Table of Contents
Contributors
Kate Grossman; Lucy II. Holmes; Richard Ingersoll; Carlos Jimenez; Spiro Kostof; Joe McGrath; and Jeffrey L. Meikle.
Cite 23
Fall 1989
Editor’s Note
This issue of Cite has a broad range of articles and no named guest editor. The following editorial appeared at the start of the issue:
For nearly a decade. Cite has chronicled the Metropolitan Transit Authority's planning for a rail system, first with a special issue on an ill-advised proposal for an elevated segment downtown (Fall 1982) and later with reports on the general configuration of a light-rail system connector (Fall 1987) and the consideration of specific rail technologies for the connector (Spring-Summer 1989).
Just as planning seemed virtually complete, Robert C. Lanier, appointed last year as chairman of the Metro board of directors by Mayor Kathryn J. Whitmire, appears to be dismantling the agency's commitment to build the first increment of the rail system, approved by a public referendum in January 1988. Lanier, a former chairman of the Texas Highway Commission, is concerned that projections for initial ridership may be overstated and that rail may not be cost effective for Houston, at least in the near term. Now he has suspended plans for the system connector pending further review by a new series of consultants. Several business leaders have criticized Lanier's backtracking, spurring the chairman to announce that he will resign his volunteer position after the Metro board acts on the results of the most recent restudy. Lanier's fellow board members, most of whom were instrumental in devising the rail plan, have remained silent.
The system connector, projected for completion by the year 2000, was planned in a deliberate, somewhat protracted fashion that benefited from a previous generation of rail plans devised in the early 1970s. It was prepared and presented by Metro, publicly debated among special-interest groups (from grassroots to chamber of commerce), modified in consultation with elected officials, and finally approved by popular vote.
A mass transit system is a monumental public works project that could significantly enhance the city's future form, logistical efficiency, and air quality. As it is currently drawn, the rail line will create a hub linking Houston's dominant work centers - downtown, the Texas Medical Center, Greenway Plaza, and the Galleria - from which lines can be extended to the east, west, and north to create a viable regional rail network. Inner-city neighborhoods stand to benefit immediately from the access provided by stations along the hub rail lines, while the system would penetrate, once and for all, the city's most congested destination points.
The Metro board of directors should stand by its by now amply considered plan to build the system connector as the first installment of a regional rail transit network. To do less is to jeopardize Houston's already belated acceptance of rail as an attractive, efficient alternative to the automobile - an alternative conducive to both continued growth and a better quality of life.