YettiCross

 
It was a winner and loser night last night at YettiCross. The winner was HCFCD they have chosen to enforce their property right to “their land” and ROW from people wanting to race bicycles. They chose to do this with 2 constables from Precinct 1 to ensure that people were not trespassing on their land. The losers would be the 4000 women who have been raped in Harris County and are waiting for police resources to investigate their cases (as reported in Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday) or the 65,000 open warrents that are waiting to be served in Harris County.
 
So let’s start at the beginning. It takes about good half mile to mile of land to put on a cross race. We would like to keep it central to downtown so people could get there after work. To do a weekly cross race their needs to be natural features (tall grass or tree groves) to define the course otherwise you have to mark all of it. It should also have elevation changes otherwise it is a dirt crit and who wants that. Next you need to have infrastructure like parking and bathrooms. Unless you have course marshals the less other park users you have the better since most of them think it is “their” park and the racers are “invading”
 
There are about 5 areas within loop 610 to support a cross race. These areas are Memorial Park (The Living Bridge killed the old course area), along White Oak Bayou (TC Jester Park, Stude Park), Near Buffalo Bayou downtown (Eleanor Tinsley Park), Moody Park. Across from Stude Park was identified because it had grass to cut and no other users to interact with. There are adequate facilities for parking and rest rooms.
 
In April we began talking with the CoH Parks Department about using the area across from Stude Park. After weeks of  following up and checking on status with Parks and Mayors Office of Special events the Director of Parks for the City disavowed owning the land even though the City GIS system shows it to be a part of the same parcel of land as Stude Park. If Joe said it was his then he would have to maintain it and his department costs would go up. 
 
During this same time we spoke with TXDOT and they said as long as it was not on a paved street they have no process for the request. Their only concern is for events on paved streets.
 
At the end of May we made our first request with HCFCD. After a month of following up we were instructed to send our letter of request to the Property Management Area. This was followed up on with no responses. We have never received a call back for voice mails left or response to any email from the HCFCSD Infrastructure Department. At this time it was decided that HDCFD does not care since they are non responsive. So we decided to go with the current location.
 
On Tuesday Sept 15th I received a call from HCFCD informing us they did not want bikee race on "their land."
There issues seem to be:

• collecting money - I let him know that the Astrodome is owned by Harris County
• possible damage to the land - We worked through how we would mitigate any damages that could occur. (The course was seeded with winter rye and I have a bag of oats that was going to be spread last night. Oats is a TXDOT recommended temporary ground cover.)
• HCFCD does have a permit process and this is their first request for a race.

He used "Their Land" several times and I corrected him that is land owned by the citizens of Harris County. He was the deliver of the no, but could not tell me how to create a request to make it a yes it would be OK

I complied with their request to not be on “their” land by moving the course off their two parcels of land and follow up with this note.
 
Andrew,
I did a rough survey last night to identify the two HCFCD parcels.  It does appear that bikes were racing on about 150 feet of HCFCD land.  We will immediately reroute around the two parcels and begin vegetation management to restore the grasses to their former condition.  If your office would like to review the survey work and update the property lines please let me know.  I would also be happy to meet you and your team out there and work through any other issues you may have with the HCFCD property.

There several existing issues that I would like to document to ensure that everyone knows they are preexisting conditions.  I have photographed them also.  They are:

• The fill behind the concrete channel walls has washed out in several places
• There is graffiti painted on the concrete channel wall in several places
• There are 2 large washout area on the drainage ditch in line with Sawyer Heights Lofts. One is near the channel wall.  One is near the concrete embankment for I-10.  The one that is near the channel wall, I began to drain several weeks ago and was planning to repair by filling in.
• We began remediation of the garbage that flood waters have deposited on the grassy areas.  Based on the amount of trash removed last night from a 20 yard square area I would suggest it will take several months to remove the core amounts of garbage.

In our discussions yesterday there was not a clear definition of the drainage easement that HCFCD posses for this area.  I have learned that the easement may only exist to the top of concrete channel.  Could you please send me the agreements outlining the drainage easement for this section of land via email.
Also I still do not have a copy of the letter we spoke about Monday.  Could you send that via email also.

My call with Judge Emmet's office was returned yesterday.  It is possible that you might receive a call to meet about the concerns HCFCD has with bike racing on HCFCD land.

Thanks for your time in working through this matter
Kelly
 
Last night this is what occurred:
 
When I arrived at 4:00 there were 2 HCFCD 2 pct 1 constables standing on the around the bridge.  I walked down the hill to them.  It started with “Have you received the letter” “No I have been asking for it for 2 weeks” HCFCD was choosing to enforce their easement which is on top of City of Houston land that goes all the way up to the Freeway by the drainage ditch. Then the conversation moved to same discussion as first call. "Lots of no" They were sent by the higher ups. 

The constables wanted me to sign a document that talked about trespass.  I said there were too many errors in it "No trespassing signs posted" (There are none) I asked if they wanted to change it.  They said it cannot be changed I asked if I needed to sign it they said no, but that they would be witnesses if I came back on their land and I would be charged with Criminal Trespass.

When Rob walked up he said hands were on guns.  We talked them down to a cordial exchange.  HCFCD said the County would never do an agreement with a private firm.  (Unless you are the Texans and it is Reliant Stadium). (Or the FFPS soccer people in which case they will build you fields and maintain them for you)
 
I asked for the names of the people who made the decision in HCFCD and they were not able to tell me.
 
The Options at this point are:

1. No more week night cross racing in Houston
2. Find other land that is suitable.
3. Find a government sponsor that can change HCFCD minds about this particular location.

 
We have called all the contacts we can find to try and get a meeting with HCFCD. It is possible that this parcel of land will return to the use of the homeless people.