Enron Field, like the Astrodome before it, is an example of the bold spirit of Houston.
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As a child growing up in Houston, I can recall living a few blocks from a sheep pasture and just a few miles from a farm to market road. An old country road lay just beyond that pasture. My father and I used to travel a two-lane highway past a wide stretch of woods just 10 minutes to the northeast on fishing trips.
Today, we call the sheep pasture "Greenspoint Mall." We know the farm to market road as "FM 1960" and the old country road as "Beltway 8." If you decide to go fishing in east Texas and pass that stretch of woods today along Highway 59, you’ll find Kingwood tucked inside it.
To make the leap from sheep to Starbucks, from roads to highways and woods to neighborhoods took more than a simple plan, it took vision; the same vision a certain judge had back in the early 60’s when he decided to turn an empty plot of land into the Eighth Wonder of the World.
But, what was once a city filled with a bold entrepreneurial spirit now seems hampered by fear and isolation. From my friends and neighbors along 59 in Kingwood to my current neighborhood home in the Heights, Houston has become a place where arm-twisting has taken the place of daring to dream.
It doesn’t have to be that way. My parents and grandparents remember a vibrant downtown where they could work and play. We can have that again.
Enron Field and the theater district have given us a small glimpse into both our past and our future. The excitement generated when astronauts stood on the field of the first-ever domed stadium back in 1965 was reborn in the new millennium when our first-ever retractable roof baseball park was opened in downtown. Like the 50’s and 60’s, downtown is coming alive again.
We have a rare opportunity to continue that growth with a new basketball/hockey arena. Like the EFUS, the new arena will encourage business development, provide entertainment and generate excitement. Unlike the ballpark, however, the arena will give us over 200 more reasons every year to visit and enjoy downtown. Whether it is ice shows, hockey, concerts or basketball, people of all ages will be able to enjoy what our great city has to offer downtown.
Obviously, this is no small undertaking. As a homeowner and a taxpayer, despite my love for the Rockets and Comets, I feel the need to be pragmatic. I don’t want to see my bills go up along with my fun. The beauty of this plan is that we get out cake and can eat it too. With no property or sales taxes, no ticket or parking taxes and no tax increases, we get an arena and avoid the pain of having to shell out extra bucks for it.
Decide not to build it and what will happen? Well, two things are certain. First, the Rockets and Comets, the only two teams to bring world championships to Houston will leave. Second, we will build an arena anyway.
With the possibility of luring the Olympic games here in 2012, we need a first-class new arena to get the attention of the International Olympic Committee. As a taxpayer, I would much rather we used the $105 million that the Rockets are willing to pay for the arena that the city will own in 30 years than fork over the entire sum on our own. Wouldn’t you?
We watched the Oilers leave. I was not sad to see Bud Adams go. The roller coaster ride we all went through with that team makes the Texas Cyclone look like one of those rocking horses outside of a grocery store. Luv Ya Blue was great but much of the rest wasn’t.
So, we let them go despite Adams offering a huge chunk of change to build a downtown retractable-roof stadium. To hell with them, right? Sound familiar? Instead of taking his money, we sent him packing to the $400 million open arms of Nashville and a Super Bowl birth while we sweated out the NFL’s love affair with Los Angeles only to spend $367 million for the Texans new stadium. I’m glad we did, but was it really the practical thing to do just because we didn’t like a team owner?
We have a chance to do something great at a cost even a miser can appreciate. We can shed that fear and isolation and embrace each other as neighbors, Texans and Houstonians. We can learn to put aside the bickering and accept the vision the Allen Brothers and Judge Hofheinz brought to the Bayou City so many years ago.
Let’s stop the arguing and accept our place among the elite cities in the world. It is time for us to remember the vision and spirit that made our city a great place to live. Get out there and vote to build it together.
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