HOUSTON – It’s been almost a year since the Greyhound bus station moved from Main Street downtown to Harrisburg Blvd. in the Magnolia Park section of the East End neighborhood.
Some people living there say they are not happy with the change, and that the station being there has led to increased criminal activity.
”Back in that area it’s more and more trashy,” said Nora Hernandez.
Since moving to her home in 1970, she says she’s seen her community go through many changes. One big change that sticks out came with the Greyhound station moving blocks from her house last November.
”More fire department and more ambulances being called to come out here,” she said.
The extra activity has been keeping Hernandez and her family on edge.
”My son has a daughter and she’s 11 and she plays baseball and plays volleyball and he’s afraid to let her out,” she said.
Across the street, Rey Maturey says the extra traffic has slowed the neighborhoods revitalization efforts, and that he’s found loiterers passed out on his front porch.
”All those people that were in downtown making downtown bad, now they’re making this community bad,” Maturey said.
Houston Police say they have so many records of calls to the station within the past six months, that KPRC 2 would have to file an open records request to get the full list. They did mention that most of the calls were self-initiated patrols which means an officer decided for whatever reason to go there and investigate. They also mentioned instances of robbery, assault, trespassing and suspicious activity to name a few.
”Would I prefer it not to be here? Obviously, but there’s not much we can do,” Maturey said.
People have voiced their concerns through a Facebook group named Greyhound Gotta Go. A Change.org petition with the same name has garnered more than 1,800 signatures including Maturey’s.
”Just trying to find a different area to have the Greyhound instead of having it right here,” he said.
We reached out to Greyhound about the concerns and were told that someone would get back to us, that hasn’t happened yet. Meanwhile HPD says the East Side patrol captain overseeing the area is well aware of the quality of life and nuisance issues and is working diligently to ramp up patrols in the area. Another effort includes teaming up with businesses to find solutions. In the meantime, officials are urging people in the community to continue to report suspicious activity when they see it.