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In April 2019, after a man in a wheelchair and a woman helping him cross the street were killed, Mayor Turner said, “Everyone must invest in safer, more accessible and more complete streets for all.”
In April 2020, he has decided not to do that. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Why-is-it-so-hard-to-say-yes-to-walkability-in-15190737.php
In April 2020, he has decided not to do that. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Why-is-it-so-hard-to-say-yes-to-walkability-in-15190737.php
What changed? Houston’s streets did not become safer, more accessible and more complete all on their own. @DugBegley tweeted in January that deaths *increased* in 2019, including 193 people walking and biking. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/transportation/article/Road-deaths-rise-in-Houston-region-despite-new-14938162.php
What changed? Mayor Turner's public comments didn't. He has been consistent all year. In August, he signed an executive order, Vision Zero Houston, to “end traffic deaths and serious injuries on Houston roads by the year 2030.”
https://cityofhouston.news/mayor-sylvester-turner-signs-vision-zero-executive-order-to-eliminate-traffic-fatalities-and-injuries/
https://cityofhouston.news/mayor-sylvester-turner-signs-vision-zero-executive-order-to-eliminate-traffic-fatalities-and-injuries/
At the time, he said, “No loss of life is acceptable on our roadways, none, zero.”
In February 2020, he released the city's Resilient Houston plan. That plan says: “Safety and accessibility will be the number one priority in the design and construction of Houston streets, bikeways and sidewalks.”
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/City-launches-Resilient-Houston-plan-to-15051469.php
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/City-launches-Resilient-Houston-plan-to-15051469.php
This April, one year after he held a press conference near the site of one more fatal crash in what @DugBegley and @stjbs found to be the "deadliest city" in the country for people who are moving around, he decided ... not to do that.
At the city council meeting on Tuesday, April 7, he said community members had not reached “consensus” about a greenway concept that would have introduced raised intersections, trees and a shared path for pedestrians and bicyclists in Midtown and Montrose.
He said, “I said to Public Works, go and do community engagement and do your assessment. They have come back to me. There is no consensus. I have decided to move forward with the work.” (It’s about 36 minutes in.) https://www.facebook.com/HoustonTelevision/videos/334756600831399/
Is this what he means by “consensus”? Residents in Montrose and Midtown shared emails with me that show identical language asking @HouPublicWorks to “move forward.” Is this four opinions, or one?
(At least one of these was signed by the developer of residential properties that say they are "just a short walk away” from the many bars, restaurants and parks in Midtown and Montrose. Apparently, walkability is good right up to the moment the city wants to build some.)
But it’s disingenuous. The city needed the community to demonstrate consensus before it could complete a project that came out of the city’s process designed to meet the city’s repeatedly stated goals?
But the question, here, is what’s changed. Last April, Mayor Turner said, “Just because we made this intersection safer … does not mean we need another horrific accident to take place before we improve other intersections.”
https://www.houstontx.gov/mayor/press/safer-streets-initiative-progress.html
https://www.houstontx.gov/mayor/press/safer-streets-initiative-progress.html
This April, he said he did not want to do that because there was no "consensus." Should everyone, as Mayor Turner has said, “invest in safer, more accessible and more complete streets for all”? If we should, when are we going to? Next time?
In 2016, he said our region needed a “paradigm shift” when it comes to transportation. If it does, when is that going to start? Next time? https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2016/05/17/151017/houstons-mayor-calls-for-a-paradigm-shift-in-transportation-planning/
In 2020, he had an opportunity to complete a project that would have helped achieve the goals he stated are important at least three times in 2019. What changed. Why is it so hard, here, to say yes? https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Why-is-it-so-hard-to-say-yes-to-walkability-in-15190737.php
