Resurrecting Comey’s Green—Legacies of Inequity in Houston’s Park Planning

This article critically examines the Bayou Greenways Initiative (BGI), a public-private partnership in Houston, Texas, through its claimed goal of completing city planner Arthur Comey’s 1913 park plan. It argues that by uncritically reproducing Comey’s envisioned threadlike bayou parks, the BGI risks perpetuating the plan’s profit-driven, racist, and classist inequities. The analysis identifies three key problems: prioritizing property values through design, privileging wealthier white neighborhoods through inequitable allocation and phasing, and misunderstanding transportation needs by emphasizing recreation that primarily benefits affluent residents. The BGI’s reliance on private philanthropy and profit-oriented design maintains a system where public park improvements are tied to financial gain, heightening the risk of gentrification and displacement for low-income communities. The article concludes that using historical planning documents for symbolic legitimization without socio-spatial reassessment perpetuates injustice, underscoring the need for critical historical engagement in contemporary planning.