At Universities line meeting, Mayor and Congressman praise METRO leadership, commit to collaborative process
Pictured above (L-R) are METRO President & CEO Frank Wilson, METRO Board Chairman David Wolff, Mayor Bill White, Congressman John Culberson, and Council Member Pam Holm. Council Member Anne Clutterbuck is not pictured.
Mayor Bill White, Congressman John Culberson, and three district City Council Members — Holm, Clutterbuck, and Edwards — hosted a public meeting regarding METRO’s Universities line at St. Luke’s UMC tonight. Their stated purpose was to listen to concerns and comments from people in the corridor. Like the METRO board meeting in February, several hundred (KTRK-13 says nearly a thousand) interested residents came out to participate.
The talking point that really caught my attention was that both Mayor White and Congressman Culberson explicitly vouched for METRO.
Mayor White introduced the topic asking, “Have you noticed that METRO has controversies from time to time?” and eliciting laughter. He reassured the audience saying, “We recruited new leadership for METRO” early in the first term. “We recruited the finest leaders in the city and the finest transit president in the country.” He said clearly that “rapid transit is an important issue” and Houston has to be serious about it:
“We’ve grown as a city and become more dense. We know there have to be alternatives other than expanding every major thoroughfare and freeway because that’s so expensive and so disruptive to our neighborhoods.”
Mayor White also reminded us that “we’re fortunate to have a Congressman on the key committees to make sure our city get its fair share of transportation funding, including transit funding.” So if we want federal money to put some real alternatives in some of our neighborhoods, Culberson is the person to go get it.
Congressman Culberson echoed the Mayor’s praise of METRO, saying “we all should know that there’s new METRO leadership.” He acknowledged his past disagreements with the previous administration, and said of the new leaders, “I’ve been extremely impressed with them” and “the new METRO board has been a real pleasure to work with.” (I hope that the Congressman works hard enough to secure needed funding to earn similar praise from METRO’s leaders.) I think the point of all the compliments is that Houstonians can and should expect more and better projects from METRO now than ever before.
Culberson was the only leader who presumed to anoint a specific route alignment, saying “I think instinctively we’ll do better to put [the rail] on Westpark where we do have the corridor,” and went on to talk about serving suburban Fort Bend County and 290. I don’t think he understands yet that his district now includes urban activity centers that are starving for high-quality urban transit. The other leaders talked about the importance of getting good information and making careful route decisions based on facts.
In general, all of the leaders present again expressed their commitment to a collaborative planning process. Several leaders assured the audience that there will be many opportunities to participate and “nothing will get crammed down the community’s throat.”
The public comments brought many speakers for Westpark, some for Richmond, and a few who are eager for commuter rail to their suburbs. Of the scores of people signed up, only the first 30 had the opportunity to speak, and each for only a minute or so. Fortunately, the district City Council members are convening nine neighborhood meetings in April in neighborhoods all along the corridor. And METRO will start the federally-required public meeting process soon after.
If you’re wondering whether you should participate in this process, you should, and Mayor White explained it best: “You are participating in an important process of building Houston for the next generation.”