Baytown can still shine like a diamond

Photo credit: Steve Liles - Cedar Bayou at Roseland Park 2017

I feel very optimistic about the city of Baytown. There, I said it. Being a citizen of this town since 1974 and watching it grow, I haven't always felt this way. It helps that I am a member of the Strategic Planning Advisory Committee (SPAC) and had input in which direction the city should take over the next 5 years. Incidentally the city is about 6 months into implementing the changes, so progress is actually happening.

Kingwood Trail

This past week 4 of us intrepid geocachers took our bikes up to Kingwood to geocache and we rode along the numerous Greenbelt trails there. Surprise! They were nothing spectacular. Basically we rode on cement trails along highways with occasional dips behind subdivisions and although there are miles of trails, they are basically just sidewalks in the shallow woods.

Here in Baytown, we don't have the luxury of planning development in this manner for the most part. Sure, when a new subdivision goes in, we will see a retention pond added with a cement walkway around it and sidewalks. There will be cookie-cutter landscape added every so many feet to give the appearance of a perfect place to walk the dog. The pond might even have a token fountain and mail order kids playground. Is this really what we want or need? I am for all of this, but it also should be unique and well thought out.

Houston's Donovan Park

Baytown leaders and planners need to put extra effort into making Baytown's parks and trails different and more interesting than places like Kingwood and The Woodlands. When the 4 of us went geocaching, one was from Webster, another from Sugar Land and Larry Houston and I from Baytown. We spent money there too, because after about 5 hours on our bikes, we were hungry. If we make Baytown unique and capitalize on our concessions, people will come here. Our Texas Avenue venues, our disc golf courses, our trail systems, and our new boat ramps all can be draws.

When the SPAC presented our 5 year plan to the city, my small part was to push the idea of uniqueness. I urged the city leaders to take field trips to look and see what other cities are doing to provide anything other than the "same old stuff". Recently I talked to a young man and he urged me to see if Baytown can install a BMX bike track, similar to the 2 skate parks we have. I urged him to gather a petition I could present to our park planners. He informed me that it would be wildly popular and the surrounding cities have nothing like it. This is what I am stressing. Let's be unique.

Espee BMX Park, Chandler Arizona

I have the highest regard for our Parks department and we are making progress. I would love to see a first class BMX park built here, as well as a certified and clearly marked 5K trail in Jenkins Park. A flyover pedestrian bridge connecting Blue Heron Parkway to Jenkins Park would provide hill training for athletes and connect the 2 trails. It simply takes vision and eventually the money will follow. Yes, I feel optimistic about our city. I hope and pray our next mayor follows in our current mayor's footsteps.

I looked back at one of my columns from 12 years ago and I had the same optimism and boy howdy, we are a completely different town. Many naysayers believe it is always better some place else, but as a person who is always on the move geocaching in the Houston area, I can tell you there is a plainness to many of these "nice" areas that smacks of sameness. There are also parts of this huge metropolis that make Baytown look like a shiny diamond contrary to what some profess. Maybe beauty isn't a good description, as in keep Baytown beautiful and maybe we see what we want to see.

I do know that accepting things the way everyone else does isn't for Baytown. We need innovative parks and great access to our waterways. We need vision. We need more people to step up for litter abatement. We need to recognize that the future of Baytown is everyone's responsibility.

We are not the same old place anymore

I would like to say "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore", but that would sound corny, even though it's an accurate quote from The Wizard of Oz. Our tri-city community is gone forever, being replaced by an ever-emerging agglomeration of new businesses, storage units, trailer parks, apartments, and even a few new houses. We've lost that loving feeling of a small community and driving west on I-10 from Beaumont, you enter the city of Baytown and don't stop seeing what is essentially Houston until you pop out on the other side of Katy, 60 miles later.

We are being swallowed up by the expansion of Houston, as the metropolis has ran out of room north, west, and south. Mayor DonCarlos (who I have voted for at least 6 times) told us that we should plan for a quarter of a million people over the next five years or so. If you remember, I predicted a growth of 200,000 a few years ago and a couple of the local righteous curmudgeons basically called me a dreamer and a prognosticator of fake news. If my rememberer is working correctly, they both claimed there was no way Hillary could lose the election.

Well, here's a hard cold fact and maybe you've heard of it or not. Up SH-146 before you get to Dayton and almost directly across the road from the large white rice elevator, they are going to build 14,000 homes. It will be a city in size with police, fire department and a proliferation of support businesses. It is also asserted, but unconfirmed that there will be a major airport built close-by.  I'm not talking a Gum Island expansion either, but a major airline investment. More on that as it progresses.

I was at the VA Medical Center the other day and my PA was telling me about her daily commute from Manvel and how it has become a traffic jam. Well, hello! The entire Houston area has become worse than Garth road at lunch time. Fixing Garth Road will be temporary at best, as more people flood to the area. The only salvation we have is more roads. SH-146 out past Pinehurst will only be remedied when they build an elevated road from the trestle to Maranatha Temple with flyovers for I-10 east and west.

Only driverless cars, trucks and mass transit will make our roads safer when all the stop lights are removed and there is no longer a need for car insurance. Everything will be scheduled and you will get where you are going when it is time to go. What about leisure driving you ask? Maybe you will be able to push a button to take the scenic route. What scenic route? There's nothing scenic left and out in the country is, well, it's a long ways off.

I remember 25 years ago when people left Baytown to live out in the country. They chose The Woodlands. Then everyone wanted to really get out there and they moved to League City, Pearland, and Katy. Seriously? The other day we were at Red Lobster and I drove over to Ward Road and it took almost a half an hour and like Rain Man, I'm an excellent driver.

I tend to get around the entire Houston area either geocaching or visiting the gyms I cover and about the only locale that still has that hometown feel is... La Porte. The east side specifically and I find the slower pace there very refreshing. During the weekday there is almost no traffic, as folks who live there are either retired, working, or sleeping due to shift work - and there are deer over there in the woods near Wharton Weems Boulevard.

Am I being critical of Baytown or its planners?  No, I don't mean to sound like I am. It is what it is and Houston has to grow somewhere. What I am suggesting is we be very careful how we go about accommodating all these new people and businesses. It is far too late to be anything approximating a planned community, but we can be smart about what we allow to be built. I've heard the question raised one time too many of just how many storage units, donut shops, cookie-cutter apartment complexes, and taquerias do we need and yet these very establishments are under construction right now.

It is also extremely important to maintain green spaces and enforce landscaping rules. Expanding the court-driven community service to do more and longer litter abatement punishment would be a positive and encouraging more community efforts toward improving our image would be wonderful. We can indeed take our tri-city area and make it not only better looking, but a draw for quality newcomers by progressive planning.

Like it or not, we are now a major city. Stop griping about Garth Road because we have more Garth Roads coming and Kansas is gone forever.

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