Turner’s plan
Mayor says Houston’s greatness depends on public policy that’s win-win.
People are protesting in the streets. Racial tensions have hit a fever pitch. It feels like the world is about to boil over.
This was the situation in 1967 as cities like Detroit and Los Angeles erupted in civil unrest. President Lyndon B. Johnson responded by appointing the Kerner Commission to investigate the cause of and solutions to the growing violence and turmoil.
Our nation has come a long way since then. Crime rates have plummeted. People are wealthier and healthier. Race relations are better. But the problems addressed by that commission still remain: All too often we live in a nation that is divided by wealth and opportunity — separate and unequal.
Houston takes pride in being the most diverse city in the nation, but we’re also among the most economically segregated. While other cities often have clear dividing lines, our problems are patchwork. This checkerboard of prosperity and poverty splits up those with common cause and keeps the challenges facing our city out of sight, out of mind, for all too many who have the power to truly help. Mayor Sylvester Turner knows these challenges in the marrow of his bones. He attended Harvard Law School and became a successful attorney, but Turner never left Acres Homes, the poor, African-American community where he grew up. While other politicians have used their wealth as a ladder to Piney Point, Southampton or some other million-dollar neighborhood, Turner stayed true to the community that raised him. Turner cares about these people, these families. Turner cares about Houston. This is why he became mayor.
Turner met with the Houston Chronicle editorial board Thursday and reiterated a point we haven’t heard since the campaign trail: Houston is a city divided, and we need to work to bridge those gaps.
“We are all interconnected,” Turner said. “When cities recognize that their greatness in large part will be dependent upon how well you bring up those who are not as fortunate, communities that are not as equipped, we all win.”
Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineberg has been emphasizing this point for years. Houston’s demographics are decades ahead of the rest of the country. We’re younger and browner. The future of our city, and our nation, depends on our success at educating and training this rising generation.
As the mayor said, “It is about developing strategies that are winwin, not win-lose.”
Too many of the policies in place at City Hall stand in the way of the this broad-based development.
The revenue cap has diverted property taxes away from the neediest into the coffers of wealthy tax increment reinvestment zones. Lowincome housing has been concentrated in poor communities, compounding problems that could be diluted. Neighborhood schools that once anchored communities have been gutted.
Even when communities do start to improve, our state’s reliance on property taxes means that rising property values become a burden instead of a boon. Meanwhile, our zoning-free city allows developers to swoop in and transform once-affordable neighborhoods into rows of townhouses and luxury apartments.
Houstonians should wonder whether these sorts of policies are really win-win for everyone.
“People are getting frustrated,” the mayor said.
Turner has held face-to-face meetings across the neediest neighborhoods. It is a sign of good faith that helps douse the simmering embers of racial tension before a police shooting or some other tragedy throws fuel on the fire. But at a certain point, as the mayor said, people want results.
Houston takes pride in being the most diverse city in the nation, but we’re also among the most economically segregated.