Construction on the new pedestrian bridge going up across Brays Bayou in Mason Park is heading into its 14th month. When it’s done, the 16-ft.-wide, 485-ft.-long structure will provide a link between the north section of the park off S. 7th St., and its southern portion — currently the only part of the 104-acre green space with access to the Brays Bayou Greenway Trail.
The bridge’s landing point on the south side will overshoot the trail by a bit though, as shown in the rendering below:
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That’ll force bike and foot traffic to turn around on their way down to the bayou-side route:
Also coming together as part of the recent park renovations, a few new sections grade-level pavement:
And this newly-installed FixIt repair station, which includes tools necessary for addressing basic bike problems:
- East End residents are anxious for a completion of the Pedestrian Bridge [Priscilla Argueta]
- Have you seen the new 8-foot-wide trail connector we’re building [Robert Gallegos]
- Previously on Swamplot: Bayou-Sundered Mason Park Territories To Be United by Victory-Fingered Pedestrian Bridge
Photos: Priscilla Argueta (bridge); Robert Gallegos (trail). Map and rendering: Houston Parks Board
They’ve got a bridge section on each side of the bayou now…I’m trying to figure out how the middle section over the water will be placed.
It was interesting to see how the concrete pads were anchored. They used 20’ish long by maybe 2′ square thick concrete piers and pounded them through the soil until they were under the ground, then poured the concrete over them. The pounding sound went on for a few days and I could hear it half a mile away.
Any improvement to bike/pedestrian trails is cause for celebration as far as I’m concerned. And I’m grateful for this improvement. But…
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First, I’m wishing that they would connect the trail on the south side of the bayou (at the east end of Mason Park) to the trail that continues on the other side of the RR tracks.
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And second, I’m just not getting the need for this bridge when there’s a sidewalk along the 75th Street bridge, which I’ve never seen with that much traffic.
Honestly, in that part of town, how many will use it? It’s like building library’s in areas where nobody uses them for PC reasons. Looks like a cool bridge; wonder how long before its tagged?
this is very similar to one of bridges across Buffalo Bayou near Dunlavy.
Depending on why Thayer believes that that bridge will soon be tagged, his comment is either racist or classist. Either way, it’s certainly ignorant because Mason Park gets plenty of use. It’s a beautiful park, and, despite being “in that part of town,” it’s been kept that way.
@Thayer. That is a straight up ignorant comment, if not a tinge racist. So lower income people don’t deserve nice things or go to parks? Get over your classist self, you really aren’t that special.
@Thayer: You’re asking how many poor people ride bicycles? Really?
I grew up in Memorial and my grandmother lives in River Oaks and things get tagged there so how exactly is that “racistâ€. People throw that word around so much in inappropriate ways that’s it’s lost it’s relevancy. Saying that an urban foot bridge might get tagged or that Libraries are often put in area that they get no use to Politically Correct reasons, isn’t “racism†it’s a fact. Stop throwing such a loaded word at something or someone you don’t agree with.
I used to live on Yorktown and Jungman was the only library for that entire area… Tanglewood/Post Oak et.al. and you could NEVER find the library book you wanted it was always checked out but if you looked at the library (inter library search) on Lyons you could find every book you ever wanted and you could see that none has been checked out in literally years. In the real world you would have closed underperforming libraries and opened more in areas where library use was prevalent, but ohhh no, that’s “racist†So please spar me the liberal boilerplate. I’m citing empirical evidence against your PC anecdotal.
Well, Thayer, in that case, you might explain why your original comment began with “Honestly, in that part of town…,” but I’d skip the exercise because your denial is as disingenuous as it is incompetent. I’ll agree that “racist” gets tossed around in cases where it doesn’t apply, but yours isn’t one of them.
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And, honestly, learn to write good English.
I’d say poor people probably use the city parks MORE than middle-class people, since the poor are less likely to have big yards or belong to private country clubs.
As far as the comment about Mason Park being in a lower-income area etc, that comment would still have shown prejudice 10 years ago when the area WAS mostly lower-working class hispanics, but the City is well aware that the area is gentrifying fast and that the park already has many road bike types from the ‘other side of town’ riding through now on a regular basis and so is somewhat syncing with that and actively encouraging that with this, and the anticipating the enhanced taxes that go with that, just as Emancipation Park was spiffed up amid major gentrification.
Its learning to write English well, actually. And your pejorative really has little effect on me simply because you make my case about the word. Farrakhan is a racist, David Duke is racist, in those cases the word has power because its based on much empirical evidence. Instead of being snarky about grammar and throwing out a loaded words that simply don’t apply, you should perhaps instead defend your position. Things don’t get tagged on that side of Houston? What’s the overall usage of libraries in Houston in relation to location? Don’t be uncivil just because you disagree, it’s undignified.
@Dana X. You inspire me to take a ride over to that area. I don’t want to be accused of “prejudiceâ€, even 10 years ago. I’ll make note of any graffiti and inquire on library usage in the area while I’m there. I’ll make a day of it! Oh, the fun I’ll have. I’ll take Sasha, my Samoyed, she loves a good walk. We usually use Memorial or Buffalo Bayou Park, but I’m sure this area is much nicer from what you say. Ill go tell Sasha, not sure how she’ll react, you know she’s white and Russian and not known for her tolerance, for example she has issues with German Shepard’s and French Bulldogs.
@Thayer: you’re mistaken. The word “good” is an adjective that modifies the noun “English” in my sentence. “Well” is an adverb and cannot modify a noun, but rather a verb.
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Grammar aside, you can deny your meaning all you like, but you pointed your finger at that side of town to wonder whether anyone would use the bridge and how quickly it’d be tagged. You deny having made any assumptions about the people who live around there, but then you haven’t yet explained what it is about them that would prompt either of your questions. The fact is, you’re only stonewalling, so have the integrity to own up to what you said before you go lecturing anybody about dignity.
I’m not calling you pejorative’s. I’m simply stating my opinion based on my own emperical evidence. You can disagree, without being disagreeable. Try it.
Your obsession with grammar is to be commended. Its a lost skill; kind of like cursive. (I have beautiful handwriting BTW. ;). I think we have exhausted this thread. Next
As long as we’re picking on grammar, I think “it’s” is the word you’re looking for.
When you’re taking your graffiti survey, don’t forget to come over to the land of $850K townhomes and half-million-dollar dirt. We’ve got just as much graffiti here in Montrose.
Thayer, in my experience, libraries in lower-economic class areas are heavily used. They’re great for internet, free programs and classes or simply to beat the heat. Not sure why you’d make assumptions otherwise, your personal book rental history notwithstanding.
(***sigh…***) how much Spring Branch schools (or Kinkaid, or Strake, or whatever) have slipped when their alumni are no longer familiar with the proper use of apostrophes.
(me: Rummel Creek, Spring Forest JH, Westchester HS – so I KNOW how well they taught proper English back in the day.)