Yamini Misra has not given the stretch of sidewalk in front of her new home a lot of consideration.
It wasn’t expensive enough to be a budget line item when she and her husband built their house, it was just “lumped into everything.” She did not even know she could have paid a fee to the city instead of building the sidewalk, though she said she would not have chosen that option.
“Who wants more grass?” Misra said, complaining about the weeds on her front lawn.
Misra’s property just southwest of Texas Southern University has become an example of what some Houston City Council members call a “sidewalk to nowhere” – a 4-foot wide strip of concrete that does not connect to an existing sidewalk at either end.
Now, a trio of council members wants the city to scrap a requirement that developers or property owners put in sidewalks when building a new house or pay a fee.
The three – District J’s Edward Pollard, District D’s Carolyn Evans-Shabazz and District F Councilmember Tiffani Thomas – argue developers will build sidewalks when they are compatible with a neighborhood without a city mandate. In other words, they say, let the market dictate whether sidewalks are needed.