Biggest Examiner Stories Of 2021 – Houston Chronicle

The Examiner, which is part of the Houston Chronicle’s Community Newspapers group, covers the cities of Bellaire, West University, Southside Place, the Heights, Upper Kirby, River Oaks, Montrose, Midtown, Gulfton, Meyerland, and the Galleria area. Here’s a look back:

West U’s $35M Buffalo Speedway Reconstruction

Planning and preparation for the two-year, four-phase project started in 2015 and broke ground in late April intending to improve drainage and mobility along Buffalo Speedway.

The project broke ground with Phase 1 in March of 2021 with waterline replacements. Phase 1 was completed in May. Phase 2, which is expected to be completed in March 2022, reconstructs the Poor Farm Ditch Outfall to W. Holcombe. Phase 3, from W. Holcombe to Amherst St., started in October and is expected to be completed in December 2022. Phase 4, from Amherst St. to Wroxton Rd., started in August and is expected to be completed this December.

According to the Texas Department of Transportation, the box culverts are expected to decrease the likelihood of flooding during major rain events. The 65-year-old thoroughfare sees about 22,000 cars daily along the stretch. TxDot and West U jointly oversee all phases of construction.

Pastor and Monsignor William Young of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, which is on the corner of Holcombe and Bissonnet, said the construction comes as a necessary headache.

“I can understand why it’s happening. That doesn’t mean that I like it. But I understand it, and I think it’s necessary,” Young told the Examiner in January.

Bellaire considers allowing Technical Research Park District to become retail, entertainment district

While still under debate, the city of Bellaire is considering options to redevelop the Technical Research Park District– a property formerly owned by Chevron and Texaco- as a retail and entertainment zone titled the North Bellaire Special Development District. The city held a public hearing in January on the proposition.

The proposed district will generally include allowances for planned developments for commercial, residential, and mixed uses, with different heights, setbacks and coverage requirements.

The TRPD became part of Bellaire’s 2021 city council election, as some Bellaire residents have concerns about too much commercial development in the city, while others look forward to spending more money within the city.

Current Bellaire city council member Catherine Lewis expressed concerns about how the proposed zoning changes could affect the neighborhoods adjacent to the property. Ross Gordon, chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission, was recently elected to the city council and is in favor of the rezoning.

The city is expected to come back to the rezoning discussions in 2022.

Low COVID-19 deaths in Bellaire, West U, and Southside Place

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Bellaire, West U, and Southside Place have reported relatively low deaths due to the virus, despite Harris County having some of the highest COVID-19 related death totals in the state, according to the Houston Chronicle.

As of December 3, Bellaire has reported nine COVID-19 related deaths, compared to 6,523 in Harris County. According to Harris County’s COVID-19 case data by zip code, the zip code 77005, which includes West U and Rice University area, has eight COVID-19 related deaths.

“As a city, we’re doing what everyone else is doing,” Deacon Tittel, Bellaire Fire Chief, Safety Officer, and recently appointed Interim City Manager said in January.

“There are many factors that come into play with the number of coronavirus cases in the city of Bellaire but ultimately it comes back to the individual, their health, the recognition of symptoms early on, and how they approach the virus.”

Harris County’s Public Health’s Director of Communications, Education, and Engagement Elizabeth Perez told the Examiner in January that cities with higher median incomes are less likely to have poor health outcomes. Bellaire, West U and Southside Place have some of the highest median incomes in Texas.

Heights residents lobby legislators with protest of new storage facility

In February, a group of Heights residents protested the development of a Big Tex Storage facility at the site of the former Stude Theater.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee joined Heights residents in protesting the construction on Feb. 6, where the Congresswoman called on the city to look into a compatibility ordinance and for the developers of the storage facility to meet with the community to find a common ground.

“I know these homeowners are angry about the fact that they have something being constructed where they didn’t have any input, any acknowledgment that this is a community, a community of families,” Lee said at the protest.

The protest was organized by a community group called Stop Big Tex Storage that garnered over 5,000 signatures and called for the Houston City Council to stop facilities’ storage.

The storage facility began construction in March anyway and is still under construction.

West U mourns death of Police Captain Damien Niko

The West University Police Department announced the passing of Captain Damien Niko on Feb. 6.

“The sudden loss of Captain Niko comes as a tremendous devastation to our department,” West U Police Chief Ken Walker said. “Niko’s leadership, skills, and integrity led him to a successful career ultimately earning him the role as captain. His dedication to our family in blue is something that will be forever missed. My sincerest condolences go out to his family during this time.”

Niko started his career as a deputy jailer with Fort Bend County in 2006 and in the same year joined the West University Police Department as a patrol officer. In 2009, he was promoted to sergeant and in the Fall of 2018, he was promoted to captain.

Condolences for the police department and his surviving three children and wife poured in over social media, remembering his character and thoughtfulness.

Lamar High School’s $122M redesign brings corporate makeover

When students returned to Lamar High School this school year, the school’s redesign was intended to make them feel as if they were working in a corporate environment one would find at Google or Apple.

Instead of classrooms, students learn in one of the school’s eight “neighborhoods” or “cohorts.” And instead of scheduled lunch breaks, students can grab a snack or meal from a designated kitchen area at any moment.

“We toured (global design firm) IDEO and we toured Google’s headquarters, along with other groundbreaking schools that are doing things differently,” Catherine Dalton, senior project architect at Perkins & Will told the Examiner in April. “And at the end of the day, the leadership direction from HISD was the idea that these students will be entering these kinds of fields of work. This is the future for our students.”

The project is part of the 2012 Bond Program that brought several improvements to the campus, including the new four-story building and a five-story, 530-space parking garage.

The idea behind the redesign is that if the school wants to produce students that feel comfortable working in that type of corporate environment, and have the skills those environments require, the school needs to model its curriculum and environment off of them.

“Instead of feeling like they’re walking into a school, they’re walking into what is essentially a corporate working environment,” Dalton said.

Legacy Man- a shirtless, rollerblading music producer & engineer

Derek Cooper is a full-time engineer that produces music under the stage name Legacy Man .

Heights residents may be familiar with the 35-year-old as the man who rides around the community shirtless and on roller skates while blaring his self-produced synth-pop music.

Cooper became popular on the internet earlier this year after a video of Cooper was posted on Reddit and was cross-posted to Houston’s subreddit. It was one of the site’s top posts that week and received dozens of comments from residents across Houston who recounted their experiences with Cooper.

“Legacy Man” is a conglomerate of all the things Cooper grew up with: Megaman, SNES Games, Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, and Japanese pop culture — all portrayed through music, Cooper described to the Examiner.

“People need something to laugh at, people need a reason to smile,” Cooper said. “And for some reason me going out and just doing my thing on my skates, that was enough to get a smile every so often…. It became something that I felt like I not only wanted to do, but I needed to do.”

New program teaches Houston officers to use yoga techniques to relax

Some Houston police officers are learning new ways to handle stress through a voluntary program called Police Enlightenment and Collective Education, or P.E.A.C.E.

The classes are 90-120 minutes and have prompted discussions, journaling, mindfulness teachings, meditation, sound therapy, breathwork and yoga.

The program started this summer with a collaboration between Houston City Council Member Edward Pollard and the Houston Police Officer’s Union and is taught by instructor Jazmin Porter.

Porter, who is also known as Yogi Jaz Porter, has been a yoga instructor and wellness entrepreneur for about five years, specializing in Vinyasa and Tantra with a focus on collective healing and expanded consciousness. She came up with the idea for the program amid the 2020 social unrest after the murder of George Floyd.

“A lot of what I saw going on felt like it was missing a collective approach to understanding each other and moving together,” Porter said. “I thought if we had more of those tools to do that, we would be able to handle things differently.”

West U police hope $4.5M license plate readers deter crime

The West University Police Department hopes the city’s Virtual Gate will help deter criminals from entering the city limits and reduce the strain on the department.

With a total of 40 cameras installed at several intersections around the city, the Virtual Gate captures images of passing cars’ license plates and notify the police of any cars that are reported stolen, the vehicle of a missing person or qualifies as anything else the reader determines as a “hit.”

“It also helps to locate missing people,” Emily Beard, West U Dispatcher, said at a March 22 city council meeting. “So any children or anything that goes missing in the area, if it’s linked to a license plate, we’re able to see that now, and be able to address it rather than they come through and it was a missed opportunity.”

According to the city’s most recent update, the Virtual Gate is currently in its second phase and is scheduled for completion by the end of the year.

The readers are not always accurate, according to the city- sometimes dirty or paper license plates do not trigger the readers. An alert from a reader also does not give officers enough probable cause to conduct a stop, according to the city. If an officer is alerted of a stolen car or license plate, the officer must verify it is the correct plate, and a dispatcher must confirm it is stolen before they have probable cause to stop the vehicle.

West U is not the first municipality in Harris County to implement license plate readers. Last year, the Memorial Village Police Department reported that they recovered $1,000,000 in stolen property value due to their ALPR system with 20 cameras installed throughout the Villages. The city of Bellaire also has license plate readers as a pilot program.

Bellaire/West U/Southside Place elections

Some hotly contested elections, others not so much- Bellaire, West U, and Southside Place all had changes to their city council this year that could impact the direction of the cities in the coming year.

In Southside Place, Any Chan was elected as Mayor and is joined by Bard Dewitt and Jennifer Anderson who won races for positions 1 and 3, respectively after election day on May 1.

Chan replaced Mayor Glenn “Pat” Patterson, who stepped down from his position after serving for a decade.

West U’s city council race was highly contested and went down to the wire, as West U selected a new mayor and four city council members.

Mayor Susan Sample topped Kevin Trautner in the race to replace Bob Higley, who decided not to run for reelections. Nine others sought election on the West U council. The top four candidates in terms of votes, including John Montgomery, Shannon Carroll, Melanie Bell and incumbent John Barnes were all elected to the council.

Bellaire’s city council race was also highly contested with one race that went to the December 12 runoff.

Bellaire’s Mayor Andrew Friedberg ran unopposed for his final two-year term. All three of the candidates he endorsed won- Winfred Frazier for Position 1, Ross Gordon for Position 3, and Brian Witt for Position 5. Witt won in the December runoff.

“I’m ever grateful to the voters for the opportunity to continue my service as mayor, which has truly been the honor of a lifetime. I look forward to working with the new city council, and hope we can find a way to bring our community back together, focusing on what unites us instead of what divides us,” Friedberg said.