On February 11th, 2016 it was announced that The
City of Houston and TxDot had begun construction on a renovation of The Mecom
Fountain in Hermann Park. Although capital improvement projects are great, they
should not start construction until the details to the project have been
released to and approved by the public.
The project is part of the Grand Gateway Project, an effort
to improve the entrance way into Hermann Park. The Mecom Fountain will get a
limestone covering. Which I believe will not fit Houston’s natural environment in Hermann Park. It will look out of place and not as clean as the
current concrete exterior. However, aesthetic is not my issue here, I have said
in the past on my blog that aesthetic improvements are objective.
The issue is transparency. Why could we not have heard of
the project beforehand? The Mecom Fountain Project hopefully will not be
permanent but Texas and Houston government should from now on, make each project
in our area public beforehand.
