The walk to catch a Long Point-Cavalcade bus in Kashmere Gardens, or to school at Baker Ripley in Gulfton, will soon be safer and smoother, after federal officials committed $43.4 million to sidewalk, drainage and shade improvements in the long-neglected neighborhoods.
These Houston neighborhoods will wait months for the work to begin, as designs must still be finalized. New sidewalks in the communities could open in 2026, though much of that timetable could also be accelerated by the federal funds, or face changes as city officials review certain projects.
Though the projects will take time to complete, they will offer relief from long-festering obstacles to accessing amenities such as parks and libraries and critical locations such as job sites and schools.
“While the purpose of transportation is to connect, in too many communities past infrastructure decisions have served instead to divide,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said, announcing recipients of the funds Tuesday afternoon.
“Gulfton is a vibrant part of Texas' Seventh Congressional District, and this investment will enhance multi-modal accessibility and improve the overall well-being for members of the Gulfton community, enabling Houstonians to travel safely to and from work, school and other destinations,” said U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston.
Because both Gulfton and Kashmere Gardens are considered home to low-income and disadvantaged populations, there is no local funding match required, unlike most federal transportation funding.
The work, if it proceeds, comes at a time of transition for city transportation projects, as Mayor John Whitmire, who took office in January, revisits projects started during former Mayor Sylvester Turner’s tenure.
On Wednesday, Houston Public Works sent more than three dozen representatives of management districts, planning and engineering consultants and others an email requesting a “temporary hold on all projects” that include narrowing or removing vehicle lanes or adding an on-street bike lane.
“These include projects that are currently in planning, design and construction,” public works engineer Jiada Huang wrote in the email. “This request is due to the new administration’s need for vetting projects that are impactful and meaningful.”
Huang said officials would make a case-by-case decision on each project “upon receiving the authority from the Mayor’s office.”
Public Works spokeswoman Katelynn Burns said the pause was typical for any administration change and likely only to affect a “handful” of projects.
“We expect these reviews to be completed over the next several weeks,” Burns said.
Tom Perez, senior adviser for intergovernmental affairs to President Joe Biden, said those who view these projects as a loss of a vehicle lane or money that could spent on more roads need to go see how successful previous programs have been.
“It is going to open up opportunities,” Perez said, noting bridges in Milwaukee and Washington, D.C., where bike lanes either have been installed or will be part of upcoming work. “It is a bit of a false choice when you say you are taking from one to give to another.”
In Texas and other places, Perez said the proposals came after vibrant community dialogue and with support from elected officials and community groups.
“They are really meeting the moment of what these communities want,” he said. “They want sustainable communities where they can get out and where their kids can walk.”
As projects await Whitmire’s approval, federal officials and local advocates cheered Houston’s inclusion in the $3.3 billion “reconnecting communities” program announced Tuesday afternoon.
“Sidewalks in the Gulfton and Kashmere Gardens communities are intermittent or nonexistent, which creates safety concerns and barriers for all people, including students, elderly, and those with disabilities,” federal officials wrote in a summary of the grant’s purpose. “There are few trees to provide relief from heat, improve air quality, or restore mental health… The conditions along the corridors presented for this grant application create extremely unpleasant and often dangerous conditions for people walking, cycling, rolling, and using transit.”
The assessment is unlikely to surprise pedestrians, cyclists and even many drivers in some Houston neighborhoods. Repairing the broken sidewalks and dark paths, meanwhile, was cheered by advocates of pedestrian-focused projects.
“It’s crucial that individuals can move through their neighborhoods safely and with dignity, whether they’re walking, biking or rolling,” said Gabe Cazares, executive director of LINKHouston, a transportation advocacy group that wrote a letter of support for the sidewalk projects.
Still, Cazares said two major projects cannot fix systematic, citywide challenges.
“We view these improvements as only the beginning in addressing the deficiencies in Houston’s disjointed sidewalk infrastructure,” he said.
In Kashmere Gardens, a Metropolitan Transit Authority bus stop along bustling Hirsch Road might or might not have a shelter. And for most travelers it requires a trip down a broken sidewalk on a variety of cross-streets — walking routes overgrown with grass and weeds, leaving only a worn dirt path inches from vehicular traffic.
Along Crane and Russell, the federal funding will install storm sewers to lessen the use of open ditches, opening up space atop the sewer pipe for wider rebuilt sidewalks. Work also will add lighting along the sidewalks, providing additional safety benefits, city officials said.
In Gulfton, by many measures the most diverse and transit-dependant area of the Houston region, local street crossings can be treacherous, with poorly marked crosswalks and virtually no shelter from the Texas sun.
“You are going to see a lot of tree planting because that is quite an effective tool,” Perez said of many of the local projects.
Along Renwick, which in addition to Hillcroft is the main north-south street in the heart of Gulfton, the plans include narrowing the street from two lanes in each direction to one, then improving local street crossings, adding wider sidewalks with more buffer between the street, and planting nearly approximately 300 trees.
The sidewalk work in Houston is the largest, but not the only award in the region. A Harris County proposal for better sidewalk access along the Westpark Tollway will receive $1.2 million of its $1.5 million total cost. The work aligns with plans by the Harris County Toll Road Authority and Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones to better connect both sides of the tollway in Alief.
Six of the 132 projects selected are in Texas, spread across the five major metro areas and totaling about $234.9 million. The largest award — $105.2 million — was given for planned freeway caps along Interstate 35 in downtown Austin.
The federal money, part of the infrastructure bill passed in 2021, addresses places where previous transportation decisions have divided communities, or where investment has for various reasons not occurred as it has in other wealthier parts of American cities. After the protests related to the death of Houston native George Floyd in Minneapolis, considerations of how freeway planning in particular has divided communities has taken on increased interest.
“It is not an exercise in guilt or to wallow in the past,” Buttigieg told reporters during a Tuesday briefing, noting some of the criticism of the discussion. “It is propulsion to a better future.”
Many of the people who made decisions of where to place freeways — often in low-income areas of industrial cities — are no longer around, Buttigieg said.
“All of us are responsible for what we are doing now,” he added.
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