Shenandoah, Houston - History

History

Shenandoah, the first subdivision in the area, opened in the mid-1950s on former greenfield. Shenandoah had 16 blocks of ranch-style homes. The Shenandoah Civic Association opened in 1956; since the City of Houston has no zoning, the Shenandoah Civic Association's main goal is to enforce deed restrictions which regulate construction of housing and prevent businesses being operated from homes.

Robert Fisher and Lisa Taafe, authors of the 1997 article Public Life in Gulfton: Multiple Publics and Models of Organization, said that the sudden demographic shifts in the late 1970s and 1980s "profoundly affected" Shenandoah as bars, warehouses, and nightclubs appeared next to Shenandoah houses. Many area apartment owners let their units decay from a lack of maintenance. The factors threatened Shenandoah property values, therefore the Shenandoah Civic Association added a security patrol, lobbied for the Houston City Council to end liquor licenses of bars adjacent to Shenandoah, engaged in neighborhood beautification, and supported the establishment of a Houston Police Department storefront in Gulfton. Generally the Shenandoah Civic Association did not involve itself in matters related to the apartments surrounding the subdivision.

In April 1992 Bob Lanier, the Mayor of Houston, named Gulfton as one of ten Houston neighborhoods targeted by a city revitalization program. One aspect of Lanier's project consisted of building barricades around the Shenandoah subdivision to reduce traffic and crime; the Shenandoah Civic Association supported and pursued the street closures. The Gulfton Area Neighborhood Organization (GANO) opposed Shenandoah's barricading. All of the other advocacy groups, except for some GAAC members, opposed the closure. Members of the community groups said that the closure has racist motives, that the closures would not effectively control crime, that the city was not using funds wisely, and that the closures would harm local businesses.

Fisher and Taafe that the Shenandoah Civic Association was a conservative organization made of mostly middle class residents that aimed to maintain the neighborhood and its property values. Fisher and Taafe said that after Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN) merged into GANO, the combined organization was unlikely to cooperate with the Shenandoah Civic Club. In November 1995, when the Texas State Legislature established a juvenile crime prevention grant for Gulfton, GANO cooperated with the Shenandoah Civic Association to accomplish the goal.