Brays Oaks, Houston
The area now known as Brays Oaks was originally the ranch property of Walter Fondren, an oil businessperson.
The newly established apartments attracted young, White professionals who were leaving Stella Link and other declining areas.
The area economy benefited from the increase in population, and many expensive restaurants and strip malls opened in Fondren Southwest.
[2] At one time many members of the Houston Rockets and other sports teams resided in the Northfield subdivision, which was among the outermost parts of the city in 1974, in Fondren Southwest.
Many poor African-American and Hispanic families moved into units originally designated for singles and couples.
[4] By the mid-1990s property values in the area began to increase and several middle class minorities moved into Fondren Southwest.
[5] In 2005 Houston City Council Member Mark Goldberg and Jim Myers, head of the nonprofit group Southwest Houston 2000 Inc., lobbied the state government, asking the state to create what was originally called the Fondren Ranch Management District.
[8] In 2005 residents of an area at the intersection of Beltway 8 and West Bellfort Road protested against the construction of a proposed trash transfer station.
[11] The district, entirely within the City of Houston and Harris County, has 15 square miles (39 km2) of territory, centered on the historical Fondren Southwest area.
Lori Rodriguez of the Houston Chronicle said that many of them "bear names evocative of more idyllic times: Sandpiper.
Ruth Hurst, a resident quoted in the Houston Chronicle, said "It was like living in the middle of the city, but in the country".
[13][14][15] In 2015 the Brays Oaks Super Neighborhood, a City of Houston-defined area with different boundaries from the management district, had 64,548 people.
The station, which will house 176 police officers and serve about 124,000 Houston residents,[29] is scheduled to be completed by August 2011.
[27] After the mid-1980s apartment complex managers lowered leasing standards and allowed known drug dealers, gang members, and individuals described by Craig Malislow of the Houston Press as "undesireables" to rent rooms.
Several gangs, such as the 8900 Braeswood Bounty Hunter Bloods, the Latinos, and the Southwest Cholos, marked complexes as their territory.
In the early 1990s residents of area subdivisions and apartment owners began to resist the increase in crime.
Residential groups, police officers, and apartment managers began sharing information to prevent crime.
[4] In the 1990s Residents of the Southmeadow subdivision sued the owners of the West Fondren and Village of the Green complexes for negligence in allowing crime in the area to increase since the complex owners failed to adequately screen tenants, did not hire security guards, and did not provide proper lighting.
[28] In 2005 the City of Houston closed a pool hall and sports bar, Breakers I, in Fondren Southwest after neighbors complained about a spillover of violence into the surrounding communities.
Brays Oaks contracted the gang abatement crew of the East End Management District.
They concluded that an excess supply of apartment complex units was the main cause of crime, a lack of pride in the community, and unsupervised children.
They also concluded that the oversupply was the reason why many apartment units were of a low quality, poorly maintained, and/or vacant.
[7][12][15] Elementary schools within the Brays Oaks management district include Anderson,[43] Bell,[44] Elrod,[45] Foerster,[46] Gross,[47] McNamara,[48] Milne,[49] Parker,[50] Tinsley,[49] and Valley West.
Enrollments in area schools increased when several adults-only apartments began allowing children to live in them.
In August 1996 Valley West opened in ten classrooms in the Sugar Grove Elementary School campus.
Wendy Hegar, the assistant director for planning and facilities at the Houston Public Library, said that in order to keep using the original location, the library system would have had to spend millions of dollars to raise the floor of the facility by 1 foot (0.30 m) or to build a 2-foot-tall (0.61 m) concrete flood wall.
Jim Myers, the community services director of the Brays Oaks District, said that the building would have had to have been raised by 18 inches (460 mm) in order for the library system to keep using it.
The park includes an outdoor basketball pavilion, a 0.25 mile hike and bicycle trail, a playground, and a lighted sports field.
[11] In regards to Fondren Southwest, Lori Rodriguez said in 1997, "Green space is at a premium; free recreational facilities, almost nil.
"[3] The logo adopted by the district includes an oak tree with several branches, water, and a yellow sun.
