Official urges upgrade strategy
The city councilman who represents Sunnyside is calling on residents, city leaders and urban planning experts to come together to make a plan for invigorating the neighborhood while keeping rampant development in check.
Councilman Dwight Boykins, who grew up in nearby South Union, cited improved policing in area parks and other public spaces, programs aimed at curbing illegal dumping and increasing homeownership among the elderly, and the potential for a tax increment reinvestment zone established a year ago as among the tools to help the historic, traditionally African-American neighborhood south of Loop 610.
He called a community meeting to discuss the emerging strategies Monday night, a month after a Houston Chronicle article on Sunnyside in which fairhousing advocates said decades of concentrating subsidized affordable housing there harmed it and other predominantly lowincome neighborhoods. Community leaders at the time released a new report outlining how this history affects current realities.
Citing a “lack of community
amenities and resources” such as grocery stores, parks and single-family homes, Boykins said it’s time for Sunnyside to live up to its potential.
“Sunnyside is a neighborhood of opportunity,” he said.
At the same time, he added, new development should not displace existing residents or radically alter the community’s character. For example, he warned against letting the community be overtaken by high-priced townhome and condominium projects that have proliferated in other gentrified neighborhoods.
Boykins said the tax increment reinvestment zone, which freezes property tax revenue at a base level and allocates the surplus for community improvements, could yield dividends eventually. In the meantime, he said, the Houston Police Department has received money for additional patrols in local parks during peak after-school hours. HPD representatives said crime is down 6 percent in the area this year.
Last month’s report on Sunnyside, prepared by the Texas Organizing Project and Texas Low Income Housing Information Service, argues that public services were systematically denied to the neighborhood and other minority communities in Houston. It says over the last century, the area became a dumping ground for landfills and incinerators and a concentration of government-subsidized housing projects, while receiving fewer public services than white, more affluent communities.
Boykins agreed that the prevalence of governmentsubsidized affordable multifamily-housing units needs to be addressed. He said the city’s goal is to continue targeting blighted properties that can be revitalized and transformed into affordable homes.
Andy Icken, the city’s chief development officer, said in a recent interview that the shift will to look toward communities like Sunnyside, the Fifth Ward and Acres Homes to convince development to move that way.
Half a dozen neighborhoods are being identified from a larger set in which the city can encourage new development, potentially through the use of economic development tools, Icken said.