The next Sunday Streets HTX is December 7 from noon to 4 p.m. along Navigation and N. York in the East End and Fifth Ward. The city closes the street to motorized traffic and opens it to human-powered traffic like walking and bicycling. This 1.5-mile curve through historic Houston neighborhoods becomes a 2.5-mile loop if you include the hike and bike trail along Buffalo Bayou that intersects with the route at both ends.
This final of six Sunday Streets held in Houston this first year promises to bring together all the elements that distinguished the previous routes. The rapid succession of landscapes is unparalleled. You’ll move from urban to small-town feel to industrial ruins to active industry to alternative art to agriculture and back again. The layers of history in the built and natural environments, and the connection of the communities there to the history, are visible. As in the Third Ward last month, streets that were dividing lines in a segregated Houston will serve as public spaces where all are invited.
Our Lady of Guadalupe. Photo: Raj Mankad.
Talento Bilingue and Main Street Theatre. Photo: Raj Mankad.
St. Vincent's Cemetary. Photo: Raj Mankad.
Navigation Esplanade. Photo: Raj Mankad.
Bicycle rack by Anthony Thompson Shumate. Photo: Raj Mankad.
Dona Maria Mexican Cafe. Photo: Raj Mankad.
Fire Department Station 17. Photo: Raj Mankad.
N. York. Photo: Raj Mankad.
Buffalo Bayou and Downtown Houston from N. York. Photo: Raj Mankad.
J. L. Proler site. Photo: Raj Mankad.
The Silo. Image courtesy The Silo.
Concrete bayou trail. Photo: Raj Mankad.
Dirt bayou trail. Photo: Raj Mankad.
Silos on bayou trail. Photo: Raj Mankad.
It’s difficult to pack in one blog post all that you can experience. For one, you can join a group ride with Bayou City Outdoors leaving from Market Square at 12:30.
For the rest, starting from the east end of the route, pause to appreciate Our Lady of Guadalupe and read the historic marker. In 1911, more than 100 years ago, four priests established the church to serve Houston's Spanish-speaking population, which grew quickly as Mexican refugees fled the revolution of 1910. The current church was completed in 1923 and designed by Leo M. J. Dielman. Stephen Fox writes in his Houston architectural guide that it is "detailed with Lombard Romanesque features and finished in light red brick." The church continued is mission by serving Vietnamese immigrants in the 1970s. Police will be present to help worshippers with parking.
Across the street from the church, Talento Bilingue will host an all-day music festival featuring Tejano legend Ram Herrera and the Main Street Theatre Weekend Family Performances. You might want to end here because the music festival will continue after the Sunday Streets. Guadalupe Plaza is under construction and the plans have received a mixed reception according to recent KUHF reports.
Between Talento Bilingue and the row of restaurants on Navigation is the St. Vincent's Cemetery, where Dick Dowling is buried. He led Confederates to victory over the Union in the Second Battle of Sabine Pass during the Civil War. (One of the last Sunday Streets was named after him!) The cemetery is a reminder that this area was once the edge of town, where a traveler would cross dairy farms, fruit orchards, and country houses before reaching Harrisburg.
The reworked Navigation Esplanade (designed by Civic Design) opened in late 2013. What was a shady stretch of grass now features public art that doubles as benches and bicycle racks, shade, solar-powered lighting, public art, and space for vendors. The deliberate non-Spanglish used in the public art received some attention when it opened. Those vendor spaces will come to life this Sunday. The El Burro and the Bull food truck will serve barbecue. Barrio Dogs will schedule spay and neuter appointments and could have dogs available for adoption. Finca Tres Robles, a new urban farm located near the route, will sell their first crop of vegetables. Young entrepreneurs with Lemonade Day will have a stand. Fitmix will lead dancing in the street.
The brick-and-mortar Mexican restaurants on Navigation --- Ninfa's, El Tiempo, Merida, and Dona Maria --- are well known throughout Houston and are the main draw for casual visitors to the neighborhood. Each one has a different take on the broad and deep worlds of Mexican food. The inside and patio seating of each also has its own relaxing, rejuvenating, humanizing qualities. Dona Maria will have live music, a DJ, and a pinata. El Tiempo is sharing their parking lot with B-cycle and Bike Houston, so you can check out a bicycle or store your own at the valet. Look for Urban Movement's Parkour demonstrations. The Houston Dynamo will have an inflatable goal.
Station Number 17 will have a variety of activities to engage children, including a model house that demonstrates fire safety dos and don'ts. I hope they will practice mounting their hoses on fire hydrants as they did when I walked by.
The primary objective of Sunday Streets HTX for the city is to get people moving and physically active. After the main strip of Navigation retail ends, you will have plenty of space to do just that. Try to experience the whole route. Look for a beautiful new mosaic of what looks like folded paper airplanes by Jesse Sifuentes, newly installed as part of the Transported + Renewed project.
You will be rewarded when you approach and enter the Fifth Ward. The view of Downtown to the west from the bridge over Buffalo Bayou is worth the effort. Look east and you'll see the gleaming mound of scrap metal from the J. L. Proler Iron and Steel Company. The machine that crushes old cars into cubes is called the Prolerizer and was invented by the Proler brothers --- Hymie, Sammy, Jackie and Izzy --- in Houston in the late 1950s according to this New Yorker article.
In addition to the view, a range of individuals and groups will be activating the space from Tony Marron Park at the foot of the bridge, the bridge itself, and the route from the bridge to Clinton. The Pink Parachute Project returns. Join me in playing with a big pink parachute and recycled banners from the City of Houston Building Materials Reuse Warehouse. The U.S.D.A. Forestry Service "GreenSchools" team in the East End is setting up a "seed bomb" table. Veronica Castillo is leading Zumba. Sown and Grown has planned to use a bike trailer to cart around fresh greens and transplants. Fifth Ward residents are setting up a bicycle obstacle course to keep you entertained and alert as you enter their neighborhood.
The route stops at Clinton but you can follow signs that will be up to The Silo, a hulking old Rice mill converted into an alternative art space, and to the Last Organic Outpost, the first urban farm in Houston. The Silo will have Hula Hoop and Poi (Spinning) instructors and demonstrations, Live Music, Art Show and provide parking for 100 cars. It is also home to a huge collection of art cars. A truly wondrous space alternatively jam-packed with art and expansively empty. The Last Organic Outpost is one of the most hopeful places in the city producing huge quantities of fresh food in the middle of a food desert. You can continue the adventure by exploring Japhet Creek.
Don't double back on the exact route. Be sure to make a loop using the trail along Buffalo Bayou. A few sections of the trail are dirt, narrow, and rutted so you will likely have to walk your bike for part of the way if you bring one, but most of the way is fresh, wide, and smooth concrete. You might see a blue heron, white ibis, or a boat in the water. You'll see active industry and ruins from previous eras. Try to find this monument to safety recently uncovered by a bicyclist on a call to nature. When you come upon the silos (there are two sets of silos on this route!), you are close to the restaurant row on Navigation. Thank the Buffalo Bayou Partnership for having the foresight to secure this right of way and improve access without scraping the history there. Read David Theis's excellent article on the area and Allyn West's stunning exploration of the insides of the silos.
You can take either Live Oak back to restaurant row and relax there, or you can keep on the trail all the way to Jensen where you can catch Ram Herrera.
