HOUSTON – One of the first areas of Houston to be settled by freed slaves is getting some much needed attention.
Several projects to not only revitalize but also preserve the historical value of the Fourth Ward are happening right now
“This is a gem, west of downtown Houston,” said Fourth Ward resident, Felix Cisneros.
He says he loves the home he’s lived in for more than 20 years, just as much as he loves the historic neighborhood it sits in. However, there’s one major problem.
”Look at me, I have to be really careful, I have to look down,” he said. “We need to do the infrastructure; we need to do sidewalks that are ADA because I am disabled. I have fallen a couple of times around here.”
Cisneros came to us frustrated because a three-phase project that began in the early 2000′s, intended to revitalize the neighborhood and fix crumbling infrastructure still hasn’t been completed.
His section of Saulnier Street falls into that category.
”We’re the ones that live here, we’re the ones that pay taxes,” he said.
Executive Director of the Fourth Ward Redevelopment Authority, Vanessa Sampson, says tax money through the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, or TIRZ 14 is being put towards the final phase of project after conferring with the new mayoral administration.
”One of the hiccups in this particular phase three is they were kicking us back saying we need wider sidewalks, and we said we’re not going to do that, because once we did it (put original sized sidewalks) in phase 1 and phase 2, we’re going to be consistent,” Sampson said.
Narrower than usual streets are historical features of Fourth Ward that Sampson and her team want to preserve. She says she’s now waiting on final approval from the director of Public Works which could happen any day now, then the construction bidding process can begin.
”Once we receive everything, we rank them top three then we bring them in for interviews and go through the process or whatever, then we select the contractor and we’re ready to go,” Sampson said.
She adds the goal is to break ground early next year. Meanwhile just a few blocks away around Andrews and Wilson, handmade bricks streets laid by freed slaves who first settled there, sit on top of aging pipes that are over 100 years old.
Planner Manager with Houston Public Works, Donald Buaku, is heading a roughly $10 million project called the Freedmen’s Town Wilson and Andrews Street Project. It’s aimed at fixing infrastructural issues while preserving the historic roads.
“The challenge to all of us was how we replace this underlying infrastructure while maintaining the integrity of the bricks,” Buaku said. “That is what we started…in the last year and a half with this effort and we are happy we are at a point where together with community, we have a plan in place.”
Working closely with the Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy, The Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston, and members of the community, Buaku says there is a revitalization plan in place that involves delicate construction.
“Areas west of Wilson over there, the sub-base is a little more stable. It’s in better condition, so we’re going to use what we call trench-less methods where you actually bore underneath the streets…without touching the bricks,” Buaku said.
He says other areas may require the bricks to be temporarily removed.
”But then the good news is we are going to have an archeologist on board, and we will set it back as much as possible in place,” he said.
As far as this project is concerned, it’s not just underneath the historical bricks that’s being renewed, cement along Andrews outlines where trolley tracks used to be. It’s an idea that Buaku says will be reimagined.
”What we’ve planned to do is to put in some…brick pattern to show or to illustrate to visitors or anyone here, where the track used to be and we are even thinking of putting in some metal rails from that era that will actually depict where that trolley used to be,” he added.
With Buaku now working to get an engineering design team on board and finalize the plan, he hopes to see construction begin in about two years.
