As is our habit, Woodland Heights Civic Association held a Member's Meeting in the library at Travis Elementary School on Tuesday, August 20th.
These meetings are your opportunity to engage with the WHCA board and committees, both to catch up on things going on in the neighborhood and provide feedback. It's your opportunity to both hear and be heard. The meeting got underway just after 6 p.m. on the hottest day of the summer to that point.
CM Mario Castillo
After an initial welcome to the 30-ish members assembled, the agenda began with Council Member Mario Castillo and Sabrina Salts, Director of Special Projects, District H. CM Castillo was invited in advance with a list of questions from neighbors.
The Council Member began by highlighting the District H Patrol Program. He described it as, "…a public safety initiative that is geared towards nuisance level quality of life issues. So, think illegal dumping, homeless encampments, junk motor vehicles that are abandoned, overgrown lots, aggressive panhandling, loitering, those sorts of things. These are things that people do call HPD 4, and oftentimes, they just don't get to them right away. There's obviously a limited number of officers. They're focused on high level, emergent problems. This is a program that can be utilized by anyone in District H to go to districthpatrol.com. There's a form you fill out, there's a certain criteria of nuisance problems that this program will address, and those get routed to Sabrina. Sabrina sends them to the proper HPD command".
He went on to address CenterPoint's recent flurry of tree trimming, which has caused concern among neighbors. “They have been coming through and doing some tree trimming. This is this is in their purview. There are some regulations about how much they can cut, which I think y'all have been pretty proactive about letting them know that, even putting notices on the trees themselves.”
He continued, "It's not necessarily CenterPoint out there doing the trimming. They're hiring a number of contractors to go out there and do that. When that happens, you can have sort of a lapse in standards. You're putting a lot of folks out there to do a job and not necessarily looking at every single tree they're cutting to see if it meets your standards. So that's where your eyes and ears play an important role. I'm happy to be a conduit between CenterPoint and the neighborhood, to ensure that what they're doing is in compliance. If there are issues, definitely send my office a photo and an address.”
The Q&A with Mario went on for a full 30 minutes and covered much more detail than I can get into here. The one big takeaway from the discussion is that 311 is important. The city’s 311 system is the primary way to report issues to the city. Every 311 report is issued a ticket number. City departments are held accountable for addressing their various 311 issues. You can open 311 tickets;
By calling 311
Using the Houston 311 app
Or via the web
If you feel the city is not responsive, you can contact the council members' team at districth@houstontx.gov. Be sure to include the 311 ticket number when contacting them.
Lights in the Heights & BASH Committees address the gathered neighbors.
Lights in the Heights
Ashely Allison and Lauren Snead followed Mario with news about planning for Lights in the Heights and the LITH Bash. Ashley announced the featured streets for LITH 2024: Byrne, Euclid, and 7 1/2th. The festival hasn't been on this route since 2019. Memorial Hermann Hospital in the Heights has once again returned as the presenting sponsor.
Council Member Carla Cisneros submitted the winning design for the event logo. It merges the themes of Space City with the Travisaurus from the Travis Elementary playground. A cloisonné ornament based on the logo is available in the WHCA online store. Order yours today!
Lauren announced the LITH Bash, which will be held Friday, November 15th, at Eureka Heights Brewing. There will be good music, food, drink, and live and silent auctions, all in support of Lights in the Heights. She expects there will be an early bird sale for bash tickets. Remember to Save the Date—details will follow in upcoming newsletters and on social media. Proceeds from the LITH Bash will help fund LITH.
Both committees seek volunteers to assist with all aspects of the Bash and LITH. If you are interested in volunteering, email LightsInTheHeights@gmail.com. It's a great way to get in the holiday spirit while being a part of your neighborhood!
WHCA Board
Each member of the WHCA board in attendance introduced themselves and gave a brief description of their role and recent activities.
Along the way, Director of Beautification Ryan Taylor acknowledged the assistance of Pat Rutledge, Louise Moss, and Tiffany Tyler in recent projects. He further noted several planned workday events in the coming months, starting with Ley Plaza Park on Saturday, September 21st.
I closed out this summary highlighting the unexpected requirement that WHCA move all its worldly possessions out of the storage unit at I-10 and T.C. Jester. That building was damaged by Hurricane Beryl, such that all ground-floor tenants were forced to move out with rather little notice. The WHCA board opted to move to Big Tex Storage on 11th Street. The move itself was undertaken by Louise Moss, Estella Espinosa, and myself.
Guest Speaker - Whole Home Backup Power Affordable Backup Power Presentation
At each member's meeting, we have a guest speaker on a topic broadly of interest to the neighborhood. In the past, we've had naturalists, beekeepers, and bird watchers, among many others.
On this occasion, I gave a presentation I created, June's Derecho. It describes what Stella and I have learned in recent years as we've implemented An Affordable Strategy for Whole-Home Backup Power. It's a set of notes providing guidance on how to run an entire home, including central air conditioning, for much less than the $15-20K that it typically costs to install a dedicated standby generator.
This was the third time that I've given this presentation. The first was online using Zoom. A recording of that session is available, and the slides are also available here. About a third of the assembled crowd stayed all the way to the end, which was around 7:40 p.m.