City growing pains
Unwelcomed
Regarding “Briargrove apartment would displace families” (Page A17, March), Houston Independent School District trustee Harvin Moore’s opinion is steeped in politics. Earlier Chronicle articles described residents in Briargrove Elementary School’s boundaries opposing the Houston Housing Authority planning to construct an apartment complex in their neighborhood using the cover of overcrowding in the school, and Moore echoes their concerns.
While most single-family homeowners oppose apartment complexes in their neighborhoods, this vocal opposition is especially loud most probably because it is HHA and not Camden or Finger as the developer.
Bill Spear Bartlett,
Houston
Water worries
The Houston Housing Authority and the federal government have determined that yet one more mega-apartment complex is needed at the location of the former HEB store on the northwest corner of Fountain View and Westheimer.
There is an apartment complex being built just one-quarter mile north. There is another huge multi-dwelling at Westheimer and Fondren.
The city planners, joined at the hip to the feds, are ecstatic about the growth even in face of the severe oil and gas downturn with little hope for recovery in sight. And those dissenters of common sense are worried sick about school overcrowding and traffic increasing, as they should be. But nowhere has anyone addressed the critical problem of where the water for all these people will come from? How will the wastewater from all these people be carried away?
Houston, like most cities today, is strapped. Houston has given away the store to all the municipal workers in retirement benefits. As a result, none of the infrastructure vital to the wellbeing of our residents is attended to.
Our streets are crumbling. The electric grid is overloaded. Old water mains and sewer lines are in great need of replacement. Yet, all those whom we elect to look after our welfare are yelling, “Growth, growth, growth!” Growth has become a dirty word.
Laurence Shallenberger,
Houston