new downtown park

New urban park gets green light to blossom in downtown Houston

Introducing the new Southern Downtown Park.

Courtesy photo

Look for more green amid the soaring skyscrapers and busy street scenes of downtown Houston. The city core’s nonstop redevelopment continues with the growth of a new park to sit in the blocks between Fannin, San Jacinto, Bell, and Leland streets.

With a physical address in the 1500 block of Fannin, the park will be located in an area that currently is home to South Texas College of Law, the Brown Book Shop, several offices, and apartments.

Called the Southern Downtown Park, the new hub will be a gathering space in a quickly growing portion of the city. Since 2012, 1,500 new residential units have opened, and more are being developed, according to a release.

The new park will join its Downtown neighbors, Discovery Green, and Market Square, as a place for casual gatherings and planned programming such as exercise or concerts. It’s slated to open in October 2020.

The Southern Downtown Park supports one of the key recommendations of Plan Downtown, a 20-year vision plan for Downtown Houston: providing open spaces that help anchor new development clusters, which in turn “create memorable landmarks supportive of surrounding uses and will promote increased activity,” according to the statement.

Lauren Griffin Associates, the team behind Downtown’s Discovery Green and Market Square projects, is on board to design, according to the release.

“Lauren has formed a thoughtful and collaborative design team for this project,” said Bob Eury, Downtown Redevelopment Authority president. “Not only does the team have a proven track record here in Houston creating beautiful and active public spaces, but they promise to bring fresh and innovative ideas to the table.”

The design process is set to begin later this month, with construction beginning sometime in the second half of 2019. As the Houston Chronicle reported earlier this week, renderings for the new park include a café, dog park, open spaces, and a sustainable garden.

Also on board for the project are Gensler, which is providing architectural services for the fast-casual restaurant, storage building and other structures; Gandy2 Lighting Design, which will provide lighting services; Kuo & Associates, providing civil engineering; and Waterscape Consultants, which is slated to provide water feature engineering.

parks downtown

share the road

Texas is one of the least cyclist-friendly states in the nation

Photo by Danist Soh on Unsplash

If you've ridden your bicycle in Houston, you already know how true this is.

In what will come as no surprise to cyclists around Houston, the state of Texas is not a good place for bicycle riding. According to a new report of the "Most Cycling-Friendly States in the U.S.," Texas comes in at No. 47 — meaning that only three other states are worse.

The report, from Philadelphia personal injury law firm KaplunMarx, examines all 50 states based on six metrics: Air quality index, the number of cyclist deaths per one million residents, bike routes per square mile, local government actions supporting cycling, federal funding for cycling projects, and bicycle laws.

Texas musters a mere 31 points out of 100 for its "cycling friendly score."

The most cycling friendly state in the U.S.: Minnesota, which earned 84 points to claim the title.

According to the report's findings, there have been 15 local government actions per capita in Texas that integrate pedestrians and cyclists in transportation projects. Texas' has a 41 air quality index value, and there are approximately 1.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles in the state.

On cyclist deaths, Texas does a little better, with three cyclist deaths per one million residents in Texas — about nine percent lower than the national average.

According to KaplunMarx founding partner Ted Kaplun, there is an average of 857 cyclist fatalities in the U.S. every year. He adds that every measure or community effort to improve cyclist-friendliness is beneficial for all Americans.

"It's crucial for all states to continually assess and enhance their cycling provisions, learning from both high-ranking peers and their own experiences," he says.

Top-ranking Minnesota has only one cyclist death per one million state residents. It also has about 27.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles.

After Minnesota, the remaining top five best states for cyclists are Massachusetts (No. 2), Rhode Island (No. 3), Washington (No. 4), and Iowa (No. 5).

At the bottom of the list are Nevada (No. 48), Arizona (No. 49), and Utah (No. 50) — all of which performed far worse than Texas to be declared the three least cycling-friendly states.

The entire country still has areas for improvement when it comes to creating a safer environment for cyclists, regardless of where each state landed on the list, according to Kaplun.

"With over 53 million Americans riding bicycles regularly, the importance of cycling-friendly infrastructure and safety measures cannot be overstated," said Kaplun in the report. "This isn't just about rankings – it's about enhancing the quality of life, promoting sustainable transportation, and most crucially, saving lives."

texas reports rankings cyclists