Neartown Houston

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Montrose is the name of a neighborhood in Houston, Texas. Although Montrose road extends from the I-10 freeway south to the Mecom Fountain north of Hermann Park, the Montrose neighborhood is usually thought of as the area centered around the intersection of Montrose and Westheimer.

The district is sometimes called Neartown. Montrose hosts a significant diverse community of young adults, gays/lesbians, punk rockers, artists, as well as a vibrant thrift/vintage/second-hand shopping district. Gay bars, shopping and food are basically all.

Places of interest

The area is the location of the HISD schools Sidney Lanier Middle School and HSPVA, as well as the University of Saint Thomas . The Menil Collection art museum is in the Montrose neighborhood, along with the Consulate for the People's Republic of China.

Montrose is also the central location of KPFT 90.1 FM (a Pacifica Radio affiliate), located @ 419 Lovett Blvd., along with the Houston GLBT Community Center and the Pride Committee of Houston. The last-remaining festival in the Montrose, the Greek Festival, is usually held in October on the grounds of the Greek Orthodox Church located on Yoakum Blvd.

History

1990s gentrification

Houston's urban real estate boom starting in the 1990s transformed the Montrose and significantly increased housing costs. The neighborhood went from being a place with lots of abandoned buildings, sexually-oriented businesses, and low rent, to a neighborhood full of yuppies and new condominium construction. From the Census 2000 demographics, about 1/4 of the residents are homeowners, whereas 3/4 consists of renters - primarily students from the University of Houston, Rice University, and the University of St. Thomas, as well as for those employed in the Texas Medical Center, Downtown Houston, and Greenway Plaza.

The City of Houston's Planning Department refers to the Montrose neighborhood as a mixed-use, diverse community which serves as a model for other neighborhoods to follow. Since the 1990s gentrification, the demographics of those renting have changed; musicians and artists have been replaced with yuppies (the working class) and professionals (attorneys, educators, medical professionals).

The Westheimer Street Festival

Probably the clearest sign of the changing neighborhood dynamic is the change of the character of the Westheimer Street Festival (known to Houstonians as the WestFest), a biannual neighborhood gathering held since the early 1970s. What actually became the Westheimer Street Festival was an offshoot of the Westheimer Colony Art Festival (known as the Bayou City Art Festival since 1997), which was established in 1971 as an arts/crafts festival. Both the art and street festival were held in the same location until 1993; today, what has been known as the Bayou City Art Festival is usually held in Memorial Park in the spring and Downtown Houston in the fall.

It was until the mid-1990s when gentrification of inner loop neighborhoods (communities located inside Loop 610 in the Houston Metro area close to Downtown Houston, Greenway Plaza, and the Galleria/Uptown District) forced the WestFest to relocate right after the Houston City Council passed a street closure ordinance authored by Houston City Councilmembers Annise Parker and Chris Bell in June 1999. The last 'true' WestFest in the Montrose, where Westheimer was closed for 6 blocks, was held on October 16 and 17, 1999.

In January 2000, a hearing officer from the City of Houston Department of Public Works rescinded the street closure of Westheimer for the festival promoters; a month later on February 15, 2000, a roll-call vote during the Houston City Council business meeting resulted in a 12-3 vote upholding the Public Works decision not to grant a street closure. Festival promoter John Florez stated that "The festival will go on, and it will be dubbed the Westheimer Street Festival in Exile."

There were allegations from several pro-festival supporters who were denied the right to address the public hearings between December 1999 and January 2000; around fourteen anti-festival opponents who are affiliated with the Neartown Civic Association and a few residents in the Avondale subdivision (the home of the Montrose Bar District including JR's and the Montrose Mining Company) presented evidence where festival-goers in years past have either used private property for illegal dumping and/or have witnessed illegal activity. Only one individual spoke in favor of the festival - promoter John Florez.

Community activist DON "The Emissary" SERIBUTRA referred to the flawed public hearings where 14 anti-festival opponents and one individual speaking in support of the festival was considered as "South Africa Justice." Seributra would later author a website titled Death of an Icon - The Westheimer Street Festival on June 17, 2000; this would lead to the establishment of the WestFest Purists Organization a few months later.

The public hearings were part of a revision to the City of Houston's festival ordinance; a hearing must be held right before a permit is issued to festival applicants. One provision not included in the revised ordinance was holding a festival on private property - there was no valid city ordinance which states this in writing.

On March 24, 2000, members of the Houston City Council decided that the festival was granted a park permit where Eleanor Tinsley Park off Allen Parkway was chosen - this led to a dark era lasting three years and eight months (between May 2000 - June 2003). Traditionally, Eleanor Tinsley (formerly known as Buffalo Bayou) Park has been a successful festival site, notably for the July 4th Freedom Fest.

During the relocation to Allen Parkway - the WestFest has declined, transforming from being a very Bohemian party where alternative sexuality was celebrated to a corporate-sponsored event that is often not even actually held in the Montrose. It was the first street festival not to be held in its traditional location - a trend which would later affect the Houston International Festival and 104 KRBE Earth Day Festival a few years later.

The admission charge was initiated in October 2001 where declining participation was imminent, primarily from vendors and fans. Some prominent gay/lesbian organizations, like the Pride Committee of Houston, Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, and the Stonewall Democrats of Houston decided not to rent booth space after the Allen Parkway relocation.

Before the admission charge was initiated, a grassroots organization known as the WestFest Purists Organization was formed on the evening of October 31, 2000 - its mission was to find a workable solution to return the Westheimer Street Festival back to its Montrose home. Sightings of an orange/white Chevrolet K5 Blazer with the WestFest Purists Organization's logo (known to a few activists as the WFPO Cruiser) was seen throughout the City of Houston - it would later become the basis of the Montrose Patriot art car concept which was proposed.

Around October 2002, the festival organizers decided to engage in a petition drive to bring the festival back to the Montrose; however, not too many would consider the proposal of having Houston's 25th annual Gay Pride Parade held on the same weekend with the WestFest. Members of the Pride Committee of Houston decided not to intervene with the festival promoters since their concern was that the festival would be attaching itself to the Pride Parade's success. Another rumor known to the Montrose was that the festival promoter - John Florez - was of no friend to the entire community; some in the predominantly gay/lesbian elite refused to collaborate. One Pride Committee member refered to the WestFest as the 'Illegal Street Festival' as a sign of disgust since promoter Florez was the equivalent of a turncoat liar (and/or despot) the equivalent of former Texas State Representative Ron Wilson.

The festival's return was also controversial - the Houston Chronicle published an article in March 2003 where Houston City Councilmembers Annise Parker and Michael Berry opposed the return of WestFest; if the promoters went ahead and held the festival on Westheimer during Gay Pride Weekend, a feared rumor would have been a preemptive shutdown of the WestFest and mass arrests; in August 2002, a botched operation from the Houston Police Department where 278 innocent teenagers were arrested as part of a crackdown on illegal street racing in West Houston. The City of Houston was not ready for another legal scandal plaguing the Houston Police Department besides the troubled crime lab - especially DNA testing.

Without a street closure permit, the WestFest was held anyway on Westheimer Road in the Montrose on June 28 and 29, 2003. The promoters came up with a solution to have vendors set up their booths on private property with the permission of the property owners; the 2003 homecoming might have been a litmus test for a renaissance.

A few months after the Westheimer Street Festival celebrated their homecoming - the Houston International Festival (known as the IFest) was moved to Reliant Park in response to the Houston City Council voting to increase the user fees for using city-owned property (e.g. park space, streets, security, garbage pickup) for festival promoters. What has led to a decline with the WestFest in 2000 has occured to the IFest in 2004.

During the WestFest's homecoming, WestFest Purists Organization's founder Seributra announced his candidacy for the Houston City Council to replace term-limited at-large councilmember Annise Parker - because of the three-term limit for elected officials in the City of Houston, elected officials had to seek another office either in city government and/or state, county, and federal office. He was interested in running for the vacated seat back in December 2001; as the only progressive candidate on the ballot during the 2003 city elections, he ended up with 5,147 votes finishing last in a field of five candidates. He was not the only candidate for city council who has met with festival promoters; Houston City Councilmembers Bruce Tatro and Bert Keller (Tatro being a candidate for Houston City Controller, and Keller vacating his district seat to run citywide) have met with Florez stating their support for the festival's return.

Parker successfully campaigned for the Houston City Controller in 2003. Back in 2000, she was one of 12 councilmembers who voted to move the WestFest out of the Montrose upholding a hearing officer's decision to deny the street closure permits to WestFest promoters; her re-election campaign in 2001 resulted in a 50.3% total vote nearly avoiding a runoff.

However, the Allen Parkway relocation has hurted the festival financially; in March 2004, circulated rumors on discontinuing the WestFest was of imminent domain. An interview with Houston City Councilmember Annise Parker of KPFT 90.1 FM's Queer Voices radio show in May 2003 detailed the changing nature of the Montrose - especially where it has been losing its GLBT flavor; the entire community is becoming more upscale where the homosexual population has decreased because of higher rent rates and homeownership of the former renters in suburbs like Westbury and Meyerland. Inner Loop neighborhoods besides Montrose (e.g. Third Ward, Houston Heights, West University, Bellaire) have been experiencing an upward trend where older neighborhoods are gentrified to the point where existing residents had to relocate and/or assimilate into the mainstream with former suburbanites.

Some in the Montrose would suggest that Florez was usually seen in the Montrose three times a week and commuting to San Antonio, TX on weekends since he owns a business there; right before the Spring 2004 WestFest, the board of the Westheimer Street Festival Corporation has disbanded. The Houston Chronicle revealed that a member of the Neartown Civic Association denied the liquor permits to WestFest promoters; however, this was proven as a fabricated lie by Florez - he actually refused the liquor permits because of financial constraints.

The 'final' WestFest was held October 16 and 17, 2004 as a farewell after 31 years and 62 biannual festivals since 1973; as of this writing, a petition drive has been initiated by the WestFest Purists Organization (around the same time when Houston's KLOL 101.1 FM was pulled off the air by Clear Channel Communications) to continue the tradition, along with a proposed fundraiser. Proposals include a new WestFest with a new promoter and festival board which will be a lot more diverse than the previous board which was typecasted as despotic.

The Houston Press named the Westheimer Street Festival as the Best Free Festival in 1999; what was supposed to be the official homecoming in 2003 was to bridge the gap between the old and new generation of Montrose-area residents. Although WestFest promoters conducted a poll in 1998 where the Montrose community was supportive of the festival; it seems that (1) the festival became a victim of its success, and (2) gentrification might have been the root cause of its demise.

Without a WestFest in Montrose, the entire community will become another gentrified community much like the yuppified Haight-Ashbury or Castro districts in San Francisco. A few Houstonians would compare this to the demolition of the Shamrock Hilton hotel in June 1987 where a piece of Houston's own past has faded. Since October 2003, the former WFPO Cruiser, which was instrumental in bringing the WestFest back home, has been resurrected as the Montrose Patriot art vehicle. What originated as a grassroots campaign lives on - as a painted art car in the art car community.

See also

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