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info@peopleforpolk.com

Mayor Whitmire and City Council,

Polk Street is now closed, and it is awful. 

This video explains why we need Polk Street NOW—not a bike path in 15 years: https://youtube.com/shorts/Df8pDpKH6-k?feature=share

Please, reopen Polk as soon as possible. Houstonians are suffering. Morning commutes and bus rides are way longer. Bicycling and walking between the East End and Downtown is now nearly impossible.

We don't need a ballroom. We need a road!

Thank you.

Mayor Whitmire and City Council,

Now that Polk Street is closed, it should be clear to everybody that we need to open it up again as soon as possible. The traffic is horrendous. And we certainly must NOT close it permanently. Houston First is rushing to finish construction prior to the Republican National Convention in 2028. How is that a good, fair tradeoff for Houstonians? This Youtube video explains what this is really about: https://youtube.com/shorts/Xjz-DfoBGpQ?feature=share

Thank you.

Mayor Whitmire and City Council,

Please, I implore you: do not finalize the closure of Polk Street. We got our first taste of the misery during the morning commute hours today. Drivers experienced major delays getting to work. They were all funneled onto Capitol Street, where they experienced extra delays at the light rail crossing and the heavy merge with traffic on Hamilton Street. 

Houston and Downtown can suffer through this temporarily for construction; but please, make sure Polk Street is fully reopened soon and for good!

Thank you.

Mayor Whitmire and City Council,

Normal Houstonians like myself use Polk Street every single day to get to the Toyota Center and Discovery Green. Why is the city considering closing it? This Youtube video does a good job showing how this will be bad for Houstonians: https://youtube.com/shorts/JmVUx-a1qkw

Please give it a watch. And don't close Polk! It's way too important.

Thanks!

Dear Mayor Whitmire and City Council:

I'm writing to ask you to reconsider closing Polk Street. This isn't just about traffic—it's about how my family lives our lives. Polk Street is how I get to Discovery Green with my kids. It's our direct connection to downtown, and there really aren't other good routes. Leeland gets stuck at the train crossing and isn't direct anyway. My family shouldn't have to drive all the way down to the highway just to get to places that are less than two miles away.

The Memorandum of Understanding sounds nice on paper, but it doesn't give us real alternatives. It promises to "evaluate" making Leeland two-way—but that's not a commitment, it's a maybe. There's no timeline, no guarantee, and no way for our community to hold anyone accountable if those promises never happen. The convention center will benefit from this expansion, but our community is paying the price with empty promises in an MOU we can't even enforce.

Please vote against closing Polk Street. Or at the very least, require real, binding commitments to alternatives before any closure happens. Houston is supposed to be a city where everyone belongs. Please don't wall us off from our own downtown.

Dear Mayor Whitmire and City Council:

I attended the No Kings protest in Downtown Houston on October 18th along with tens of thousands of Houstonians. While the turnout was incredible, getting out of Downtown afterward revealed a serious infrastructure problem.

This 46-second video shows what happened: https://link.peopleforpolk.com/youtube-nokings

People tried to reach Polk Street via Avenida de las Americas to leave Downtown, only to find Houston First had closed vehicle access. With METRO light rail not picking up passengers and limited street access, people were trapped.

This is exactly what concerns us about closing Polk Street permanently. Houston First's focus is understandably limited to convention center operations—they don't coordinate for citywide needs like emergency egress during major events.

Please take 46 seconds to watch this video. It shows why maintaining public street access like Polk is critical for Houston's functionality.

Thank you for considering the full picture of how our street network serves all Houstonians.

Dear Mayor Whitmire and City Council:

I am a regular user of Polk Street, and it is an important road for me to live my life. I am aware that TxDOT was previously planning to connect Polk with an inconvenient U-Turn as part of the NHHIP project. But People for Polk has released a very powerful, convincing video that I strongly encourage you to watch, which shows has the NHHIP can be modified to accommodate a DIRECT Polk bridge in the future—but only if Houston First doesn't close it now!

Please, when you have 4 minutes available, give it a watch. It's available on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/VSnCynkfv4E?si=q0dPlVSJzP8GQplx

We need to build the GRB over Polk now, so that we can explore this bridge possibility with TxDOT. Please, don't sacrifice future possibilities when we don't have to!

Dear Mayor Whitmire and City Council:

I am deeply concerned about the proposal to close Polk street Downtown. That is a critical street for my day-to-day life. There is no other street that offers the quality of connections that Polk does. 

Converting Leeland to two-way operations may help a little, but will only partially make up for Polk. If Leeland is the only possible compromise, please make sure Leeland is fully accessible for drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists prior to the closure of Polk Street.

Thank you for fighting for normal Houstonians like myself.