Features

'You betta do somethin’': How seven artists helped Third Ward reclaim itself 30 years ago

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Project Row Houses' debut, the Urban Edge asked author and artist Lindsay Gary to reflect on the impact of this project on Third Ward, on Houston and on her own journey.

With new youth facility, Harris Center takes community-based approach to avoid recidivism

One of the central aspirations of The Harris Center for Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities is to reduce the footprint of criminal justice in the lives of people with mental health concerns. After providing services to over 90,000 individuals in 2022, it recently opened a facility specifically dedicated to juveniles between the ages of 13-17 with the launch of its Youth Diversion Center.

A generation ago, a documentary revealed an unseen housing crisis in Houston

In 1979, a documentary filmmaker and an architect trained both of their lenses on Houston’s housing crisis. The result was a film that could have easily been made today, as housing costs, inflation and demographic change continue to reshape the region. It is also a film that demands a second viewing.

As Fort Bend becomes increasingly urban, developers see opportunity to rethink neighborhood design

A parcel of 235 acres off State Highway 99 and north of Highway 90 in Fort Bend County will be the home of a community where developers are offering residents an open-spaced, “people-first” neighborhood with maximized pedestrian safety, car-free zones and other amenities, including a 42-acre farm and a 25-acre lake.

When it comes to education outcomes, we get what we pay for

A lack of investment in education is holding back students in Houston and Texas, particularly those experiencing socioeconomic challenges, Kinder Institute Director Ruth N. López Turley said on Tuesday.

How a former landfill could help fight floods and reimagine a swath of southwest Houston

A proposal to transform a former landfill in southwest Houston into a mixed-use development with a flood control component recently caught the attention of statewide planners who recognized it for its contributions to resilience.

Historic Tamina community’s $21 million water deal comes at another cost

James Leveston has been fighting for more than 20 years to bring basic public services to the Montgomery County community of Tamina, where he’s lived for most of his life. Late last year, he went door to door asking his neighbors if they would support a deal with the nearby city of Shenandoah to provide water and sewer service. About 150 of the 190 affected households agreed, he said.

2022 in review: Backyards, rooftops, windfalls, buyouts, downtowns and big ideas

From the perspective of the Urban Edge, 2022 was a year when tried-and-true ideas—the utility of a garage apartment and the wisdom of living in close-knit communities—gained new life.

Greener Gulfton effort plants seeds for alleviating neighborhood's nature inequity

In August of 2020, a heat mapping campaign identified Gulfton as the hottest neighborhood in Houston. The effort, co-led by The Nature Conservancy and the Houston Advanced Research Center, indicated that the southwest Houston neighborhood was 17 degrees warmer than the coolest neighborhood measured. A community-driven plan, “Greener Gulfton,” seeks to decrease the sweltering temperature, while adding an array of benefits to the immigrant-rich area that 45,000 residents call home.

Accountability, capacity building and collaboration key to a healthier Settegast

Settegast’s estimated life expectancy of 65.7 years, more than 20 years lower than the highest expectancies in Clear Lake and River Oaks, makes it among the most vulnerable communities in our area. While residents of the historically Black neighborhood in northeast Houston have called out inequities over the course of several decades, those concerns have mostly gone unheeded. But there is hope that change is coming.

Stephen Klineberg: A retrospective

Houston understands itself a little more clearly thanks to 40 years of insight from this Rice social psychologist turned urban visionary.

With Robins Landing, Habitat for Humanity takes on a new role: master-planned community developer

City officials, home builders and affordable housing developers gathered in northeast Houston this week to celebrate a new model for mixed-income housing.

Data partnership bears fruit for Urban Harvest's work confronting food insecurity

Food insecurity has been an increasingly urgent challenge that has afflicted the Houston region, especially during recent crises like Hurricane Harvey, the COVID-19 pandemic, and Winter Storm Uri.

How Houston plans to plant 4.6 million new trees by 2030

Trees can cool our cities and make them more resilient. Here’s a look at what is being done to grow and protect the urban forest in the Houston area.

If remote work survives the pandemic in Houston, it could curb congestion

What for some may be an anticipated return to “normal” is for others an anxiety-filled readjustment to pre-pandemic life. No matter which category you place yourself, there are some aspects of normalcy we’d all prefer to leave in 2019. Chief among them is the daily struggle to get where we need or want to go. Unfortunately, it’s not certain how long we have before traffic in Houston returns and exceeds levels we saw a couple of years ago.