East End envisions walkable, safe Houston

Public redevelopment planning

Jay Blazek Crossley, Jul 06, 11.

The East End community just outside of downtown is seeking to redevelop its main street - Navigation and the surrounding area - as a walkable urban neighborhood, as development of the new Dynamos stadium continues, according to KUHF:

“Patrick Ezzell heads the East End Management District’s efforts to transform an area along Navigation, basically the neighborhood around the original Ninfa’s location, from a mostly light industrial working class neighborhood into what is known as a Livable Center.

It’s sort of like when you go to another city and you get out and you walk to a restaurant, you walk to a little grocery store, you walk down really nice streets that are well-lit with trees and everything is within reach. People are working there. People are living in the neighborhood. Everything is within reach and you go “Wow. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had this in Houston?”

Part of Ezzell’s vision includes street markets in a park along the center of Navigation and even a museum district of sorts. With 300 vacant acres in the immediate area, he says now is the time to shape the neighborhood’s future before someone else does.

“If we did nothing, this area will redevelop and you’ll get a lot of growth here. But the growth without any influence from the outside or working on sort of the community desires, will be more like anything from mini-warehouses to high-density apartments to whatever people can make work. So what we’re working to do it help it be redeveloped in a way that makes sense for the community.”