Background
Houston. Until recently, Southeast Houston was a place without a name. Much to the chagrin of local residents,
To illuminate the Southeast Houston Arts Initiative, we explore its local context, main activities and outcomes, the people and institutions that fueled the initiative, and the ways in which its scope shifted over time and why. By providing this foundation, readers will better be able to interpret the initiative’s impacts and lessons learned.
the Third Ward neighborhood, which lies to the northwest. One planning process participant explained that the name Southeast Houston had to be invented for the project because there was never any clear label before, due to lack
Context: Houston and a Place Without a Name Place is central to the operating definition of creative placemaking. All cities are unique, but one Houstonian Los Angeles or Philadelphia will not work in Houston. It’s the fourth largest city in the U.S. and the largest without comprehensive zoning. The alternative system of land use regulations, and legal covenants, often results in incongruous architectural forms and land uses occurring Steve Spillette, who coordinated the Southeast Houston Arts Initiative planning process, explained that Houstonians aren’t used to thinking about public space and that a rapid tear down and rebuild mentality results in few historic buildings.
still many community members’ predominant association with Southeast Houston, although its heyday only spanned the 1950s and 60s. Interviewees currently characterize Southeast Houston as being primarily populated by older African-Americans with a growing, younger Latino population. A demographic analysis prepared by Spillette from 2010 Census and 2006-2010 American Community Survey data supports these observations. In the Census Tracts most closely approximating the Southeast Houston Arts Initiative project area boundary, 83 percent of households are black, with Hispanic-headed households comprising 8.5 percent. Renter and owner households are spilt nearly 50/50, and over 40 percent of owner-occupied households were headed by
initiated and led the Southeast Houston Arts Initiative, characterized Houston’s economic base. In addition to the energy sector, the massive Texas Medical Center constitutes a city within a city, with its own impressive skyline. However, a new study commissioned by Houston Arts Alliance and the University of Houston reveals that Houston has a sizable and growing, though often overlooked, creative economy. They found that Houston’s creative economy employs more people than Texas Medical Center. Between 2001 and 2011, Houston also saw larger creative-sector job growth than the Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles metropolitan areas.3 A number of fragmented public authorities and layers of government influence land use – the strong mayor/city controller system in city hall and its public works, planning and development, and parks and recreations departments; the redevelopment authorities charged with administering tax increment reinvestment funds; management districts that use commercial property assessment funds to provide services; and METRO, which is currently constructing the six mile Southeast Light Rail line. At the sub-city level, the city is carved into nine city-council districts. Citizens organize through a system of civic associations, and neighborhood and super neighborhood organizations. Nestled within this complex, and uniquely Houston, context is the creative placemaking local project area. Southeast Houston lies about three miles southeast of Houston’s central business district, with the major institutions of the University of Houston and Texas Southern University falling between. Rice University and Texas Medical Center are also south of the central business district, but are west of Southeast 3 EMSI, The Creative Economy of Houston: A Comprehensive Study of CreativeSector Industries and Their Impact on the Houston Economy (Houston Arts Alliance and University of Houston, July 2012), http://www.houstonartsalliance. com/images/uploads/documents/The_Creative_Economy_of_Houston.pdf.
Sample Southeast Houston housing stock. Photos courtesy of Emily Peacock/TLC2.
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