Protests over Polk Street closure continue at Houston City Hall with one month until abandonment

Dominic Anthony Walsh/Houston Public Media

With one month until the planned closure of Polk Street — a bustling thoroughfare connecting drivers, cyclists and pedestrians from Houston's East End to downtown — about two dozen area residents asked the city council to delay the plans on Tuesday.

"East End families will lose access to Discovery Green, downtown parks and civic programs. Children who walk or bike to events will be cut off," resident Kyle Rogers said. "This creates two Houstons — one with access and one without."

Houston First, the city's local government corporation for tourism and conventions, is slated to obtain a two-block section of the street as part of the $2 billion, 13-year expansion of the George R. Brown Convention Center. East-west connectivity will also be affected