Supporting Documents / Links:

•   What’s ‘The Hidden Cost of Batch Plants’? Houston Inspires Campaign Raises Awareness
  Reform Austin - February 22, 2023
•   Houston Inspira website “Story Tellers"
  City of Houston

Houston Inspira

In January of 2020, Mayor Sylvester Turner, along with local elected officials and members of the Acres Homes community, held a press conference at Highland Park located directly across the street from a proposed concrete batch plant facility.

• Sharing a fence line with a home and within yards of a city park, the facility was clearly attempting to set up a polluting industrial facility in a neighborhood.

Without zoning protections, there was nothing the City could do – except to draw attention. At the press conference, the Mayor’s Office produced artwork in the form of editorial cartoons to illustrate that building a concrete batch plant next to a Little League field was “Not Safe!” – loudly called out by an umpire. The success of the press conference and community activism pressured the company to withdraw the application for a permit.

Fast forward to October 2021, the City of Houston received a $200,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create and launch a public health campaign, “Houston Inspires/Houston Inspira”. This campaign focused on 5 Complete Communities: Acres Home, Alief/Westwood, Kashmere Gardens, Near Northside and Second Ward which have the highest amount of concrete batch plants in them and are severely impacting its residents’ health and quality of life.

From each of these communities, storytellers/artists were selected to plan 6 community stakeholder events in collaboration with environmental organizations, attend a storyteller learning event, and produce final products that captured the communities’ stories in the form of songs, comic books, e-magazine, and other artistic disciplines to be located at www.houstontx.gov/inspira. This campaign emphasized impacted communities’ commitment and grassroot efforts to raise awareness of the environmental challenges on communities, particularly air pollutants from industrial facilities.

Lastly, the artists and environmental partners shared their final works and experiences with state representatives and senators in Austin, Texas at the Houston Inspira Day program on April 3rd.