Save White Oak Bayou
How Calling It a Park Could Save The Greenway
Concerned Houstonian
While I am not an Urban Designer, City Planner, Civil Engineer or Traffic Guru, I am a concerned citizen of Houston, TX. I live ~2 miles from Stude Park, and bike there frequently following Buffalo Bayou up through White Oak. The I-10 elevation project proposed by TxDOT will be detrimental to my personal health and the health of our community. White Oak Bayou as it stands is a space for family recreation and bike rides, long strolls and active commutes. An elevated highway filled with loud cars will surely not enhance our park experience, so why are they forcing it on us?
What Is TxDOT‘s Plan?
The I-10 elevation project will cost $347 Million, raising the highway 90 feet and encroaching further onto White Oak Bayou. This will only exacerbate the noise, air, and visual pollution all too familiar with highways. If we continue to raise and expand highways within the inner core of Houston, there will not be a Houston left to visit. This project will destroy what urban wooded areas exist under the guise of flood control, all for the support of suburban commuters and freight throughout the city. Flood control is important, especially in a city like Houston, but it is malpractice to couple every flood management project with a highway development. This is not an essay on car dependency — no matter how much of an issue that is — but rather a condemnation of TxDOT’s maleficence within our city. Their commitment to building car infrastructure and car infrastructure only is harming the makeup of Houston neighborhoods, and continues to impact Houstonians who want to live an active lifestyle outside of a car.
Unbeknownst to many, Houston has a beautiful skyline that can be seen from various vantage points. Unencumbered views though are rare. That’s where White Oak Bayou comes into play. Houston, founded on the confluence of Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou, boasts an incredible view of downtown when you follow the latter bayou south from the Heights. This exact view is what TxDOT plans to cover head to toe in highway if they have their way.
Already there is little space between the existing shared use path following White Oak Bayou and I-10, and TxDOT intends to put the highway in full view of any and all park users. It was very kind of them to offer us another shared use path on the other side of the bayou, but do we really want to bike underneath an entire overpass? I assure you these TxDOT engineers don’t understand that we prefer to bike under the blue sky and not a littered highway.
How Can I Help?
We must act quick as TxDOT intends to start construction next Summer.
As Fred Lindner wrote in our letter to the city, “we are petitioning the city of Houston to formally designate the White Oak Greenway as a city park. This will preserve natural habitat for area wildlife, provide greenspace for public use, and prevent development on this land, including the expansion of freeways.
Without formal protection, this land is not protected and can be destroyed to make way for development. Currently TxDOT has plans to clear cut 28 acres of forest to construct a detention pond, raise the freeway by 90 ft., and place numerous elevated ramps over land that is currently used by wildlife and the public.”
What we can do to help is the following:
- Sign the Create White Oak Bayou Park petition
- Contact your elected officials
- Follow Save White Oak Bayou on Twitter and Instagram
It’s never too late to save what precious green space exists in Houston! I urge you to contact your elected officials and let them know that parks are more important than highways.
