Cite Fall 1990 Fourth Ward and the Siege of Rives Taylor The stalemate in rhe city's Fourth Ward it is clear that the HACH has set out on a Venture, is malcing good-faith attempts at The need for an effective and comprehen- and Allen Parkway Village appears to be course of conduct that creates a hazardous, learning how to work with this realiry. sivc ciry masrci plan, possibl) including reaching a conclusion of sorts in late 1990. uninhabitable environment for the tenants Nonetheless, the trust of the neighborhood notions of land use controls or zoning, is On one front, the joint efforts of Cullcn at AI'V apartments. It is equally clear that residents in either the public bureaucracy nowhere more apparent than in Fourth Center, Inc., and American General the purpose of the Frost-Leland Amendment or rhe profit-driven corporation is minimal. Ward. With the listing in the National 1 Investment Corporation in the Founders was to stop that course of conduct. Register of Historic Places of both Allen Park Venture have precipitated the begin- The efforts of the past year on the parr of Parkway Village and Fourth Ward, the nings of a community participation process I I1.1t legal action should he necessary to the Founders Park Venture to acquire efficacy of this designation in general is in the formulation of plans for the neigh- protect the complex underscores the portions of Fourth Ward and all of Allen largely unrealized and essentially unrecog- borhood's 600-plus acres. The city, in disparity between the ideals and goals of Parkway Village and create a master plan nized by the city as a great urban potential. general, seems to be waiting on the side- the city housing authority and the aspira- for a large mixed-use development there The demolition and sale of Allen Parkway lines of this current process. Meanwhile tions of a dwindling number of African- make this a propirious moment to reexam- Village and the slow disappearance of numerous city agencies, when questioned, American residents in Allen Parkway ine the physical and political landscape of Fourth Ward neighborhoods, whether rhe are being very circumspect in describing Village and Fourrh Ward. The issue is a these neighborhoods. In August 1990 a result of malevolent intention 01 not, taisc their past actions in the area because of a much larger one, however. While a number communiry forum was held and a neigh- the question of the validity and wisdom of lawsuit pending against the Housing of ciry officials are outspoken in separating borhood sreering group formed, both dispersing the disadvantaged and elderly Authority of the City of Houston tHACH), the fate of Allen Parkway Village from that orchestrated by Gary Hack of Carr Lynch from homogeneous communities to smaller brought by residents of Allen Parkway of Fourth Ward, events in the last 15 years, Hack and Sandcll of Boston and frank settlements scattered throughout the wider Village. The community groups of rhe area, and more specifically the last two, have Kelly of Sikes Jennings Kelly & Brewer of city. The improvement of vital road and divided in allegiance, patience, and means, shown that the area bounded by down- Houston, both urban design planning and service infrastructure, key throughout the continue ID try through .1 numbci ol efforts town, Taft Street, Buffalo Bayou, and the architecture firms. In the first section of city, is essential in Fourth Ward. Its to preserve, or at least save a bit of, their West Cray vicinity is in fact an area with a this article, the efforts of city agencies to antiquated water and sewer systems have neighborhood. common future - a future of great impor- solve the neighborhood's problems are exa- stifled most new growth and rehabilitation tance to the entire city. These disparate mined in a chronological lorm that iden- on any scale and have given the ciry cause Ruling in April 1989 against the housing neighhorhoods are ar the epicenter of a tifies the various actors and their intended to adopt an unstated policy of outright authority in an injunction sought in con- complex array of private and public forces policies. The alternative approach, urban condemnation in the area. There are even junction with the lawsuit, federal judge vying to fashion a vision of Houston for policy made by eliciting communiry allegations, forwarded by community Kenneth M. Hoyt assumed an admonitory the 1990s. Planning this valuable acreage participation in order to formulate a activist Virgil Knox, that this area will tone: has tested and will continue to test the new coordinated master planning process, is become the site for a Metro station huilt in balance of power in the ciry following its apparent in the private sector's nascent conjunction with a proposed bullet train years of economic upheaval. Whereas efforts, mentioned above. The second terminal across Buffalo Bayou.! The evidence shows that the HACH com- Houston was a closed field of endeavor for installment will examine this formulation menced destruction of the APV [Allen private capitalism, a new era of comnui- of urban policy and the origins and Parkway Village} apartments in 1983- In terms of rhe political landscape of the nii\ ktM.il participation and vision has viability of the various Fourth Ward and Ever since the HACH's application for the city of Houston in the next decade, no swept across the country, compelling even Allen Parkway Village communiry renovation was rejected by HUD, the HACH emerging facet of the current debate will Houston, along with its private sector, to activist groups. has ceased to actively repair and improve have more far-reaching ramifications than face the prospect of forming and building AI'V apartments. Indeed, its policy of no- the concept of community control of a communiry consensus. renovation has admittedly contributed to Allen Parkway Village and Fourth Ward neighborhood's development. The question the uninhabitability of over 90% of the continue ro be the testing grounds for a is no longer simply what the power available units. The HACH's 1984 formal Up to this time, as witnessed by HACH's number of urban principles. A joint public- structure wants, but rather how and to application to demolish the AI'V apartments attempts along Allen Parkway, the city as a private partnership, more common in this what end the community, the city, and the simply memorializes a de facto policy to larger entity has not seen fit to be part of age of limited government monetary private realm will reach agreement. This is raze the apartments. As a matter of that process. The private sector, as demon- largesse and expertise, will have to develop a new power-sharing and community- policy, finds should not be used to study strated in the recent efforts of American an effective inner-city urban renewal orienred decision-making process. Most and plan an activity which activity cannot General Investment Corporation and program along with its design principles planners would emphasize that a triangular be legally accomplished by those finds. Cullen Center, Inc., in the Founders Park and logistical and economic guidelines. dialogue between private interesrs, commu- nity participants, and public policy makers has to exist in order for the community- based process to function. A combined effort, a combination of resources, is needed to manage the complex interaction of agency priorities, public priorities, and market realities. By all accounts, what is missing from this triad in Houston is a coherent public policy on the part of the city, from its mayor, its city council, its planning department, or its housing authority. Such a policy could establish a context and framework for communication between the communiry and the private developer; the staff of a city planning agency could assure the free flow of information and create a prototypical process of interaction. Lacking such a policy, the private developer has taken on the conflicting roles of both developer and broad urban policy maker. Further, the citizens cannoi turn to the city a\ the fc arbitrator between their own and the private sector's interests. In the light of HACH's actions at Allen Parkway Village and the various city agencies' work in Fourth Ward, there is little possibility that city representatives would be trusted in these neighborhoods in the first place. Notes Kenneth M. Hoyt, 12 April 1989. United States District Conn, Southern District oflexas, Houston Division, Residents'Council of Allot Parkway Village rt alia vs. United Slates Department of Housing and Urban Development el alia. Civil Action H-89-0292. David Theis, "Bad Connections," Houston IWss. 30 Aerial view looking west from downtown along the axis of West Dallas Avenue. Allen Parkway Village and Buffalo Bayou are to the August 1990, p. 12. right of West Dallas; Fourth Ward and the Freedmen's Town Historic District are to the left. The group of three towers, center top, is part of the American General Insurance Company complex, 1 9 8 9 . View along Valentine Street in the center of Allen Parkway Village-San Felipe Courts Historic District, 1989. AGENCIES AND ENTITIES Reagan administration HUl> officials, Houston's 18th District, in another August The Public headed the authority from August 1982 1987 Post article targeted Allen Parkway until his resignation in early 1989. Accord- Village as an "example of the failure of the Sector, Part 1: ing to Burney, he "reversed the poor Reagan administration to develop housing Mayor and City Council condition and status of HACH" that he options for the poor."1 Of course, one • City of Houston Planning inherited from William McClellan, who problem with demolishing the 1,000 Allen Commission WhatHACH was director from 1979 to early 1982.