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One of the 50 or so speakers to address the Houston City Council about the Memorial Park Master Plan.
The majority of the almost 50 people who shared their opinions on the plan spoke in favor of it.
One of them was Robyn Tompkins, who likes the idea of a 1,400 foot-long land bridge to connect the north and south sides of the park, because she said it improves pedestrian safety.
“A lot of times you end up jaywalking because you only have enough time to cross over to the median and then you’re just kind of taking a shot trying to cross the rest of the street,” Tompkins said. “You can’t make it all the way.”
A little over a dozen people — mostly residents of neighborhoods adjacent to Memorial Park — expressed concerns. Many of them were about parking on their street and increased traffic as a result of the relocation of some of the athletic fields.
Susan Chadwick with the group Save Buffalo Bayou said the plan is supposedly meant to restore the trees lost in the 2011 drought, “and yet what we have is a plan with less trees and more paved surface.”
The Memorial Park Master Plan is developed by the city of Houston, the Uptown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone and the nonprofit Memorial Park Conservancy.
The New Memorial Park master plan (renderings inside)
6 Memorial Park Master Plan Design Presentation (3 9 15) (PDF)
6 Memorial Park Master Plan Design Presentation (3 9 15) (Text)