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HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — When Magnolia Park leaders learned back in November from that the Greyhound hub would be transferring in less than 24 hours, they were shocked because no one had approached them about the change.
“What it does to the community – does it look like a community that nobody cared about, and is that why they chose this? And disrespectfully didn’t even bother to help us make the transition,” Patricia Cabrera with East End Communities said.
Cabrera knew others would be caught off guard and put out a poll asking residents what they thought about the change. Some hoped it would bring positive impacts, but the majority of the 206 respondents said they feared an increase in traffic and crime.
“Our residents here are very proud of their neighborhood. They are very concerned with their families and their children, and they are feeling a little abandoned,” Cabrera said.
looked at city data and found that in November, the month before the hub transferred, the East End terminal had three crimes reported. All for some sort of theft.
But in December, the first month the hub resided at the east end terminal, 11 crimes were cataloged – mostly of theft, trespassing, and assault.
“All of the issues are about the safety and security of our neighborhood and the preservation of our neighborhood,” Cabrera said.
Other top concerns were additional air and noise pollution. According to East End Communities, only 23 buses are supposed to enter and depart every day. They’re hoping that doesn’t change.
Greyhound about the increase in crime but has yet to hear back. When we reached out to them in December, they told me they were focused on crime and security but shared no details on how they planned to tackle it.
There is a community meeting with neighborhood leaders at the Magnolia Multi-Service Center scheduled for Saturday morning. They ask anyone with questions and concerns to please attend and speak out.
No Greyhound representatives will be there.