Houston Chronicle

The graffiti abatement and cleanup program has grown from covering just one East End neighborhood with a single van more than a decade ago to a four-van crew that cleans tagging throughout the region. The city of Houston has a contract with the management district to respond to 3-1-1 calls for graffiti as well. It also has partnerships with 15 management districts around the city.

The East End crew cleaned 25,000 sites last year and has cleaned more than 145,000 since 2001. The crews use sand blasters, paint and special cleaning materials.

Governing

The East End has a broad mix of housing, from shotgun shacks that rent for $300 a month to new townhomes worth upward of $300,000. Still, huge swaths of its 16 square miles are empty, with nearly a third of the land considered industrial and a quarter of it entirely undeveloped. As a result, there’s wide open prairie just a short distance from the city’s skyscrapers and stadiums.

That’s about to change. Next year, a new four-mile light rail line will open and run through the heart of the community. More than $7 million has been spent on sidewalks and other pedestrian improvements. A newly opened pedestrian “esplanade” featuring cafe seating and dozens of stalls for vendors just opened in the center of Navigation Boulevard, the community’s Main Street. Parks and trails are set for a makeover. A new cultural center is in the works. Public art is starting to dot the area. Officials are even planning for the possibility of a streetcar to link the northern reaches of the East End to the rest of the transit network.