The region’s largest COVID vaccine site — created to cater to vulnerable communities — is drive-thru-only, a process that frustrated some observers as health officials work to balance better access to shots, huge demand and the need to inoculate as many people as fast as possible. Opened Wednesday, the vaccination site at NRG Park [...]
The Metropolitan Transit Authority has distributed more than 2 million face masks to riders since the agency mandated the facial coverings last summer, officials said this week. Metro spokesman Jerome Gray said handouts of disposable masks peaked at about 15,000 masks daily in the summer before sliding to about 5,000 each day during January. [...]
This Transit Equity Day, we would like to acknowledge and thank Janis Scott for her unceasing commitment to improving and preserving public transit access for all Houston-area residents. Janis truly embodies the values central to transit equity. [Read more.] Understanding Houston | February 3, 2021 READ FULL ARTICLE
Texas highway officials Thursday gave themselves the green light to rebuild Interstate 45 in Houston, a crucial step in the process, despite lingering concerns from critics that the proposed $7.5 billion widening project is out of step with the region's future needs. [Read more.] Dug Begley Houston Chronicle | February 4, 2021 READ [...]
The four-person leadership of the Houston area’s regional mobility council will stay virtually the same for 2021, after suburban officials substituted two key positions. Officials prior to the divided vote last Friday said the move was necessary to better reflect both urban and suburban representation at the top ranks of the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s [...]
A monthslong process to reach an understanding between regional leaders and the Texas Department of Transportation about objectives of the I-45 project stalled Jan. 22. What began as a memorandum of understanding, a binding agreement between the group of regional leaders from the Houston-Galveston Area Council and TxDOT, was then reworked into a less [...]
At activists’ and local officials’ request, the Texas Department of Transportation extended the public comment period on the forthcoming I-45 project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement. “TxDOT wishes to assure the public that our team will continue to engage with the stakeholders and seek meaningful opportunities to enhance this project,” an Oct. 28 release from [...]
A group of regional county and transportation leaders are seeking feedback on how to address community input on the pending multibillion-dollar overhaul of I-45 through downtown Houston and the Northside. The city of Houston conducted months of feedback on the Texas Department of Transportation-led plan, which proposes rerouting I-45 away from Midtown and through [...]
A proposed highway expansion threatens to disproportionately displace communities of colour, but Biden’s infrastructure plans could change that. Prevention specialist Elda Reyes lives in a modest, three-bedroom home nestled in the corner of a small residential street in north Houston, close to Interstate 45 (I-45). She bought the house 17 years ago, building a [...]
There’s a big difference between the level of public transportation service Houstonians receive and it all depends on where they live, but METRO is spending big money to work on solutions to create more equity in the city’s transit system. Here’s a closer look at the issue by the numbers. [Read more.] Anavid Reyes KPRC [...]
!["Some 92 percent of people who would be displaced by the proposed expansion of the I-45 highway in Houston, Texas in the United States are from communities of colour [Courtesy: Jessica Wiggins/Al Jazeera]"](https://linkhouston.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/AJ-Pic-320x202.jpg)
