Tag Archives: FTPC

News

Temporary Restraining Order halts historical brick removal

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After another round with the City of Houston and Conrad Construction, the Freedmen’s Town Preservation Coalition has stopped the uprooting of the hundred year old bricks on Andrews Street this morning.

FTPC President, Dorris Ellis Robinson, spent the morning hours speaking to media while watching construction workers pick at the bricks, taking them up one by one and stacking them neatly in layers. In her patience, she worked diligently with her team to get a legal motion to the site to stop the further work. By 11:30 am, Catherine Roberts of the FTPC and Rutherford B. Yates Museum rushed over the freshly signed temporary restraining order requested last night in an emergency motion to stop the project.

Conrad Construction workers taking up the historical bricks in Freedmen's Town.
Conrad Construction workers taking up the historical bricks in Freedmen’s Town.

Since July of 2014, the FTPC has requested that Mayor Parker and the City of Houston to reverse their decision to take up the bricks in order to update utility (water) lines under the streets. The debate over preservation and restoration has resulted in a stalemate as neither side has found a middle ground with the other.

“We have tried to schedule meetings and we do our work and they do their work and no meetings take place,” said FTPC President Dorris Ellis Robinson. “We’ve come to an impasse and we had to do a TRO (temporary restraining order) today.”

This is not the first time Robinson has interrupted Conrad Construction’s project as she laid in the trench made by removed bricks almost a month ago, during a trial run of what would be.

“We have 14 days to meet with the City and again explain the alternative solutions and to have support for preserving a historical place,” said Robinson.

Community member Charonda Johnson saw crew members out Monday afternoon inspecting the area and said she knew then it was be something going on today.

The members of the FTPC have continuously shown their devotion to preserving the history of the freed men who paid their own money to have the bricks made and laid.

“They’ll never be able to put back the sweat and tears that it took to put it (bricks) down,” said Reverend Samuel Smith, pastor of Mt. Horeb Baptist Church that sits about three blocks away from the construction site.

Many that gathered at the site complained that the bricks were not being labeled and placed like the City promised which provided further unrest about the project.

“It’s disheartening, the broken promises by the City,” said Ashley Jones of the FTPC. “The methods used are not what they promised, no labeling or identifying of the bricks. How can they be replaced?”

Once the TRO was given to Don Conrad of Conrad Construction and after reviewing the document and speaking to the City of Houston, stopped the removal of the bricks and began to replace the ones removed.

Don Conrad and his crew at a stand still after being served a Temporary Restraining Order.
Don Conrad and his crew at a stand still after being served a Temporary Restraining Order.

According to Alvin Wright, Public Information Officer for the City of Houston, the next step is for the City to go through legal and they will review it. The first court hearing will be January 30th at 1 p.m.. The court has not been released yet.

The temporary restraining order will stop the construction project for 14 days.

News

Mayor Parker rejects Preservation of Historical Brick streets in Freedmen’s Town Fourth Ward

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The Freedmen’s Town Preservation Coalition continue their fight against the City of Houston, going close to two months strong after City Council unanimously voted to restore the historical bricks that line the streets of Andrews and Wilson street after laying new utility lines on June 11th.

FTPC after a press conference on City Hall steps.
FTPC after a press conference on City Hall steps.

The fight over preservation, which the FTPC is calling for, versus restoration which the City has opted to do, is continuous as week after week the community members of Freedmen’s Town Fourth Ward show up to the public session at City Council on Tuesday afternoon in their white and black or custom made S.O.S.”Save Our Streets” t-shirts. People of all types lifestyles presented facts, history and pleaded their own emotional laments for the preservation of the bricks.

Mayor Parker, Councilmembers Cohen (District C), Kubosh (At-Large), Boykins (District D), Davis (District B) and Green (District K) have taken interest in this project. They have addressed the constituents although they are not finding the favor they are seeking in the Council members. Ultimately the Mayor is the only person who can put the restoration project back on the agenda for amending.

“The contract is set to go and we are fully complaint within the State and Federal guidelines,” said Mayor Parker at her weekly press conference on Wednesday August 20th. The day prior, she and the FTCP and many community members had a private meeting to discuss the bricks. The outcome did not satisfy the FTPC nor Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

Congresswoman Lee submitted a letter for agreement terms that stated, “There will be established a Community Advisory Taskforce (CAT) appointed by City officials comprised of members of the community, the City will contract with an archeologist to chronicle the history and to survey, catalogue and photograph Andrews and Wilson Streets, and they must hire locals to work on the project.”

The project will go on as it is a part of a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) project. But the means of how is still at odds.

“It will disrupt history,” said Dorris Ellis Robinson, President of the FTPC. “The City are supposed to be stewards of these streets under the National Historic Preservation statue. By tearing removing these bricks they are proving not to be so.”

FTPC and community members waiting to speak at City Council during the public session.
FTPC and community members waiting to speak at City Council during the public session.

FTPC members have filed a grievance against the City which is being investigated. The alleged violation results from section 110 of the NHPA, in which the city is obligated as the steward of the Traditional Historic Property, in which the streets fall under, to preserve it.

“With each cut into the street it damages the Traditional Historical Property,” said Robinson after Mayor Parker didn’t rescind her contract to restore the streets. “We now need our city to have the will to protect this historical site.”

They are calling on the City to use the Best Available Technology, which is trenchless tunneling which is recommended to go under the sidewalks, which will prevent the streets from further disruption and still afford the community with the updated utilities. FTCP cites how it has been used in River Oaks and three other projects are in cue to use this type of technology.

Dorris Ellis Robinson educating the community on the status of the streets during a town hall at Mt. Horeb Baptist Church in Freedmen's Town.
Dorris Ellis Robinson educating the community on the status of the streets during a town hall at Mt. Horeb Baptist Church in Freedmen’s Town.

Wednesday, August 20th Mayor Parker said the project is a go and the contractor will begin the following week, but the FTPC said it is not over.