Serving the Neighborhoods with Storefronts
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 7:50 PM
Longtime Houstonians know the pain of living their normal lives around major construction.
On my street where the city has been installing new sewer pipes, simply getting in and out of the driveway has been a major headache and time delay. It's frustrating, it's inconvenient.
Now METRO is gearing up to do major construction in five neighborhoods, building light-rail lines. For the residents and businesses in those neighborhoods, we know construction will be a huge disruption for you.
So we're trying to make it easier for you with the opening of a storefront in each of these neighborhoods. Staffed by five employees, the METRO storefronts will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday.
"What we want to do is continue to foster a dialogue between METRO and the community," said Kim Williams, associate vice president/corporate programs, pictured above. "We want to make sure we maintain the character of the neighborhood and that we take into account the things that are important to the community - preserving the landscape, the street scape, pedestrian safety. Where do people want to see trees? Where would the pedestrian crosswalks go? All those questions need to be worked out to make sure the system fits into the neighborhood."
Each corridor office will have a staffer dedicated to fostering small businesses; and two employees charged with working with both residents and businesses. You'll be able to come into the office and pick up brochures and see pictures of the alignment and replicas of the rail station.
METRO is hoping these storefronts will make it easier for you when you have a concern, for example, about that bulldozer blocking the entrance to your business. We want these outreach offices to be your "one-stop shopping" whenever you have a complaint or comment about the construction in your neighborhood.
"I do think that John Sedlak (executive vice president at METRO) would want to say we are innovators in creating outreach offices in the communities where our projects are occurring," said Williams. "We haven't seen other entities do it to the same extent. We did this successfully along Main Street and found it to be very helpful in engaging the community. Instead of them coming to us, we came to them."
Tomorrow, a grand opening press event will feature Frank J. Wilson, METRO's chief executive and president, Mayor Bill White and other elected officials. And on Saturday, a fun event, free and open to the public, will take place in two locations:
DATE: Saturday, Dec. 1
TIME: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
PLACE:
1. Southeast Community Outreach Office
Palm Center
5330 Griggs Rd.
Houston, TX 77021
2. East End Community Outreach Office
Las Palmas Shopping Center
6215 Harrisburg
Houston, TX 77011
Come meet the corridor office staff, learn more about METRO Solutions and METRORail and enjoy complimentary refreshments and local entertainment for the whole family. We'll even be giving away free coloring pages for kids. We'll also have an engineer and planner on hand to answer any technical questions.
See you Saturday!