D3 Council Member Bob Brown has identified several priorities raised by the neighborhood. Four are currently being actively advanced — with more to come: parking, microtransit, public restrooms, and derelict buildings. These are being addressed in parallel. All of them are moving.
Bob is an architect, a thirty-year resident of the East End Historic District, and the current D3 council member. He worked alongside George Mitchell through the 1990s restoring downtown buildings and building out lease spaces during the Strand’s revival, and served as architect on Galveston’s first Livable Communities project. His career at UTMB’s Department of Facilities Portfolio Management gave him decades of experience moving big projects from idea to construction. His civic record — past chair of the Landmark Commission, former president of the Galveston Historical Foundation board, member of the Historic Strand Downtown Seaport Partnership, and Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee — runs through the institutions that shape this island’s built environment.
On council, he serves as the Vice Chair of the Joint Wharves Board / City Council Real Estate Committee and the City Liason for the Park Board of Trustees — the rooms where downtown decisions actually get made. The four projects below are where that work is showing up right now for our neighborhood.
JOINT MOBILITY STUDY · PARKING
Downtown garages are running roughly half empty most days. Bob’s approach: negotiate access agreements with the five garages downtown to take advantage of existing capacity to residents and workforce at affordable monthly rates. No City acquisition required, no debt issued.
Also in the plan: a smart-parking app modeled on Redwood City, California — real-time available space identification with graduated pricing across the Strand and Mechanic Historic District. Bob pushed to include parking in the City and Port mobility study.
Status: Mobility study consultant recommendation goes to the Real Estate Committee on April 28. Parking is in the scope.
JOINT MOBILITY STUDY · MICROTRANSIT
The plan: a recirculating route from the cruise terminals to downtown on a reliable thirty-minute frequency. Predictable enough that workers can use it for lunch and back, that downtown residents can run errands without driving, that cruise passengers can leave their cars and luggage at the cruise ship terminal parking garage and roam.
Paired with: a more efficient utilization of downtown parking garages.
Related note on the FTA Grant: Trolley infrastructure repairs — broken switches at The Strand and 20th — are part of the $24M streetscape package, restoring reliable rail service that’s been broken for years.
Public restrooms are not in the streetscape grant scope — but Bob has the item on a parallel track. The March 31st Saengerfest meeting put restrooms at the top of the merchant priority list (26 percent of the vote). Within ten days, City Council had authorized staff to begin pricing restrooms for downtown.
A contractor who knows Downtown is now at the table.
Derelict buildings are a larger challenge — historic downtown properties that have sat vacant for years while the buildings around them have been restored. Barricades around some buildings currently divert pedestrians from the sidewalk into the street. Others sit empty under similar conditions.
Bob is meeting with a contractor who knows derelict buildings downtown to scope what can actually be done about those buildings that are blocking sidewalk access. The City is reviewing enforcement options under the derelict-structure ordinance — and Bob has asked the legal team to investigate whether enforcement can be escalated. Documentation of the barricades and the building’s condition is being gathered as part of the enforcement record.
WATERFRONT TO DOWNTOWN CONNECTIVITY
Safer walking when traveling from the Waterfront across Harborside to the Historic Downtown Area.
Improved safety when crossing Harborside from the waterfront into downtown — a piece of the larger Wharves engagement Bob is pushing for.
A locker station for cruise passengers at the downtown transit terminal, paired with a merchant-validated discount — passengers shop at a downtown merchant, get the locker fee waived.
DOWNTOWN GROCERY STORE
From vacant to anchor vendor.
The idea was floated that a downtown grocery store could be a main anchor tenant in one of the abandoned buildings.
More Wave Breaks as Part of the FTA Grant
The project will look at installing more wave breaks downtown, like the one in front of the Proletariat.