Houston's greenspaces are under constant threat from urban development. This poses a significant risk to our natural environment and the numerous benefits it provides. Greenspaces play a crucial role in enhancing our quality of life, offering a refuge from the hustle and bustle, improving our air quality, and supporting our local wildlife. These areas, including public parks, community gardens, and nature reserves, are not merely recreational spaces but vital components of our ecosystem.

Despite the need to preserve these areas, aggressive development plans continue to encroach on our greenspaces, driven by the relentless pursuit of economic growth. Last week, Harris Health held a public board hearing where its CEO presented a plan to condemn the entire Warnecke Track for the expansion of Ben Taub Hospital. This $2.5 billion dollar bond package approved by Harris County voters in 2023, includes building a new inpatient tower, to accommodate and relieve the expanding trauma care capacity. Ben Taub is one of two Level I Trauma Centers in Harris County. Ben Taub Tower, which opened in 2017, was a $70 million dollar plan to reduce capacity at the current facility and to maintain its Level I status. This need was due to insufficient amounts of surgeons and operating rooms. This gave the hospital the additional space needed to create 7 new operating rooms and remodel 11 existing rooms to double the size. The Tower itself, reached capabilities to serve 80,000 patients a year with its 20 specialty clinics, that were previously on the hospitals second floor.  

The history of Ben Taub is complex and deep. Debate over where its location would be became roar throughout the 1950s, between Allen Parkway or Texas Medical Center. In 1959, plans were approved for the $9 million dollar, 375-bed hospital, to be built in the Texas Medical Center. In 1960 construction of the hospital began. These initial blueprints including segregated bathrooms, however were integrated upon the hospitals opening in 1963. Additionally, Ben Taub saw changes again in 1990, when the hospital was faced with the need for growth to meet increasing demands in the community. This provided space for increased patient capacity, technological advancements, modernized trauma facilities, and enhanced specialty clinics. The new tower proposed aims to increase inpatient capacity and addresses the need of facilities to meet the ever growing community needs. The American College of Surgeons recommends one high-level trauma center for every 1 million people. In Harris County, which has a population of almost 4.8 million people, there are two adult Level I trauma centers.

August Warnacke, was a German immigrant, and son of a small town baker. He boarded a ship across the Atlantic to America as a small child on the Karl Ferdinand, in 1846. Throughout his life he became a prominent and wealthy land owner throughout the developing Houston area. August Warnecke acquired the nearly 9 acres that the city still has today. Warnecke was suspected of contracting of anthrax while skinning a cow leading to his passing. August Warnecke's family deeded the land to the city in 1914, with its intended use to always remain parkland. This land, that still remains more than a century later, is now being threatened.  A deed reviewed shows that if the City ever decides it no longer needs the property as a parkland, it would revert back to the Warnecke descendants. Bonnie McMillian is the second great-granddaughter of August Warneke.

Harris Health is ready to employ eminent domain upon this greenspace. This law can be found in the United States Constitution, and every state carries it out according to their property laws. It grants local, state, and federal governments the legal authority to take private property for public usage. Additionally, this authority can be granted to private companies to acquire private land. The taking of private property from a landowner in this way is called condemnation. This would mean that a private company can take a landowners property, so long as its taking is for public use, and there is just compensation for the landowner.

We propose the implementation of a comprehensive city plan to protect and enhance our greenspaces. Such a plan should include stricter zoning laws to prevent unnecessary encroachments, community-based conservation initiatives, and increased funding for the maintenance and expansion of existing parks. Additionally, promoting awareness about the importance of greenspaces can foster community involvement in their preservation. This land, gifted over a century ago, is a historical part of Houston. The plan to condemn this greenspace must not happen. McMillian states in an interview that "this land is still land meant for all Houstonians to enjoy". Houston's identity and resilience depend upon our ability to preserve our natural environment.

The trees give us everything and ask for nothing in return. Is it not our job to protect them? What if oxygen becomes a scarcity? The trees remember a world before us, and the loss of them is priceless. Our communities left barren. Our energy grids overworked. There is more electrical pollution. Now we face the challenges of compensating for the carbon emissions. Perhaps the solutions we're looking for have already been eliminated. Where have the birds gone? Collapsed biodiversity, it seems as if nature has neglected us. Those of us who do remember mourn. Trees. Clear skies. Fresh air. The days when it was given to us freely. We’ll tell the stories, then look into the world to see what we have left future generations. Nothing. 

This greenspace, located adjacent to Ben Taub, is one where patients and their families, hospital staff, healthcare workers, and first responders alike, may find tranquility. By protecting our greenspaces, we not only honor our city's legacy, but also preserve the natural ecosystems in which we all live.
Let's urge our city officials to take immediate action to secure and enhance our greenspaces. Join us in this critical movement to help save the history and beauty within our city.

Please sign this petition to demand our leaders act now to protect Houston's greenspaces before it's too late. Development doesn't have to mean destruction. If this isn't worth saving, what is? Trees over Towers.