Houston Sidewalk Ordinance "Revisions" All About Gutting Fee-Nothing To Make Houston Better

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The revision process of Houston's sidewalk ordinance is, with undue haste, ongoing. 

Here is the Houston Planning Department website about the ordinance.  

​Here are the remaining steps in the process-- 

November 21: Planning Commission recommendation
December 2: Quality of Life Council Committee meeting
December 11: City Council meeting

This is a matter for the Houston Democracy Project because Mayor Whitmire recently gutted the existing sidewalk ordinance with a memo rather than by a vote of Council. No democracy involved. 

Three Councilmembers--Tiffany Thomas, Carolyn Evans-Shabazz & Ed Pollard--sought to change a provision in the law that requires developers to either build a sidewalk, or pay a fee to a city sidewalk construction fund when building new homes. They didn't have the votes for this bad idea. Instead, Mayor Whitmire worked it out for them by simply writing a memo allowing exemptions from the requirement to either build the sidewalk or pay up. Not very democratic at all.

It should be called The Gutting The Fee Ordinance. There is nothing else going on here but gutting the fee. There is no urgency to any of this. No longterm planning for Houston sidewalks is taking place. The process is being rushed along through the distractions of the recent election and the holiday season to make it possible to kill the fee.

​Beyond the shifty anti-democratic way Mayor Whitmire watered-down the ordinance, this issue is relevant to fighting for democracy because sidewalks are an important place where people meet up and connect. Sidewalks are such an important place for protest, that Mayor Whitmire unsuccessfully tried in August to restrict the rights of Houstonians to protest on the sidewalk.      ​

The Houston Planning Department took public comments on the Gutting The Fee Ordinance.  Most all the comments oppose the changes.   

Here is a fine comment from a Houstonian about the issue: 

"The City of Houston has a history of being overly accommodating to developers to the detriment of the general public. It was a mistake to not require sidewalks in the past and it makes most sense to build out sidewalks as a property is constructed. A fragment of a sidewalk (“sidewalk to nowhere”) is an incremental improvement towards a more accessible, safe and equitable Houston. We have an obligation to provide safe and accessible streets for everyone."

The Houston Planning Commission discussed the revisions at its monthly meeting last week. The discussion and public testimony starts within a few minutes for the start of the session. Houston City Councilmember Sallie Alcorn spoke against simply removing the fee without a real plan for more sidewalks. I hope she keeps up the opposition and works to, at the least, slow down the process so something productive can come from this.

Planning Commission members who spoke appeared to be of the view that the process should slow down and involve more thought and actual public policy.         
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Here is information about speaking or offering input at the November 21st Planning Committee hearing. 

Here is information about Council's Quality of Life Committee which is taking up the ordinance on December 2nd.    

Here is how you can speak at Council and here is how to contact your councilmember.

So much of Houston is uninhabitable from heat, bad air, stray dogs, aggressive driving, poor streets and bad or non-existent sidewalks. Do we have to make it worse? When we stick up for public space, we stick up for better lives for ourselves. We stick up for the healthy public sphere that strengthens faith in openness and democracy. Why are we doing the work of Trump and the right by actively diminishing the quality and best uses of public space?   

I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show each Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later on Egberto's YouTube channel.​​

Here is a fundraising pitch for Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways.  Please help the effort. 

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