21 Comment

• Innerlooped January 13, 2017 at 9:13 am

  Killen’s would make a fortune if they opened somewhere on S Main near NRG. Pappa’s seems like they can barely keep up with bbq demand in the area (especially after events), and Killen’s would draw people in and be an anchor.
• Wolf Brand Chili January 13, 2017 at 9:31 am

  Re: City Council Has ‘Eureka’ Moment in Changing Dowling St to Emancipation Avenue
  .
  While I like the word ’emancipation’, it is a bit clunky. If they wanted to honor someone, they should have named it “Lincoln Avenue” since the only Lincoln Street in Houston runs for exactly one block. (Look it up on Google Maps if you want to verify.)
  .
  I’d wager that the City Council then wanted to do the bare minimum to honor Abe Lincoln. Even our forgettable one-term 8th President Van Buren has a street that runs 9 blocks.
• Barks January 13, 2017 at 10:44 am

  Streets should be numbered to avoid this unnecessary public preening by the current hate groups.
• MyTwoCents January 13, 2017 at 10:46 am

  Broadway Street landscaping finished in time for the Superbowl. Enjoy while you can. I suspect it’ll be a ugly mess again very soon. In order for something to stay nice, the people who live around it have to care about it, and take pains to keep it that way.
• Dana-X January 13, 2017 at 10:51 am

  Emancipation Avenue…what a joke. Remind every black person who finds themselves on that street that their ancestors or “their people” were once slaves. Great idea. Oh yeah and some guy named Dowling who almost no one 150 year later even knows or cares about was a Confederate soldier…like almost every able-bodied Texan male was. We need to remove his name asap. And his statue in Hermann Park too…and didn’t Sam Houston own a slave or two? Big can o’ worms there.
• Robert Boyd January 13, 2017 at 11:25 am

  Dana-X–You know that Emancipation runs right next to Emancipation Park. Emancipation Park is on land bought by former slaves in 1872 for the purpose of having a place where they could celebrate Juneteenth. In 1918, it was bought by the COH to be a public park. At the time, it was the only public park in Houston that African Americans could use. The rumor was that Dowling St, which was previously named Broadway, was renamed intentionally to insult African Americans by shoving the name of Houston’s most famous Confederate war leader in their faces. (Ditto with Tuam, which runs along the north border of the park and is the birthplace of Richard Dowling.)

  Are you saying that African Americans should forget history? In which case, maybe we should stop celebrating Juneteenth and rename Emancipation Park.
• Dana-X January 13, 2017 at 1:09 pm

  “Are you saying that African Americans should forget history? In which case, maybe we should stop celebrating Juneteenth and rename Emancipation Park.”

  No, but why do city servants want to remind them of a sad history? Does it impart a positive emotion? Emancipation……..yes!
• TheNiche January 13, 2017 at 2:32 pm

  @ Robert Boyd: It was Bastrop Street that had previously been named Broadway. The 1896 Sanborn insurance maps depict both Broadway and Dowling existing concurrently at that time.

  https://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/sanborn/h.html
  (see maps 10, 14, 18, and 26)
• Diaspora January 13, 2017 at 2:53 pm

  Wow, its not named slavery street, but emancipation street. You get the sequence of time, here, right Dana-ex?
• Old School January 13, 2017 at 3:44 pm

  Yeah, let’s get rid of the Holocaust museum while we are at it. I am Jewish and I do not like being reminded of how my ancestors were persecuted during WWII. There is nothing in the current international political climate that gives me any concern. So, maybe replace it with a museum dedicated to the strip mall.
• Eddie January 13, 2017 at 3:59 pm

  Dana X. You make no damn sense. If, as you say, the local African Americans shouldn’t be reminded of their “sad” history, than why keep the street named after Dowling, a confederate?? I can’t speak for the Black community, but as a member of the LGBT community, I can tell you there are words and figures from our pasts that hold power and emotion for many of our minority communities. If the term “Emancipation” resonates with the majority of the surrounding black community, who the hell are you to question that?? Or do you simply just like coming off as a racist?
• OhBrother January 13, 2017 at 4:26 pm

  SMH at the do-gooders renaming streets so they can pat themselves on the backs.
• OhBrother January 13, 2017 at 4:27 pm

  Robert Boyd- If someone is born here they are Americans, no self-segregating hyphen needed or wanted.
• JoeDirt January 13, 2017 at 5:18 pm

  It’s funny how people love to call people racist without any indication of that…and then tell others that they shouldn’t categorize people…
• GoogleMaster January 13, 2017 at 5:21 pm

  @TheNiche: Bastrop might have previously been Broadway, but Dowling was previously E. Broadway. Take a look at the 1890 map #8 from your same link. It shows both Broadway and E. Broadway.
• Houstonreader January 13, 2017 at 6:18 pm

  @ Dana-X: so does July 4 remind you of British rule and make you sad?
• TheNiche January 13, 2017 at 9:18 pm

  GoogleMaster +1
• MrEction January 16, 2017 at 9:20 am

  Lol, only a white person would think that it’s a street name of all things that reminds african americans of their history of slavery. Like it’s something they forgot.
• Purple City January 16, 2017 at 11:36 am

  I’m just disappointed they didn’t name it Malcolm X Boulevard.
• Memebag January 16, 2017 at 1:26 pm

  I’d vote for DJ Screw Street.
• MrEction January 16, 2017 at 3:23 pm

  And the speed limit is 5 mph