PETER H. BROWN, 1936–2017 Peter Brown, who passed away yesterday, wore many hats — he was an urban planner, architect, neighborhood activist, city council member, and occasional rapper — as well several distinctive long scarves. Amidst other civic legacies, he leaves behind a substantial back catalog of YouTube videos — in which an unseen cameraperson chronicles Brown’s peripatetic musings on various aspects of Houston’s occasionally urban landscape. As “Pedestrian Pete” on both a Facebook page and YouTube channel of the same name, Brown explored “the good, the bad, and the ugly pedestrian conditions of Houston”: He scoured neighborhoods in search of traversable sidewalks, railed against car-centric attributes of the Heights Walmart, and strolled along Lower Westheimer in conversation with Annise Parker, who had defeated him in his 2009 run for mayor. Brown was 81. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Video: Pedestrian Pete
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Sad. He would have been such an upgrade over Parker. Turner is a pretty lousy mayor, but even he is superior to Parker. When you have a gay mayor not make Anti Discrimination law her first priority as mayor , you know its bad. I always liked Brown.
I like Pete’s videos. I wish more people walked like he and I in this town. The sidewalks are pretty jacked up and completely missing in some places. Such an easy thing to fix too.
Shame he passed away.
I echo all of Glenn W’s comments. Whenever I get a chance to walk through this town, especially someplace that I may have driven by dozens of times without getting out of my car, I learn new things about the city and how it works (or doesn’t).