Houston Chronicle by Molly Glentzer Oct. 25, 2019
Not since the Allen Brothers promoted Houston as a semi-tropical paradise has the east end of Buffalo Bayou looked as promising as it does today.
Along a four-mile stretch of waterway tantalizingly close to downtown, the water is wide, more river than bayou. Egrets and herons perch on deadwood, and pelicans and hawks glide by along the high, weedy banks.
From Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s pontoon boat, passersby also see vast tracts of rugged, abandoned acreage where heavy industries established in the early 20th century once claimed the waterfront for barges. Those sites still cut off access to the bayou for the working class neighborhoods on both sides between downtown and the Port of Houston’s Turning Basin.
But big change is coming. Developers and civic leaders see the East Buffalo Bayou as a catalyst for the largest urban revitalization drive in Houston’s history, the key to transforming an environmentally challenged corner of the city that has been a speculator’s dreamland for decades.
Saturday, the nonprofit Partnership will unveil its long-awaited Buffalo Bayou East master plan during an afternoon of free performances and other activities at Turkey Bend, one of several former industrial sites the Partnership plans to re-purpose. During the past 15 years, the organization has invested or leveraged more than $144 million to compile a 70-acre patchwork of public spaces along the eastern waterfront.
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/arts-theater/article/Plans-to-transform-the-east-end-of-Buffalo-Bayou-14560678.php
A map of developments outlined in the Buffalo Bayou East master plan, a 20-year vision that
foresees four zones for public parks and community event spaces, some repurposing
industrial sites, between downtown Houston and the Houston Ship Channel's Turning Basin.
