public-private (emphasis on private)

BSP spent a few days in Houston last week, to see art, enjoy some Tex-Mex and learn more about this Gulf South City. I wouldn’t say it’s a pedestrian-friendly city but my traveling partner is adventuresome so we decided to try and walk to the Urban South brewery, home of my beloved Paradise Park beer and which seemed to lie directly north of our Fourth Ward digs.

Urban South Brewery

Google showed a bewildering criss-cross of pedestrian paths near and over a body of water; however, when we walked along busy Dallas Avenue toward the cut-through street, we were confronted with a locked gate. The same thing another street down.

So we proceeded to even busier Montrose Avenue and went right. Just before a bridge over the waterway, I spied a well-kept pathway and bridge to the right. A sign noted it was part of Houston’s Buffalo Bayou network of hiking and biking trails and we eagerly walked along in the growing twilight.

There wasn’t much signage so when we got to a fork--lower bridge down to a busy street (Memorial?) or higher bridge toward the brewery, we chose the latter, crossed a waterway and found ourselves on another pathway with a couple of dog-walkers and couples. Again, no signage, so we went right, hoping to find a gate or way out/up. The first gate I found was locked from the other side. Hm. The next gate had a keypad, also locked. One exiting couple saw me and hustled to get through before we got close.

Clearly this was intentional.

We headed back the other direction and I finally asked an older dog-walker how we got out. You have to go under the car bridge, she said, pointing. These are all gated communities. I.e., not offering her own gate code, clearly.

Irritated, we walked on a few more minutes and finally came to the busy car bridge. A pathway to the right led up to the street, where we walked along busy, muddy sidewalks, crossed a six-lane street and then two dusty railroad crossings, before arriving at Urban South (who were out of Paradise Park, of course).

I did some research on the Buffalo Bayou trail network and learned this is part of a public-private partnership in Houston. Emphasis on the private, i guess. How are public funds being used in such an exclusionary fashion? What would happen if we really had to get out and oops -- didn’t have a code? Not a few folks have been mugged and robbed. One woman went into the bayou to escape her mugger. The news story doesn’t mention the locked gates.

It’s a question of public safety.

And general old decency and humanity.