special treatment, as long as all eminent domain requirements are met. If the city really wants to "force" gentrification by making commutes to The Woodlands miserable, then they obviously haven't been paying attention to the past 1-2 decades of development patterns. The northern suburbs are growing much faster than the city of Houston, major employers such as Exxon have pulled out of downtown in favor of suburban campuses, and The Woodlands is continually adding amenities that make regular trips to the city unnecessary. When HPE announced the relocation of their corporate HQ, where again did they decide to put it?

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

This affects 1000 residences so maybe 3 or 4 thousand people tops in a city of 2.3 million that is a minute number for a project that will bring the freeway system in Houston into the 21st century.

The residence will get top dollar for their property and the businesses will relocate one block to the east.

Maybe the local officials think they will get a better deal from Biden's infrastructure plan and if that is the case and they execute it right then all bets are off and I will applaud them for their cunning. But on the face of it ,this delay sucks.

And define "affects".

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

And define "affects".

Let me change that to directly affects 1000 residences that will be moved, it will indirectly affect the entire Metro with positive changes to the I-45 corridor and the removal of the Pierce Elevated.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

Freeway constructions and expansions chew up the neighborhoods that sit next to them, this is nothing new. When BW8 was built, it sliced right through the middle of Memorial Bend and a bunch of homes in the neighborhood were leveled. When the Katy Freeway was expanded, plenty of homes in Spring Valley Village were sacrificed. It's unfortunate, but imagine what mobility in West Houston would be like today if BW8 and the widened Katy Freeway never happened.

I'm not convinced that the impacted neighborhoods along I-45 deserve special treatment, as long as all eminent domain requirements are met. If the city really wants to "force" gentrification by making commutes to The Woodlands miserable, then they obviously haven't been paying attention to the past 1-2 decades of development patterns. The northern suburbs are growing much faster than the city of Houston, major employers such as Exxon have pulled out of downtown in favor of suburban campuses, and The Woodlands is continually adding amenities that make regular trips to the city unnecessary. When HPE announced the relocation of their corporate HQ, where again did they decide to put it?

ExxonMobil built their campus to consolidate all of the different offices they had all over town. They wanted a mid rise form, which is impossible downtown, and so built the campus in Spring, where they could get enough land to hold the necessary buildings. I also suspect that security had something to do with the location, since it's a long way from a public road to a building, making truck bombs far less likely to do significant damage, and making it far more difficult for entities like Greenpeace to take over a building.

HPE is building in the suburbs, just like predecessor Compaq did.

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

Let me change that to directly affects 1000 residences that will be moved, it will indirectly affect the entire Metro with positive changes to the I-45 corridor and the removal of the Pierce Elevated.

Removal of the pierce Elevated(a bad idea in my opinion) is not dependent on the rest of the project.