NOTE: The transcript of the meeting proceedings is reproduced here exactly as received from the Certified Shorthand Reporter. 1 1 2 METROPOLITAN TRANSIT AUTHORITY 3 UNIVERSITY CORRIDOR PUBLIC FORUMS 4 TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2006 5 BERING MEMORIAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH SANCTUARY 6 1440 HAROLD 7 HOUSTON, TEXAS 8 6:30 P.M. TO 8:30 P.M. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Transcript provided by: 19 The Captioning Company 20 P.O. Box 441179 21 Houston, Texas 77244-1179 22 (281)684-8973 (phone) 23 (281)347-2881 (fax) 24 mbryant5@houston.rr.com 25 The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 2 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 3 4 MR. WILSON: ... With that, I will -- I 5 guess, begin the session. 6 MS. EDWARDS: What I'd like to do -- Russ, 7 if you think this will work -- some of you have already 8 submitted questions -- Council Member Clutterbuck is 9 here. Where are you? 10 Can you come up here and join us up here, 11 please? No. Okay. 12 MS. CLUTTERBUCK: I have to leave to go 13 see my son's baseball game. That's why I'm sitting near 14 the back. I will be here as long as I can. 15 MS. EDWARDS: We appreciate you being 16 here. What I'd like to do, Russ, I would like to do one 17 written question and then ask if there is someone live 18 and kind of switch back and forth. If that's agreeable? 19 If that's okay, consensual with the group? We have some 20 people who have submitted questions. We do a written 21 question; and then we'll have a live question, if we 22 can. Okay? 23 Those of you who would like to ask 24 questions at the mic, if you would start at the mic now. 25 And I will ask the first question for Mr. Wilson. "Does The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 3 1 METRO believe it can get federal funding in a route that 2 follows Westpark?" 3 MR. WILSON: The question as I understand 4 it -- we believe we can get federal funding on the route 5 called Westpark completely -- whoever wrote that 6 question -- from end to end. Is that the question? 7 AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's right. 8 MR. WILSON: Okay. 9 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Where does Westpark 10 start and end? 11 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Tell us the start and 12 end. 13 MR. WILSON: That's a good question. The 14 starting point, let's say, is -- well, the starting 15 point for this particular line is the University of 16 Houston main campus in the east, coming west to Wheeler, 17 and from Wheeler, end point somewhere in the vicinity of 18 Post Oak. So, that's the beginning and ending of it 19 all. 20 Question was: Do we believe we can get 21 federal funding for Westpark, and I'm going to say from 22 end to end? What we believe that would be probably be 23 the most challenging and at least likely successful 24 effort; and the reason for that is that the federal 25 processes that we're involved in -- I'll tell you if no The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 4 1 one asks, I'll tell you why we are involved in that 2 process but -- it's the process we have to compete. It 3 looks at two main variables, and that's the ridership 4 and cost. 5 I will concede that Westpark, end to end, 6 is the less costly way to go; and conversely it has less 7 ridership. The Richmond line, as it's conceived, as an 8 alternative to it would be more costly but significantly 9 more ridership. And the reason why we're doing this is 10 that those are general assessments. Those are not 11 detail specifics. 12 What's the difference in cost? Can't tell 13 you. 14 What's the difference in ridership? Well, 15 I can give you a good idea; but we will do the final 16 forecasting fairly soon. So, it's a trade-off. We can 17 be on Westpark and saves you money, which make you 18 competitive. You can be on Richmond and generate a lot 19 of ridership, which makes you competitive. 20 And the question is: Can you build it 21 entirely in your corridor and make it work? That's the 22 64,000-dollar question. That's what we are going 23 through the process for. It's either all of one or all 24 of the other or a mix of the two, and we got to look for 25 the optimum. That's what we're in search of. The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 5 1 JEFFREY KOLB: Hi, my name is Jeffrey 2 Kolb, and I'm a member of the Ridgewood Play Civic 3 Association. My question actually is -- you stated how 4 youthful you are and you've worked in many -- 5 MR. WILSON: It was a joke. 6 JEFFREY KOLB: I'm very youthful myself -- 7 and you worked on many projects. I'm just curious if 8 you can share with us one of those projects that's 9 similar to this, and we can research and see how the 10 results were based on the community. 11 MR. WILSON: I'd be happy to. This 12 project takes me back to younger days in San Francisco 13 where we were building a railroad, a rapid transit line 14 which was much more significant and substantial than 15 what we're talking about here, which is the light rail 16 line. If you ever been to New York, it's sort of like 17 the subway system. It's a very heavy rail. 18 This was going to be built at grade and 19 elevated. The alignment took the line no more than 20 50 feet from bedroom windows. It's 50 feet, not 500, 21 50 feet and backed up against the property line. And 22 when we had meetings such as this and I don't want to 23 put ideas in your head -- 24 (Laughter.) 25 MR. WILSON: -- but we had meetings like The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 6 1 this, and I needed a police escort in and out. It was 2 not a friendly environment, to say the least. We went 3 to work -- we engaged the community. We listened to 4 what their issues were, and we dealt with them in a 5 legitimate way. When we had no options, we told 6 them that. We did not play government games of, you 7 know, side-stepping, no, we cannot do this. Yes, we can 8 do this. The line got built. Spare you the details, 9 but we invested heavily in making ourself a good 10 neighborhood. You say, how can you be a good neighbor 11 50 feet from people's homes? We did it. We did things 12 like -- they were concerned about vibration of the 13 home -- natural concern, running that close. It's a 14 huge train. You're going to vibrate my home to rubble. 15 We invested in a floating track. The tract was 16 completely isolated. There was a very well-known 17 hospital that did a lot of sophisticated operations and 18 medical tests one block away, and they were concerned 19 about the vibrations as well. You have a patient opened 20 up on a table, you don't need, you know, that kind of 21 intrusion. We satisfied their concerns by how we 22 designed and built the system. 23 They were concerned about the aesthetics 24 of the line when it was finished. We paid for them to 25 hire their own landscape consultant and give us the plan The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 7 1 for what this area should look like when it was 2 finished, and we paid for their plan and put it in 3 place. 4 They wanted crossings for children to go 5 to school and not have to go anywhere near the rail, and 6 we built those in. These are all things that enhance 7 the community and, quite frankly, made our operation 8 better, too. 9 The end of the story was that when the 10 line was finished -- we did a lot of things during 11 construction to help out -- when the line was finished, 12 the community threw an open house for my organization. 13 Eight hundred people filled an auditorium for a sort of 14 open house and thank you to the organization. In 30 15 months, to go from needing a police escort to being 16 invited to an open house, has got to tell you house. 17 That was the Pittsburgh Extension of the Park System in 18 San Francisco and I will give you the name of the board 19 members and the now current general manager who was 20 there from the time and they can connect you with any of 21 the community groups in that area. Very successful but 22 very, very complicated. It's one of the projects very 23 close to this community. 24 AUDIENCE MEMBER: 25 JEFFREY KOLB: How many years ago was The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 8 1 that? 2 MR. WILSON: In 1991 to 1994. 3 Okay. "The Westpark or southern alignment 4 seems to run along 59 between Montrose and Shepherd. 5 Where exactly are the tracks as 59 is sunken in that 6 area?" 7 That's a really good question. As we 8 approach this area, we run out of real estate. We run 9 out of right-of-way. It's got to go somewhere in this 10 59 corridor. Earlier today -- where is John -- earlier 11 today we were driving back from the Lake Wood Church, 12 the other church we visited today and took a look at 13 where that might be. And it's hard to envision where it 14 goes but I'll tell you this, once you're in there, 15 you're not going to impact anybody. You can't get to 16 it. You can't see it. You're basically going to run 17 closed doors for a good stretch and not provide any 18 service, and that's very expensive construction. 19 It's one part of the Westpark line that's 20 very challenging from an engineering standpoint, 21 construction standpoint. In fact, we're looking at you 22 might have to stack the lines in one direction a lower 23 level and the other direction there is an upper level 24 and we build an elevated but the whole thing probably 25 being elevated. The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 9 1 There's some other ideas. Running an 2 H.O.V., that means you got to kill the H.O.V. lane and 3 so you are improving one form of transportation by 4 deteriorating the other and that doesn't seem to be an 5 attractive alternative either. So, the answer to this 6 is, again, I don't know. That's what we're hiring these 7 engineering firms to help us figure out because we got 8 to connect from Wheeler to, say, Shepherd; and where do 9 you put it? It's not the easiest physical problem to 10 solve. 11 MR. LESTER: Good evening, I'm Paul Lester 12 with Lancaster Place. I agree with the idea of running 13 a line that connects activity centers. What I'm 14 wondering why on your map you don't show the line going 15 up to the Galleria rather than skirting it and missing 16 the mark, going up Westheimer and going through the 17 Highland Village and Galleria, maybe alongside the 18 railroad tracks from Richmond north to Westheimer? 19 MR. WILSON: Well, there may have been an 20 original idea of going up Wesleyan to Westheimer and 21 Westheimer past Highland Village; but we removed that 22 from consideration. Now, that can come back into 23 consideration if we get enough comments from the 24 community. We certainly want to consider that. 25 AUDIENCE MEMBER: I think more important, The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 10 1 it would go from there to the very heart of the Galleria 2 area and Westheimer, rather than missing the mark two or 3 three blocks south and trying to cure that with shuttles 4 and something of that sort. 5 MR. WILSON: Well, the referendum called 6 for a line on Post Oak called the Uptown line. That's 7 where it was supposed to be built. The Richmond or 8 Westpark line was supposed to connect to it and then 9 make the turn and go north. 10 The question is: Can we connect every 11 traffic generator or do we connect some of the major 12 traffic generators and so we are trying to stay as close 13 to the referendum as we could. As many of you remember 14 the idea was to go west, connect into Post Oak and then 15 go north. Yes, we missed Highland Village, but we do 16 connect all the other traffic areas along that 17 particular route and get most -- you get almost all of 18 the Galleria frontage area when you do that. 19 We had an idea of looking at that, if you 20 want to call it a detour, and we had heard early on in 21 the process that that doesn't make sense. We suspended 22 it for now; but it can come back on if, as part of this 23 process, we hear enough input that it makes sense. So, 24 one of those issues where it's -- it's still a 25 possibility. The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 11 1 "Construction on Main Street took forever. 2 What can METRO do to speed up the construction on this 3 line?" 4 I reference the fact that Main Street is 5 not an example we want to reproduce in terms of how you 6 build it. The entire line was ripped up -- the entire 7 road for the most part was ripped up for a long period 8 of time. What determines how long the line is open for 9 construction is not so much our work. We can build a 10 track fairly quickly. What -- one of two things -- some 11 of the things we are thinking about is to take the 12 construction zone and squeeze it down to a small area 13 and work that small area very intensely and sort of leap 14 frog down the street, down the corridor so that no one 15 area is opened up for construction for a very long 16 period of time, short as it could possibly be. 17 After you constrain the dimensions of the 18 construction zone, you look at, well, what are you doing 19 in that zone? To lay our tracks doesn't take but days; 20 but if you go in there and redo a large amount of 21 utility work, you could be in there months and years. 22 And on Main Street, there was an extreme amount of 23 utility relocation upgrading that was done. When the 24 hole was open, it was open for a long time. We are 25 trying to avoid that. The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 12 1 The other thing you can do is look at how 2 much of your building can be done offsite and just 3 driven in and dropped into place. You do it sort of 4 kind of panelize it, or departmentalize it, and minimize 5 the amount of construction right on the roadway itself. 6 A lot of the deck, a lot of the station elements can be 7 prefabbed and brought into the site and dropped in a 8 very short period of time. 9 The other aspect we're looking at, and 10 I'll mention, is probably more that I'm not going to 11 mention tonight. We will look at construction times and 12 windows; and they will be different for different parts 13 of the route and decided upon, based on who is along 14 that route. And we may want to work in the daytime, or 15 work at nighttime, or work on weekends. We got to work 16 around how people live and work. So, we will take input 17 as to when is a good time. There is never a good time; 18 but what's the better time for us to be in here working 19 to minimize the impact on the really local, local 20 residents or businesses. 21 So, there is some of the things that 22 happened before that don't need to be done that way, 23 that we can use to minimize as much as possible. As I 24 said, there are others that we will be refining those as 25 we do the engineering work on this project. The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 13 1 MS. NEEDITAN: My name is Mary Needitan. 2 I am president of the Whitlow Place Civic Club, but I'm 3 here as a private citizen. I would like to ask if any 4 of the five contractors that you're dealing with is 5 actually looking at the possibility of putting this rail 6 line up as it is, for instance, in Bancock because they 7 have the same kind of flood monsoon conditions as 8 Houston does and the Main Street line clearly floods 9 part of the time and is inaccessible and the -- what is 10 on the ground in Bancock is the equivalent of one-lane 11 wide. Is any one of the five contractors even 12 considering that as a possibility to be examined? 13 MR. WILSON: The answer is no. And the 14 reason for the no is it's extremely costly to put it and 15 make it elevated. Even more costly solution is to put 16 it underground. And so, we don't believe that we could 17 be successful in our pursuit of federal support -- and 18 remember that sounds like well, you either get it or you 19 don't but we're in competition with every other major 20 metropolitan area in the nation who wants to improve 21 their public transportation system and that competition 22 is pretty stiff. The rules are pretty stringent, and 23 they are made so they bring out all the costs possible. 24 MS. NEEDITAN: But do you think even where 25 it would be constructed, whether it was Richmond -- it The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 14 1 would be raised from the ground level when it is not 2 from Main Street? Is that part of the consideration? 3 MR. WILSON: You mean, partially raised 4 and not fully elevated? 5 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah. Up a foot and a 6 half. 7 MR. WILSON: Interesting idea. I can't 8 say that we thought of that. I guess you win the prize 9 tonight. We are going to have to think a bit. So, we 10 learn something new every time we come out and do this. 11 We'll make sure you think about that. 12 The one area where it may become a problem 13 before my staff tells me what's wrong with you -- 14 METRO EMPLOYEE: Intersections. 15 MR. WILSON: -- at intersections. You 16 still got to be able -- if you are high enough and get a 17 car and truck under it, great. If you are just raised 18 enough for flood; and you go through an intersection, 19 it's kind of tough. You wouldn't be able to; or we can 20 make it an amusement ride up and make it up and down, up 21 and down. 22 (Laughter.) 23 MR. WILSON: "Many of us would rather see 24 rail in our neighborhoods than more lanes for cars, but 25 we want our streets to be beautiful, safe, and The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 15 1 neighborhood-friendly. What can we do to make the 2 university line better than Main Street line?" 3 Whoever wrote this question is kind of 4 reading out of a play book. We don't believe our 5 mission is to build a rail line. It may sound silly 6 because that's what we're normally trying to do, but 7 what we are trying to do is leave an enhanced 8 environment when we go through. Why? We are building 9 this for people. We're not building it for the cars. 10 You build roads and lanes for cars and there are certain 11 things that are important when are you building for 12 cars, wide lanes, and easy changing of lanes, and wide 13 shoulders and the signals are clear, never mention 14 quality of life. The demand is easy driving and safety. 15 Well, we are trying to build a 16 neighborhood. We're trying to build an asset. Do you 17 know why? Because people use our trains, on and off, on 18 and off, and on and off. We are not moving cars; we're 19 moving people. What person wants to be mobile in an 20 ugly environment verses an attractive environment? You 21 attract more people to a street or a corridor that is 22 aesthetically pleasing, that is very functional, that is 23 on a pedestrian level or a pedestrian dimension. And 24 so, one of the things we looked at is how easy to get on 25 and off. How easy is it to find the station, navigate The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 16 1 the station? How friendly is that environment? So, 2 it's where the station is placed. It's how far apart 3 they are. The fact you can get on and off real easy. 4 It's the fact that you can maintain the kind of 5 environment you see when you walk outside this church. 6 There is no reason why you can't have a canopy of trees 7 spanning the roadway that the train is running on. 8 Trains don't mean trees have to go. They can stay. We 9 can work around them. 10 On Main Street, I don't know if you 11 remember or noticed; but we widened the sidewalk. Why? 12 We actually sacrificed a lane of traffic to make it 13 easier for people because we want more people. We want 14 them to congregate on the sidewalks; and if you are 15 shopping or at a restaurant -- certain parts of the 16 year, you can eat outside. We wanted to have a good 17 feeling and so all the street amenities, the urban 18 design goes into the thoughts and the designs of how 19 this system runs and works and it's all to attract more 20 people there and have them stay there as long as 21 possible and use this vehicle to go back and forth in an 22 integrated neighborhood. 23 As I walk the streets here, I feel like 24 I'm integrated. Well, we don't want to destroy that. 25 So, you take the characteristics why you live here. You The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 17 1 take the characteristics and preserve it, but I will 2 submit to you that it is easier to put a train in your 3 environment than it is to put another lane of traffic 4 and the impacts of doing that from a social level, from 5 an environmental level, are much less. 6 If you haven't noticed how quiet the 7 trains on Main Street are, take it from me, don't go out 8 and experiment. It is quiet. It is clean in terms of 9 pollution. You can stand next to it all day and you're 10 not going to have all the noxious fumes. So, in every 11 aspect that you look at, a light rail in your 12 neighborhood. 13 I know a bus is more of an asset than a 14 roadway, and I can prove it. Look at -- we can show by 15 data we collect, the property values in the vicinity of 16 a light rail system do nothing but rise. Oh, we've 17 heard here you're worried about property values going 18 down. That is not what has happened in this country and 19 around the world. Property values go up because it's 20 more valuable to live near a light rail line than a 21 smelly old highway. Don't take it the wrong way. I 22 used to build and run smelly highways; they have a 23 purpose, too. But this is a place we got to peacefully 24 co-exist; and we attempt to build and enhance a 25 community, not just provide train ride back and forth. The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 18 1 MR. UECKERT: Hi, my name is Allen 2 Ueckert; and I'm the current president of Neartown 3 Association. Neartown Association is a 40 plus-year-old 4 residential organization in the Montrose area that is an 5 umbrella for about 20 different civic clubs. 6 As many of you know, Neartown has 7 expressed support of a Richmond alignment. We feel that 8 would offer our neighborhood the best alternative for 9 urban transit, connecting activity centers where our 10 residents would use the rail line. With that said, we 11 all know that a Richmond alignment would certainly come 12 with certain challenges; and from what we are hearing 13 from our residents, a few questions in terms of 14 addressing those challenges would be parking, to the 15 extent that -- there currently already is limited 16 parking in our neighborhood because of the density. 17 Have you considered and will there be 18 considerations given for providing businesses and 19 residences parking to the extent that -- that parking 20 lots or existing parking spaces are removed as a result 21 of a Richmond alignment? 22 And the next question is: In terms of 23 neighborhoods themselves and mitigating cut-through 24 traffic and -- as well as, you know, on the opposite end 25 of the spectrum, trapping people in their homes just The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 19 1 because they can't make a left turn on Richmond to get 2 out of their neighborhoods? Has consideration been 3 given to that as well? 4 MR. WILSON: Let's take the parking issue 5 first. We were blessed on Main Street. They had an 6 abundance of parking up and down the right-of-way 7 without us having to invest in it because some land 8 owners had gone out and bought it and they don't have a 9 use for it yet so they paved over it and people park. 10 It's turned out to be rather convenient. 11 We now know that instead of parking in the 12 high traffic areas in the dense part of the city like 13 the Medical Center, they go and park somewhere else and 14 take the train in and out; and it's a much better deal. 15 So, a lesson learned. 16 There are some positive lessons learned. 17 We need to be thinking about that and doing things about 18 that wherever we go with these extensions. The trick 19 will be to find spaces where we can acquire the land and 20 put the parking on the land, probably structure parking. 21 You don't want to take huge chunks of land and pave it. 22 That wouldn't make your community look any better. We 23 want to build attractive structures, which are costly, 24 but attractive structures that fit in the character of 25 the neighborhood, easy in and out; and you want to have The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 20 1 enough of them so your average walk to either the train 2 or your destination is shortened. So, yes, we will be 3 looking at where the network of parking facilities go 4 and how much there are. That is an important part of 5 the network. 6 Back at our building before we came 7 here -- we work all day. We work on the project, this 8 project. It was just today that we had our most recent 9 meeting and reiterated to the staff before the Thursday 10 meeting when we hire the engineers that the first task 11 we give the engineers is the traffic management task. 12 The more I talk to you, the more sessions we have like 13 this, and the more we think about this, this is not 14 really relevant -- kind of an epiphany. What a great 15 place to have an epiphany. I come to church enough. I 16 should get the message -- Frank, wake up. It's not 17 about the train. It's about the traffic. 18 How do you put a rail line in and enhance 19 the moving of traffic in the city? And so, for a 20 business person, they tell me, well, I can see this many 21 cars and I can park this many cars. You know, if I had 22 a business on the street and I'd say, how many cars move 23 by my building, not how many cars are there at my 24 building in grid lock? They're in grid lock. They're 25 coming in. They're not getting out and buying anything The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 21 1 in my shop. How many people can I get in and get out? 2 So, if you're looking at Richmond, how do 3 I make Richmond move better? Or how do I make the 4 alternate streets more better? North, south, east, 5 west? It's a network transportation problem. It's a 6 highway/roadway entrance problem. That's got to be 7 solved. So, we said pick somebody that has got great 8 traffic engineering skills because that's the number one 9 priority. It's the level turns. It's the cueing. It's 10 the, you know, how you got to look at traffic. It's 11 leaving behind a roadway system that works better. 12 Give you an example of another good lesson 13 on Main Street. Some people accuse us of sort of 14 cooking the books. We used to have buses that would run 15 up and down every street in the downtown, north, south, 16 east, west. Main Street comes along and puts a rail 17 line in, high capacity. John admitted today that during 18 the Super Bowl, we were putting four kids in a seat and 19 standing up -- everybody else standing up in the aisle. 20 So, we packed 300 people on one train. Six hundred 21 people in a two-car train. That's mass transportation. 22 We don't want to do that. 23 (Laughter.) 24 MR. WILSON: What did we learn? We 25 learned we can carry a whole lot of people on Main The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 22 1 Street. If we just let the buses come into the transit 2 centers across Main Street and have a convenient 3 transfer, people would do it. We removed 600 bus 4 movements off the city streets in the peak hour. That's 5 a total of two more lanes of traffic on the street. 6 Okay? 7 So, when you built Main Street, it wasn't 8 just transit improvement. It was a transportation 9 improvement. The city traffic moves a whole lot better 10 today. Why? Because Main Street is there, not because 11 we made the streets as wide as I-10. 12 So, what are we doing here? We are 13 looking for those kinds of opportunities to have not 14 only the transit system work but have the support 15 roadway systems work as well, and that's why we 16 broadened our scope and said we got to study this. You 17 all see it as left turns and access in and out of the 18 community. You use that as a starting point; and we 19 say, okay, how do we preserve all of that but make the 20 whole area flow better as a result of that? 21 I submit to you if METRO goes away and 22 does absolutely nothing, somebody else will have to 23 solve this roadway problem because you are going to have 24 it. Why? You are just too darn an attractive area; and 25 it's location, it's location, it's location. A lot of The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 23 1 folks want to be in your community, and they're coming. 2 You drive around here -- and we were remarking today 3 there is a steel structure frame that wasn't there two 4 weeks ago. There is more traffic -- it's a dental 5 building. It's going to bring more traffic, and 6 everything that's developed is going to bring more 7 traffic. So, whether you like it or not, this community 8 is not in a steady state. You are going to have more 9 people, more cars, and part of the solution, we believe, 10 is the light rail system that can carry people like 11 nobody's business. You got a good point. What do we do 12 with the cars? Let's build these collector points, put 13 the cars in, and let the people move up and down the 14 corridor in a very friendly environment. You preserve 15 the character of the neighborhood and preserve the 16 ability to move, and, best of all, allow the 17 neighborhood to grow. So, we are all part of the 18 solution if it's done right. 19 MR. UECKERT: Thank you. 20 MR. WILSON: Oh, no, this is for you and 21 then me. Should I read you the question? 22 "What will be done to accelerate 23 construction, especially as it relates to the city of 24 Houston ordinance, severely restricting construction 25 hours in residential areas?" The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 24 1 MS. EDWARDS: A lot of it has already been 2 done. We are working on the Theater Avenue Park. There 3 was a task force developed; and that task force consists 4 of planners from Texas Southern University and the 5 University of Houston and also lay people, community 6 people such as yourself. And out of that task force, we 7 looked at how did we help this thing move along? So, 8 we -- I would imagine you could build a similar group 9 out here. 10 The other piece of that is there was 11 always a need for a center group in City Hall, that 12 includes Public Works, that includes Planning. It was 13 our office initially but I would assume this would 14 include Council Member Clutterbuck's office, Council 15 Member Holm's office -- excuse me -- and that whole 16 piece of looking at the issue of the ordinances, what 17 needs to happen, what needs not to happen, to do that 18 analysis while in this position here, wherever the rail 19 winds up, whatever street, the issue is still the same. 20 How can we marginalize and mitigate as much of the 21 inconvenience for our residents and our businesses 22 owners as possible? 23 How can we make sure that the ordinances, 24 the permitting, the work that has to be done is done in 25 a way that -- we know it's going to be inconvenient, but The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 25 1 we don't want it to be devastating. I can't answer 2 specifically we will do this and that. But I can say 3 specifically the mayor's office is a big part of this. 4 The mayor himself is committed to being a big part of 5 this. We had this type of work with Public Works 6 already and with planning; and then with the addition of 7 Mrs. Clutterbuck's office, and Ms. Holm's office, and 8 our office, I think the community can be pretty assured 9 that that is going to happen. I would suggest to my 10 colleagues at City Hall that we kind of replicate the 11 task force that was created down by the T.S.U./Texas 12 Southern University area because it gave the community 13 the opportunity to develop a meaningful input into the 14 dialogue and into finding a final solution. 15 So, for whoever asked that question, that 16 I see is our goal and I haven't discussed it with 17 Mrs. Clutterbuck or Ms. Holm, but it affords a synergy 18 for you. It also affords a position of transparency and 19 inconclusion. We can call continued meetings like this 20 to see where we are, and where we are going, and to say, 21 you know, we did this in the back room and we need to 22 look at this again. 23 So, that's where I would suggest our 24 position as the city regarding ordinances and the things 25 that you can help to move this project along in a The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 26 1 meaningful productive way. That would be our thing. 2 The task force I would suggest we build 3 out of this grouping here. We have Rice University, St. 4 Thomas. We have a lot of the professionals that could 5 work with us without having to be paid. That was the 6 value of T.S.U. and U. of H. primarily. We have the lay 7 people, the people that live this everyday; and we have 8 the mayor, Public Works, Planning, and 3 council offices 9 that I think will come together and do analysis of what 10 needs to happen and try to do -- give that to you and 11 then say, how do we do this? But we will be there for 12 you and that is our goal. 13 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, good evening. Nice 14 to see you again, Mr. Wilson. Delighted to see another 15 great example of your obviously vast tie collection. 16 MR. WILSON: No. 17 MR. McCLAIN: Anyway, my name is Robert 18 McClain. I live about four blocks from here on 19 Hawthorne Street, and I also own a business at 2242 20 Richmond. My question is directed to Councilwoman 21 Edwards. I think for Mr. Wilson it's same chapter, 22 slightly different verse, anyway. 23 Councilwoman Edwards, my concern is 24 neither a concern for my own property, which I think 25 will be at risk on Richmond, my own business, which I've The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 27 1 operated for 25 years here as a contemporary art 2 gallery, my concern is for the destruction -- what I see 3 is the destruction of the quality of life that all of us 4 that have lived and worked in this area have cherished 5 for many, many, many years. In addition to that, what I 6 see is a great and significant social inequality that I 7 think will unfold here. 8 As we all, know the referendum was very 9 closely contested. It was passed by only 9,000 votes, 10 out of a registered voter base of about 450,000 votes. 11 And I'm sure that you well know there was a tremendous 12 amount of campaign and promises made to certain 13 neighborhoods. The Hispanic community on the east end 14 worked very hard to make sure that the rail referendum 15 was passed. The African American community on the north 16 side worked very hard to make sure that the referendum 17 was passed. I personally voted for the referendum, 18 which, of course, said Westpark. And each of those 19 communities, both Hispanic community and both the 20 African America community, were promised that they were 21 going to be the priority once the Main Street line was 22 done. The rail would come to their neighborhoods first; 23 and these are the communities that wanted it 24 desperately, worked so hard for it. 25 Here we are a few years later; and I'm The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 28 1 baffled and stunned that rather than addressing those 2 neighborhoods -- and, of course, if you look at the 3 F.T.A. considerations for what are the three most 4 important criteria for determining funding of rail lines 5 is to serve low income and working class people -- we 6 are now talking about building a rail line that's going 7 to link the most expensive retail real estate in the 8 Galleria, splitting the two most expensive neighborhoods 9 in our city, River Oaks and West University, and connect 10 on to downtown. 11 Now, in my mind I look around and I see 12 these stickers; and I see these people saying that I 13 want to ride the train to the Galleria. I want to ride 14 the train so I can have dinner. Have we missed 15 something? Have I missed something here? Isn't the 16 idea of mass transit to take automobiles off the road to 17 provide transportation for those people who do not have 18 the options that those of us that live in this area 19 have? Fortunately, those of us who live here, for the 20 most part, live a privileged life. We have choices in 21 terms what we can do for transportation. 22 The other significant factor I see here is 23 that, without question, rail down Richmond will 24 accelerate the already changing neighborhood and will 25 create a destruction of the quality of life that we've The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 29 1 witnessed and enjoyed so many years. I've spoken to a 2 number of developers; and as far as they're concerned, 3 rail on Richmond is a crack cocaine that they can't get 4 enough of. Right next to me at my -- right next to me 5 at my business, Trammell (inaudible) has taken a small 6 piece of property, a commercial building, and a small 7 apartment complex at one time generated 50 cars. They 8 are now going to put a 6-story midrise high density 9 residential unit, 250 apartments, garage space for 350 10 cars. 11 I spoke to some of my neighbors this past 12 week at Colquitt Court and one of the woman at Colquitt 13 Court told me of a conversation she had with a real 14 estate agent who is now -- because of the possibility of 15 rail or the advent of rail, a lot of these real estate 16 developers assume and -- that if the rail is going to 17 come down Richmond and they are selling property and -- 18 this real estate agent told this woman that she -- that 19 one specific developer is projecting that rail down 20 Richmond will mean 12,000 apartment units up and down 21 Richmond. Those of us who live in this area are already 22 facing sky-rocketing property taxes because townhouse 23 developers have come into our neighborhood and what 24 they've done, they've taken a single family house and 25 because they can now put three and four units on there, The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 30 1 the possibility of affordable single family homes for 2 the middle class is quickly disappearing. 3 Once these mid-rise developers -- and the 4 vision that I've heard from real estate developer after 5 real estate developer is that Richmond will become a 6 Canyon of 6, 8, 10-story buildings, and each of those 7 buildings will be generating hundreds and hundreds and 8 hundreds of cars. The great paradox is that the rail 9 we're talking about on Richmond -- you know, it's 10 logical that these people want to have dinner and take 11 the rail. It's logical that people want to take the 12 rail to go to a museum; but where are you taking -- 13 where am I hearing the people who say, you know what, 14 I'm parking my car and what I'm doing is I'm taking the 15 rail to get to work every single day. 16 There is not a problem on the weekends 17 inside the loop; traffic moves very well. The issue we 18 have is what has happened to our workforce. How are we 19 moving our workforce in this community? What I'm really 20 concerned about, and I spoke about this, is that you 21 look at neighborhoods, and Four Court is a great 22 example. Once density happens, those people who can't 23 speak for themselves are pushed out. 24 I spoke to my Hispanic friend who lives 25 and works up and down Richmond; and this part of The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 31 1 Richmond, as you know, is the only part of this major 2 part inside the loop that has the preponderance of 3 Hispanic-owned business. They tell me there is 950 jobs 4 at stake for Hispanic people up and down Richmond and a 5 great many of those are Hispanic woman, who in many, 6 many cases, are the single breadwinners for their family 7 and unfortunately, as you all know, we live in a society 8 where Hispanic women and women of color have very, very 9 few choices. 10 And what's going to happen to the Third 11 Ward? You know, I'm all for the rail connecting T.S.U. 12 and U. of H., providing mobility for those students. 13 Drive down to the Third Ward and I already see the signs 14 that say, "Don't buy our property." The same thing 15 happened in Fourth Ward. The African American community 16 lived in the Fourth Ward but didn't own the property. 17 It was absentee property owners and they got pushed out 18 and already the real estate developers are circling like 19 buzzards and when the rail construction starts on 20 Richmond and all those 350 small businesses are 21 destroyed and the spaces are empty, they will come 22 through. They will buy the property cheap and coupled 23 with the fact that -- 24 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Can we request a time 25 limit? The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 32 1 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Time. 2 MS. EDWARDS: You've given me a lot of 3 issues here. Unfortunately, I'm not that bright to be 4 able to solve all the problems but let me give you what 5 I can. First, you spoke about disenfranchisement. When 6 the rail was on -- it was the same year I was 7 campaigning for my second term. I took all of my 8 campaign funds to literature, and everything put rail 9 and stuff on it because I'm a proponent of public 10 transportation. I've never lived in a city that was so 11 anti-public transportation. So, I felt that that was my 12 responsibility. I worked and spent my money in trying 13 to get people to vote for rail. And we had the same 14 discussions you're having here. I didn't work on the 15 north side. I don't pretend to speak for all African 16 origin people, but I can tell you the area I worked in, 17 people were really concerned about what they thought was 18 a major switch and Mr. Wilson can tell you and you can 19 read for yourself, we had about at least 20 meetings and 20 out of this came this task force that I talked about and 21 how people decided how to make decisions. So, the issue 22 disenfranchisement, I can't speak directly on that; but 23 I can say that I believe that -- personally, I believe 24 in the principle of a democratic republic. It's very 25 hard to make that work because most people have gotten The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 33 1 so socialized and will say the government will do it for 2 you. 3 One of the biggest learning tools and one 4 of the valued lessons that came in our community that I 5 worked with very closely with -- and we have quite a 6 number of Hispanics that live in that part of this 7 community -- is that they learned how to activate their 8 part of the partnership. They learned that people like 9 myself and Mr. Wilson worked for them, that we don't -- 10 that we are not the benevolent dictators that come in 11 and say -- and that you have to be to able stand up here 12 and be able to take the punishment. I can't solve all 13 of the socialization problems of low cost wages. My 14 voting record stands for itself as what I am for. So, I 15 won't deal with that; but I would be glad to show you. 16 The other issue regarding deed 17 restrictions and people building monstrosities, there 18 are two ways to look at that. One, the city of Houston 19 is not zoned. In the inside of the loop, we have 20 Chapter 42. I would have you check -- our office will 21 check to see if that is in place or if that's something 22 that can help. 23 Also, I'm also the chairman of the Housing 24 Committee. We're looking at an ordinance that deals 25 with concentration. Once again, we don't have zoning in The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 34 1 this city, for whatever reason, people are afraid of it. 2 So, you have to zone it almost ordinance by ordinance 3 when people complain. 4 And the issue of concentration is not just 5 here. It's everywhere. I have communities that call me 6 every day. We have to look at how many multi-family 7 units are in a given concentration, geographic 8 concentration. So, that issue is throughout District 9 D.; and we are working on that. If that becomes a 10 problem in the area, we will be glad to look at it from 11 that perspective. 12 The other situation is -- is that there is 13 a kind of assumption I picked up -- and this could be -- 14 I stand to apologize -- in your conversation, that you 15 think it's a done deal. All of those issues that you 16 brought up, I think are issues that have to be talked 17 about in the 6-month period that Mr. Wilson alluded to. 18 And also, if there's any faith that you have in the 19 government, that you put in the elected officials you 20 put in City Hall, is to hold them to those issues that 21 you're concerned about. There is not a city or 22 community in this city that is going to look the same in 23 10 years. The challenge for us, I think, is to make 24 sure that however it changes it changes, within the 25 sociability of the community in which it is right now. The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 35 1 And that's what I think, and that's what 2 I'm trying to do. You have my commitment as a city 3 council person to be at as many meetings as it takes. 4 Democracy is kind of like watching sausage being made. 5 It really is. And I understand why people relate back 6 to being a tyrant or dictators. It's easy to tell 7 people what to do than -- it is to ask people to come in 8 and give your opinion and let's make a community plan. 9 So, I understand and we -- our office understands. And 10 you know what? Everyone is not going to agree with the 11 final solution. 12 The goal for me is to find the best 13 solution that will affect the most people and I can't -- 14 I can't go into this protecting anybody or anything. I 15 can't as an elected official for this district. I have 16 to go in with blinders off and say to "listen everyone, 17 here is as much as we can do, and do what we can." I'm 18 not going to sit there and promise you that everyones 19 going to be satisfied with the job that we do; but 20 hopefully everyone will be satisfied that the process 21 was open, that it was transparent, and they had an 22 opportunity to participate in it. 23 The question that you talked about women 24 working -- I've been fighting for women's rights in this 25 country since 1969. The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 36 1 MR. McCLAIN: I know you have. That's why 2 I addressed this. 3 (Applause.) 4 MS. EDWARDS: I'm not trying to challenge 5 your comments. I'm just trying to say we have to keep 6 it in perspective. If I could change this world like 7 this (snapping fingers), hey, it would be on. It would 8 definitely be on; but what you need to do, if I can 9 encourage you, is to stay in the process, you know, to 10 be vigilant in the process. And I think that the 11 rocking issue, or the discomfort, or the challenges that 12 you bring, gives the process the integrity it will need 13 to keep it open and transparent. So, I can't promise 14 you anything other than I will work hard; and I'll work 15 with you and try to do what we think is best for most 16 people. That's all I can say. 17 MR. McCLAIN: Thank you for giving my 18 question a respectful answer and just one last comment. 19 I guess, as I look around, I'm very disappointed to see 20 that I don't see any of my Hispanic friends here and I 21 certainly don't see any of my African American friends 22 here and I think in some ways that the process is, 23 whether we want to call it cultural or economic or 24 whatever, is very -- 25 MS. EDWARDS: No, I'll tell you why we The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 37 1 don't. We've had at least 30, 40 meetings that we've 2 had. This one was specifically devised for this 3 community to try to get this community actively in the 4 leadership role for this part of the corridor and we 5 sent out -- I don't know why the Hispanic is not here, 6 the business owners, I was told, were given the 7 information and if they didn't choose to come, that's 8 their right and their choice. But I think for this 9 area -- and this isn't the only meeting. There will be 10 several more meetings in this area. 11 So, what I would encourage you to do is if 12 you give me a list of people that you want to make sure 13 that are here, if you will give it to our office, we 14 will make sure they get that information. 15 AUDIENCE MEMBER: 16 MR. McCLAIN: Thank you. 17 MS. EDWARDS: There will be future 18 meetings in this area because we don't want you to have 19 to travel all the way to Judson Robinson Community 20 Center or wherever. We want it in place where the 21 people that live here can have a leadership role or 22 assume a leadership role to facilitate the conversation. 23 MR. McCLAIN: Thank you. 24 MS. EDWARDS: Thank you. 25 MR. WILSON: "Driving on Richmond, I see The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 38 1 signs such as Richmond rail will cost billions, yes, 2 billions. From what METRO has published, this seems 3 extremely off base. How does METRO address groups that 4 purport to the public grossly exaggerated information?" 5 The best way we deal with this information 6 is to saturate the community with true information. The 7 sign that you read says it will cost billions is, in 8 fact, not true. The whole METRO program, all five lines 9 that we are constructing, is expected to cost only 10 1.2 billion. This line, granted, will be the most 11 costly; but we're looking in the neighborhood of about 12 half that, maybe 4 to 500 million, not billions. So, 13 spread the good word. This is a discount. 14 (Laughter.) 15 MR. WILSON: Just simply not true. 16 MR. McCUTCHAN: Hi, I'm Sims McCutchan. 17 I'm just a citizen, but I'm from South Hamilton 18 Extension area. I got a couple of questions slash 19 observations. I encounter a lot of people that mix up 20 light rail and commuter rail. Could you clarify that 21 as -- I guess, just -- I think I have the right idea; 22 but a lot of people were saying, I understand, at the 23 other meeting that the light rail line should be a 24 commuter line to Fort Bend. My perception of light rail 25 is that it serves neighborhoods and people like me. I The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 39 1 certainly don't mind riding on the rail with poor 2 people. I think that's great but I'm middle class and I 3 feel discriminated because people don't want me to ride 4 the rail or feel I shouldn't be riding the rail or 5 utilizing it. 6 I love the light rail. I ride it to town 7 all the time. Car doesn't go to town. So, anyway, I 8 will not go into a sermon; but could you do some 9 clarification for us on that? 10 MR. WILSON: Light rail like we have on 11 Main Street. You've seen it; hopefully you have ridden 12 on it. It is what it is, and it's exactly what this 13 gentleman says. It's a local urban neighborhood 14 community kind of service, easy to get on and off, 15 closely-spaced stations, runs at relatively low speeds, 16 still carries great volumes of people. It's meant to be 17 used for short distances; seats are used over and over 18 again. Let's say from one end of the trip to the other 19 end of the trip, maybe 4 different people sit in a seat. 20 A commuter rail, on the other hand, is for 21 long distances, 20 miles, 30 miles, 40 miles, 50 miles. 22 They run long distances between stations maybe every 3 23 or 5 miles. Where light rail is every half a mile. A 24 seat is generally sold one time. You get on it and ride 25 to the end, and the end is generally in the downtown The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 40 1 area. Most trips you collect and deposit in one 2 location. Light rail, you are on and off, on and off. 3 You may be out on a trip into the city, take the train 4 to lunch, take the train the other direction and do a 5 little shopping, and remember your dentist appointment 6 and head back the other direction. You packaged three 7 trips on this little railroad that's taken you back and 8 forth. People don't intend to use commuter rail that 9 way. You start your trip early in the morning. They go 10 downtown to work, and they take it back home. So, it's 11 long distance, much higher speeds. They run up to a 12 hundred miles an hour and 25 miles an hour, station to 13 station is equal. Stations are further apart. 14 There is the difference. If you look at 15 the rail cars, they actually look different as well; and 16 so that's as good a description as I can give you. 17 MR. McCUTCHAN: That's does a good job. I 18 do have a second question. When I voted for rail -- and 19 I've been a long-time supporter of rail, I understood -- 20 I mean that I happen to know geography of the town, and 21 I know Westpark doesn't really begin until Kirby. 22 So, my question -- this leads to the 23 question. That area where -- and I think another 24 question dealt with this, but I can't see any way if 25 Westpark is chosen as the route -- my assumption when The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 41 1 you say Westpark corridor, you meant Richmond to a 2 certain point and then Westpark -- actually, I think the 3 whole route of Richmond is fine but the -- going from 4 where, I guess, Wheeler Station or anywhere where I 5 think the connector would be, I can see no way you can 6 connect to Westpark from that location without 7 condemning property. Is that a possibility, or what is 8 your comment on that at this point? 9 MR. WILSON: The connection from -- on 10 Westpark from Kirby to Wheeler is the difficult part of 11 that route and very costly part of that route. It not 12 only costs a lot to build and the other cost, you are 13 running into what we consider the dead zone. There is 14 no traffic. You can't pick people up and drop them off 15 in that section. So, the cost is covered in different 16 ways. That's the challenging part of it. 17 Can it be done? You know engineers can do 18 anything as long as you give them enough money -- buy 19 the property, knock the road down, and -- okay, a couple 20 billion dollars, maybe you can do it. So, maybe those 21 signs were right after all. It's not an easy task; but, 22 as I said at the outset, there is an alternative from 23 Wheeler to Post Oak along the entirety of Westpark where 24 it exists. The other alternative is the entirety of 25 Richmond, and the third is some combination of the two. The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 42 1 So, you might run from Wheeler to, let's say, between 2 Shepherd and Weslayan on Richmond and then drop down and 3 go south to Westpark for the rest of the trip and then 4 hook up to -- 5 MR. McCUTCHAN: So, you would say you are 6 using the 59 corridor rather -- there is no access 7 road -- 8 MR. WILSON: No. 9 MR. McCUTCHAN: -- or intersection. 10 MR. WILSON: Well, the concept if you look 11 throughout the referendum, it sort of presupposes you're 12 on 59 somewhere somehow. 13 MR. McCUTCHAN: Yeah. 14 MR. WILSON: It's not very specific; but 15 then, again, the referendum is not specific. It was a 16 general plan on how you do it, and it's what prompted us 17 to look at some other options because that's a very 18 expensive part of the construction and without benefit 19 of ridership. So, you just simply look for another 20 alternative. 21 So, the third option is some combination 22 of the two alignments; and I think the 64,000 question 23 is: Where do you connect them? How far east and west 24 do you connect them? So, you avoid a lot of the impacts 25 that we're hearing about here tonight and we heard The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 43 1 previously. 2 MR. McCUTCHAN: Well, I do appreciate 3 METRO having these kind of hearings. There are other 4 communities that don't do as well, and I think you all 5 do a wonderful job of it. I appreciate the concerns 6 that have been expressed by a number of people tonight 7 and I personally think the Richmond corridor is the one 8 that makes the most sense but I understand their 9 concerns and respect and I want that clear. 10 And thank you, Council Member Edwards 11 you're my hero. 12 (Applause.) 13 MR. WILSON: "Just how important, if at 14 all, will be" -- "Just how important, if at all, will be 15 Representative Culberson's opinion, especially in light 16 of his stated pre-emption of the mandated process?" 17 This meeting has gone on about 5 minutes 18 too long. 19 (Laughter.) 20 MR. WILSON: Oh, gosh. This is -- can you 21 take a break or something? (Looking at stenographer.) 22 MS. EDWARDS: Can I answer that? 23 MR. WILSON: You want to answer that? 24 Sure. 25 (Laughter.) The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 44 1 MS. EDWARDS: I think Representative 2 Culberson's opinion will be as important as you give it. 3 His opinion, if it doesn't represent the community, it's 4 an opinion. And you know that everybody has one of 5 those. 6 (Laughter.) 7 MS. EDWARDS: I think the importance of 8 his opinion is your acceptance of his opinion and move 9 forward. I can't -- I don't know what his opinion is 10 and what your acceptance of it will be, but it will be 11 whatever we give it. That's my answer. 12 MR. WILSON: Well, I'm not going to let 13 the congressman take all the heat. The fact of the 14 matter is I will give you facts, and I will give you my 15 opinion. The fact of the matter is the congressman has 16 been steadfast in his desire to see METRO follow the 17 process. We have been involved in this process for a 18 couple of years, ever since the referendum; and he said 19 that he would support whatever the process resulted in. 20 And talking about our efforts to get this 21 thing through the federal process where the funding 22 decision is at the end of it, well, ladies and 23 gentlemen, it's my opinion that the congressman would 24 want us to follow the process to the bitter end; and 25 part of the process we got to get through next is The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 45 1 something called an environmental impact statement. And 2 nested in that process is: What project are you going 3 to build? Fine. What are the alternatives to that 4 project? Fine. Let's see all the impacts to all the 5 alternatives. 6 It's what you started to do here tonight. 7 You are, we are, part of the process; and it is the very 8 beginning. We have 6 to 9 more months of process left 9 to go. And as long as Congressman Culberson is 10 consistent in his determination for us to follow the 11 process, we are going to be just fine. 12 And at the end of it, we will shape a 13 decision that we hope this whole community will be able 14 to show its support. That's the fact. That's my 15 opinion on the facts. 16 MS. EDWARDS: Mr. Wilson, we have about 20 17 minutes. We have three cards and three people. Could 18 we ask the young lady at the end to be the last official 19 live-body question? That will be six questions. 20 MR. WILSON: Okay. I will keep the 21 answers short. 22 Your turn. 23 MR. ARPIN: My name is David Arpin. I've 24 lived in this neighborhood for 20 years. I'm here with 25 several of my neighbors, and we all believe Richmond is The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 46 1 the solution for light rail. I would like to just say 2 that I understand Mr. McClain's concern; and this lady 3 behind me, I understand her concern. They are small 4 business people on Richmond. They had to witness the 5 devastation of small businesses on Main Street as that 6 debacle unfolded to a wonderful result that it unfolded 7 to. 8 What my question is: Given all the 9 economic concerns and their concern, regardless of the 10 litigation, about the concern for the Hispanics and the 11 African American neighborhoods, their real concern is 12 that their businesses survive this process. And have 13 you considered any kind of financial program for them to 14 assure that their businesses can survive this program? 15 Seems to me that would be a very small 16 cost in the relative scheme of this whole program as 17 opposed to putting it on West- -- on this so-called 18 Westpark corridor, which I agree with this last 19 gentleman. I didn't know Westpark corridor went beyond 20 Kirby. Seems to me like the macro-economic impact for 21 that -- for businesses downtown who will suffer because 22 traffic is going to be sitting on Highway 59 again, 23 while they close lanes so they don't have to be 24 concerned about dump trucks falling off of that little 25 ledge there that they're going to have to build that The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 47 1 thing on -- 2 (Laughter.) 3 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Seems to me the cost of 4 supporting these businesses through this process is 5 going to be much smaller than all of this other and so 6 on. 7 MR. WILSON: I'm sorry for the short 8 answer to your question; but yes, we would be happy to 9 talk to them about it. 10 MR. ARPIN: Well, have they talked to you 11 about that? 12 MR. WILSON: Well, no, not yet. 13 MS. SCARBROUGH: It's not our place to 14 talk to them about it. 15 AUDIENCE MEMBER: This is a 16 fact-finding -- 17 MR. WILSON: Let me say -- 18 MR. ARPIN: Are you willing to consider 19 something like that? 20 MS. SCARBROUGH: I don't think you 21 understand the reality of day-to-day business. Do you 22 work for -- do you have a salary, or do you own a 23 business? 24 MR. ARPIN: I beg your pardon. I have 25 been a small businessman for over 20 years. You are so The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 48 1 presumptuous to stand there and say that. 2 MS. SCARBROUGH: That's why I asked that. 3 MR. ARPIN: Of course I understand small 4 business. 5 MS. SCARBROUGH: We have over 375 small 6 businesses. So, how many -- 7 MR. ARPIN: How much does your 8 business profit a year? Maybe 50, a 100, $200,000 a 9 year? Multiply that by 300, 800. Get a life. 10 MS. SCARBROUGH: Those are our tax 11 dollars. 12 MR. ARPIN: So what? It's my tax dollars 13 to have, you know, all those people sitting on 59, that 14 raises the cost of business downtown. Think about this 15 in a macro sense. 16 MS. SCARBROUGH: That leads to my 17 question. And thank you very much for the opportunity. 18 MR. WILSON: Can I finish the answer to 19 his? 20 MS. SCARBROUGH: Okay. Thank you very 21 much for the opportunity to speak. We do appreciate it. 22 MR. WILSON: Can I finish answering the 23 gentleman's question? 24 MS. SCARBROUGH: Fine. 25 MR. WILSON: You raised a third issue, and The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 49 1 you are both right. The day will come when we have to 2 talk to them about how to get them through the 3 construction period, but now is not the right time or 4 place. We got to do this individually, one on one, 5 business by business. It's not one size fits all. It's 6 going to be custom fit and we will determine whether we 7 can do that or not but we are willing to entertain the 8 idea. 9 Good question. And the answer to that is, 10 yes, we are going to do that; and you will be one of the 11 first we visit. 12 MS. SCARBROUGH: Oh, of course, the Brass 13 Maiden at 2016 Richmond, east of Shepherd, which brings 14 me to my mobility question. We are very narrow there 15 and we do have flooding issues and you did kind of 16 allude to that a little bit and the lady had a very 17 interesting suggestion about raising the rail and then 18 that brings me to the other issue of the north/south 19 streets. 20 I'm into increasing mobility, not 21 decreasing mobility. I think everyone in this room -- 22 we all want the same thing. We want a wonderful town 23 that moves, and we all love our town and we are very 24 proud of our town and we want to make that better but 25 the problem with having the rail on Richmond to all of The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 50 1 us is there's going to be a lot of sacrifices in 2 mobility, not only through the construction process but 3 afterwards, because from what I learned -- I've gotten 4 to study these B.R.T., the alternative car, which I 5 assume that is still on the table? And then verses the 6 standard rail car that we have on Main Street. 7 And how many people does the rail car 8 hold? Is that a hundred? 9 MR. WILSON: Say a hundred. 10 MS. SCARBROUGH: A hundred. Okay. You're 11 projecting 40,000 people a day going down Richmond 12 Avenue between Main Street and the 610 Loop, which, I 13 guess is your destination at that point. So, how many 14 times will those cars -- how many minutes between lights 15 will people have if they're trying to go north and south 16 on Kirby, Shepherd, Buffalo Speedway, and Weslayan? 17 MR. WILSON: 6 minutes. 18 MS. SCARBROUGH: So, we already have 19 enough traffic on Shepherd. So, that puts the light 20 timing on Montrose and -- 21 MR. ARPIN: They got experts that are 22 going to be studying this. 23 MS. SCARBROUGH: No, no, I would like an 24 answer to the question because this is everyday life. 25 MR. ARPIN: He just said that they have The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 51 1 experts that they're hiring to look at all this stuff. 2 MS. SCARBROUGH: Yeah, but I'm talking 3 about now. Have you been on Bissonnet by the Museum of 4 Fine Arts? 5 MR. ARPIN: That's not going to get any 6 better without a rail. It's just going to get worse. 7 8 (Applause.) 9 AUDIENCE MEMBER: This is not a town. 10 This is a city, and it's becoming denser and denser. 11 MS. EDWARDS: We are not the enemy. 12 Hold up. Hold up. We have had a 13 productive meeting. We cannot implode on each other. 14 We are not the enemy. We are trying to collect data. 15 Okay? So, let's be respectful that people get -- and if 16 you could keep your conversation to Mr. Wilson. 17 MS. SCARBROUGH: I will be happy to do 18 that. 19 MS. EDWARDS: Thank you. 20 MS. SCARBROUGH: So, let's get back to my 21 one question I would like to have answered tonight about 22 the B.R.T. verses the other rail car. So, how many 23 people does the B.R.T. car hold? 24 MR. WILSON: 60. 25 MS. SCARBROUGH: Okay. And so, how many The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 52 1 cars are you -- at this point, I know you are still in 2 developmental stages; but you have some idea of how many 3 cars you would purchase to run on the line? 4 MR. WILSON: Less than -- less than, well, 5 let's say 18, 15. 6 MS. SCARBROUGH: Right. So, it's going to 7 take a lot of stops; and right now, from what I 8 understand, we have stops at Montrose, Dunlavy, and 9 Shepherd? 10 MR. WILSON: There is no connection -- 11 there is no connection, very little connection between 12 number of stops and cars -- 13 MS. SCARBROUGH: Other than the amount of 14 people. 15 MR. WILSON: -- we are looking at, on 16 average, spacing stations every half a mile. 17 MS. SCARBROUGH: Okay. 18 MR. WILSON: The fact of the matter is, 19 you asked the question and I gave you the answer, but 20 because you didn't ask the question the right way, you 21 should still have a right answer. 22 MS. SCARBROUGH: Okay. 23 MR. WILSON: You can stand on Richmond or 24 any street, for that matter, that we run this line on, 25 every 3 minutes something will be coming across the The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 53 1 north/south street every 3 minutes. You go out and time 2 all the lights and signals, and it's an eternity. 3 There's probably four cycles of north/south movement 4 inside those 3 minutes. 5 So, our little train is going to add 6 absolutely nothing to the green time or the red time on 7 the crossing street, absolutely nothing. This is not a 8 hundred-car freight train that goes through at 2 miles 9 an hour. 10 MS. SCARBROUGH: I understand that. 11 MR. WILSON: So, if you go on Main Street, 12 you'll see it's there and gone. The value of it is as 13 the population in this region or this community grows, 14 you heard from the previous speakers, it's going to 15 happen. A lot of those trips can be put in that vehicle 16 rather than in cars that are going to take, you know, 17 some of that time as well. So, it's a trade up, not a 18 trade down. The issue really is, I believe, is 19 left-hand turn issue. 20 MS. SCARBROUGH: You take a lane of 21 traffic from us. 22 MR. WILSON: How do cars make the left 23 turns? It's not so much the traffic going across the 24 right-of-way, but those are the legitimate traffic 25 issues we got to deal with. The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 54 1 MS. SCARBROUGH: Okay. 2 MR. WILSON: Now, before I take the last 3 question -- also, I'm not plugging the Congressman's 4 meeting tomorrow; but since someone asked, the 5 congressman is meeting tomorrow at Rice University. I 6 don't know what the hall name is -- 7 METRO EMPLOYEE: Shell Auditorium. 8 MR. WILSON: Shell Auditorium. For those 9 of you who want to make sure that the congressman 10 respects the process that you're certainly involved in, 11 I'm sure he would love to see and hear from you tomorrow 12 evening. I got no right to invite you to this meeting, 13 but you are the public. I just wanted to be sure that 14 you knew that the meeting was happening. 15 Please bear with me. I got one or two, 16 and I'll try to be brief. 17 "Wherever you build rail, we have shops 18 and restaurants that make our Neartown neighborhoods 19 great. What can you do to make sure businesses survive 20 construction?" 21 Yes, we will have great neighborhoods and 22 restaurants; except we're not building them. What can 23 we do to make -- I talked about -- I guess this was 24 asked before. We talked about what can be done during 25 construction. I mentioned a couple of techniques: The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 55 1 Don't touch the utilities if we can avoid it, work in 2 times of day and night that are more conducive to the 3 neighborhoods, do a lot of offsite prefabrication and 4 drop them in and shorten up construction time. These 5 are some of the techniques, and we will work with the 6 business to maintain access to the businesses. 7 And the other question you raised about 8 parking. If we can go in and increase the parking 9 supply and hold up that traffic off of the streets. So, 10 we're looking at park. Those are the kinds of things 11 taken as a whole that will make a huge difference 12 compared to what happened on Main Street. 13 Let me answer and take yours and I will 14 finish up with two. "One of the considerations should 15 be the future when many people will not be able to 16 afford cars and will need public transportation. 17 The problem is global warming, more 18 floods, less gasoline; life gets worse. We need to plan 19 for the corridor to have more rail and fewer cars." 20 Okay. This is an apocalypse question. 21 (Laughter.) 22 MR. WILSON: You know there is an element 23 of truth in this. Whether we like it or not, our 24 population is aging. If you look at the -- if you look 25 at the historygram and see what the average age of the The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 56 1 population is, it's getting older. Yeah, it turns out 2 to be more people sort of move into a denser urban 3 environments; everything is more convenient. You don't 4 have to live your life in the car, and you want to be 5 able to move around easy. Yeah, it's part of the 6 future. 7 A little money fact, that METRO does one 8 huge task in helping the environmental situation here. 9 No, we can't keep the cars from happening; but what we 10 can do is burn very clean fuel ourselves and invite as 11 many people as possible to use transit rather than 12 drive. We burn some of the most expensive fuel in 13 captivity. We didn't burn for the longest time low 14 sulfur but ultra low sulfur fuel. When you pay $3 a 15 gallon, you pay 20 cents more just to burn that fuel. 16 The line we're looking at building here 17 will be electric, and electric propulsion is much more 18 forgiving on the environment. The issues here are 19 sensitive in forward thinking. Yes, we're going to give 20 an older population an alternative for mobility and it 21 won't be just a car and yes, for building systems like 22 that we do make our contribution to the environment. As 23 humble as it is, every little bit counts. And there is 24 quite a bit of ancillary benefit here, just being able 25 to connect trips. The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 57 1 So, thank you for waiting. 2 MS. BOMAR: My name is Wyn Bomar, W-y-n. 3 Thank you both for listening. I live on Colquitt, which 4 is one block north of Richmond and I have a couple 5 things to say and I have a question. 6 What I know is Houstonians are really slow 7 to give up their cars. I know that my neighborhood has 8 a lot of traffic and that work isn't the only place I 9 go. If I could ride the rail to work, I would; but like 10 a lot of Houstonians, our business district is spread 11 out and I visit each district on a daily basis, maybe 12 three in a day at the most. So, taking the rail to work 13 is not an option for me and won't be a option for many 14 Houstonians. 15 The second part is even if I could take 16 the rail to work, and I can't, there is so many other 17 places I go. I go to the grocery store. I go to pick 18 up my children from school. I go to the cleaners. I 19 can't do that on rail. Rail is not helping my 20 neighborhood; it's congesting the already congested 21 traffic. 22 My question for you is that: When I 23 started doing my research, I saw that there is an option 24 instead of using Richmond -- there was an option that 25 parallels 59 and then to hear you say tonight that -- The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 58 1 that you are landlocked. It just -- it doesn't sound 2 like to me that the 59 was ever an option or ever a 3 viable option, and that leaves me with no options. 4 Everything I'm hearing from you is that from -- from 5 Westpark to Wheeler, that Richmond is obviously your 6 preferred option; but from what I'm hearing, there 7 really are no other viable options. Am I hearing that 8 correctly because I thought you said we're landlocked, 9 and it would be foolish to take up the H.O.V. lanes? 10 So, if I could just get some clarification. 11 MR. WILSON: You're free to reach that 12 conclusion from what you heard. I'm obliged to answer 13 the questions as directly as I can. 14 You asked how you connect Westpark and 15 Kirby to Wheeler. I can't answer that any other way but 16 honestly. The tough way to make that connection 17 costwise and ridership wise is by using 59. It's not to 18 say that Richmond doesn't bring its own challenges and 19 we will have an issue there as well, but it is a very 20 tough proposition. 21 If I didn't tell you that, you should walk 22 out of this facility because it happens to be the truth. 23 It's not as if we made up our mind. We are presented 24 with options that are not ideal, choices wind up 25 becoming which is the least worse? And we don't know The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 59 1 that yet. It may be that trying to get Wheeler, to say, 2 Kirby on Richmond turns out to be as big an issue or as 3 big a challenge as Westpark. I don't know that. 4 So, I think it's not the right conclusion 5 to draw that we've -- I've already made up my mind that 6 it's a difficult -- that Richmond is the better deal. 7 I'll tell you this. There is more ridership on Richmond 8 in that phase than any other place we could put it. 9 What I don't know is can I do it cost 10 effectively. Will I have to take too much property or 11 no property? Is a left-turn issue going to slay this 12 thing? I don't know. That's why we are doing all these 13 in-depth technical analyses and that's why a lot of 14 issues that are raised here tonight are a factor, a lot 15 of businesses got to worry about those. 16 What am I impacting on 59? TxDOT? You 17 know, it's not a big deal about the construction you 18 already know because you look at it and say, my God, how 19 did you do, stacking up the structure? And we just know 20 that's expensive. It could cost a million dollars. 21 Richmond could cost a dollar, or it could cost a million 22 on 59 and Richmond a million 5. We got to figure that 23 out. 24 I'm trying to answer the questions here as 25 they were asked without selling you anything and answer The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 60 1 them directly and humbly. And as I said, I just think 2 it's the wrong conclusion that we've made up our minds. 3 It was said at the outset and the councilman said it 4 there is no decisions made. 5 I'm not going to stand here and be a 6 bureaucrat and duck issues and when somebody says, well, 7 is it any different then Westpark? And is it easy to 8 build on Richmond? Well, no, it's not. You're the 9 first one to say -- is it easy to build on Richmond? 10 No, it's not. If you asked that, I wouldn't have said 11 that. 12 So, we're not looking at Richmond because 13 it's easy. We're just looking what other options do we 14 have? And those are the two. So, we are going to look 15 at them as fairly and squarely as we possibly can 16 because not only does it have to pass your test but 17 there is a whole other federal review that we're going 18 to go through and that's their money, too. They are 19 putting half the money in this deal and they're not 20 going to let us get away with doing less of a job on 21 this so -- we do it because it's right. We also do it 22 because we have to. 23 You raised the issue at the outset -- 24 major observations about the fact that you don't use it 25 and can't use it. What I wanted to say, I think if we The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 61 1 left the impression here tonight with anyone that we see 2 this light rail system as a solution to Houston's 3 traffic problems, it's not possible. What we see it as 4 making a contribution to better mobility in this 5 community, but you can't use it to make every trip that 6 there is. We're not in competition with the roads. 7 We're compatible auxilliary transportation alternative 8 for a lot of trips, not every trip. Your business and 9 your lifestyle demands that you travel differently, do 10 it. But there is a sort of a -- I don't know what you 11 call it. It's not a philosophy, but it's sort of the 12 way some people think. 13 Sometimes you get support for the right 14 reasons, and sometimes you get it from the wrong 15 reasons. And it's wrong support but we will take 16 support where you can get it and what I wanted to say is 17 that there are a lot of folks that tell you, I'm very 18 supportive of you doing this transit system here. I'm 19 not going to use it, but I hope to heck a lot of other 20 people do because get out of my way because I want free 21 mobility on the freeway. You know what? It works 22 because it's exactly what happens. A lot of trips that 23 can be made on the rail line will be, and that will save 24 some space on the roadway. 25 So, right now we have 40,000 trips a day The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 62 1 being made on that rail road. If you didn't have it, 2 where would it be? And how much worse would the city 3 streets be because of it? That's why I try to give the 4 example and the statistic. When you put the rail line 5 in, 600 buses came off the street. That's only part of 6 it. A lot of people would make a trip by automobile now 7 use the rail line for unclogging the city streets and 8 other people can use it more freely and the city didn't 9 have to invest in those streets. So, your neighborhood 10 can but you may not be able to make a shift; but enough 11 people do, your neighborhood can be better off by having 12 both modes working together rather than all highways and 13 all transit. 14 I hope you leave tonight feeling that the 15 proposition we will build this and congestion will go 16 away, not possible, never going to happen. But we help 17 manage it a lot better and provide more mobility without 18 having to have TxDOT or the city come in and take 19 property to widen roads. When you get growth and it 20 happens, and as we said, we don't have zoning to control 21 that. There is a pressure that's built up, and 22 something has got to give. 23 The way we hope you look at this rail 24 option is a way to forestall seeing the roadways 25 expanded; and, you know, you have to accommodate The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 63 1 automobile traffic. You can't do it anywhere near as 2 efficient as you can with the rail. With 20-something 3 feet, we can carry tens of thousands of people. There 4 is no way you can do that with road expansion. You need 5 thousands of feet to carry a few hundred people. The 6 equation works the wrong way. So, we think we got a 7 contribution to make; but it's not for everyone for 8 every trip. 9 (Applause.) 10 MS. HOLZER: Council Member, if I may, I'd 11 like to make a very brief announcement. 12 MS. EDWARDS: Go ahead. 13 MS. HOLZER: As many of you know, my name 14 is Robin Holzer; and I chair the board of the Citizens 15 Transportation Coalition. We don't have a position 16 about where this rail line ought to go; but we think two 17 things are really critical: That there is a federally 18 required planning process as Mr. Wilson explained to us, 19 that's going to take, not months, but years before we 20 are done. And the second piece is that the public needs 21 to participate. We believe public participation like we 22 are doing tonight makes these projects better and so on. 23 In that context as a member of this 24 neighborhood, I'm concerned about an E-mail I heard; and 25 I want to share a small snippet with you. If you live The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 64 1 west of Montrose, you are in Congressional District 7; 2 and that means we're represented by Representative 3 Culberson. He sent an E-mail to some of his 4 constituents about the town hall meeting that he's 5 having tomorrow night at Rice, and he says this about 6 the process. 7 "I am confident we will reach a point this 8 week where all members of the community have been 9 throughly educated on the proposals and have given their 10 final input. At this town hall meeting, I will listen 11 to your comments and ideas and make a decision based on 12 your input. Afterwards, I will inform METRO of my 13 position." 14 My invitation to you as my neighborhoods 15 in this community is to be sure that your elected 16 representatives have heard your input in the very near 17 future. Thank you. 18 MR. WILSON: There are two other questions 19 here I will summarize and include a very short answer. 20 It has to do about trees. Can we maintain trees? And 21 the answer is yes. 22 Second one is, will you do the project 23 like you did on Main Street during construction? The 24 answer is no. 25 (Laughter.) The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 65 1 MR. WILSON: The last question. It's a 2 long question, but to reduce it down it basically says: 3 Will you take lanes of traffic and leave us one lane and 4 wouldn't that cause a problem and can METRO be counted 5 on to use light rail for evacuation? 6 I'm very proud of the job we've done in 7 the last hurricane season. I hope we never have to do 8 it again. Of course, it can be used in evacuations; and 9 no one performs like METRO who can move vast numbers of 10 people very rapidly. 11 What we are trying to do and we were told 12 today at -- well, we were told last night and repeated 13 today at Lake View Church -- what we're trying to do is 14 put this rail line in and not take the property and not 15 take lanes. And last night I was told what you need, 16 Frank, is a miracle; and the folks at Lakewood said the 17 same thing. And well, okay, start praying because we're 18 going to need some help. 19 Not to say it will never happen but our 20 objectives are noble. And we're trying to minimize the 21 impact on property and traffic. And once we finish the 22 work, we will just see how it works out; but you will 23 know when we do. 24 MS. EDWARDS: Let's give ourselves a hand. 25 (Applause.) The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 66 1 MS. EDWARDS: When I attend meetings like 2 this, I feel very proud and honored to represent this 3 community as your lobbyist and your advocate. And once 4 again, I really strongly suggest you get involved in the 5 planning and to keep this process, the integrity of this 6 process, and the transparency of this process so that 7 you can be a part of the solution; and we'll take it 8 there because this is not going to be the only time this 9 is going to happen. 10 I have two suggestions based on some of 11 the questions I heard tonight. If you're concerned 12 about development in either -- wherever this winds up, 13 you need to write down and make sure your deed 14 restrictions reflect the kind of community that you 15 want. They need to be current; and if you are a single 16 family district right now and that's the way you want it 17 to stay, you need to be sure that you're familiar with 18 Chapter 42 and that you're familiar with deed 19 restrictions, that they are current and enforced. And 20 you need to be up to speed the way you want them. You 21 got to do that. You can't do it when a developer starts 22 putting the dirt down to build the multi-story. It's 23 too late then. 24 I would suggest to you if you are in any 25 organization or familiar with any organization and you The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 67 1 have that concern, that's one thing you can do tomorrow. 2 You don't have to wait to go to another meeting. There 3 is a lot of things we have to do to become 4 self-empowered and I look at things like I look at the 5 end. Where do I want to get? What am I trying to 6 accomplish, and how do I build from that? 7 We are going to have more meetings; and I 8 encourage you if you have people that were not at this 9 meeting that you want to be notified, if you will send 10 their names and E-mails preferably to our office, we 11 will make sure they get notification of the next meeting 12 or the meetings as we continue down this. 13 I want to once again tell you 14 Ms. Culberson -- Mrs. Clutterbuck and Mrs. Holm are also 15 working very closely with us in this effort. So, if you 16 work with her office, then make sure that they get that 17 information as well. The mayor is determined to have a 18 full and open process. He is determined to bring public 19 transportation to the city of Houston in a meaningful 20 way and not -- it will be inconvenient but not 21 destroying the communities and that's our effort and 22 that can only happen if you stay in the mix and don't 23 get tired and we can wind up some place down the road 24 having another open house for Mr. Wilson and METRO to 25 attend. The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 68 1 Thank you very much for coming, and thank 2 you for being part of the solution. 3 (Applause.) 4 (Meeting recessed at 8:38 p.m.) 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973 69 1 THE STATE OF TEXAS: 2 3 COUNTY OF HARRIS: 4 5 I, Kimberly K. Haley, Certified Shorthand Reporter, 6 in and for the State of Texas, do hereby certify that 7 proceedings were taken by me in machine shorthand and 8 later transcribed from machine shorthand to typewritten 9 form by me. 10 I further certify that the above and foregoing 11 transcription, as set forth in typewriting, is a full, 12 true and correct transcript of the proceedings. 13 Given under my hand and seal of office on this, the 14 14th day of April 2006. 15 16 17 18 19 ______________________________ 20 Kimberly K. Haley, 21 CSR, RPR 22 CSR No. 7582 23 State of Texas 24 Expiration: 12/31/06 25 The Captioning Company * Houston, Texas * 281-684-8973